covid – Page 11

HOTTOPIC: 4 ways COVID-19 has exposed gaps in the US social safety net

26May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

HOTTOPIC: 4 ways COVID-19 has exposed gaps in the US social safety net

The United States is experiencing its steepest economic slide in modern history. Tens of millions of Americans have filed new unemployment claims as the coronavirus shutters businesses and forces companies to lay off staff. People need support to help them through the crisis in a few key ways – cash to meet immediate financial needs, health care to cover them should they become ill and housing even if they can’t make rent. Despite federal stimulus efforts north of US$2 trillion – so far – it is likely that some of those currently being affected will fall through the cracks. As a scholar who studies how people enroll in public programs, I and my colleague Cecille Joan Avila, who researches social programs related to women’s health, have seen how well-intentioned policies can sometimes fai...

A majority of vaccine skeptics plan to refuse a COVID-19 vaccine, a study suggests, and that could be a big problem

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS, VIDEO REELS

A majority of vaccine skeptics plan to refuse a COVID-19 vaccine, a study suggests, and that could be a big problem

The availability of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will likely play a key role in determining when Americans can return to life as usual. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on April 30 announced that a vaccine could even be available by January 2021. Whether a vaccine can end this pandemic successfully, however, depends on more than its effectiveness at providing immunity against the virus, or how quickly it can be produced in mass quantities. Americans also must choose to receive the vaccine. According to some estimates, 50% to 70% of Americans would need to develop immunity to COVID-19 – either naturally, or via a vaccine – in order to thwart the spread of the virus. If these estimates are correct, that could mean that nearly twic...

How people react to the threat of disease could mean COVID-19 is reshaping personalities

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, TECHNOLOGY

How people react to the threat of disease could mean COVID-19 is reshaping personalities

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic will be “imprinted on the personality of our nation for a very long time,” predicted Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. No doubt in the future people will mourn those who’ve died and remember the challenges of this period. But how would COVID-19 shape people’s personalities – and into what? I am a psychology researcher interested in how people’s minds shape, and are shaped by, their life circumstances. Human beings are born into this world ready to deal with basic problems – forming close relationships, maintaining status in groups, finding mates and avoiding disease. People are adaptable, though, and react to the circumstances they find themselves in. Psychological research suggests that concerns...

In the rush to innovate for COVID-19 drugs, sound science is still essential

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

In the rush to innovate for COVID-19 drugs, sound science is still essential

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been at the center of debate in recent weeks over which drugs should be used to treat COVID-19. Neither product has strong evidence to support use for this purpose, and small studies reported to date have either had significant flaws or failed to demonstrate effect. Nonetheless, the president can’t seem to stop pushing them, arguing that patients have nothing to lose. As physicians, bioethicists and drug law experts, we have a responsibility to inject caution here. As public officials and scientists rush to innovate, no one should overlook the critical role of strong regulatory protections in supporting our ability to actually figure out which drugs work against COVID-19. Weakening commitment to science and evidence during this crisis truly would be...

Top football recruits bring in big money for colleges – COVID-19 could threaten revenue

29Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, SPORTS

Top football recruits bring in big money for colleges – COVID-19 could threaten revenue

Colleges and universities are spending more than ever to land the nation’s top football recruits, with some schools having boosted their recruiting budgets by more than 300% in the last five years. These budgets can surpass US$2 million for schools like the University of Tennessee. Is it worth it? I study economics. Research I recently did shows just how big the payoff for spending money to recruit the best players can be. Half a million dollars The schools that secure five-star recruits – the 30 or so players judged to be in the top one-hundredth of the top 1% of high school football players – can increase total revenue by over $500,000 for a university’s athletic department. Most football teams never secure a five-star recruit. Others, such as the University of Alabama and Louisiana St...

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, Journalism

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

More U.S. citizens have confirmed COVID-19 infections than the next five most affected countries combined. Yet as recently as mid-March, President Trump downplayed the gravity of the crisis by falsely claiming the coronavirus was nothing more than seasonal flu, or a Chinese hoax, or a deep state plot designed to damage his reelection bid. The current U.S. administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus threat is part of a larger problem in pandemic management. Many government officials, medical experts, scholars and journalists continued to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19, even as the disease upended life in China as early as mid-January. The results of this collective inertia are catastrophic indeed. The U.S., along with Italy, Spain, Iran and the French Alsace, is now the site of...

COVID-19 is hitting black and poor communities the hardest, underscoring fault lines in access and care for those on margins

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, VIDEO REELS

COVID-19 is hitting black and poor communities the hardest, underscoring fault lines in access and care for those on margins

As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to ravage the American public, an unsurprising story emerges: Poor communities are hot spots for COVID transmission. The death rate from COVID-19 appears to be staggeringly high among African Americans compared to whites. The Washington Post reports, for example, that while 14% of the Michigan population is black, 40% of COVID-19 deaths are among blacks. This is a familiar pattern to a social and infectious disease epidemiologist like myself. It is evidence of centuries of segregation and discrimination that have disproportionately placed people of color in communities without access to health care, with degraded and crowded living conditions and a lack of basic opportunities for health and wellness. In the context of the current pandemic, blacks are mo...

Antibodies in the blood of COVID-19 survivors know how to beat coronavirus – and researchers are already testing new treatments that harness them

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

Antibodies in the blood of COVID-19 survivors know how to beat coronavirus – and researchers are already testing new treatments that harness them

Amid the chaos of an epidemic, those who survive a disease like COVID-19 carry within their bodies the secrets of an effective immune response. Virologists like me look to survivors for molecular clues that can provide a blueprint for the design of future treatments or even a vaccine. Researchers are launching trials now that involve the transfusion of blood components from people who have recovered from COVID-19 to those who are sick or at high risk. Called “convalescent-plasma therapy,” this technique can work even without doctors knowing exactly what component of the blood may be beneficial. For the pioneering work of the first treatment using therapeutic serum in 1891 (against diphtheria), Emil von Behring later earned the Nobel Prize in medicine. Anecdotal reporting of the therapy d...

COVID-19 could shrink the earnings of 2020 graduates for years to come

1Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

COVID-19

COVID-19 could shrink the earnings of 2020 graduates for years to come

Before the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses and schools to close, high school and college graduates from the Class of 2020 could have expected to graduate into the strongest job market in 50 years. Now, due to massive economic fallout, the Class of 2020 is at risk of graduating into a recession. This souring economy has important implications for more than 3.5 million students expected to graduate from high school in 2020, and the more than 1.3 million students expected to graduate from a two-year or four-year college. The social distancing that has upended business as usual is causing a wave of layoffs and furloughs, with an unprecedented 3.3 million new unemployment claims filed in the week ending March 21. And that’s just the beginning. Experts predict the unemployment rate wi...

COVID-19 Closures Could Hit Historically Black Colleges Particularly Hard

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

COVID-19 Closures Could Hit Historically Black Colleges Particularly Hard

As the COVID-19 crisis forces many schools to close their campuses and move all courses online, some worry that the pandemic could have a bigger negative impact on the nation’s historically black colleges and universities, than for other campuses. Here, The Conversation US has assembled a panel of experts to forecast what’s in store for HBCUs. How is the outbreak is affecting HBCUs? Marybeth Gasman, professor of education at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. Rutgers University Marybeth Gasman, professor of education at Rutgers University: I am worried about the technology demands on HBCUs, given how few IT specialists many smaller HBCUs have as well as the costs of managing online classes. I’m also worried about students not having access to Wi-Fi at home or laptops – 75% of HBCU stude...