The Conversation

5 years of COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while CDC, NIH and WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a crisis

Written by Katherine A. Foss, Professor of Media Studies, Middle Tennessee State University

As the pandemic accelerated in 2020, U.S. hospitals -- including this one in New York City -- set up tents to diagnose patients with COVID-19.Misha Friedman via Getty Images

Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, began as a...

What is a SLAPP suit? Legal experts explain how these lawsuits suppress free speech

Written by Jennifer Safstrom, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University

Greenpeace activists at a pipeline resistance training camp in Washington state, Aug. 26, 2017.Tim Exton/AFP via Getty Images

Strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP suits, are civil claims brought against people or organizations who voice opinions publicly. These lawsuits are intended to intimidate opponents and suppress advocacy...

How Trump’s foreign aid and diplomatic cuts will make it harder for the US to wield soft power to maintain its friendships and win new ones

Written by Matthew Clary, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Auburn University

Soft power is lower-risk and lower-cost than hard power strategies.A Mokhtari/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

The Trump administration has proposed shuttering USAID and cutting some of the State Department’s critical diplomatic programs; it has also announced tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China. As scholar Borja Santos...

Mission possible − parastronaut programs can make space travel more inclusive and attainable for all

Written by Jesse Rhoades, Professor of Education, Heath & Behavior, University of North Dakota

The European Space Agency's astronaut cohort includes a parastronaut, as part of a feasability project. AP Photo/Francois Mori

Humans will likely set foot on the Moon again in the coming decade. While many stories in this new chapter of lunar exploration will be reminiscent of the Apollo missions 50 years ago, others may look quite different.

For...

From TB to HIV/AIDS to cancer, disease tracking has always had a political dimension, but it’s the foundation of public health

Written by Amy Lauren Fairchild, University Professor of Sociology, Syracuse University

Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in New York City and the U.S. overall in the late 19th century.Lewis Wickes Hine/Picryl, CC BY

Federal datasets began disappearing from public view on Jan. 31, 2025, in response to executive orders from President Donald Trump. Among those were the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth...

End-of-life planning can be hampered by misconceptions − but the process is easier than you might think

Written by Anisah Bagasra, Associate Professor of Psychology, Kennesaw State University

Choosing a health care agent requires having some sensitive and potentially uncomfortable conversations about your end-of-life wishes.PictureLake via Getty Images

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people unexpectedly needed critical care such as ventilators but were unable to communicate their end-of-life wishes to their loved ones.

Researchers...

Trump’s DOGE campaign accelerates 50-year trend of government privatization

Written by Nathan Meyers, PhD Candidate in Sociology, UMass Amherst

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has aggressively moved to shrink the federal government. His administration has frozen federal grants, issued executive orders aligned with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, and, most prominently, created what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

DOGE has been...

What happens when leaders have loyalists in charge of men with guns: Lessons for the US from Nicaragua, Syria and other authoritarian countries

Written by Joe Wright, Professor of Political Science, Penn State

Syrian army special forces in 2005, wearing pictures of their president, Bashar Assad, his father, Hafez, and brother, Basil, on their uniform, stand guard at a Lebanese military air base.Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images

In what’s been called a “Friday night massacre” at the Pentagon, President Donald Trump removed six top...

The sun is setting on government transparency in Florida – and secrecy creep is affecting the rest of the US, too

Written by David Cuillier, Director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida

Exemptions to Florida's open records law now exceed high rises in Miami.DEA / V. GIANNELLA /via Getty Images

Florida, the “Sunshine State,” once known as a beacon of government transparency, is growing ever darker, and the clouds are spreading throughout the United States.

From March 16-22, 2025, the nation celebrates the 20th...

How the color of St. Patrick’s Day went from blue to green

Written by Bryan McGovern, Professor of History, Kennesaw State University

Since 1962, the Chicago River has been dyed green for St. Patrick's Day.Scott Olson/Getty Images

St. Patrick’s Day usually conjures images of partying, Catholicism, Irish nationalism and, perhaps most famously, the color green: green clothes, green shamrocks, green beer and green rivers.

So my students are often surprised when I tell them that...