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At-home COVID-19 tests could be game changer in fight against virus, researchers say

February 2, 2021

Sarah Farmer, research scientist in the Center for Advanced Communications Policy, was quoted in the story "At-home COVID-19 tests could be game changer in fight against virus, researchers say," published and broadcast Feb. 2, 2021 on WSB-TV.

Farmer, who has conducted research regarding the usability of at-home medical technologies, spoke to the potential impact of the approval and wider use of Covid-19 tests that could be performed in homes, rather than at testing sites.

Excerpt:

For months, Georgia Tech researchers have been studying usability and accuracy of most home tests seeking FDA approval.

That includes the one from the Australian company Ellume. The U.S. just announced a $231 million deal with Ellume to buy 8.5 million tests by the end of the year.

“It’s the convenience, it’s the turnaround time. Hopefully there will be more widespread testing. People will maybe be able to test themselves more frequently,” Farmer said.

Full article.

Published in: WSB-TV
Power of a post: democracy in a digital age

January 31, 2021

Kaye Husbands Fealing, Dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, was quoted in the article "Power of a post: democracy in a digital age," published Jan. 31, 2021 in Technique.

In the article, which recapped a discussion between Husbands Fealing and Peter Swire, professor of law and ethics in the Scheller College of Business, on January 20, when Joe Biden was inaugurated as president.

Excerpt:

The idea of this act was to cut new technology companies a break so they could grow. Now however, a new question has begun to arise — at what point should online platforms be liable?

Swire offered his opinion.

“I do think the companies should have better procedures to address disinformation and fraud and these problems,” Swire said. “… They should have transparency about the terms of service. They have to have algorithms to try to help human judgment.”

[Husbands] Fealing pointed out that algorithms still have issues.

“I think you’re hinting at the term of artificial intelligence methodologies that can be used here, which also have sometimes some biases built in one way or another,” Fealing said. “… I think the technologists need to get at this, but also the social scientists and as you said as well the legal sector as well, in terms of developing some practical solutions.”

Full article.

Published in: Technique
How Biden climate policy might impact Georgia

January 28, 2021

Marilyn Brown, Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the article "How Biden climate policy might impact Georgia," published Jan. 28, 2021 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Brown, who led the groundbreaking Drawdown Georgia project and has extensively researched the interaction of systems contributing to global emissions and climate change, spoke to the aggressive executive action that President Joe Biden's administration has taken so far on the issue.

Excerpt:

With the ambitious goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, President Joe Biden, in one week, signed a series of executive orders prioritizing climate change and giving the country an urgent push toward eliminating the emissions that have led to global warming.

Though many of those orders are far-reaching, addressing issues of national and international concern, many will also have significant impacts on Georgia.

“A lot of the executive orders are far from Georgia, but they signal a commitment to move away from fossil fuels and that in general has significant repercussions in Georgia,” said Marilyn Brown, professor in the school of public policy at Georgia Tech. “We will be seeing a move to more renewables in our power sector and an uptick of electric vehicles in our transportation sector.”

Full article.

Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Is the U.S. Holdup of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine Justified?

January 28, 2021

Scott Ganz, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, co-authored the article “Is the U.S. Holdup of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine Justified?” for The Dispatch on Jan. 25, 2021.

Ganz and co-author James Capretta explored the factors guiding the approval process of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and researchers at the University of Oxford, which could be approved for use in the United States soon but has faced more difficulties in the process than the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

Excerpt:

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has advantages that make it an attractive possibility. It can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures, and its price is low relative to its competitors. Public health experts have long targeted it as ideal for use in lower and moderate-income countries because of these features.

The problem is that its U.S. Phase III trial was delayed because of an adverse event investigation in the fall, and the data from the international trials used by the U.K. government are difficult to interpret due to unplanned modifications to dosing levels. The sponsoring organizations have explained that the clinical trial sites accidentally gave a half dose as a first shot to a portion of the trial participants, followed by a full dose at a longer-than-planned interval. All other trial participants in the vaccine arm received two full doses of the vaccine. Unexpectedly, the trial data showed the half-dose/full-dose combination was more efficacious (90 percent) than giving two full doses spaced a month apart (62 percent). The combined efficacy of the two dosing regimens was 70.4 percent – well below the documented efficacy of the mRNA vaccines.

Full article here.

Published in: The Dispatch
Georgia Tech honors Anthony Fauci with social courage award

January 25, 2021

The Georgia Institute of Technology's decision to award Dr. Anthony Fauci with the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage was detailed in "Georgia Tech honors Anthony Fauci with social courage award," published Jan. 25, 2021 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The prize, which has been given out each year since 2011, will be presented in a ceremony on March 15, 2021.

Excerpt:

Tech chose Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president, because he was “a steadfast voice of science, facts, and medical best practice during one of the most significant public health challenges in U.S. history.”

Full article.

Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia grads working in Biden administration

January 21, 2021

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Distinguished Professor of the Practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and Senior Fellow at the Strategic Energy Institute, was mentioned in the article "Georgia grads working in Biden administration," published Jan. 21, 2021 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Sherwood-Randall, who served as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy during the Obama administration, is set to serve as Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor under President Joe Biden.

Subscription required.

Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pharrell Williams, Georgia Tech & Amazon partner on education project

January 20, 2021

EarSketch, a project co-led by Brian Magerko, professor of digital media in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was mentioned in the article "Pharrell Williams, Georgia Tech & Amazon partner on education project," published Jan. 20, 2021 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Subscription required.

Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The True History Behind 'One Night in MIami'

January 15, 2021

Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X , written by Johnny Smith, the Julius C. "Bud" Shaw Professor of Sports History in the School of History and Sociology, was mentioned in the article, "The True History Behind ‘One Night in Miami," published Jan. 15, in Smithsonian Magazine.

Excerpt:

As Malcolm saw it, write Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith in Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, Clay’s victory had been preordained by Allah. With this win—and Clay’s subsequent elevation in status—the civil rights leader believed his protégé was ready to move on to what was, in his view, a more pressing calling: politics.

“Well, Brown,” Malcolm reportedly asked the football star that night, “don’t you think it’s time for this young man to stop spouting off and get serious?” Brown, for his part, also felt that Clay’s new heavyweight title “was not an end in itself [but] … a platform from which to advance far more urgent matters,” per Blood Brothers.

Read the full article

Published in: Smithsonian
Big Tech's uneasy balance of capitalism, censorship

January 14, 2021

School of Public Policy Professor Milton Mueller and Associate Professor Hans Klein were quoted in the article, "Big Tech's uneasy balance of capitalism, censorship," published Jan. 14 in Tech Target.

Excerpt:

Not everyone agrees that Section 230 should be modified to prevent the kind of speech that led to the events of Jan. 6.

"If I post something that's illegal, like libel or child pornography, the company is not responsible, I am," said Milton Mueller, program director for Cybersecurity Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Common communications carriers like telephone companies are not subject to speech patrol, and social media shouldn't be either, Mueller said.

Hans Klein, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said allowing the government to regulate speech online will narrow the content on social media to what the government finds acceptable. He added that he fears this will, in turn, stifle dissent.

Read the full article.

Published in: Tech Target
Biden to Restore Homeland Security and Cybersecurity Aides to Senior White House Posts

January 13, 2021

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Distinguished Professor of the Practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and Senior Fellow at the Strategic Energy Institute, was mentioned in the article "Biden to Restore Homeland Security and Cybersecurity Aides to Senior White House Posts," published Jan. 13 in the New York Times.

Excerpt:

The White House homeland security adviser will be Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, according to transition officials. She is a longtime aide to Mr. Biden who served under President Barack Obama as senior director for Europe and then deputy secretary of energy, where she oversaw the modernization of the nuclear arsenal.

Read the full article

Published in: The New York Times
Experts Hope Pent-Up Demand Will Revive Pandemic-Hit Industries

January 8, 2021

NPR interviewed Johnny Smith, Julius C. "Bud" Shaw Professor of Sports History in the School of History and Sociology, for a story Jan. 8 on Morning Edition.

Excerpt:

1918 should have been a great year for baseball. A young player named Babe Ruth started the year as a pitcher but began morphing into a home run-hitting powerhouse.

JOHNNY SMITH: And here, what we see is the transformation of Babe Ruth from a dominant pitcher to a slugger just beginning to happen.

ROSALSKY: That's Johnny Smith, a historian at Georgia Tech who recently co-wrote a book that tells this story. It's called War Fever: Boston, Baseball, And America In The Shadow Of The Great War.

Read the full transcript

Published in: NPR
Eviction moratoriums not enough to protect family and child wellbeing

January 4, 2021

Research by Lindsey Bullinger (SPP) and Kelley Fong (HSOC) was cited in "Eviction moratoriums not enough to protect family and child well-being,” published Jan. 4 in the Connecticut Mirror.

Excerpt:

The study sheds light on an alarming facet of economic uncertainty in Connecticut: the link between increasing eviction filings and reports of child maltreatment.

Using data collected by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF) and state court records of evictions, the researchers found that with every additional eviction filing for every 100 occupied homes, there is a 2 percent increase in reports of child maltreatment. These increases were higher in neighborhoods with more low-income households, people of color, and households with children.

Read the full article

Published in: Connecticut Mirror
Books 2020: How to Understand Global Populism

December 31, 2020

Kirk Bowman, Rise Up & Care Professor of Global Development and Identify in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has reviewed, Populism: A Very Short Introduction in “Books 2020: How to Understand Global Populism.” The article written for Global Atlanta was selected because it was one of Bowman’s most impactful books read in 2020.

Excerpt:

“Populism” tends to pop up in political conversations these days, yet the concept is little understood, and its meaning constantly morphs in the press, in social media and in conversation. How do we make sense of a classification that applies to both leftwing politicians such as Mexico’s AMLO and Venezuela’s Maduro, as well as rightwing leaders such as USA’s Trump, Hungary’s Orban and Brazil’s Bolsonaro? And what is (and should be) the relationship between populism and democracy?

Read the book review on Global Atlanta.

Published in: Global Atlanta
Nuclear Command and Control Session 3 of the Congressional Study Group

December 30, 2020

Senator Sam Nunn, distinguished professor of the practice and namesake of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was mentioned in The Brookings Institute report, “Nuclear Command and Control Session 3 of the Congressional Study Group.” The review provides written pieces to read for background information and one listed was Senator Nunn’s “The President and Nuclear Weapons: Authorities, Limits, and Process,” co-authored with former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

Read the article on The Brookings Institute site.

Published in: The Brookings Institute
Joe Biden Has an Opportunity to Bolster How We View Earth From Space

December 28, 2020

Mariel Borowitz, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was quoted in the article, "Joe Biden Has an Opportunity to Bolster How We View Earth From Space," published Dec. 28 in MIT Review.

Excerpt:

The Biden administration could take steps to permanently ensure free and open access to what NASA collects, and it could also look into engaging with the private companies directly. “There’s already a pilot program started where NASA purchases the data from commercial entities under a license that allows them to share that data with researchers or a wider audience,” says Borowitz. It may be a good model for Biden to lean on permanently to help a private industry grow while giving less-wealthy parties access to critical data.

Full article.

Published in: MIT Review
What Has COVID-19 Done to Child Welfare?

December 23, 2020

Lindsey Bullinger (SPP) was interviewed about her research on the impact of Coin "What Has COVID-19 Done to Child Welfare?" published Dec. 23, in MedPage Today.

Excerpt:

Lindsey Bullinger, Ph.D., a child abuse researcher at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, said fewer in-person interactions with CPS in the pandemic can be good for families, especially those at low-risk because CPS (Child Protective Services) has therapeutic responsibilities to help parents get back on track, as well as punitive ones.

"On that hand, this is good for those families -- they are no longer having to go through that process," Bullinger told MedPage Today. "On the other hand, we could be missing out on some very tragic cases."

Read the full article.

Published in: MedPage Today
The Black Sea: How America can avoid a great-power conflict

December 15, 2020

General Phil Breedlove, USAF (ret.), a distinguished professor of the practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has co-authored, “The Black Sea: How America can avoid a great-power conflict,” in the National Interest. The article written with Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow and director of Research of the Foreign Policy Program at The Brookings Institute, is about how the U.S. can effectively compete in the Black Sea against Chinese and Russian influence during this period of peace.

Find an excerpt:

None of this is to say that America needs to prepare for war against China, or Russia for that matter, in the Black Sea region. The Black Sea is far from the Chinese coasts; the main military concerns are with China in the western Pacific region. Moreover, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told a group of people at the Brookings Institution on Dec. 2, America is in a period of great-power competition but it is not in a period of conflict, and the goal should be to keep things that way while competing effectively against Russian and Chinese influence.

Read the article on National Interest.

Published in: National Interest
The Oxford Vaccine’s True Efficacy Remains Uncertain

December 8, 2020

Scott Ganz, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, co-authored the author "The Oxford Vaccine’s True Efficacy Remains Uncertain," published Dec. 7, 2020 in The Dispatch.

Ganz and co-authors Kieran Allsop and James C. Capretta provide deeper examination of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, which currently sits behind other vaccine candidates in its proximity to the market.

Excerpt:

The preliminary results from the Oxford-AstraZeneca Phase III trial provided cause for optimism, but left many questions unanswered. While reporting an overall vaccine efficacy rate of 70 percent—a rate that exceeds the minimum 50 percent threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and FDA for approving COVID-19 vaccines—the trial sponsors further announced that the efficacy of their vaccine was 90 percent for a limited subset of participants who received a half dose and then a full dose one month apart.

Just under 1 in 4 participants in the vaccine arm of the trial received the half-dose/full-dose regimen, which was the result of a manufacturing error and not a part of the original trial protocol. The rest, 3 out 4 trial volunteers in the vaccine arm, received two full doses one month apart.

Full article.

Published in: The Dispatch
What Statistics Tells Us About the Efficacy of the Pfizer, Moderna, & Oxford Vaccines

December 8, 2020

Scott Ganz, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, co-authored the article "What Statistics Tells Us About the Efficacy of the Pfizer, Moderna, & Oxford Vaccines," published Nov. 30, 2020 in RealClearPolicy.

In the article, Ganz and his co-author, James C. Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute, discuss the statistical science that led to Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna declaring the high efficacy rates of their Covid-19 vaccines.

Excerpt:

A reasonable question for those trying to understand the implications of the trial, however, is whether this impressive result could have occurred by chance, given that the sample size of 170 cases is relatively small. One way to gauge the robustness of the finding is to calculate the range of likely true efficacy rates — i.e., the efficacy rate of the vaccine when given to millions or billions of people — based on the results of the Phase 3 trial.

Here, there is more good news. Statistical modeling of vaccine efficacy in phase 3 trials reveals that, based on the Pfizer-BioNTech test, there is around a 99 in 100 chance that the true vaccine efficacy rate for this vaccine is above 90 percent. In short, in addition to having a high reported efficacy rate from the trial, the results should make us confident that the vaccine will be very effective when widely distributed.

Full article.

Published in: RealClearPolicy
Leaders Aspire to Make Atlanta a Global Hub for Peace Education

December 1, 2020

Anna Westerstahl Stenport, chair of the School of Modern Languages and Professor of Global Studies, was quoted in the article "Leaders Aspire to Make Atlanta a Global Hub for Peace Education," published Nov. 30, 2020 in Saporta Report.

The initiative described in the article is using Atlanta's existing infrastructure of universities and advocacy organizations to advance the city as a destination for peace studies, a field that examines the conditions that can create long-lasting conditions of peace in societies.

Excerpt:

So far, the Peace Education Initiative has captured the imagination of dozens of people throughout metro Atlanta’s institutions of higher learning. At a large, in-person meeting in February at Georgia Tech, representatives from the 10 universities unanimously endorsed the concept of an multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional peace education institute.

“We are right at the starting point,” said Anna Stenport, co-director of the Atlanta Global Studies Center, which is coordinating the education efforts for the Atlanta Peace Initiative. “We are laying the foundation and dreaming big.”

Full article.

Published in: Saporta Report