Degrees of separation: universities and covid-19
Many universities were on thin ice financially before the pandemic. Now, with foreign travel slumping and distancing measures the norm, a global reckoning is coming. In many Asian countries, Ramadan s...
5 Touko 202020min
Lives v livelihoods: Africa’s covid-19 tradeoffs
As Nigeria tentatively lifts its lockdown today, we examine the decisions African leaders face: pandemic policies may do more harm than the pandemic itself. There’s a curious dearth of smokers among c...
4 Touko 202020min
Nature, or nurtured? A politicised virus-origin hunt
Scientists may soon understand how the new coronavirus got its start; that could help head off future outbreaks. In the meantime, politicians are clouding the discussion. America and Europe are taking...
1 Touko 202022min
Submerging markets: developing economies and covid-19
The pandemic is hitting emerging markets particularly hard, and the crisis is likely to widen the gap between the strongest and the weakest among them. Physical distancing is making life even harder f...
30 Huhti 202020min
Those who can, teach! The case for reopening schools
The world’s students are falling behind and lockdown is only exacerbating prior disparities in their progress; we examine a compelling back-to-school argument. America’s Environmental Protection Agenc...
29 Huhti 202020min
First, pass the post: Ohio’s vote-by-mail experiment
The state’s all-postal primaries vote could be seen as a trial run for November’s presidential election. Might voting by mail be the least-bad option? The BBC’s canny response to covid-19 has quietene...
28 Huhti 202022min
End transmission: covid-19 in New Zealand
The country is aiming for complete elimination of the coronavirus; so far, so good. But renewed freedom within its borders requires that virtually no one cross them. Restrictions in Europe on movement...
27 Huhti 202020min
Unsteady states: America’s piecemeal reopening
Some governors are co-ordinating mutual lockdown plans, others are already reopening their states. That haphazardness bodes ill in the absence of widespread testing and tracing. The pandemic is kickin...
24 Huhti 202022min
