All posts tagged: Coronavirus

Higher Education Risks No Longer Being Worth It – Here’s How to Change Course

Published by Christos A. Makridis

The coronavirus pandemic has led to a substantial decline in the demand for traditional four-year degrees, leading to a 16 percent and 43 percent decline in fall enrollment for freshman and international students, respectively. In fact, a recent survey found that over a third of prospective college students are reconsidering higher education with 40 percent of them citing finances as the primary factor. This has led to growing concerns among university administrators about the financial health of their institutions. While some have responded by temporarily lowering their tuition rates in the absence of in-person classes, many have not, leading to dissatisfaction among students and parents alike. The value proposition for a traditional college degree has been shifting for a while. In fact, the added wage benefit that an individual with a bachelor’s degree earns, relative to not having a bachelor’s, has flattened in recent years, reversing a trend that had held for decades. Coupled with the move away from traditional in-person learning, at least temporarily, the pandemic has further undercut the returns to a college …

Social Distancing and Stay-Home Orders Are Likely To Save Millions

Published by Michael Shellenberger

A new study by influential researchers at Imperial College, London finds that COVID-19 is more infectious and deadly than scientists had thought.  The new Imperial study finds that had nations done nothing, COVID-19 would have killed 40 million and infected seven billion.  An earlier, March 16th study by Imperial College, predicting millions of deaths, helped inspire UK, US, and other governments around the world to take much stronger actions including stay-at-home orders, last week. Some conservative pandemic skeptics misrepresented the new study as saying something closer to the opposite of what it actually said. “Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, who created the highly-cited Imperial College London coronavirus model,” wrote the Daily Wire, “offered a massive revision to his model on Wednesday.” What the reporter failed to note was that the revision to the model was based on the nationwide lockdown the UK government imposed, not because researchers had over-estimated the risk. “Our analysis, therefore, suggests that healthcare demand can only be kept within manageable levels,” the Imperial researchers conclude, “through the rapid adoption of public health measures… …

Winning the War on Coronavirus

Published by Michael Shellenberger

A report released by Imperial College London researchers on Monday shook the world. The report gave a glimpse into the coronavirus’s battle plan. It was to kill over two million Americans and at least a half-million Brits.  Thanks to the wartime mobilization by the people of both nations, we can feel confident that we have thwarted its plan. There is very little chance that, after the lockdowns and social distancing occurring around the world, coronavirus is still on track to infect and kill as many people. But we are only at the very beginning of what will be a long, difficult, and deadly war, and things are changing quickly. To balance saving lives with minimizing social disruption, Imperial College scientists foresee societies engaging in several, weeks-long waves of social distancing between now and the fall of 2021. By then, most experts expect we will have a vaccine. We could get one sooner, but few believe we will have proven a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness sooner than 12 months. The events of recent days and past epidemics, …

How Damaging Will the Coronavirus be to Xi Jinping’s Authority?

Published by Brian Eaton

President Xi has become, since his inauguration in 2012, China’s most powerful leader since Mao. His likely longevity in the post is strongly suggested by the presence of those around him in senior positions—all older and therefore unlikely to succeed him. He has been personally popular and has published his own thoughts on China and communism in a form also not seen since the time of Mao. Xi-ism is not quite a thing yet, but the signs are there. So why, then, is his authority under threat? Let’s start with Hong Kong. The stream of protests, which have run there over the last six months—and their enormous scale—has disturbed Beijing. The protests, whatever their immediate cause, are protests against the mainland government and hence the Communist Party headed by Xi. Diplomatic pressure from the U.S., in particular, has hurt. The ineptness of the Hong Kong SAR government, with knee-jerk and ill-thought-out responses that have frustrated both pro- and anti-establishment groups, has not helped. The mainland liaison office in Hong Kong—effectively an embassy—has a new head, who …