This spring, Chicago was one of the nation’s COVID-19 epicenters. Illinois' rural communities were largely spared any COVID-19 carnage, anxiously waiting for the impending surge of cases and deaths that never arrived. That wait is now over.
Brian Calfano sat down to talk with Julie Swan, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at North Carolina State as well as a CDC science advisor. The two talked about herd immunity, which is the point at which the public is protected from a virus because enough people are immune.
Recently, the White House released its COVID-19 vaccine distribution strategy through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD). The two departments, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated their plan provides a “playbook” for state and local public health programs on how to plan and operationalize a vaccination program for COVID-19.
A coronavirus vaccine looms on the horizon as politicians and school boards are allowing more students return to full classrooms. The confluence of these two events presents a question: Should the state require COVID-19 vaccines for school-age children?
It’s been more than six months since the coronavirus was first detected in Massachusetts. The global pandemic has disrupted school, work, travel, sports and even friendships. Data from the Massachusetts Department of Health shows the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths has dropped significantly since it peaked last spring but the number of people with the virus has been steady or climbing for more than two months. More people are getting sick with COVID-19 than getting better.
Jeff Cohen
Chief Strategy Officer
INFORMS
Catonsville, MD
jcohen@informs.org
443-757-3565
An audio journey of how data and analytics save lives, save money and solve problems.
With seemingly no limit to the demand for artificial intelligence, everyone in the energy, AI, and climate fields is justifiably worried. Will there be enough clean electricity to power AI and enough water to cool the data centers that support this technology? These are important questions with serious implications for communities, the economy, and the environment.
It’s college graduation season, which means over 4 million seniors will graduate in the next few weeks, flooding the job market with new candidates. One area that has shown high potential for the right candidates is artificial intelligence and machine learning. Both disciplines are part of the larger data and analytics career path.
Drugs being explicitly developed to treat rare diseases are getting more expensive.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the new secretary of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s de facto healthcare czar. He will have influence over numerous highly visible agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, among others. Given that healthcare is something that touches everyone’s life, his footprint of influence will be expansive.
The recent US-China agreement to temporarily reduce tariffs is a major step for global trade, with tariffs on US goods entering China dropping from 125% to 10% and on Chinese goods entering the US decreasing from 145% to 30% starting May 14. While this has boosted markets and created optimism, key industries like autos and steel remain affected, leaving businesses waiting for clearer long-term trade policies.
With sweeping new tariffs on Chinese-made products set to take effect this summer, Americans are being urged to prepare for price hikes on everyday goods. President Donald Trump's reinstated trade policies are expected to affect a wide swath of consumer imports, including electronics, furniture, appliances, and baby gear. Retail experts are advising shoppers to act before the tariffs hit and prices rise.
Twenty years ago, few people would have been able to imagine the energy landscape of today. In 2005, US oil production, after a long decline, had fallen to its lowest levels in decades, and few experts thought that would change.
In the case of upgrading electrical and broadband infrastructure, new analysis from the University of Massachusetts Amherst reveals {that a} “dig once” strategy is almost 40% more economical than changing them individually.