Maxwell School News and Commentary

"The health care system is a utility," says Tom Dennison, professor of practice emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "We can’t starve it between crises and expect it to be viable when the time comes when we need the services."

"At the front end, not testing these groups [poor and racial-ethnic minority populations] at the same level is increasing the risk of fatality rates," says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

"I believe individuals are being prudent concerning risks they take and risks that others are subjected to because of their decision making," says Dean David Van Slyke. "Because many faith communities are now streaming online, individuals are acting appropriately to guard their health and the health of others."

"Suppliers may not have been able to supply as much as was demanded because they needed to provide it to the local economy, and the Chinese factories were simply not operating," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely. "Workers were not at work. They were at home. They were quarantined."

A tariff rollback to encourage cooperation with China "would make sense, but I don't think it will work if the framework is, we're suspending them till January, while we try to get [the two economies stabilised], and then we're going to put them back in again," says University Professor James Steinberg.

"At its core, this is about an aircraft carrier skipper who sees an imminent threat and is forced to make a decision that risks his career in the act of what he believes to be the safety of the near 5,000 members of his crew," says University Professor Sean O’Keefe.

“We always imagine that our programs have global reach. So many of our students come here from around the world. But this amazing response to the coronavirus emergency confirms Maxwell’s belief in global community,” said Xueyi Chen, who directs Executive Education’s China Program, after 100 Chinese alumni of the program shipped medical masks to Central New York.

"Partisanship is determining how citizens respond to COVID-19, and this divided response puts every American at risk," Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science, and her co-authors write. "If America’s political elite cannot come together, the costs of COVID-19 will be disproportionately felt in those places where Republicans did not act." 

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says that while the primary focus needs to be on the human cost of the crisis, "it is in fact a very good natural experiment to answer the question of how deep our polarization goes — and the answer is, very damn deep."