January 25, 2023
U.S. health officials are proposing that most American adults and children should receive a single yearly COVID-19 vaccine shot. The plan, put forward by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, would remove the need for people to get a series of injections and boosters throughout the year to stay protected. The proposal was announced as vaccine rates in the U.S. have dropped sharply. About 80 percent of Americans have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. And only 16 percent of vaccine candidates have received the latest boosters that were approved in August. The FDA will ask an outside group of vaccine experts to consider its proposal during a meeting on Thursday. In documents published online, FDA scientists say many Americans now have pre-existing immunity against COVID-19. This immunity came either from being vaccinated or infected, or a combination of the two. The FDA says that level of immunity should provide enough protection for most Americans to move to a yearly booster shot against the latest virus versions. A similar yearly vaccination system is already in place in the U.S. for influenza or flu. The highly spreadable viral infection often affects people during the cold season. The FDA noted that for adults with weakened immune systems and very small children, a two-dose combination may be needed for protection against COVID-19. Scientists and vaccine companies plan to study vaccination and infection rates and other data to decide who should receive a single or two-dose shot. The FDA will also ask its experts to vote on whether all vaccines should target the same virus versions, called strains. That step would be needed to take away the booster shot system. The first shots launched by Pfizer and Moderna targeted the strain of the virus that began spreading in 2020 and quickly traveled across the world. The latest boosters launched last autumn were changed to target later strains that appeared. The FDA's proposal calls for the agency, independent experts, and manufacturers to decide which strains to target by early summer each year. This would leave several months for vaccine makers to produce and launch new shots before the autumn. That is about the same system long used to administer the yearly flu shot. FDA officials say moving to a yearly COVID-19 vaccine plan would make it easier to publicize future vaccination campaigns. This could help increase vaccination rates nationwide. The first two-dose COVID shots have offered strong protection against severe disease and death no matter what strain people were infected with. But the vaccines have proven to be less effective against mild infection cases. Experts continue to debate whether the latest boosters have effectively improved protection, especially for younger and generally healthy Americans. I'm Brian Lynn. Many colleges in the United States offer unusual learning programs for their students. Some teach students how to use robots in medical operations. Others let them use million-dollar supercomputers to study data. A small college in Kansas offers its students the chance to work with old cars that might one day sell for nearly $1 million. It is McPherson College, and it has a study program or major in automotive restoration. Restoration means returning something to its original condition. The restoration major teaches students who are interested in repairing cars a little bit of engineering, history, business, communication, and art. The school believes it is the only one in the country with a four-year bachelor's degree in automotive restoration. The McPherson study program started in 1976, when a local businessman gave the school part of his classic car collection. At the time, he could not find people who could work on old cars. In 1988, the college considered dropping the program, but American comedian Jay Leno, who owns many classic cars, changed their mind when he gave some money to the program. And last November, McPherson received a monetary gift that could reach $500 million, the biggest donation in the college's history. For the last six years, McPherson students have been restoring a 1953 Mercedes 300S. They are hoping to enter the car next summer in the famous Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance car show. One student at McPherson is Jeremy Porter. He was thinking about studying chemical engineering, including at some of the Ivy League schools. But there was nothing inherently unique about them, he said. Visiting the school convinced him that he wanted to work with his hands in the automotive restoration program. Victoria Bruno is graduating this year. She already has a job waiting in Los Angeles. She will be rebuilding Ferrari engines, she said. The students at McPherson are doing something we love. Michael Schneider, the president of McPherson, is also a graduate of the college. He said there's an entire culture around the classic car. And at the center of that world is McPherson College. He said McPherson gets students who want to work on cars, in the same way a school like Massachusetts Institute of Technology brings in students who want to study science. At a time when other colleges and universities in the U.S. are struggling for students, McPherson College now has 18 percent more students today than five years ago. They build their network and get jobs. At a time when other colleges and universities in the U.S. are struggling for students, McPherson College now has 18 percent more students today than five years ago. Each year, the school, which has 851 students, could only accept half of those who want to get into the automotive restoration program. Schneider said the money from the large gift will help the school expand. Some students who would not have been able to pay for school will get financial aid. He noted the restoration program brings students to the college, but sometimes they decide to do something else when they get there. Colin Kaprosky is a lead researcher at EAB, a company that studies higher education. He said more schools are getting similar instead of trying to be different. For example, there are now more than 400 study programs in cybersecurity at American colleges. McPherson's interest in growing its automotive restoration program is similar to some colleges around the U.S. Others include writing at the University of Iowa, journalism at the University of Missouri, music at Oberlin College, and songwriting at Middle Tennessee State University. "'The songwriting program at Middle Tennessee State University has in past years attracted more out-of-state students than any other department,' said Beverly Keel, dean of the College of Media and Entertainment. "'People come here just for that.' "'It's not enough to be different,' she added. "'You have to be very good at what you do. You have to be the best at it.'" Kaprosky said the attention can be helpful. "'I don't know if they're making money off these things,' Kaprosky said of the majors. But man, are they on the map because of them. I'm Dan Friedel." And I'm Faith Perlow. You just heard this week's education report, presented by Dan Friedel and Faith Perlow. Dan joins me now to talk more about the story. Hi, Dan. Welcome. Thanks, Ashley. Glad to be here. You wrote a story a while back about some high school students who work on cars. How is McPherson College's program different from something like that? Well, Ashley, the main difference is that McPherson offers a four-year college degree, a bachelor's degree. And the students there take a number of classes and get extra experience doing things like sewing the material that covers car seats and rebuilding expensive engines. The high school students do not always do that in the short time they have. That makes sense that the college students are getting more hands-on experience. The program at McPherson seems great. Students get to work on cars made by famous companies and go to car events around the country. Are there any problems you might envision with the college program? So the problem I see for the program at the moment is that it does not address EVs or battery-powered vehicles. We've recently had some stories on the Learning English broadcast about workers putting batteries in old cars and getting them back on the road. However, I do not yet see that as part of the McPherson study program, so maybe that is coming in the future. Well, thanks for answering my questions today, Dan, and thanks again for being here. You're welcome, Ashley. I'm always happy to help. Thank you. Welcome to The Making of a Nation, American History in VOA Special English. Louise Grant was elected President of the United States in 1868. Grant was a military hero. He led Union troops of the North to victory over Confederate troops of the South in the Civil War. Grant was extremely popular, but he was a much better general than he was a politician. As President, it was not long before he got into trouble in the battles of politics and government. Larry West and Frank Oliver talk about the first term of President Ulysses Grant. Grant resigned from the Army to run for President. However, he ran on his record as a winning general. "'Let us have peace,' he often said, and the people believed he would guarantee peace. In fact, Grant guaranteed nothing. As a Presidential candidate, he offered no new national programs, so as President he had no new policies to carry out. He had few struggles with Congress, because he rarely asked Congress to do anything. Many events took place during Grant's two administrations, but he usually was not involved directly. He had problems only because he was linked indirectly to the men who were responsible." One of President Grant's first problems was caused by two of his friends. They tried to take control of the gold market. The men were Jay Gould and James Fisk. Both were extremely rich. Gould and Fisk developed a plan to buy a large part of the nation's gold supply when the price was low. They would hold the gold until demand greatly increased the price. Then they would sell it and make a lot of money. To be successful, they had to prevent the government from selling gold on the market. Government sales of gold would keep the price down. So Gould and Fisk urged President Grant to stop the Treasury Department from selling gold. Grant refused to give them a firm promise. The two men brought one of Grant's relatives into their plan. They paid him to write a letter to the President. It asked the President to halt government sales of gold. A messenger took the letter to the White House. He then sent a telegram to James Fisk, saying the letter had been delivered. The telegram said, LETTER DELIVERED ALL RIGHT Fisk thought this meant that President Grant had agreed to halt government sales of gold. So he began buying gold in huge amounts. Fisk was wrong. The words, All right, meant only that the letter had been delivered. They did not mean that Grant had agreed to the plan. In fact, Grant did not agree. He ordered the Treasury Department to sell gold to block the attempt by Gould and Fisk to control the gold market. The result was that James Fisk and Jay Gould lost a great amount of money. So did other businessmen and bankers. Many Americans blamed President Grant for not acting quickly enough to stop the activity of his two friends. Concern about Grant grew after another incident was reported at the New York Customs Office. Two of Grant's friends there became involved in a plan to get money from importers. They used their official positions to earn huge amounts of money. Grant also was criticized for one of his few independent actions as President. He tried to buy the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. The island nation was ruled by a dictator, Buenaventura Baez. Baez was so dishonest that the people of the Dominican Republic were ready to overthrow him. Before this could happen, he offered to sell his country to the United States. When Grant received the offer, he sent a White House official to negotiate with Baez. The official returned with a treaty giving the Dominican Republic to the United States for one and one-half million dollars. Grant immediately sent American warships to the Dominican Republic. He wanted to keep Baez in power until the treaty was completed. Grant asked the Senate to approve the treaty. Many Senators opposed it. They said taking control of the Dominican Republic would cost too much money. They also said it was a bad idea for the United States to take control of any nation in the Caribbean. President Grant went to the Capitol building himself to urge Senators to approve the treaty. His efforts failed. The treaty was defeated. Grant's biggest national problem was the political situation in the former rebel states of the South. After the Civil War, most Southern states were governed by radical members of the Republican Party. Radicals supported citizenship rights and voting rights for blacks. In the late 1860s, the radicals began to lose power. Many failed to be re-elected to state office. They were being defeated by candidates of the Democratic Party. Democrats did not want blacks to have any rights at all. The first radical Republicans to lose power were those in Virginia. The change there was made peacefully. Not so in other Southern states. In Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, Democrats used threats and violence to win elections. Their campaigns often were led by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was a secret organization of white men. Members believed white people were greater than black people. Wearing cloths over their faces, Klansmen broke up radical Republican political meetings. They threatened, beat, and killed blacks to keep them out of politics. They did the same thing to whites who tried to organize or help blacks. Before long, Ku Klux Klan groups were formed in every Southern state. By 1871, radical Republican congressmen were demanding a new law to destroy the Ku Klux Klan. A committee headed by radicals was named to investigate Klan activities in the South. The committee heard reports of the Klan's brutal acts. It helped prepare a bill to control the Klan. After much debate, Congress passed the bill. The new law gave the President power to declare military rule in the South. Democrats charged that the real purpose of the law was to keep radical Republican state governments in power. President Grant did not wait long to use his powers under the new law. He declared military rule in a large area of South Carolina. Thousands of people there were arrested. They were tried in federal courts. Juries were made up mainly of blacks and radical whites. This kind of justice made Southerners feel even more bitterness toward the North. It also angered a number of moderate members of the Republican Party. They said the federal government should not help radical Republicans stay in power in the South. Some of these moderate Republicans broke away from President Grant and the radicals. They called themselves liberal Republicans and formed a new political party. They held their own presidential nominating convention for the election of 1872. They nominated Horace Greeley as their candidate. Greeley published the New York Tribune newspaper. Democrats believed their only chance to win the election was to support the new liberal Republicans. So they, too, chose Horace Greeley as their presidential candidate. As expected, the radicals who controlled the main Republican Party nominated Grant for a second term. The campaign between Grant and Greeley was very strange. Grant made no speeches. He spent the summer at a holiday town on the Atlantic Ocean coast. His supporters, however, were not silent. They called Greeley a fool and a traitor. They refused to treat him as a serious candidate. Unlike Grant, Greeley did campaign hard, but he had little financial help. He also was hurt by a poorly organized campaign. On election day in 1872, Ulysses Grant won a big victory. He got the votes of thirty-one of the thirty-seven states. Horace Greeley died three weeks after the election. The new liberal Republican Party died with him. Ulysses Grant and the radical Republicans would govern for another four years.
