Author: TheConversation

By Adrian De Leon, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences In a recently published op-ed, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang called upon Asian Americans to become part of the solution against COVID-19. In the face of rising anti-Asian racist actions – now at about 100 reported cases per day – Yang implores Asian Americans to “wear red, white, and blue” in their efforts to combat the virus. Optimistically, before Donald Trump declared COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus,” Yang believed that “getting the virus under control”...

By Zachary Jaggers, Postdoctoral Scholar of Linguistics, University of Oregon Low-income Americans have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. They may also get left behind in the recoveryBy this point in the coronavirus pandemic, you’ve probably heard a lot about “essential workers.” They are the people working in hospitals and grocery stores, on farms and in meatpacking plants. They are keeping public transit, shipping and utilities running. But is “essential” describing the workers themselves? Or only the work they do? Right now, many don’t feel like they’re being treated like they are essential, and workers at Amazon, Walmart and...

By Vivian Zayas, Associate Professor of Psychology, Cornell University The effects of the coronavirus pandemic will be “imprinted on the personality of our nation for a very long time,” predicted Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. No doubt in the future people will mourn those who have died and remember the challenges of this period. But how would COVID-19 shape people’s personalities – and into what? I am a psychology researcher interested in how people’s minds shape, and are shaped by, their life circumstances. Human beings are born into this world ready to...

By Kristin Lunz Trujillo, PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of Minnesota; and Matt Motta, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Oklahoma State University The availability of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will likely play a key role in determining when Americans can return to life as usual. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on April 30 announced that a vaccine could even be available by January 2021. Whether a vaccine can end this pandemic successfully, however, depends on more than its effectiveness at providing immunity against the virus, or how quickly...

By Ahmad Samarji, Associate Professor of Forensic Science Education & STEM Education and the Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Phoenicia University Most scientists and doctors in the coronavirus crisis are working to save the living. Those in the field of forensic pathology, however, focus on the dead. Ahmad Samarji, a Lebanon-based scholar of forensic science, reports on the extraordinary challenges facing coroners and pathologists in outbreak zones, where governments have to take “very limited but essential choices” to avoid a dangerous pileup of dead bodies. What is the role of forensic pathologists in a pandemic?...

By Chunjie Zhang, Associate Professor of German, University of California, Davis During one of my daily walks with my toddler, when we passed his favorite playground, I noticed a new sign warning that the coronavirus survives on all kinds of surfaces and that we should no longer use the playground. Since then, I’ve taken great pains to prevent him from touching things. This has not been easy. He loves to squeeze bike racks and graze tree trunks, jostle bushes and knock on picnic tables. He likes to run his fingers against bars around a swimming pool and pet the...