In the News
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September 17, 2020
Being happy is a fine goal but if taken too far, the pursuit of happiness can actually turn into harmful ‘toxic positivity.’ “It’s a problem when people are forced to seem or be positive in situations where it’s not natural or when there’s a problem that legitimately needs to be addressed that can’t be addressed if you don’t deal with the fact that there is distress or need,” said Stephanie Preston, professor of psychology.
Inc. -
September 17, 2020
“Official misconduct damages truth-seeking by our criminal justice system and undermines public confidence. It steals years — sometimes decades — from the lives of innocent people. The great majority of wrongful convictions are never discovered, so the scope of the problem is much greater than these numbers show,” said Samuel Gross, professor emeritus of law, whose research shows that more than half of criminal exonerations over the past 30 years involved corruption or negligence.
The Detroit News -
September 16, 2020
“I am so disappointed with the pandemic situation in India. It is getting worse and worse each week but a large part of the nation seems to have made the choice to ignore this crisis,” said Bhramar Mukherjee, professor of biostatistics, epidemiology and global health, who has been tracking India’s COVID situation closely.
Reuters -
September 16, 2020
“The classic case we all have in our hands is not always what really happens. For the patients I have followed, many continue to complain of cough, breathing issues and severe fatigue long after their first infection,” said Meilan King Han, professor of internal medicine. Such results fly in the face of a narrative that took hold early in the pandemic that the average COVID-19 patient would be sick for a couple of weeks, clear the virus and be fine afterward.
CNN -
September 16, 2020
“I don’t think a clear-cut forest can ever return to its original state, especially in terms of species diversity. We know from forests in temperate climates that it can take centuries for forests to recover,” said Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi, a research fellow in climate and space sciences and engineering, on the destruction of tropical rainforests.
Bloomberg -
September 15, 2020
“It puts the Census Bureau in a horrible situation. For those of us who analyze data and want to do research — and even more importantly, for people who are planning policy or allocating federal funds — this puts everybody in in a huge predicament,” said William Frey, research professor at the Population Studies Center, on the Trump administration’s insistence that Census numbers still be reported in December, despite a three-month delay due to the pandemic.
Politico -
September 15, 2020
“Having and taking ownership over a campus means everyone feels that sense of pride and responsibility, and it means feeling like this campus belongs to me as much as it belongs to the president, the faculty, or the old (alumnus) guy in the funny (U-M) pants. And that sense of ownership is precisely what so many of us have been denied for so long in this society,” said Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity and inclusion, chief diversity officer and professor of psychology and education.
The Chronicle of Higher Education -
September 15, 2020
“There are many instances where we’ve seen that our patients are not declining because of COVID, but they’re declining because of lack of interaction with family members,” says Grace Jenq, associate clinical professor of geriatric and palliative care medicine, on the isolation and lack of personal connection experienced by nursing home residents during the pandemic.
The Christian Science Monitor -
September 14, 2020
“If you want to provide good jobs for Americans and you want an attractive place to do business, you need to make it competitive with the rest of the world, and increasing the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent does not make you more competitive with the rest of the world, that’s putting it mildly,” said James Hines, professor of economics and law and research director at the Office of Tax Policy Research, on presidential candidate Joe Biden’s plan to increase the corporate tax rate.
The Detroit News -
September 14, 2020
Older adults caring for spouses newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease had a 30 percent increase in symptoms of depression compared to those whose spouses didn’t have Alzheimer’s or related dementia, according to research by Melissa Harris, doctoral student in nursing, and colleagues: “Our findings have a lot of implications for clinicians. It really demonstrates that we should be prioritizing the entire family.”
U.S. News & World Report
