Learn English With News: COVID Vaccine

Master techniques to sound like a native English speaker and stay updated with the news! Explore vocabulary, phrases, and much more.

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Links to the original newscasts:

What Went Wrong with the U.S. Coronavirus Vaccine Rollout?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCQip2MeUm4

 How U.S. Airlines Transport Covid-19 Vaccines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR662jW3LZw

Video Transcript: 

Hey, I’m Rachel from Rachel’s English and today I’m going to teach you some of the more advanced vocabulary and terms that were used in a CNBC story about what went wrong with the Coronavirus vaccine rollout in the US.  

When a vaccine for Covid-19 was designed and tested, many Americans thought that waiting for life to return to normal would soon be over. Instead, there was more waiting to do. Why? Let’s watch this 35-second news clip.  

Here’s what went wrong with the US Coronavirus vaccine rollout. And how a new White House plans to turn things around. On May 15th 2020, the Trump administration launched “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate development, production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. Its goal was to have 20 million Americans vaccinated by the end of 2020. But once it came time to get shots into people’s arms, the Trump Administration turn the reins over to the states. This meant state and local health officials were left to piece together a massively complicated rollout operation. Without federal guidance or additional resources.  

Vaccine rollout. Let’s hear that sentence again.  

Here’s what went wrong with the US Corona virus vaccine rollout. 

Rollout is a noun, this means to introduce something such as a new product to the public.  

The vaccine was ready and made to be distributed; it was time for the rollout. 

As a verb, here’s a sample sentence: The cellphone company is getting ready to rollout 5G service. 

Rollout is also a phrasal verb with a completely different meaning. I rolled out of bed at 5AM this morning. I was sleepy I could hardly stand up.  

Or, the bus rolled out of the parking lot at 2:30 sharp. The bus left the parking lot, it departed, rolled out.  

Vaccine rollout. Let’s hear that sentence again. 

Here’s what went wrong with the US Coronavirus vaccine rollout. And how a new White House plans to turn things around. On May 15th 2020, the Trump administration launched “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate development, production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. 

This bit tells us that the US federal government was planning to oversee the whole process from start to finish. From research, design, testing, mass producing and giving it to individual people, but that’s not what happened. Let’s break this part down.  

The Trump administration launched “Operation Warp Speed”. Lauch is a verb meaning to start or set in motion. We use it generally when starting a really big project or program. For example, I’m launching my new book next week. That’s actually not true. I don’t have a new book but I do have an old book. Check it out at RachelsEnglish.com/book. It’s also commonly used to mean to throw forward or send of an object.  

NASA is launching its newest rocket to Mars.  

Operation Warp Speed. Warp speed is another space Science reference. If any of you have watched part of the Star Trek TV series, no doubt you’ve heard this term. It means faster-than-light travel of the highest speed possible. Warp speed.  

On May 15th 2020, the Trump administration launched “Operation Warp Speed” to accelerate development, production and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. 

Its goal was to have 20 million Americans vaccinated by the end of 2020. But once it came time to get shots into people’s arms, the Trump Administration turn the rains over to the states.  

The Trump Administration turned the reins over to the states. So the federal government gave control of the rollout to the individual states. It turned the reins over. I can think of 3 different meanings for the same pronunciation and different spelling so be careful here. We have R-E-I-N-S. Reins, these are the long leather straps or rope that a rider uses to guide an animal like a horse. Pull back on the reins to slow the horse down.  

We also have R-E-I-G-N-S, reigns. Royal authority or governing power. The Queen reigns as a representative of the state but not the ruler.  

Then we also have the most common, R-A-I-N-S, rains, water as drops falling from the clouds. It rains almost every day in April. All three of these words are pronounced the same. R consonant, a diphthong, and z, [ɹeɪnz].  

In this clip, we’re hearing the first spelling, to turn the reins over. This means to give control or power to someone else. This idiom comes from horses. To have the reins control the horse and you pass them to someone else to control. You can also say: Take the reins, hold the reins, grab the reins, pass the reins. Of course, this isn’t limited to riding an actual horse.  

The CEO took the reins of the company last month. Or: I need help with this project; I have too much other work to do. Can I pass the reins on to you?  

You know there are a lot of idioms related to horses in English. Horses used to be the central part of our life. They were our transportation. I actually thought of a bunch of idioms with horses one day when I was dressed up as a horse and I made a video going over these idioms that you can watch at the end of this video, it’s a classic. Let’s keep going.  

State and local health officials were left to piece together a massively complicated rollout operation. 

State heads to piece together a massively complicated rollout operation. Have you ever done a jigsaw puzzle? One with a thousand pieces maybe more? Ilike this idiom “To piece together” to describe a very complex problem with lots of parts and details that need to come together.  

I might also say, put together, figure out, carry out, piece together. Another sample sentence: The police had to piece together reports from several witnesses to get and accurate account of what happened.  

Or: After we talked for a few minutes, we pieced together our connections and realized we had met 5 years earlier at a conference.  

Piece together, a great expression to use here since the vaccine rollout involved so many details to make happen. On the newsclip, a doctor explains some of these pieces.  

That really requires an assembly line-like setup, it requires several weeks of planning, requires to make sure complex storage is connected to individuals that the other end of the process and for places that don’t have all of that infrastructure and that expertise they really need more technical assistance from the federal government and unfortunately operation won’t speed only really seem to focus on the Science and ultimately the development and approval of these vaccines but not the logistics around distribution and administration.  

First he mentions and assembly line-like set up. An assembly line, this is something that you might see in a factory, an arrangement of machines, tools and workers that get a large quantity of a product put together quickly. The product goes down the line and everyone does their step.  

Another piece is complex storage. The vaccines can’t be just shipped in a box. They have to be kept at a very, very cold temperatures. A typical freezer won’t do the job for some of the vaccines. Let’s skip to another report. I’ll put links to both of these news clips in the video description.  

In this report, CNBC is talking about how commercial airplanes were used to solve a piece of this rollout puzzle. Large commercial aircraft were used to transport PPE. That is personal protective equipment and vaccines in addition to FEDEX and UPS.  

Normally US mail and Amazon packages and various other things from live animals to electronics are all flying below us.  

Because so many planes have been taken out, airlines have been using especially their larger aircraft to carry only cargo. They’re pretty much desperate to find revenue wherever they can.  

In March of 2020, airlines were even transporting some cargo in passenger seats to help distribute PPE equipment at the beginning of the pandemic.  

Listen for 2 reductions with linking in this clip. And. We very often drop the d.  

US mail and Amazon packages. And amazon.  

US mail and Amazon packages– 

And various other things. And various. No d, linked together.  

And various other things 

Dropping the D in this word is more common than pronouncing it. And Amazon. And various. Let’s look at 2 more common reductions.  

Because so many planes have been taken out– 

Because.  

Because so many planes have been taken out– 

Because. This word can be reduced to cuz, without the first syllable. Here we do hear the first syllable but it’s said very, very quickly. Because, because. You can think of there is being no vowel in the first syllable just a quick b sound b’cuz, b’cuz.  

Because so many planes have been taken out– 

Dropping the H at the beginning of certain function words is also really common on both casual and professional speech.  

Here we have an example where the word have becomes ǝv.  

Because so many planes have been taken out– 

Other words where this might happen, had becomes ǝd. Has becomes ǝz. Him becaomes im. Her becomes ǝr and he becomes I.  

If you want some examples and reductions like these interests you, I do have a whole course dedicated to them in my online school, Rachel’s English Academy. I always tell people, if you want the most bang for your buck, practice reductions like these. Bang for your buck means getting a lot for what you put into something. Time studying on reductions and stress is really going to impact how natural you sound speaking English. So visit Rachelsenglishacademy.com to see more. Okay, let’s check out the final clip in this video.  

Because so many planes have been taken out, airlines have been using especially their larger aircraft to carry only cargo. They’re pretty much desperate to find revenue wherever they can.  

In March of 2020, airlines were even transporting some cargo in passenger seats— 

Did you catch a reduction of an adverb? Listen again.  

especially their larger aircraft– 

Especially. If you look it up in a dictionary, you’re going to see that this is a four-syllable word with stress on the second syllable but with the ly adverbial suffix, it’s really easy to drop the schwa right before the suffix so especially becomes especially, especially. Four syllables become three. This happens in other words too. Let’s take finally becoming fainly. Three syllables dropped to two. That’s a more common pronunciation.  

Necessarily. Necessarily becomes necessarly, necessarly. Five syllables becoming four.  

It’s perfectly fine not to drop the schwa to do the full pronunciation but you’ll hear these reductions by native speakers in all sorts of contexts.  

Reductions make our speech a little bit more smooth and connected and that’s why it’s a top priority as you roll out your plan for American accent training. Now, let’s get to this video from the past. A video from the vault where I went over nearly 20 idioms relating to horses.  

And that’s it for today’s lesson. Thanks for watching and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications. I make new videos every Tuesday and I love to be your English teacher so come on back. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.  

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