In the News
-
June 15, 2022
As worrying as it is to raise children in an era of mass shootings, parents should try not to transfer their anxiety to them, says Marc Zimmerman, professor of public health and co-director of the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention: “Don’t be afraid. If we’re living an afraid life, that just creates anxiety, and anxiety creates all sorts of other problems.”
NBC News -
June 15, 2022
Fierce inflation is taking a heavy toll on consumer confidence as the U-M Index of Consumer Sentiment has fallen to a 50-year low, says Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers: “Overall, gas prices weighed heavily on consumers, which was no surprise given the 65-cent increase in national gas prices from last month.”
CBS News -
June 8, 2022
“As we wait for the outcome of the Supreme Court’s upcoming abortion decision, I am planning ahead for all of the ways the health care landscape in Michigan may dramatically shift,” wrote Lisa Harris, professor of obstetrics and gynecology. “Those who view abortion exclusively as a political or partisan issue … will soon see that abortion care, or lack thereof, is a health care and health equity issue that impacts everyone.”
Detroit Free Press -
June 8, 2022
“The action plan to reduce the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone was established over 20 years ago, yet this year’s forecast is comparable to the 35-year average zone,” said Don Scavia, professor emeritus of environment and sustainability. “Clearly, the federal and state agencies and Congress continue to prioritize industrial agriculture over water quality.”
The Associated Press -
June 8, 2022
“It’s not about sexlessness. It’s all of the infrastructure that goes into the healthy maintenance of a multigenerational household,” said Jennifer Robertson, professor emerita of anthropology and art history, on falling Japanese birthrates. “The state is very conservative and wants to maintain the heteronormativity of marriage and this pink-and-blue, binary system of the sexual and gendered division of labor. Until that changes, they’re going to be suffering from the huge expense of maintaining an elderly population.”
The Washington Post -
June 8, 2022
Russia’s assault on Ukraine is disrupting the supplies of nitrous oxide and helium, used in millions of medical procedures each day. “The shortages we are experiencing now have been years in the making and are therefore a surprise to no one,” said Wally Hopp, professor of technology and operations, and industrial and operations engineering. “But now (the U.S.) can only scramble to cope with the crisis with the health of American citizens at stake.”
Fortune -
June 8, 2022
Betsey Stevenson, professor of public policy and economics, says the Federal Reserve will take action to bring inflation down, but “gas is still going to be expensive, relative to other things, until we end this war in Ukraine. … The Fed can’t undo that. What it can do is reduce the rate of price increases on average, but I still think you should be thinking about, you know, is it a good time to get a fuel-efficient car or buy that electric bicycle?”
CBS News "Face the Nation" -
June 1, 2022
“A lot of the political rhetoric around reducing firearm-related deaths center around gun control and the Second Amendment. But we were able to accomplish huge reductions in motor vehicle crash injuries without banning cars ever. There’s no reason an analogous approach can’t work for firearms,” said Jason Goldstick, research associate professor of emergency medicine.
ABC News -
June 1, 2022
Gun-identification technology could help speed the response during a crisis, but is limited because it does not serve as an active deterrent to school threats and their main causes, says Justin Heinze, associate professor of health behavior and health education: “It might be simple to say, ‘Yes, we’re applying a software that will allow us to identify when a weapon is coming to school.’ But at the same time, there’s a lot about the school culture … the learning environment that needs to be brought into consideration.”
Bridge Michigan -
June 1, 2022
“When a gun is present, there’s always the capacity for it to escalate to violence. And no matter how much you want to reduce the odds that might happen, it is still possible when that gun is there and not possible when it is not,” said William Lopez, assistant professor of health behavior and health education, on a Washtenaw County pilot program that involves an unarmed response to public safety calls.
WXYZ/Detroit
