Author: TheConversation

By Qian Cai, Research Director of Demographics Research Group, University of Virginia For the Census Bureau, the timing of national shutdowns due to the pandemic could not have been much worse. Stay-at-home orders in March coincided with the period when millions of Americans received their census questionnaires in the mail. But large numbers of Americans moved from where they normally live to somewhere else – in with relatives with spare rooms, back home from college or even released from prisons. These highly unusual circumstances are likely to result in failures to count, double-counting or counting in the wrong place...

By Joanna Wares, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Richmond; and Sara Krehbiel, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Santa Clara University Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, use of the term “herd immunity” has spread almost as fast as the virus. But its use is fraught with misconceptions. In the U.K., officials briefly considered a herd immunity strategy to protect the most vulnerable members of its population by encouraging others to become exposed and develop immunity to the virus. Others reignited the discussion by focusing on how far we are from herd immunity. But trying to...

By Esther Jones, Associate Professor of English, affiliate with Africana Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies, Clark University Young people who are “hooked” on watching fantasy or reading science fiction may be on to something. Contrary to a common misperception that reading this genre is an unworthy practice, reading science fiction and fantasy may help young people cope, especially with the stress and anxiety of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. I am a professor with research interests in the social, ethical and political messages in science fiction. In my book Medicine and Ethics in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction, I...

By Shauna Shames, Associate Professor, Rutgers University; and Amy Atchison, Associate Professor of Political Science & International Relations, Valparaiso University Dystopian fiction is hot. Sales of George Orwell’s “1984” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” have skyrocketed since 2016. Young adult dystopias – for example, Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games,” Veronica Roth’s “Divergent,” Lois Lowry’s classic, “The Giver,” were best-sellers even before. And with COVID-19, dystopias featuring diseases have taken on new life. Netflix reported a spike in popularity for “Outbreak,” “12 Monkeys,” and others. Does this popularity signal that people think they live in a dystopia now? Haunting...