In the News

  1. September 1, 2021
    • Headshot of Melissa Riba

    “We’ve tried to incentivize people, to appeal to their better angels (to) ‘Please go get vaccinated,’” said Melissa Riba, director of research and evaluation at the Center for Health and Research Transformation. Reinstating patient costs associated with COVID care is just another step in “moving away from the incentives to more of the penalties associated with making a choice to be non-vaccinated.” 

    Bridge Magazine
  2. September 1, 2021

    Being outside can help children and teens feel better, according to research by Astrid Zamora, doctoral student in public health: “Our findings suggest that spending time in nature … being around trees and woods and greenery, can have strong public health implications, given that youth might not need to travel as far or spend a lot of money to access nature.” 

    WDIV/Detroit
  3. August 31, 2021
    • Mark Ackerman
    • Jon D. Miller

    Research by Mark Ackerman, professor of information, and electrical engineering and computer science, and Jon D. Miller, research scientist at the Institute for Social Research, shows that as more Americans became highly educated over the past 35 years, acceptance of evolution grew accordingly. “It’s hard to earn a college degree without acquiring at least a little respect for the success of science,” Ackerman said.

    Salon
  4. August 31, 2021
    • Greg Less

    “EVs catch fire, but people forget that so do (cars with) internal-combustion engines. Right now, EVs are still such a small fraction of the market share and are still the hot new technology, that when they catch on fire, it makes news,” said Greg Less, technical director at the Energy Institute’s Battery Lab, commenting on GM’s latest recall of its Bolt electric vehicles.

    Popular Science
  5. August 31, 2021
    • Katherine Michelmore

    “Once these changes happen in the tax code, they tend to stick because they tend to be fairly popular among the populations,” said Katherine Michelmore, associate professor of public policy, on the expanded Child Tax Credit, a per-child monthly payment of up to $300 that Democrats hope to extend with their $3.5 trillion budget bill making its way through Congress.

    Marketplace
  6. August 30, 2021
    • Photo of John Meeker

    “Obviously, herbicides and other chemicals, insecticides, etc., have made food production much more efficient, which is extremely important as our world population grows. But we need to look at other types of techniques that might help us to get that yield, but also reduce the amount of chemicals that we have to use,” said John Meeker, professor of environmental health sciences and global public health.

    WEMU
  7. August 30, 2021
    • Photo of Jeffrey Morenoff

    “The heightened concern that parents express about the risk of contracting the coronavirus suggests that their greater vaccine hesitancy could also be an expression of the caution they are exercising to protect the health of their families,” wrote Jeffrey Morenoff, professor of sociology and public policy, and research professor at the Institute for Social Research.

    The Detroit News
  8. August 30, 2021
    • Olivier Jolliet

    “Our findings demonstrate that small targeted substitutions offer a feasible and powerful strategy to achieve significant health and environmental benefits without requiring dramatic dietary shifts,” said Olivier Jolliet, professor of environmental health sciences, whose research found that switching 10 percent of the calories from beef and processed meat to fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and some seafood can provide 48 more minutes of healthy life each day.

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  9. August 25, 2021
    • Headshot of William Lopez
    • Headshot of Josh Petrie

    “Popular fearmongering tactics related to immigration have always included casting immigrants as disease vectors,” said William Lopez, clinical assistant professor of health behavior and health education. Joshua Petrie, research assistant professor of epidemiology, says focus is better placed on public health surveillance and contact tracing: “As we’ve seen with both the alpha variant and the delta variant, oftentimes, and even with COVID in general, you just may not be able to stop them.”

    MLive
  10. August 25, 2021
    • Jonathan Sexton

    “Traditionally, the drug development process takes a decade — and we just don’t have a decade. The therapies we discovered are well-positioned for phase 2 clinical trials because their safety has already been established,” said Jonathan Sexton, assistant professor of internal medicine and medicinal chemistry, who has researched several drug contenders shown to block or reduce the SARS-CoV2 infection in cells.

    International Business Times