The Conversation

While the US is reeling from COVID-19, the Trump administration is trying to take away health care

Written by Paul Shafer, Assistant Professor, Health Law, Policy, and Management, Boston University

People affected by the downturn in the economy caused by coronavirus at a food bank in Central Florida in April, 2020. Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The death toll from COVID-19 keeps rising, creating grief, fear, loss and confusion.

Unfortunately for us all, the pain only begins there. Other important health policy news that would ordinarily...

Voters aren’t the only ones who dread slow mail – struggling small businesses are also at risk from Postal Service delays

Written by Ednilson Bernardes, Professor of Supply Chain Management, West Virginia University

The USPS has suffered delays in recent months.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Thousands of baby chicks shipped to small poultry farmers through the U.S. Postal Service have arrived at their destinations dead in recent weeks.

This was just one of the disturbing results of changes to how the Postal Service operates, which have led to widespread delays...

Approval of a coronavirus vaccine would be just the beginning – huge production challenges could cause long delays

Written by Bruce Y. Lee, Professor of Health Policy and Management, City University of New York

Billions of people are going to need a coronavirus vaccine and that demand is going to be hard to meet. Francesco Carta fotografo/Moment via Getty Images

The race for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is well underway. It’s tempting to assume that once the first vaccine is approved for human use, all the problems of this pandemic will be immediately...

¿Tienes hijos o sobrinos pequeños? Estas son tres maneras de ayudarlos a interactuar pese al COVID-19

Written by Elizabeth Englander, Professor of Psychology, and the Director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC), Bridgewater State University

Cuando los niños y adolescentes pasan demasiado tiempo aislados en casa, sus habilidades sociales y autoestima pueden sufrirSDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images

Con la pandemia de COVID-19 empeorando en la mayor parte de Estados Unidos, América Latina y en otras regiones del mundo, un número creciente de distritos escolares han...

Economic hardship from COVID-19 will hit minority seniors the most

Written by Marc Cohen, Clinical Professor of Gerontology and Co-Director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, University of Massachusetts Boston

The financial ravages caused by COVID-19 will particularly impact Black seniors. Willie B. Thomas via Getty Images

For Americans 60 and older, COVID-19 is widespread and deadly. Its economic impact could also be devastating.

With a recession fast developing, much of the attention on the downturn focuses on working-age adults, but many older...

Voting by mail is convenient, but not always secret

Written by Susan Orr, Associate Professor of Political Science, The College at Brockport, State University of New York

Not everyone who votes at home gets to do so in complete privacy.Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Voting by mail in 2020 could be a real life-saver for American democracy, allowing tens of millions of people to participate in the election while limiting the spread of the pandemic. It’s widely available, popular, well-protected against fraud and...

Latin American women are disappearing and dying under lockdown

Written by Lynn Marie Stephen, Philip H. Knight Chair, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Graduate Faculty Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon

Funeral for a woman and her 11-year-old daughter, both found dead inside a burnt out vehicle in Puebla state, Mexico, June 11, 2020. Jose Castanares/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s a pandemic within the pandemic. Across Latin America, gender-based violence has spiked since COVID-19 broke out.

Almost 1,200 women disappeared in Peru between March 11...

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, what should you say to someone who refuses to wear a mask? A philosopher weighs in

Written by Colin Marshall, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington

A "no mask, no taco" sign at Chelsea Market in New York city.Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Multiple studies have shown that masks reduce the transmission of virus-loaded droplets from people with COVID-19. However, according to a Gallup poll, almost a third of Americans say they rarely or never wear a mask in public.

This raises a question:...

The labor-busting law firms and consultants that keep Google, Amazon and other workplaces union-free

Written by John Logan, Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies, San Francisco State University

Rite Aid hired anti-union consultants to try to prevent workers from successfully organizing. Amy Niehouse/Flickr, CC BY-SA

American companies have been very successful at preventing their workers from organizing into unions in recent decades, one of the reasons unionization in the private sector is at a record low.

What you may not realize is that...

Brewing Mesopotamian beer brings a sip of this vibrant ancient drinking culture back to life

Written by Tate Paulette, Assistant Professor of History, North Carolina State University

Cylinder seal (left) and modern impression (right) showing two people drinking beer through long straws. Khafajeh, Iraq (Early Dynastic period, c. 2600–2350 B.C.). Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

It’s been about five months since I set foot in a bar. Like many of you navigating life in a pandemic, I miss...