COVID-19 Pandemic: Is History Doomed to Repeat Itself?
Vicki Bier, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, discusses lessons learned from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.
Vicki Bier, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, discusses lessons learned from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic.
More than three weeks after 413,000 Wisconsin voters went to the polls, there has not been the spike in COVID-19 cases attributed to the election that many feared.
Mayor Bill de Blasio doesn’t want to just restart the city’s economy, sighs Seth Barron at City Journal — he wants to “transform” it. “For six boom years,” he spent “tens of billions” pursuing his “equity agenda” and hiring “tens of thousands of new municipal employees.” Yet his message as the city faces the coronavirus “sounds strikingly similar to his message pre-crisis.” In fact, de Blasio “has spoken of the ‘transformative’ nature of his administration so often that it prompts groans from anyone outside his closest orbit.” Meanwhile, “homeless people fill New York’s subways,” crime is on the rise and tenants have “no idea” how to pay their rent. With the city “spiraling into crisis,” the mayor “continues to sound the one note he knows how to play — about unfairness and inequality” — even though “his instrument is out of tune.”
New data shows Wisconsinites might be growing less compliant with social distancing measures meant to slow the spread of COVID-19. But public health researchers say "quarantine fatigue" isn't a reason to give up on the restrictions.
After more than a month of the national lockdown aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19, plans for how the United States can move back toward normalcy have begun to emerge. The centerpiece of discussion has been the extent to which the country is able to massively ramp up accurate testing for the virus — a point of contention between the White House and leaders in the most heavily affected states since the outbreak’s earliest days.
Jeff Cohen
Chief Strategy Officer
INFORMS
Catonsville, MD
[email protected]
443-757-3565
An audio journey of how data and analytics save lives, save money and solve problems.

With seemingly no limit to the demand for artificial intelligence, everyone in the energy, AI, and climate fields is justifiably worried. Will there be enough clean electricity to power AI and enough water to cool the data centers that support this technology? These are important questions with serious implications for communities, the economy, and the environment.
It’s college graduation season, which means over 4 million seniors will graduate in the next few weeks, flooding the job market with new candidates. One area that has shown high potential for the right candidates is artificial intelligence and machine learning. Both disciplines are part of the larger data and analytics career path.
Drugs being explicitly developed to treat rare diseases are getting more expensive.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as the new secretary of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s de facto healthcare czar. He will have influence over numerous highly visible agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, among others. Given that healthcare is something that touches everyone’s life, his footprint of influence will be expansive.
The recent US-China agreement to temporarily reduce tariffs is a major step for global trade, with tariffs on US goods entering China dropping from 125% to 10% and on Chinese goods entering the US decreasing from 145% to 30% starting May 14. While this has boosted markets and created optimism, key industries like autos and steel remain affected, leaving businesses waiting for clearer long-term trade policies.
With sweeping new tariffs on Chinese-made products set to take effect this summer, Americans are being urged to prepare for price hikes on everyday goods. President Donald Trump's reinstated trade policies are expected to affect a wide swath of consumer imports, including electronics, furniture, appliances, and baby gear. Retail experts are advising shoppers to act before the tariffs hit and prices rise.
Twenty years ago, few people would have been able to imagine the energy landscape of today. In 2005, US oil production, after a long decline, had fallen to its lowest levels in decades, and few experts thought that would change.
In the case of upgrading electrical and broadband infrastructure, new analysis from the University of Massachusetts Amherst reveals {that a} “dig once” strategy is almost 40% more economical than changing them individually.