Editorial Staff

COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: How long does COVID-19 survive?; Remdesivir to the rescue; HubWonk: Attorneys & clients at risk? & more!

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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:

William Smith, Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences: NEJM published a study on how the virus survives on different surfaces. It lasts longest on plastics and stainless steel. It also can survive in the air for hours.

Also from Bill:

  • Data about Gilead’s trial of Remdesivir (leaked to STAT news, not from Gilead’s summary of the clinical trial data) indicated that 111 of 113 severely ill patients rapidly recovered.
  • Here is an update on FDA efforts surrounding serological testing, a potentially important tool that may allow many people to return to work as they may have immunity to the virus.
  • India is taking steps to stem panic buying of these two drugs.

Mary Z. Connaughton, Director of Government Transparency: Mike Festa, State Director of AARP Massachusetts, wants COVID-19 transparency for long-term care facilities in a way that protects the confidentiality of the state’s 57,500 residents. With 44% of COVID deaths occurring in skilled-nursing, assisted-living and rest homes facilities, his proposal makes good sense.  Hats off to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for this informative dashboard that also includes COVID-19 information by long-term care facilities as of yesterday!

  • Read more about COVID-19 in Massachusetts nursing homes here.

Our Picks for Public & Private Sector Best Practices:
Joe Selvaggi, Host, Hubwonk: This week on Pioneer’s new podcast, HubWonk, I’m joined by Pioneer’s Director of Government Transparency, Mary Z. Connaughton, and Kosta Ligris, attorney and entrpreneur, for a discussion about ways to protect Massachusetts attorneys and clients from risk of COVID exposure.

Jamie Gass, Director of PioneerEducation: Christensen Institute co-founder Michael Horn joined co-hosts Dr. Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson for Friday’s episode of “The Learning Curve” podcast to talk about the technological advancements that are allowing some school districts to implement remote learning in response to COVID-19.  Since Governor Baker just announced that schools will remain closed for the academic year, this is a must-listen! Also from Jamie: David Randall of the National Association of Scholars wrote a thoughtful article about actions higher education institutions can take to weather this crisis.

Barbara Anthony, Senior Fellow in Healthcare: Kudos to the Baker Administration for increasing transparency now and publishing COVID-19 cases by city and town on a weekly basis, a change for which Pioneer advocated. Previously only county wide data was released. View Pioneer’s mapping of cases here.

Questions for Our Public & Private Sector Leaders:

How will our state and local leaders plan for re-opening businesses post-COVID? Rebekah Paxton, Research Analyst & Greg Sullivan, Research Director wrote a report released yesterday showing the impact of COVID-19 unemployment on Massachusetts cities and towns by industry. Read coverage in CommonWealth magazine and Patch.

What will happen to sports stadiums and convention centers? Greg Sullivan shared his thoughts in this Boston Business Journal story.

Shawni Littlehale, Director of the Better Government Competition: How will COVID-19 impact rental housing?

Do YOU have interesting questions and/or articles to share with us? Please email us, or message us through our social media channels below!

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COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: How long does COVID-19 survive?; Remdesivir to the rescue; HubWonk: Attorneys & clients at risk? & more!

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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.

Coronavirus & Contracts – Protecting Massachusetts Attorneys & Clients from Risk

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In this episode of "Hubwonk," host Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer’s Chief Financial Officer & Director of Government Transparency, Mary Connaughton, speak with attorney and entrepreneur Kosta Ligris about how Massachusetts’ requirement for live attestation for many vital contracts is putting attorneys and clients at risk of exposure to coronavirus.

Buoy Health – Intelligent Front Door to Optimized Healthcare

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In this first episode of Pioneer's new podcast, Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi and Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Josh Archambault talk with Dr. Andrew Le, cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of Buoy Health.

Elderly people were already vulnerable to COVID-19. Then it came to nursing homes.

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Last week, reports of mismanagement and negligence regarding…

Hospitality, Retail Trade, Healthcare Among ‘Most Vulnerable Industries’ in Terms of Unemployment due to COVID-19

Recent data provided by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development show that hospitality, retail trade, healthcare and social assistance, and construction are the industries that have suffered the most unemployment as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the new Pioneer Institute report, “A Look at the Massachusetts Industries that are Most Vulnerable Due to COVID-19.”

Mapping COVID-19 in Massachusetts Cities & Towns

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Kudos to he Massachusetts Department of Public Health for posting the count and rate (per 100,000) of confirmed COVID-19 Cases in Massachusetts by City/Town.

Transparency Needed at Long-term Care Facilities

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The anxiety of having a parent in a nursing home under the constant…

Christensen Institute Co-founder Michael Horn on Digital Learning & COVID-19

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This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Michael Horn, co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.

COVID-19’s Impact on Rental Housing

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The Massachusetts Legislature is currently debating a rental housing bill. What impact will it have on the many landlords for whom rental income is their only source of income?

COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: Will plans to re-open hurt civil liberties?; COVID-19 model skeptic; SCOTUS returns!; New podcast, HubWonk; 5 Tips for online learning & more!

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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.

Which industry’s workforce has been hurt the most from the COVID-19 outbreak?

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Unemployment claims have reached all-time highs in the U.S. recently…

New Study Calls for Re-thinking Massachusetts’ COVID-19 Care Standards

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Pioneer Institute Launches Its New Policy Podcast, “HubWonk”

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Will the COVID-19-related economic recession cause a spike in crime?

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Intuitively, it makes sense that people replace legitimate business…

New Report Offers Case Study for Transition to Online Learning

Virtual Schooling Pioneer Julie Young provides tips on how states should move forward with the transition to online education during COVID-19.

The Institute for Justice’s Tim Keller on Espinoza v. Montana DOR & ongoing school choice litigation

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This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Tim Keller, Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice, which is representing the plaintiffs in the high-profile Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court,.

State Ranking: Michigan, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Nevada have been hardest-hit by COVID-19 jobless claims so far. Massachusetts ranks as 9th hardest-hit.

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The U.S. Department of Labor reported today that in the week ended April 4, the advance number of seasonally-adjusted initial jobless claims was 6,606,000. This follows 6,867,000 initial claims filed in the week ended March 28 and 3,307,000 in the week ended March 21.