The Conversation

To understand the danger of COVID-19 outbreaks in meatpacking plants, look at the industry's history

Written by Michael Haedicke, Associate Professor of Sociology, Drake University

Workers in a pork processing plant, 2016.USGAO/Wikipedia

Large meatpacking plants have become hotspots for coronavirus infection, along with jails and nursing homes. As of May 1, nearly 5,000 packing plant workers in 19 states had fallen ill, and 20 had died.

Packing plants from Washington state to Iowa to Georgia have temporarily suspended...

Essential US workers often lack sick leave and health care – benefits taken for granted in most other countries

Written by Paul F. Clark, School Director and Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Pennsylvania State University

Many nurses lack paid sick leave. AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the degree to which we depend on the work of others. This is particularly true of essential workers like truck drivers, grocery store employees and hospital nurses who are ensuring the rest of us stay safe and are able to get the supplies, food and health...

Out with the old: Coronavirus highlights why we need new names for aging

Written by Caroline Cicero, Instructional Associate Professor of Gerontology , University of Southern California

Mary-Lou McCullagh, 83, inside her Ventura, California home, in isolation because of COVID-19. She and her husband Bob, 84, greet the little boy who lives across the street. Getty Images / Brent Stirton

Although largely unnoticed by mainstream media, something significant has happened with the rise of COVID-19: the marginalization of older...

The puzzling questions of the coronavirus: A doctor addresses 6 questions that are stumping physicians

Written by William Petri, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia

The typically crowded Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, now nearly desolate in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. Getty Images / Victor J. Blue

Editor’s Note: As researchers try to find treatments and create a vaccine for COVID-19, doctors and others on the front lines continue to find perplexing symptoms. And the disease itself has...

Remdesivir explained – what makes this drug work against viruses?

Written by Katherine Seley-Radtke, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and President-Elect of the International Society for Antiviral Research, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Remdesivir is an experimental medicine that is showing promise in clinical trials for COVID-19. Photo by ULRIC PERREY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

With the FDA approving Gilead’s Remdesivir as an emergency use treatment for the most acute cases of COVID-19, many people are wondering what type of a drug it is.

Remdesivir is a member of one of the...

Exit from coronavirus lockdowns – lessons from 6 countries

Written by Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business, The Fletcher School, Tufts University

People, some wearing masks, enjoy a walk in a park in Rome as Italy, the first nation to impose a nationwide lockdown against the coronavirus, begins to reopen – slowly.Franco Origlia/Getty Images

It has been less than two months since the world scrambled to go into the “Great Lockdown” to slow the spread of COVID-19. Now, many...

Mass arrests and overcrowded prisons in El Salvador spark fear of coronavirus crisis

Written by Miranda Cady Hallett, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Human Rights Center Research Fellow, University of Dayton

Even before COVID-19, El Salvador's prisons were contagious disease hotspots. Here, MS-13 gang members with tuberculosis at Chalatenango prison, March 29, 2019.Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images

Governments around the world, from Brazil to the United States, are releasing some prisoners in an effort to reduce COVID-19 outbreaks in overcrowded...

Black Americans are bearing the brunt of coronavirus recession – this should come as no surprise

Written by William M. Rodgers III, Professor of Public Policy and Chief Economist, Rutgers University

When the shuttered economy reopens, how many black Americans will be left out in the cold?http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Unemployment-Funds/390acd85a7b94a2a8cfddfdd414dacfa/1/0Mark Lennihan

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in April, many Americans were shocked by the extent that black Americans were being disproportionately...

Skipping standardized tests in 2020 may offer a chance to find better alternatives

Written by James D. Kirylo, Professor of Education, University of South Carolina

Not in 2020.Compassionate Eye Foundation/Robert Daly/OJO Images/Getty Images

The Education Department is letting states cancel standardized tests. The move is a practical one: School buildings across the nation are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, even though distance learning efforts are widespread.

As a result, 2020 is the first year...

Virtual reality campus visits let students connect with colleges during COVID-19

Written by Carol Cutler White, Assistant Professor of Community College Leadership, Mississippi State University

Goggles let students visit college campuses without having to travel.Person County Schools, CC BY-ND

When I first envisioned a phone app to replace the physical college campus tour, it was a way to enable rural students and those who aren’t wealthy to visit campuses without having to travel to get there. As state director of a federally...