In the News
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December 17, 2021
Aubree Gordon, associate professor of epidemiology, says vaccinated people have begun to let their guard down after nearly two years of pandemic restrictions: “I think there’s been a bit of an assumption that people are bulletproof, that the vaccine is going to protect them from infection or if they do get infected that they won’t get very sick. We know that’s not 100 percent true.”
National Geographic -
December 16, 2021
“We’ve given this vaccine to more human beings than any other vaccine in history. If there was some smoking gun about toxicity or another issue, we would know it by now,” said James Baker, professor emeritus of internal medicine and biomedical engineering. “These vaccines are remarkably safe and almost unbelievably effective given what we’ve seen. And the real issue is getting everybody vaccinated so they’re protected and they aren’t spreading it to each other.”
WDIV/Detroit -
December 16, 2021
“A diplomatic (Olympic) boycott is maybe politically necessary for the Biden administration, given the bad state of the relationship, and also the very anti-China atmosphere in Washington,” said Mary Gallagher, professor of political science and director of the International Institute. “It’s striking, of course, with 1980 in comparison, because both the Trump and the Biden administration use the ‘g-word’ … to label what the Chinese government is doing in Xinjiang. But at the same time, even genocide doesn’t earn a full boycott.”
Vox -
December 16, 2021
“Maybe the pace of inflation will diminish without the need for anything more than a small interest-rate increase, one consistent with continuing employment gains and high asset prices. But I doubt it,” wrote Joshua Hausman, associate professor of public policy. “The omicron variant — and the international response to its discovery — leads me to believe that COVID-related disruptions to the economy may well last for years, not months.”
The Atlantic -
December 15, 2021
“Schools really need to have a lot more mental health counseling available. I know school psychologists are slammed and are absolutely overwhelmed, particularly when it gets to the high school level,” said Sandra Graham-Bermann, professor of psychology. Joanna Quigley, clinical associate professor of psychiatry, says there are warning signs that a child is in distress that parents should be monitoring: changes in mood, behavior and physical health.
Michigan Advance -
December 15, 2021
“It’s unvaccinated people who are going to be at the worst risk for the worst outcomes. And it’s also going to be the folks who don’t have the ability or the luxury to quarantine or just kind of hide out when it looks like the numbers are getting too high,” said Jon Zelner, professor of epidemiology, on the potential fallout of the omicron variant, especially in low-vaccine areas and in rural, poor and minority communities.
The Atlantic -
December 15, 2021
“It’s a false sense of security in thinking we can waste food because we’re composting it,” said Shelie Miller, professor of environment and sustainability and director of the Program in Environment. “Reducing your overall edible food waste is much more important, because composting doesn’t eliminate the much bigger upstream environmental impacts associated with growing food.”
Consumer Reports -
December 14, 2021
“Vaccination is the only way out of this pandemic,” said Marschall Runge, CEO of Michigan Medicine, dean of the Medical School and executive vice president for medical affairs. “The unvaccinated are … risking the lives of others who may die of preventable diseases who can’t get their needed health care.” David Miller, president of U-M Health, says staffing shortages also impact hospitals’ ability to manage the latest surge — closed beds, canceled surgeries, no new patient transfers, overflowing emergency rooms: “This is not how we or anyone wants to provide or receive health care.”
Detroit Free Press -
December 14, 2021
“It’s easy to get lost in procedure and technicalities but this case is very much about whether innocent people will be able to present evidence of their innocence to a court,” said Imran Syed, co-director of the Law School’s Michigan Innocence Clinic, on a U.S. Supreme Court case filed by two death row prisoners who say they face execution because they had bad lawyers.
Bloomberg Law -
December 14, 2021
Before the pandemic, the idea of “smart cities” encountered resistance in parts of the world, but people have been more accepting of intrusive technology deployed against COVID-19, says Ben Green, assistant professor of public policy: Such emergencies “can be moments where governments roll out new invasive forms of data collection and it just becomes the new normal.”
Los Angeles Times
