In the News
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May 21, 2020
“Do kids eat in response to stress? Some kids do. When we do think they’re eating more because of the pandemic, is it because they’re emotionally distraught, or anxiety, depression — or that they’re bored? … If you think your child is emotionally overeating … help the child manage their emotions better, help children understand this pandemic, manage their fear, manage their anger over what they’ve lost,” said Julie Lumeng, professor of pediatrics and nutritional sciences and director of the Center for Human Growth and Development.
The New York Times -
May 21, 2020
U.S. authorities initially reserved coronavirus tests for people with symptoms who had a recent history of overseas travel — which could have excluded people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, including people of color, says Enrique Neblett, professor of health behavior and health education. Going forward, getting tests to people and communities most at risk should be a priority, he says.
Nature -
May 20, 2020
Kristin Seefeldt, associate professor of social work and public policy, says Michigan’s unemployment system was never set up to handle severe drops in unemployment: “Usually in our economic downturns, job loss happens gradually and our systems are designed for that. They’re not designed for a switch being flipped and all of a sudden you’ve got hundreds of thousands of people trying to apply.”
MLive -
May 20, 2020
Allowing offshore companies to qualify for coronavirus aid from the Federal Reserve makes sense because the firms are still largely American and retain U.S.-based workforces, says Reuven Avi-Yonah, professor of law: “I don’t see any good economic reason to exclude inverted companies. They are just as American as other companies — that is, in fact, the problem with inversions in the first place.”
Bloomberg -
May 20, 2020
Due to a history of housing discrimination, generations of African Americans have been forced to live in areas that lack access to healthy food options. “And we know that results in chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. COVID-19 did not create these racial disparities that we are seeing. It simply magnified these disparities in unbelievable ways,” says Jessie Kimbrough Marshall, clinical assistant professor of internal medicine.
CNBC -
May 19, 2020
The likelihood of unemployed people returning to work depends heavily on whether states can restart their economies without creating new surges in COVID-19 infections, says Gabriel Ehrlich, director of the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics. “The most important thing driving what happens to the economy is the course of disease. Do people feel safe? Are they safe? We’re hoping we’ve seen the worst.”
The Associated Press -
May 19, 2020
“Humans have life-threatening stressors that activate a physiological stress response, like seeing a tiger in the bushes; the problem is that people who experience discrimination are endlessly seeing tigers,” said Arline Geronimus, professor of health education and health behavior, and research professor at the Institute for Social Research, on the offhanded statements or actions endured by people of color that can affect their mental and physical health.
PBS -
May 19, 2020
“For so many women, their crimes are connected to acts of survival. These women are no threat to anyone. They were acting the way any reasonable person would act in a situation where they thought their life was under threat,” said Carol Jacobsen, professor of art and women’s studies and director of the Michigan Justice and Clemency Project, on the deadly spread of the coronavirus in women’s prisons and the need for early release of some prisoners.
HuffPost -
May 18, 2020
“These things that are treated as ridiculous ideas, we’ll be able to say, ‘It’s not a ridiculous idea — it’s what we did during that time,’” said Jeff Sorensen, director for social innovation at LSA, on his involvement with the Washtenaw County Mutual Aid group — created to help students affected by U-M’s closure — part of a larger nationwide network of self-organized volunteer groups that has expanded during the pandemic.
The New Yorker -
May 18, 2020
“College campuses are places of gathering … it’s about that togetherness. Then when you have to tell people, ‘Well, you can’t be together because this is how the virus spreads,’ it’s a difficult problem,” said Preeti Malani, U-M’s chief health officer and professor of internal medicine. “The decision to come back will require that our state is in a good place, but I’m very hopeful.”
The Detroit News
