EXPLAINER: What will Neil Young’s protest mean for Spotify? Spotify has shown more transparency in the past few days than it ever has about how it deals with questionable content, and the new policy is a good first step, says John Wihbey, a Northeastern University professor and specialist in emerging technologies. Yet it’s not clear that anyone has effectively dealt with the issue of […]
Pandemic Precedents Cast Shadow on Biden Shot-or-Test Rule “This court has been very skeptical, if not hostile, to pandemic-mitigation measures, in quite marked distinction from its sister circuits,” said Wendy Parmet, a law professor who directs Northeastern University’s Center for Health Policy and Law. “It’s striking that it started very early, before the political polarization around the pandemic had gotten as hardened as it […]
Legal battle over Biden’s vax-or-test mandate for businesses is just beginning “Not all of these claims are the same and not all of these mandates are the same,” said Wendy Parmet, a Northeastern University law professor who specializes in public health law.
Burlington Free Press Vermont’s worker shortage is among the greatest in the country, study says “For the most part, it’s not a shortage of workers that’s the problem, per se. It’s a sign that employers just need to offer better packages of wages and working conditions to attract workers,” Northeastern University economics professor Robert Triest said in the study.
Covid Breakthrough Cases Pose Test for Vaccine Messaging Efforts “The messaging has not been as clear and as helpful as it could have been,” said Wendy Parmet, director of Northeastern University’s center for health policy and law. “Health officials, media, and folks who support vaccination perhaps oversold it in ways, so now the breakthrough cases seem inconsistent and undermining.”
PBS NewsHour Could enhanced COVID tests help U.S. track virus variants? Right now, even after concerted efforts to increase sequencing capacity, only about 3% of the country’s positive COVID-19 samples were sequenced in early April. That’s not just “unacceptable,” but “nearly worthless,” said Sam Scarpino, a bioinformatics assistant professor at Northeastern University and director of the school’s Emergent Epidemics Lab.
Could a souped-up version of existing Covid-19 tests be our shortcut to tracking variants? Right now, even after concerted efforts to increase sequencing capacity, only about 3% of the country’s positive Covid-19 samples were sequenced in early April. That’s not just “unacceptable,” but “nearly worthless,” said Sam Scarpino, a bioinformatics assistant professor at Northeastern University and director of the school’s Emergent Epidemics Lab.
Boston Marathon Bomber Appeal Is Early Biden Test on Death Penalty Daniel Medwed, criminal law professor at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, who supported Tsarnaev’s appeal in an amicus brief at the First Circuit, said he thinks it’s unlikely the Supreme Court will grant review, and that it’s also unlikely Biden would seek another death penalty trial if the First Circuit’s decision stands.
Boston 25 Comparison of policing during recent protests at Capitol and during summer 2020 “When we compare how the protests were handled over the summer, Black Lives Matter protests versus what we saw yesterday we saw a police department that wasn’t prepared seemed to be more at one with the protesters not seeing them as somebody that needs to be feared,” said Jack McDevitt, director of the Institute on […]
As Newton prepares to reopen high schools, COVID-19 surveillance testing will begin for staff Samuel Scarpino, a Northeastern University epidemiologist who did not sign the letter, said surveillance testing needs to be conducted at least once a week to be effective. “Everything I’ve seen suggests that anything longer than a week [and for sure less frequently than every-other-week] is unlikely to have an effect,” Scarpino said in an e-mail.
For some, COVID tests are free and fast. Others stand in line, pay $160, and wait days for results “Solving the equity problem also solves the COVID problem,” said Sam Scarpino, an assistant professor of network science who heads Northeastern University’s Emergent Epidemics Lab. “If we had nearly ubiquitous, free, asymptomatic testing that came back in 36 hours, it’s not only equitable, it gets us out of this pandemic way before most of us […]
Vox How to make this winter not totally suck, according to psychologists “When you feel grateful, your mind turns its attention to what is perhaps the greatest source of resilience for most humans: other humans,” David DeSteno, a psychology professor at Northeastern University and the author of Emotional Success, told me. “By reminding you that you’re not alone — that others have contributed to your wellbeing — it […]