Editorial Staff

COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: Antibodies & serology tests to the rescue; Why such wide-ranging forecasts?; the Droplets v. Aerosol debate; Crowdsourcing symptoms & more!

/0 Comments/in , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Pioneer staff share their top picks for COVID-19 stories highlighting useful resources, best practices, and questions we should be asking our public and private sector leaders. We hope you are staying safe, and we welcome your thoughts; you can always reach out to us via email:  pioneer@pioneerinstitute.org.

Our Top Picks for COVID-19 Pandemic News:

Jim Stergios, Executive Director: It is amazing to see the kinds of solutions our universities are developing in real time. This out of the University of Pittsburgh. Delivered via a patch, easy to distribute across the world because it can be sent at ambient temperatures.

William Smith, Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences: While treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 are months away, serology tests may be here sooner and may be essential to getting people back to work. The New York Times is reporting that the FDA has approved the first serology test.

Also from Bill: A good summary of industry efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and the inherent challenges in that process. And, these tests could determine who has antibodies against the disease and, theoretically, who may be immune to further exposure to the virus. People with these antibodies may be able to return to work without fear.

Mary Z. Connaughton, Director of Government Transparency: We all know that respiratory droplets propelled after someone with COVID-19 coughs or sneezes can infect us. But what about bioaerosols, even from normal conversation or breathing? This NPR piece sorts through the debate.

Michael Walker, Senior Fellow in Government Database Transparency: Jay Boice, on the website fivethirtyeight, looks at the top expert forecasts for deaths and discusses why the range is so wide—somewhere between 71,000 and 1.7 million. From those individual responses, the survey organizers — Thomas McAndrew and Nicholas Reich of the University of Massachusetts Amherst — build a probabilistic consensus forecast, which is a tool that combines all of the responses to project the most likely future scenario as well as the range of possible outcomes.

Our Picks for Public & Private Sector Best Practices:

Jamie Gass, Education Policy Director: Did you ever think history could prepare you for the COVID-19 pandemic? Find out how The Concord Review, Will Fitzhugh’s long-running journal of high school students’ history essays, is doing just that. And in case you missed it, Pulitzer-winning historian David Kennedy joined “The Learning Curve” podcast on Friday to share his thoughts on COVID-19 vs. the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918.

Michael Walker: A data analytics company, Chrysalis Partners, created an online symptom collector for COVID-19. This is a prototype tool that cities or businesses could use to quickly gather data on symptoms experienced by their public. Great example of the thousands of companies independently mobilizing their resources to help deal with the pandemic. And here’s an excellent video from Khan Academy showing how to estimate the actual number of cases in your area based on reported deaths. This method is based work by Thomas Pueyo, by looking, in retrospect, at data from China.

Questions for Our Public & Private Sector Leaders:

Poll results: We asked readers, “Should Massachusetts reveal know how many COVID-19 cases there are in each city or town?”
Here are the results:
Yes: 94%; No: 2%; Not sure: 4%
Read Senior Fellow in Healthcare Barbara Anthony’s take on this.Do YOU have interesting questions and/or articles to share with us? Please email us, or message us through our social media channels below!

Get Our COVID-19 News, Tips & Resources!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Recent Posts:

New Study Shows Significant Wealth Migration from Massachusetts to Florida, New Hampshire

Over the last 25 years, Massachusetts has consistently lost taxable income, especially to Florida and New Hampshire, via out-migration of the wealthy, according to a new Pioneer Institute study. In “Do The Wealthy Migrate Away From High-Tax States? A Comparison of Adjusted Gross Income Changes in Massachusetts and Florida,” Pioneer Institute Research Director Greg Sullivan and Research Assistant Andrew Mikula draw on IRS data showing aggregate migration flows by amount of adjusted gross income (AGI). The data show a persistent trend of wealth leaving high-tax states for low-tax ones, especially in the Sun Belt.

Never Forgetting – Holocaust Remembrance Day – 25 Resources for K-12 Students

In Pioneer’s ongoing series of blogs here, on curricular resources for parents, families, and teachers during COVID-19, this one focuses on: Memorializing International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th and learning about the tragedy of the Holocaust during WWII.

AZ Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick on National School Choice Week

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara and Gerard kick off National School Choice Week with Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, co-author with Kate Hardiman of a new book, Unshackled: Freeing America’s K–12 Education System. Justice Bolick shares his experiences serving on a state supreme court, and how it has shaped his understanding of America’s legal system.

Intrepid Restauranteurs Endure: Passion for Community, Patrons, and Staff Mean Failure is Not on the Menu

0 Comments
/
Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Massachusetts Restaurant Association President and CEO Bob Luz about the devastating effects of the pandemic and lockdowns on restaurants.  They discuss the industry's creative strategy for survival, plans for reaching beyond the crisis, and the many positive improvements for this vital sector that employs 10% of the workforce in the commonwealth.

Study: Massachusetts Should Embrace Direct Healthcare Options

Especially in the COVID era, many are looking to alleviate the increased burden on the healthcare system.  One solution is direct healthcare (DHC), which can provide more patient-centered care at affordable prices and is an effective model to increase access to care for the uninsured, underinsured and those on public programs like Medicaid, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

Pulitzer Winner Taylor Branch on MLK, Civil Rights History, & Race in America

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara and Gerard are joined by Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a landmark trilogy on the Civil Rights era, America in the King Years. They discuss the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, whose birthday the nation observed on Monday. They review Dr. King’s powerful, moving oratory, drawing on spiritual and civic ideals to promote nonviolent protest against racial injustice, and how, as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he shared leadership of the movement with organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

California Tax Experiment: Policy Makers Receive Valuable Economics Lesson

0 Comments
/
Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Stanford University Economics Professor Joshua Rauh about his research on the reaction of Californians to a tax increase, from his report, “The Behavioral Response to State Income Taxation of High Earners, Evidence from California.” Prof. Rauh shares how his research offers tax policy makers insight into the likely effects of similar increases in their own states, including here in Massachusetts.

New Study Finds Tax Policy Drives Connecticut’s Ongoing Fiscal & Economic Crisis

Multiple rounds of tax increases aimed at high earners and corporations triggered an exodus from Connecticut of large employers and wealthy individuals, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.

Eva Moskowitz of Success Academy on Charter Schools, Achievement Gaps, & COVID-19 Learning Loss

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara and Gerard kick off the new year with Eva Moskowitz, CEO & Founder of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of 47 schools enrolling 20,000 K-12 students in New York City. Eva shares her own education path, and how it influences her leadership and philosophy.

Unemployment Insurance Rescue: Employer Advocate Seeks Relief to Catalyze Pandemic Recovery

0 Comments
/
Joe Selvaggi talks with John Regan, President and CEO of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, about the impact of higher UI rates on employers and what legislators can do to help mitigate the pain.

USED Asst. Sec. Jim Blew Talks Sec. DeVos, School Choice, & K-12 Politics

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Jim Blew, the assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development at the U.S. Department of Education. Assistant Secretary Blew shares lessons from leading and implementing K-12 public education reform efforts in often contentious policy environments, and the unique challenges of the current partisanship and gridlock in Washington, D.C.

Oxford & UCLA Pulitzer Winner Prof. Daniel Walker Howe on Horace Mann, Common Schools, & Educating for Democracy

0 Comments
/
This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard are joined by Daniel Walker Howe, Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus at Oxford University in England and Professor of History Emeritus at UCLA. Drawing from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, he provides background information on Horace Mann, the first secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, founder of the common school movement in public education, and a prominent abolitionist in Congress.