Category / COVID-19

by abritt

Price Addresses State Legislatures’ Efforts to Curb Gubernatorial Emergency Powers

Dr. Polly J. Price, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Professor of Global Health, and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in an article on Stateline, a daily publication of the Pew Charitable Trust that analyzes trends in state policy. The article, “Lawmakers Move to Strip Governors’ Emergency Powers,” addresses efforts in Kentucky and other states to limit emergency powers granted to the state executive branch that governors argue are necessary to combat crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Price is a public health law scholar as well as a legal historian and citizenship and immigration law expert. Read an excerpt from the article below along with the full piece.

“Polly Price, a law professor and global health professor at Emory University, said statutes could spell out when the governor should seek approval from the legislature or when public health officials can take over the pandemic response effort.

“But partisan tensions and backlash over COVID-19 public health orders may stop such ideas from gaining traction, at least right now, Price said. ‘Legislating in the midst of an emergency can be a very bad idea … you’re not looking long-term,’ she said.“

by abritt

Price Discusses Covid Vaccine’s Implications for Children and K-12 Education

Dr. Polly J. Price, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Professor of Global Health, and associated faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article “As COVID vaccines roll out, where do kids fit in?” The piece discusses the implications of the coronavirus vaccine for children and adolescents, including the prospect of requiring vaccinations to return to school. Read an excerpt below along with the full article.

“It is unlikely anyone will be forcing their compliance anytime soon. Mandating immunization for students appears to be a political non-starter.

“Policy experts say it is too early to contemplate that anyway, given unanswered questions about the safety and efficacy — and availability — of child vaccines. Current mandates, for measles, for instance, cover vaccines that have a long history of both safety and long-term protection for the vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccination, meanwhile, is authorized only for emergency use, noted Polly J. Price, a professor of public health law at Emory University.

“‘I can’t see schools, even high schools, moving right away to any kind of mandate,’ Price said.”

by abritt

Lesser Research Collective Publishes Article in ‘Health Education & Behavior’

Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor and Director of the Halle Institute for Global Learning, has published an article in the journal Health Education & Behavior with other members of the Lesser Research Collective, including Emory’s Emily S. Pingel, MPH (Sociology) and Alexandra Llovet. Read the abstract below along with the full article: “Committing to Continuity: Primary Care Practices During COVID-19 in an Urban Brazilian Neighborhood.”

“Decreased engagement in preventive services, including vaccination, during the COVID-19 pandemic represents a grave threat to global health. We use the case of the Bom Retiro Public Health Clinic in São Paulo, Brazil, to underscore how continuity of care is not only feasible, but a crucial part of health as a human right. The long-standing relationship between the clinic and neighborhood residents has facilitated ongoing management of physical and mental health conditions. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the clinic’s history of confronting infectious diseases has equipped it to adapt preventive services to meet patients’ needs during the pandemic. Our academic–community partnership used a multidisciplinary approach, relying on analysis of historical data, ethnographic data, and direct clinical experience. We identify specific prevention strategies alongside areas for improvement. We conclude that the clinic serves as a model for continuity of care in urban settings during a pandemic.“

by abritt

Dr. Walter C. Rucker, “The Long Hauler,” Featured in Emory News Centers’ Stories of Resolve and Resilience

Dr. Walter C. Rucker, Professor of History, was recently featured in the Emory News Center’s series on stories of resilience and resolve in the face of COVID-19. Rucker describes his experience contracting COVID-19 last year and the lingering effects of the illness. He also discusses how he and his students, some of whose families have also been hit by the illness, have continued to forge a learning community. Watch the interview below and read similar stories from around Emory’s campus: “Our Stories of Resolve and Resilience.”

by abritt

Price Quoted in ‘The Atlantic’ Article on Quarantine Practices and Pressures

Dr. Polly J. Price, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Professor of Global Health, and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in an article in The Atlantic titled “The Real Reason Americans Aren’t Quarantining.” The piece examines how many residents of the U.S. are not able to quarantine in the midst of COVID-19 because of economic and labor pressures. Read an excerpt from the piece below along with the full article.

Conflicts over remote work and leave are the most common type of COVID-19 employment litigation in the U.S., according to a database compiled by the law firm Fisher Phillips. “We don’t really pay people to stay at home to quarantine,” Polly Price, a global-health professor at Emory University, says. But that’s exactly the problem: In a study in Israel, people were more likely to quarantine after exposure to COVID-19 if they were paid during their isolation.

by abritt

Junior History Major Annie Li Selected as a 2020-2021 Imagining America Joy of Giving Something Fellow

Junior history and sociology double major Annie Li is among eight undergraduates nationwide selected as a 2020-2021 Imagining America Joy of Giving Something Fellow. The fellowship, which includes a tuition scholarship, mentorship and financial support for a community arts project, recognizes Li’s work on Emory’s “Stories from the Pandemic” project. For her community arts project, Li plans to make a film about the experiences of Chinese Americans in Atlanta during the emergence and spread of COVID-19. This idea was inspired by a spring 2020 course on Asian-American history that Li took with Dr. Chris Suh, Assistant Professor of History. Learn more about the fellowship via the Emory News Center’s article, “Emory student receives fellowship grant for humanities work.”

by abritt

Polly J. Price Comments on CT Governor’s COVID-19 Mask Order Mandating Fines

Dr. Polly J. Price, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Professor of Global Health, and Associated Faculty in the History Department, was recently quoted in the NBC News article, “Connecticut puts some teeth in mask mandate, will start issuing $100 fines.” The article discusses an executive order by the Connecticut governor to fine residents who aren’t wearing a mask. Read an excerpt with Price’s comments below along with the full piece.

Polly Price, a professor of law and public health at Emory University in Atlanta, said fines could be effective for some people “on the same theory that speeding tickets discourage speeding and traffic fines encourage seat belt usage and other traffic safety issues.”

“So, it may be that just the possibility of a fine may nudge more people to comply than would otherwise,” she said.

But Price said she was dubious about whether handing out fines was “a good use of police time.” She said what might be more effective is adapting the “no shoes, no shirt, no service” concept currently in place for many stores and other indoor venues to include masks.

by abritt

Miller and Payne Featured in Article on Innovative Approaches to Remote Instruction

The Emory News Center recently featured two History Department faculty members in an article on how instructors across campus have adapted in-person classes to virtual environments owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Titled “Professors become students to prepare dynamic remote instruction,” the article features Dr. Judith A. Miller and Dr. Matthew J. Payne. Read about their innovative approaches to remote teaching and learning here.

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Anderson Pens Op-Ed for ‘The Boston Globe’

Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department, recently published an opinion piece in The Boston Globe. Titled “The Supreme Court’s starring role in democracy’s demise,” the article critiques the Supreme Court’s lack of action to protect Black Americans’ voting rights in the midst of increasing disenfranchisement due to voter suppression tactics and the COVID-19 pandemic. Read an excerpt below along with the full article here.

“In a series of recent decisions imperiling voters’ access to the ballot box, the Supreme Court acted as if COVID-19 barely existed and the laws Republicans passed for absentee ballots were actually about election security and not outright disfranchisement. The first instance was the stunning decision in April that forced Wisconsin voters, in the middle of a pandemic, to make a Hobson’s choice between the right to vote or their own safety. In an unsigned decision by the five conservative justices, COVID-19 was barely mentioned, only that the tens of thousands of requested absentee ballots, which had not yet even arrived in the homes of voters by that night, still had to be postmarked by the next day to count. The result was that many in Wisconsin stood in line, risked their health to vote, and paid the horrible price by contracting the virus.“

– Carol Anderson, “The Supreme Court’s starring role in democracy’s demise,” The Boston Globe
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Suddler Among Panelists for “Emory Faculty Speak: On This Time (Summer 2020) and This Place (ATL)” Discussion

Assistant Professor of History Carl Suddler participated in a faculty panel as a part of new student orientation in mid August. Suddler was joined by three other Emory faculty panelists, Pearl Dowe, Gregory Ellison, and Tayari Jones, as well as moderator Andra Gillespie. The conversation centered on our current historic moment, the convergence of social and health inequities and the need for advocacy, the importance of Atlanta, and the ways students can productively process and engage with these issues. Read more about the event here.