News Room

As the coronavirus pandemic shows no sign of abatement in the United States, the hope for a vaccine grows each day. But, when a safe vaccine is approved, the next challenge will be getting doses to everyone who needs it. Dr. Julie Swann is the department head and A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor of the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State. She uses mathematical models to make health care and supply chains more efficient, effective and equitable. She spoke with GovExec Daily about the upcoming challenges of distributing the vaccine whenever it does become available. 

The world continues to reel from the pandemic and, among many other things, the shortage of medical supplies that has resulted. Yes, the world has experienced natural disasters, but they are typically limited in time duration and location. The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted the globe for many months.

Many Wisconsin residents may have lost their jobs, had their pay or work hours cut, visited food pantries or worried about paying the rent because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that didn’t stop them from buying lottery tickets in the first months of the pandemic. State Department of Revenue (DOR) figures show total lottery sales between March – when the state’s economy was locked down, mass layoffs and furloughs began and we were told to stay home to “flatten” the COVID-19 curve – and June were up 12.3 percent.

Beware of companies that disproportionately call on bullish analysts to speak during earnings conference calls. They tend to later reveal negative news that drives down their share price. That correlation—detailed in a recent study—can be valuable for investors, says Lauren Cohen, the L.E. Simmons professor in the finance and entrepreneurial management units at Harvard Business School, who co-wrote the study.

f you've ever taken advantage of a nice discount thanks to a promotion from Groupon or LivingSocial, you've tapped the power of the daily deal market yourself. You, the consumer, benefited from the prior bargaining that took place between that big online platform and the merchant, resulting in a lower price for you.