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KZNA-FM 90.5 serving northwest Kansas will be off the air starting the afternoon of Monday, October 20 through Friday as we replace its aging and unreliable transmitter. While we're off-air, you can keep listening to our digital stream directly above this alert or on the HPPR mobile app. This planned project is part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining free and convenient access to public radio service via FM radio to everyone in the listening area. For questions please contact station staff at (800) 678-7444 or by emailing hppr@hppr.org

The Market For Emergency Vaccines Is Like No Other

By Annabel Edwards

Published May 18, 2020 at 1:17 PM CDT

COVID-19 is not the first coronavirus outbreak we've experienced. There was SARS in 2003, and then MERS in 2012. If coronaviruses have been around for years, why don't we have a vaccine already?

The answer partially has to do with economics. Turns out that the market for emergency vaccines is weird. So weird that it involves top-secret chicken flocks, the creation of a new government agency and an annual stockpile of upwards of 900,000 chicken eggs. This is the story of what it takes to produce a national vaccine supply.

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