Media Coverage

The number of firearms confiscated at airports by the Transportation Security Administration tripled in July compared to a year ago even though air travel is a quarter of what it was last year at this time, the TSA reported Monday. TSA said its officers had detected 15.3 guns per million passengers last month compared with 5.1 guns last July – and that’s with air travel dropping 75% year on year.

We are now just a few weeks away from when college football is scheduled to begin. After an initial surge of infections to returning athletes in June, the number of new infections has been eerily low, with some schools even reporting none. Is this good news, a lack of testing, or a lack of transparency? 

Jacobson is a Founder Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He applies his expertise in risk assessment to evaluate and inform public policy. He served on the Virginia Tech faculty from 1993-1999. What do Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University, VCU, and James Madison University all have in common? According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, they are listed to have “primarily in person” education for the fall semester.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has expressed hints of optimism that one or more COVID-19 vaccines may be available in early 2021. No matter the types of vaccines introduced, or whether one or two doses are required to achieve an acceptable level of protection, the transition to fully immunizing the population, making it available to anyone who wishes to be vaccinated, will be fraught with both practical and ethical considerations.

Covid-19 has exposed vulnerabilities in health care systems across the United States and world. To reduce infectious risk to patients and providers, and conserve critical resources — such as personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and intensive care (ICU) beds — most states in the U.S. enacted a temporary ban on elective surgery from March through May 2020.