5 stories you might have missed from the weekend
Mar. 1—Century High School pool is too short, Rochester Swim Club members say
There is some disappointment about the design of the swimming pool that's on pace to be added to Century High School in Rochester as part of the districtwide referendum voters approved in November 2019.
Rochester Swim Club members sent an email to current and former members, urging swimmers to contact the school board about what they see as inadequacies in the pool's design.
The school board discussed some of those issues during a recent meeting.
Read the full story by Jordan Shearer here.
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Minnesota trappers fight public perception, dwindling participation
Todd Roggenkamp was 6 years old when his dad gave him his first traps under the Christmas tree. He was hooked from there.
Roggenkamp's father was a trapper for nearly 60 years. Now 50 years old, Roggenkamp has trapped most of his own life, running mink lines as big as 300 sets that required constant work from dawn until dusk. Trapping is something that has connected him to the outdoors from the first long-tailed weasel he and his father caught that Christmas break 44 years ago.
"It's very hard to put into words what it's done for me," Roggenkamp said. "Trapping, hunting, any of those outdoors pursuits — it's about the experience. It's about what you get to see, what you get to learn ... I've seen all sorts of different species. To see that going on in its natural setting, it gives you a sense of your place. I think you can learn so much from it."
Read the full story here.
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Mayo, Olmsted County lead Minnesota in vaccinations
Weather-related delays caused Mayo Clinic to briefly dip into second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines last week, according to Dr. Abinash Virk, co-chair of the clinic's COVID- 19 vaccine allocation and distribution workgroup. Virk spoke at a press conference Thursday, February 25.
The health care giant has since replenished its doses and avoided most cancellations, however.
The clinic has now vaccinated 54,000 employees with one dose in the Midwest, and 34,000, or half its staff, have now received both doses. At this same time, the Clinic has vaccinated 33,000 patients across its properties in Southwest Wisconsin, Rochester and Southwest and Southeast Minnesota.
Read the full story by Paul John Scott here.
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Rochester's Vyriad developing oral COVID-19 vaccine
A Rochester biotech firm — Vyriad — is working on an oral coronavirus vaccine that could serve as "booster" after the first waves of vaccinations.
Mayo Clinic researcher Dr. Stephen Russell, who co-founded Vyriad with Dr. Kah-Whye Peng in 2016, explained that while it has not yet undergone clinical trials, the oral vaccine has shown good results in boosting the antibodies in monkeys.
"We're excited that we have something that could be really quite helpful, but it needs a lot of work to get there, Russell said Thursday. "I don't want people thinking they could get the vaccine tomorrow, because that isn't the case. But we do have a really good technology here."
Read the full story by Jeff Kiger here.
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Nelson misses vote; COVID-19 safety measure dies 33-33
Minnesota DFL Chairman Ken Martin called out state Sen. Carla Nelson this week for what he called "dodging" a vote on an amendment aimed at providing COVID-19 safety protections to workers.
But the Rochester Republican said the issue wasn't willful neglect, but rather a conundrum familiar to anybody who's relied on an internet connection to work away from the office.
It was technical difficulties while voting remotely.
Read the full story by Matthew Stolle here.
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