COVID Resources

Stay connected with Pioneer Institute during the fight to contain COVID-19. Read our research on remote learning, life sciences, healthcare, economic impact, transportation, and other important policy areas. Also check out our regular roundups of news, tips, resources, and other content related to the pandemic; our podcasts, surveys, and more!

INTERACTIVE TOOLS

Compare rates of fully vaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals, by all the demographic categories published DPH, by municipality, and by county. Data updated weekly.

View the count & rate (per 100,000) of confirmed COVID-19 Cases in Massachusetts by City/Town, updated each Thursday.

Take an interactive look at how COVID-related economic shutdowns are affecting jobs and lives across Massachusetts – updated weekly.

View data about any Massachusetts nursing home, rehabilitation center or other long-term care facility with 2+ known COVID-19 cases and facility-reported deaths.

Track data on Paycheck Protection Plan loans by recipient, lender, location, industry, and loan range

View a table or map view of districts’ in-person, remote, or hybrid reopening plans across Massachusetts.

SURVEYS

Survey suggests increased demand for telecommuting after COVID-19 crisis

Citizens can submit complaints and descriptions of civil liberties violations they have experienced

Log potential instances of abuse of relaxed standards for open meeting laws and eliminated requirements for in-person town meetings

Tell Mass. Dept. of Public Health about your experiences with COVID, testing,
healthcare, mental healthcare, economic issues, and more.

A series on curricular resources for parents, kids and teachers.

COVID-19 News Roundups

Stay updated with our COVID resources!

COVID-19 IMPACT AREAS

COVID-19 Podcast Episodes

ASU’s Julie Young, Virtual Schooling Pioneer, on Digital Learning during COVID-19

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-host Cara Candal talks with Julie Young, ASU Vice President of Education Outreach and Student Services, and Managing Director of ASU Prep Academy and ASU Prep Digital. They discuss the implications of COVID-19’s disruption of American K-12 education and the future of digital learning.

UChicago’s Dr. Leon Kass on Genesis, Exodus, & Reading Great Books

This week on “The Learning Curve," guest co-host Jason Bedrick and co-host Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Leon Kass, MD, the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago. Dr. Kass describes the important pieces of wisdom and humanity people today can still learn from reading the Book of Genesis, the topic of his 2003 work, The Beginning of Wisdom.

NYT Best Seller Dr. Kate Clifford Larson on Fannie Lou Hamer & the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Kate Clifford Larson, a New York Times best-selling biographer of Harriet Tubman and Fannie Lou Hamer. Kate shares why she has written about these historical African-American figures, and how she thinks parents, teachers, and schools can draw on their lives to talk about race.

Valhalla Foundation’s Nancy Poon Lue on STEM Access & Equity

This week on “The Learning Curve," host Gerard Robinson talks with Nancy Poon Lue, incoming Senior Director at the Valhalla Foundation, where she will be leading their K-12 math funding initiatives. Nancy shares her recent work with the EF+Math Program, some of the challenges America has faced in ensuring students have a strong grounding in math and science, and the kinds of results she aims to achieve for kids in all ZIP codes. 

Untangling Variants & Outbreaks: Can Vaccines & Natural Immunity Outrun Delta?

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with author, surgeon, and public health expert Dr. Marty Makary about the COVID-19 Delta Variant, the durability of natural and vaccinated immunity, the benefits of booster shots, and the health risks for children as we move into the fall.

Yale’s Pulitzer-Winning Prof. David Blight on Frederick Douglass, Slavery, & Emancipation

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara Candal and guest co-host Derrell Bradford talk with David Blight, Sterling Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

Pandemic Pension Payout: Essential COVID-19 Public Workers Rewarded Whether Essential or Working

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Director of Research and former Massachusetts Inspector General and State Representative Greg Sullivan about HB 2808, COVID-19 Essential Employee Retirement Credit Bonus, discussing the merits of the recently proposed joint bill, its cost, and our current public debt burden in the Commonwealth.

Ely Kaplansky Goes from Immigrant to Inc. 5000 Insurance Entrepreneur

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Ely Kaplansky, President & CEO of Kaplansky Insurance. Since 1974, Ely has created hundreds of jobs in Massachusetts and beyond, with 85 employees in 15 offices across the state today, and he has grown his business during the pandemic, such that Kaplansky Insurance was named to Inc. magazine’s "5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America" list. His success fulfilled the dreams of his parents when they moved from Israel to America in 1955, with just the clothes on their backs and an aunt to take them in. Their journey began in the concentration camps of Germany, and Ely’s story is all about the opportunity and freedom America offers.