Joe Biden

Vial of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine

After the Johnson & Johnson pause, enthusiasm for COVID-19 vaccines remains steady, U.S. survey shows

Despite high awareness of the temporary halt on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, U.S. respondents remained eager to get vaccinated, according to a survey by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers. But daily vaccination rates are declining nationally as those who most wanted the shots got them. A “hard core” group of respondents remain resistant.

by Peter Ramjug May 11, 2021

Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Why Trump-era immigration rule likely is impacting Hispanic inoculations

Some immigrants may be foregoing vaccinations and accessing other health benefits because of a Trump administration rule. The Biden administration stopped enforcing it, but prevailing fear looms large, according to a Northeastern public health faculty expert. Several red states are suing the White House to enforce the measure.

by Peter Ramjug April 5, 2021

Migrants are seen in custody at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing area under the Anzalduas International Bridge on March 19, 2021, in Mission, Texas. AP Photo by Julio Cortez

The border conundrum: Solutions call for new policies to an ‘ongoing crisis’

One of the reasons for an influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border is that their parents are being kept out under a Trump-era health law. Biden should end the expulsions and allow everyone, including adults, to seek asylum. Whether the situation rises to a “new crisis” is subjective, Northeastern’s immigration faculty experts say.

by Peter Ramjug March 30, 2021

How a 1939 political comedy models a possible fix for the modern-day US Senate

The upper chamber has long been known as a legislative graveyard. Without changing the 60-vote requirement to pass most bills, Democrats’ ambitions for voting rights, immigration, gun background checks, and other priorities could derail. Northeastern faculty experts say bringing back the talking filibuster, made famous in a black-and-white film, may be an option.

by Peter Ramjug March 29, 2021

President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during a prime-time address from the East Room of the White House on March 11, 2021, in Washington. AP Photo by Andrew Harnik

Biden outpaces Trump by double digits in handling the pandemic, new survey shows

Biden’s COVID-19 approval numbers stood at 53 percent early in his presidency, while Trump ended December—his last full month in office—at 32 percent. The numbers for a pair of embattled governors—California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Andrew Cuomo—have plummeted but remain within the national average, researchers found.

by Peter Ramjug March 23, 2021

Margaret Woo, law professor and former trustee of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, poses for a portrait. Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

Awareness must bring change: Atlanta shootings stir up strong reactions from students, faculty

The killing of mostly Asian women at a pair of Georgia massage parlors was a deadly escalation of the taunts, slurs, and put-downs that members of Northeastern’s Asian American community have endured. A law professor was out walking her dog when she encountered discrimination up close. “It almost brought me to tears,” she remembers. “Emotions from these micro-aggressions never completely go away.”

by Peter Ramjug March 22, 2021

Anti-coup protesters run away from tear gas launched by security forces in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, March 1, 2021. Defiant crowds returned to the streets of Myanmar's biggest city on Monday, determined to continue their protests against the military's seizure of power a month ago, despite security forces having killed at least 18 people around the country just a day earlier. AP Photo

Military takeover in Myanmar is a test for Biden’s foreign policy

After economic sanctions on the military rulers, President Biden’s best option for steering Myanmar—or Burma, as the United States calls it—back on the path to democracy might be to work with the United Nations, which could appoint a representative to mediate talks, say Northeastern faculty experts. China’s trade interests, however, could pose a challenge, faculty add.

by Peter Ramjug March 3, 2021

A nurse prepares a dose of China's Sinopharm vaccine during a priority COVID-19 vaccination of health workers at a public hospital in Lima, Peru, on Feb. 10, 2021. Peru received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday night. AP Photo by Martin Mejia

Will China’s global investment in ‘vaccine diplomacy’ pay off?

While the U.S. has been focused on curbing COVID-19 domestically, China, India, and other countries have been offering vaccines in hope of strengthening their alliances during the pandemic—a policy that carries risk, say three Northeastern professors.

by Ian Thomsen February 23, 2021

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum on Aug. 10, 2019, in Des Moines, Iowa. AP Photo by Charlie Neibergall

Biden’s options with Cuba are constrained by Trump’s sanctions

President Biden can still wield executive power to resume the flow of goods with Havana despite the Trump administration’s prohibitions, Northeastern experts say, but large-scale commercial activity will remain banned. Educational exchanges are halted too. Northeastern students were the first in the world to do co-ops in Cuba.

by Peter Ramjug February 18, 2021

President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Minden-Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nev. on Sept. 12, 2020. AP Photo by Andrew Harnik

It may have come and gone, but the 1776 Commission was no fluke

Former President Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission may not have lasted long—it was both created and dismantled by executive orders two months apart by two different administrations—but its existence is situated within a long history of reinterpreting the history of slavery in the U.S., say two Northeastern scholars of civil rights and race.

by Molly Callahan February 16, 2021