In the Media

2021 Will Be ‘A Race Between Vaccination And This New Variant,’ Says Northeastern Professor

GBH -- 01/22/2021

GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with Northeastern University political science and computer science professor David Lazer about the numbers and his outlook for 2021. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Mass killings dropped in 2020. Repudiate right-wing extremism to continue the trend.

USA Today -- 01/22/2021

James Alan Fox is the Lipman Professor of Criminology, Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University and co-author of “Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder.” …

What Biden can do to fix America’s Covid-19 vaccine mess

Vox -- 01/22/2021

But there are some things the federal government could do, said Nada Sanders, a distinguished professor of supply chain management at Northeastern University. One is called “backward scheduling”: The Biden administration could partner with states to set a goal for how many people to vaccinate and then work backward, going from injecting the vaccine to the factory where the dose was produced in order to figure out what’s needed at every step. This won’t anticipate every single problem, but it will at least give officials a way to prepare.

A Covid-19 peak? Variants muddy forecasts for coming months

NBC News -- 01/22/2021

As variants emerge, it will be crucial to adhere to measures to slow the virus’s spread and pick up the pace of vaccinations to keep all of those figures from spiking, said coronavirus modeler Alessandro Vespignani, director of Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute.

An Internet Without Trump

Wired -- 01/22/2021

Lisa Feldman Barrett, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University and the author of How Emotions Are Made, says the Trump years are best understood as a “public health crisis,” which makes his ostensibly diminishing role in our digital lives no less complicated than before. He may be gone for the moment, but the repercussions remain.

COVID-19 pandemic worsens housing disparities in Boston

WCVB TV -- 01/22/2021

Northeastern professor Dan O’Brien points out many of these larger landlords have not signed onto the state’s Eviction Diversion Pledge which says they’ll abide by the CDC moratorium and work with residents to create payment plans.

How President Joe Biden could use the Defense Production Act to increase vaccine production

Marketplace -- 01/22/2021

Brook Baker, a law professor at Northeastern University, also said that other vaccine manufacturers may have reduced access to key ingredients. “So there is a kind of interruption to ordinary market competition that can be a result of this,“ he said. “But many people would say it’s still good public policy for the government to prioritize access to products that it needs.”…

To many in Newton, Kamala Harris’s vice presidency is a ‘universal inspiration’

Boston Globe -- 01/22/2021

“Our new vice president is going to change the look of power in the US. The ceiling is there, but it is breakable. I want to stress that on the big picture, she did change the entire outlook as well as the perspective of what an Asian girl from a second-generation immigrant family might be able to achieve. Our daughters should all have the confidence in being able to determine what they want in life, dream high, and be certain regarding the possibility of achieving goals.” — Lin Shi, a research program manager at Northeastern University.

Biden moves quickly on Keystone, climate

Politico -- 01/21/2021

Shalanda Baker, a Northeastern University law, public policy and urban affairs professor, will be deputy director of energy justice, and Jennifer Jean Kropke, who directed workforce and environmental engagement for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 11, will direct the energy jobs office.

How engineering can contribute to a reimagining of the US public health system

The Conversation -- 01/21/2021

Research centers throughout the U.S., including those at the Mayo Clinic and Northeastern University’s Healthcare Systems Engineering, suggest challenges such as patient safety could be made better by applying systems engineering principles and techniques through more holistic and human-centered approaches to systems design.