In the News
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November 3, 2020
There are a lot of questions floating around the election: how long to declare a winner, what you can and cannot wear to cast your vote, and whether you can carry a gun to your polling place. “You look at the various rules in different states and they’re all interpreted differently, at the discretion of people working the polls, so they can be variable,” said Josh Pasek, professor of communication and media.
HuffPost -
November 3, 2020
“This pandemic has been more politicized than any pandemic I’ve ever experienced or worked on or studied, and that’s a lot of pandemics,” said Howard Markel, professor and director of the Center for the History of Medicine, who believes while some of the blame goes to local leaders and their supporters, a large share belongs to Trump administration officials who have not supported governors taking tougher steps, have undercut and insulted infectious-disease experts, and have themselves refused to wear masks.
The Associated Press -
November 3, 2020
“What happens to the data? What if I don’t consent? Whose data is it anyway? What right do I have to it? That sort of stuff isn’t covered by Proposal 2,” said Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy, on a proposed Michigan law that would require a warrant for law enforcement agencies to search private electronic data, like texts and emails.
WDET Radio -
November 2, 2020
“I don’t think the GDP numbers will matter for the election. They are backward-looking, and what they … tell us is that the economy grew quickly last quarter. But it grew quickly from a devastating and brutal quarter before that,” said Michael Barr, dean of the Ford School of Public Policy. Justin Wolfers, professor of economics and public policy, said “the economy in the third quarter will still be far below what it was pre-COVID, so far below that the depth of the recession even after that record growth will still be as a deep as a very deep recession, like the 2008 recession.”
FOX Business -
November 2, 2020
If the Affordable Care Act is dismantled, the communities it helped the most stand to lose the most — people of color. “It’s been well-established at this point that one of the biggest impacts that health insurance has is that it improves your household finances and protects you from unexpected medical bills, which can be really devastating,” said Sarah Miller, assistant professor of business economics and public policy.
Politico -
November 2, 2020
“Although elections absolutely have consequences, and it is important how things unfold in a democracy with respect to the policies and the candidates that we support, the apocalyptic predictions that people have and that candidates have an incentive to foster (if their opponent wins) are almost certainly overblown,” said Vincent Hutchings, professor of political science and Afroamerican and African studies.
MarketWatch -
October 30, 2020
“One of the most effective ways for controlling local invasions of crayfish seems to be trapping and manual removal. But these efforts are labor intensive and removals usually need to be maintained over long periods,” said Karen Alofs, commenting on the marbled crayfish, which are all female, reproduce asexually, are identical in genetic make-up and a terror to biodiversity.
VICE -
October 30, 2020
In the past 30 years, the U.S. population has grown by almost a third, but no new federal Court of Appeals judgeships have been authorized. Given lower courts’ role in voting rights cases, Leah Litman, professor of law, says expanding them will be essential to safeguard the franchise: “At this point, the health and well-being of our constitutional democracy require Congress to exercise that power.”
The New York Times -
October 30, 2020
“It’s not that we don’t want to worry about single-use plastics, but it really is not seeing the forest for the trees,” said Shelie Miller, director of the Program in the Environment and professor of environment and sustainability, whose research shows that plastic doesn’t always have the most impact of any packaging material, and a packaged item typically has more environmental impact than the packaging itself.
Popular Science -
October 29, 2020
“There’s good data that women are better physicians and spend time with patients more. We don’t have nearly enough physicians. If COVID drives more women out of medicine, that will have long-term effects on physician shortages for decades,” said Srijan Sen, professor of psychiatry and associate vice president for health sciences.
Crain's Detroit Business
