In the News
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April 28, 2020
A $23 million fundraising effort will provide more than 50,000 Detroit students with new tablet-style laptop computers with free internet access to facilitate online learning. “This is a huge deal. It certainly does help, especially because a lot of these students just don’t have the means to access this technology on their own,” said Cyrus Peñarroyo, professor of architecture, who has mapped what’s known as digital redlining, which leaves many poor neighborhoods without broadband access.
Detroit Free Press -
April 28, 2020
“The novel coronavirus causing the current crisis presents a multidimensional challenge — to personal, public, economic and mental health. There is no single tool with which to confront such a threat; what we need is a vast tool kit. … Science is about staying flexible, trying out a variety of tools as the questions we try to answer change before our eyes. It is a process, not a product,” wrote Henry Cowles, assistant professor of history.
The Washington Post -
April 28, 2020
Muslims in the U.S. are adapting their traditions to figure out how to feel together while staying apart during Ramadan, although they have a long tradition of staying connected through technology, says Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, associate professor of American culture: “For many groups, particularly groups that are marginalized socially, politically, culturally, there has always been a need to have ways to be in relation with each other when you can’t actually be in the same place.”
National Public Radio -
April 27, 2020
Neil Mehta, assistant professor of health management and policy, says a phased return from social distancing will ensure a better chance of successfully using contact tracing: “That will save lives. Because if we do, unfortunately, infect a colleague at work, and they’re living with their elderly parents or grandparents, then we can identify that colleague’s risk and potentially save the lives of them or their families.”
Michigan Radio -
April 27, 2020
“Congress should quickly provide $1 billion in new funding for community development financial institutions to assist with providing new loans and grants to neighborhoods across the country. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department should then create a liquidity program focused on community development financial institutions, just as they have done for the biggest players in the system,” wrote Michael Barr, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
The Hill -
April 27, 2020
“While the COVID-19 crisis disrupted the planned commemorations of Earth Day 1970, the pandemic also reinforced the urgency of its core lessons of ecological sustainability, environmental justice and the power of youth-driven grass-roots activism to challenge corporate pollution and government inaction,” wrote Matthew Lassiter, professor of history, and urban and regional planning.
The Washington Post -
April 24, 2020
Physically active U.S. veterans are more likely to fall but less likely to get hurt when they do, compared with inactive older adults who didn’t serve in the military, according to research by Geoffrey Hoffman, assistant professor of nursing: “The inference is that being active puts you at more risk for a fall, but if you are more active/in shape, the fall is more likely to be a minor one and not a serious one resulting in injury.”
U.S. News & World Report -
April 24, 2020
“The stimulus checks are not income, so they’re not going to count against your food stamps, your housing subsidies, your unemployment benefits, anything like that. They are processed as a tax credit, so folks shouldn’t be worried about anything happening to their benefits if they get these checks,” said Afton Branche, strategic project manager for U-M Poverty Solutions’ Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility.
WDET Radio -
April 24, 2020
“We never really conquer microbes — at best, we wrestle them to a draw. An outbreak anywhere can easily go everywhere. And, it is no longer an issue of if we are going to have another contagious catastrophe in our new world order, it’s a matter of when. That means we start preparing for the next infectious battle as soon as we are done with this one,” wrote Howard Markel, professor and director of the Center for the History of Medicine.
PBS NewsHour -
April 23, 2020
“In 1935, people were sending dimes in postal envelopes, letters with the same threats or the same promises that you’ll become famous. So why wouldn’t people still do this?” said Scott W. Campbell, professor of communication and media, on the comeback of email chain letters amid the anxiety and restlessness of coronavirus isolation. “This is a way that people are expressing a new level of connectedness.”
CNN
