America’s response to the coronavirus is the most American thing ever

The US response to coronavirus has been consistently inconsistent. It’s also uniquely American. There are no national guidelines and no organized efforts to reopen the country beyond what measures states have taken. Public health officials say one thing while governors say another and President Donald Trump says something else entirely. […] Read more »

A Study Said Covid Wasn’t That Deadly. The Right Seized It.

… Preprints are meant to help scientists find and discuss new findings in real time, which is especially important during a pandemic. They generally carry a warning label: “This research has yet to be peer reviewed.” To a scientist, this means it’s provisional knowledge — maybe true, maybe not. But […] Read more »

Californians’ Views Towards President Trump Shape COVID-19 Attitudes

The latest Berkeley IGS Poll finds that Californians’ views towards President Trump are a powerful predictor of their attitudes towards COVID-19. Californians who either strongly approve or disapprove of the way that President Trump is handling his job have dramatically different opinions on the risks posed by COVID-19 to themselves […] Read more »

Destroying trust in the media, science, and government has left America vulnerable to disaster

For America to minimize the damage from the current pandemic, the media must inform, science must innovate, and our government must administer like never before. Yet decades of politically-motivated attacks discrediting all three institutions, taken to a new level by President Trump, leave the American public in a vulnerable position. […] Read more »

U.S. public is ‘firmly opposed’ to reopening the economy immediately

A majority of people in the U.S. want to continue physical distancing measures, even as the federal government and some state governors are pushing to reopen the economy, according to a new national survey led by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, and Rutgers. The survey, published Thursday, also reveals that more […] Read more »

Science Becomes A Dividing Issue In Year Of Election And Pandemic

It now seems apparent that COVID-19 will dominate American life for months to come, quite possibly through the national election in November. That means the disease, and efforts to respond to it, will likewise dominate the 2020 campaign and make it largely about something it has never been about before. […] Read more »