Author: TheConversation

By David H. Jernigan, Professor of Health Law, Policy & Management, Boston University In the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, it has become easier to buy alcohol than toilet paper or eggs. Across the U.S., governors are terming alcohol sales an essential business and loosening restrictions to permit home delivery and carryout cocktails, throwing an economic lifeline to one group of small businesses. Are alcohol sales actually essential? According to the federal government, just over half of Americans age 18 and above (55.3%) drank alcohol in the past 30 days; just over a quarter binged – more than four...

By Ramya Vijaya, Professor of Economics, Stockton University Low-income Americans have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. They may also get left behind in the recovery. Steep declines in ridership during the crisis have pushed public transit systems across the U.S. into deep financial distress. Though Congress included allocations for transit in the CARES Act, cities said it won’t be nearly enough. Even major systems in large metro areas like New York City and Washington DC, have serious concerns about long-term survival without more sustained support. Failure of transit systems would be a disaster for the large proportion...

By Hilary Godwin, Dean, School of Public Health, University of Washington How and when states reopen their economies will look different from one state to the next, depending on where that state is in the trajectory of its coronavirus illnesses. In this Q&A, Hilary Godwin, dean of the University of Washington School of Public Health, explains why and why it makes sense for groups of states to coordinate their plans. Governors are walking a tightrope as they try to figure out how to safely ease off social distancing restrictions and restart their economies without triggering a new surge in...

By Tom Duszynski, Director Epidemiology Education, IUPUI The coronavirus is certainly scary, but despite the constant reporting on total cases and a climbing death toll, the reality is that the vast majority of people who come down with COVID-19 survive it. Just as the number of cases grows, so does another number: those who have recovered. In mid-March, the number of patients in the U.S. who had officially recovered from the virus was close to zero. That number is now in the tens of thousands and is climbing every day. But recovering from COVID-19 is more complicated than simply...

By Jamie Rowen, Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst From the elderly who are facing deadly outbreaks in nursing homes to communities of color facing higher infection and death rates, different groups face different challenges from the coronavirus pandemic. Among the most hard-hit are veterans, who are particularly susceptible to both health and economic threats from the pandemic. These veterans face homelessness, lack of health care, delays in receiving financial support and even death. I have spent the past four years studying veterans with substance use and mental health disorders who are in...

By Alex Bitterman, Professor of Architecture and Design, Alfred State College of Technology, The State University of New York; and Daniel Baldwin Hess, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York A key group of allies is missing in the U.S. effort to face the coronavirus pandemic: the American people. In the wake of World War II and during the Cold War, the U.S. was the world’s best at planning and preparing for mobilizing the citizenry to take action in an emergency. In those days, the anticipated emergency was a nuclear attack...