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Tis the season for winter weather and this week we are experiencing the full effects of winter storm Gail, marching up the east coast. Many from Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania have all felt these effects which includes slick road conditions and delayed travel.

On December 14, 2020 the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines were administered across the United States after months of hearing positive trial results. Sandra Lindsay, a nurse in the intensive care unit at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, was the first person to receive the vaccine outside the trial phase. Lindsay’s vaccination was televised in an effort to instill faith in the vaccine and its legitimacy. Lindsay stated, “I think also as a leader in the organization that I lead by example. I don’t ask people to do anything that I would not do myself”. New York felt the force of this virus heavily as it left over 35,000 people dead and dampened the economy quite a bit. With the COVID-19 related death count exceeding 300,000 nationwide, this vaccine has been highly anticipated.

Following a series of positive results from multiple vaccines, the conversation on Capitol Hill has shifted to the distribution and logistics of the COVID-19 vaccines. On December 10^th, a group of freight industry executives, including Richard Smith, Regional President of the Americas and Executive Vice President at Fedex Express, and Wesley Wheeler, President of Global Health Care at UPS, will testify as witnesses before the Senate Transportation and Safety Subcommittee. The purpose of this hearing is to determine the logistics and transportation partnership needed between the government and the private sector to safely deliver millions of vaccine doses around the country.

With the impending release of Covid-19 vaccinations, there is much debate among the aviation industry and what requirements should be mandated when it comes to international travel.  Airports Council International (ACI), a non-profit organization that represents the worlds airports, has joined many airlines in calling for a choice between testing or vaccination, fearing a blanket rule imposing pre-flight inoculation would be as disruptive as quarantines, Reuter’s reports.  The ACI World Director General, Luis Felipe de Oliveira stated, “Just as quarantine effectively halted the industry, a universal requirement for vaccines could do the same.”

This year has proven to be anything but normal, especially within the oil Industry. COVID-19 has certainly dampened oil demand throughout the world since March, but light is showing at the end of the tunnel. In just the past week we have had two highly effective vaccine candidates prove that our brilliant scientists may get us and oil demand back to “normal” by the end of 2021.