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Roosevelt House COVID-19 Forum

The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak continues to be felt throughout the world. To date, more than 180 countries are reporting cases within their borders, and the total number of cases has surpassed 2.7 million worldwide with a global death toll of more than 189,000. Medical professionals, at the frontline of the pandemic, are overwhelmed with COVID-19-infected patients in hospitals while lacking adequate supplies of PPE that are critical for their own safety. Beyond threatening the health and well-being of billions of people worldwide, the health crisis has brought the global economy to a standstill as countries have implemented stay-at-home orders, closed schools and offices, and required only essential employees to report to work. The fallout from a deadly pandemic and a contracted global economy of this magnitude has revealed the deep fissures of existing and chronic inequalities in the world related to job security, frayed safety nets, overburdened public health systems, the limited ability for local economies to withstand shocks and risks, digital divides, and the lack of emergency preparedness.

As the world struggles to respond to the devastation of the public health outbreak, experts and thought leaders from a wide variety of fields have sought to gain a holistic understanding of the current crisis and its impact. The Roosevelt House COVID-19 Forum brings together voices from our faculty, students and experts to share their analyses and opinions on the far-reaching economic, social, political, and community-level impacts of the pandemic; the policy responses that are needed to build and strengthen safety nets for affected communities; and the nature of emergency response protocols for preparedness that must be established to withstand shocks of this scale in the future. The Forum features opinion pieces, interviews, online webinars, and course offerings for students, and is a resource for those seeking an interdisciplinary lens of critical inquiry and analytic frameworks that will feature perspectives from the social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields.

The writing and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute or Hunter College.
Events | Faculty Writing | Student Writing | News

Events

January 7, 2021

Dr. William A. Haseltine — My Lifelong Fight Against Disease: From Polio and AIDS to COVID-19


November 20, 2020

Virtual Meeting Platforms: Government Control and Corporate Compliance


November 17, 2020

Food Insecurity During COVID 19: Policy Lessons and Challenges


June 3, 2020

Remembering the AIDS Crisis in the Time of COVID-19: How Lessons from One Epidemic can Guide the Response to Another


May 22, 2020

Modeling COVID-19: Disease Burdens, Economic Activities, and Policy Outcomes


May 13, 2020

The Moral Imperative to Center Racial Equity and Justice in Education During the Pandemic


April 30, 2020

Local Responses to the Pandemic: Lessons and Challenges


April 29, 2020

The Discriminatory Impact of COVID-19: The Pandemic’s Role in Highlighting Entrenched Racial Inequalities in the U.S.


April 22, 2020

COVID-19, Cities, and Climate Change: Revelations, Ambitions, and Public Policy in a Pandemic World


April 10, 2020

The Reality of the Coronavirus Pandemic for the American Medical System – Online Event


April 3, 2020

Awakening in Tomorrow’s Post-Pandemic World: Economic Policy in the Aftermath of COVID-19


March 27, 2020

Virtual Brownbag: Responding to COVID-19



Faculty Writing

April 17, 2020
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The Fiscal Relief States Really Need

Facing a coronavirus-induced recession, states and cities are looking at an acute fiscal crisis, with the National Governors Association requesting $500 billion in fiscal relief from the federal government. In recessions, the...  


Student Writing

November 4, 2020

Millions of Americans face Eviction in the Aftermath of Covid-19

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, governors and local government officials issued executive orders instructing non-essential businesses to close and encouraged residents to shelter in place. In a matter...  

November 3, 2020

Access and Equity: Schooling in a Pandemic

Over the last few months, New York City’s schools shifted the way they educate their 1.2 million students in order to protect the health and safety students, faculty and staff...  

November 3, 2020
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NYC Detention Rates during COVID-19

Since the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, there have been over 7700 protests across America against incidents of police brutality and systemic racism against black people. These...  

October 20, 2020
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Undocumented Students Are Excluded from Federal Aid – Once Again

Undocumented students contribute more than $10 billion in annual taxes, but the federal government refuses to grant them any federal relief aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lack of federal...  

July 21, 2020
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The Global Pandemic and its Impact: Preparing for the Future, Interdisciplinary Perspectives

  • By

The impact of the rapid spread of COVID-19 has been felt throughout the world. More than 180 countries have reported cases bringing the total number of those confirmed with the...  

May 20, 2020

The Issue with Profiteering During a Pandemic

Inherent in the vocabulary one uses to talk about this pandemic are the complaints and allegations assumed by the speaker. I’ve found that since the beginning of this outbreak, few...  

May 19, 2020

Post COVID-19: The Wipeout of Asian-Owned Businesses 

In Seattle, a family restaurant with broken windows. In San Jose, five businesses destroyed in the span of hours. In New York City, a Michelin-starred restaurant vandalized with graffiti. The...  

May 12, 2020
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Air Pollution Inequity in NYC’s Low-Income Communities & Covid-19: A Recipe for Disaster

On April 5, a study released by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health directly linked air pollution to the probability of more severe COVID-19 cases. It is now...  

May 4, 2020

It is Negligent to Solely Blame Preexisting Health Conditions for COVID-19’s Burden on Black Americans

COVID-19’s arrival in the United States has made it impossible to ignore that Black Americans are disproportionately burdened by disease and death. Yet, there is still a lack of understanding...  

April 13, 2020

The Other Danger of COVID-19: Why the Federal and State Governments Must Take Action on the Increased Threat of Domestic Violence During Social Distancing

As of April 6, 2020, just under 90% of Americans are under orders to stay at home to avoid the spread of COVID-19. For most people, home is safest place...  

April 7, 2020

How are we going to define our new “normal”? After recovering from COVID-19 our return to normalcy should not translate to complacency.

Within the past two weeks I have switched to remote learning, evacuated my dorm room, adjusted to working at home, and quarantined myself to a tiny studio apartment. My future...  


News

December 11, 2020

Roosevelt House Faculty Associate Mimi Abramovitz’s Podcast “Social Security for Everyone” on The Thought Project

Americans are coping with unemployment, hunger, and housing insecurity at levels that rival the Great Depression, according to Mimi Abramovitz, Roosevelt House Faculty Associate, the Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor of...  

July 1, 2020

Roosevelt House Advisory Board Member Stanley Litow in Barron’s “The Private Sector Must Lead on Diversity”

Roosevelt House Advisory Board Member Stanley Litow authors commentary in Barron’s “The Private Sector Must Lead on Diversity” Read the full article online here.

May 7, 2020

Joint op-ed by William A. Herbert, RH Faculty Associate and Distinguished Lecturer and University of Kansas Geography Professor Jerome Dobson for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Pandemic puts Americans’ patience, flexibility to the test”

William A. Herbert, RH Faculty Associate and Distinguished Lecturer co-authored an article with University of Kansas Geography Professor Jerome Dobson for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch titled Pandemic puts Americans’ patience,...  

April 28, 2020

Examine the Impact of COVID-19 with the Public Policy Program’s Summer 2020 Course Offerings

Hunter College’s Public Policy Program at Roosevelt House is pleased to offer summer courses to all Hunter students. This is a unique opportunity for students to sample the Public Policy...  

April 15, 2020

RH Public Policy instructor James Parrott co-authors new report on economic inequality and COVID 19 – “The New Strain of Inequality: The Economic Impact of Covid-19 in New York City”

Roosevelt House Public Policy Program instructor, James Parrott, Director of Economic and Fiscal Policies at the Center for New York Affairs at The New School, and Lina Moe, Graduate Student...  

April 13, 2020

RH Public Policy Program Faculty Member and Hunter College Political Scientist, Sanford Schram Co-Authors Article about the Coronavirus Pandemic

Roosevelt House Public Policy Program faculty member and Hunter College political scientist, Sanford Schram, and University of Alabama political scientist, Richard Fording, write about the Coronavirus pandemic, and the ways...  

April 3, 2020

RH Public Policy Program Faculty Member, Stephanie Woolhandler, quoted in Time — “Hospitals Got $100 Billion in the Stimulus Package. But A Lot of That Could Go Toward Administrative Costs”

TITLE: Roosevelt House Public Policy Program Faculty Member, Stephanie Woolhandler, quoted in Time — “Hospitals Got $100 Billion in the Stimulus Package. But A Lot of That Could Go Toward...  

March 24, 2020

RH Public Policy instructors Ruth Finkelstein and Christian González-Rivera co-author op-ed in City Limits — “What ‘Social Distancing Means for Older Adults’”

Roosevelt House Public Policy instructors Ruth Finkelstein and Christian González-Rivera co-author an op-ed about the dangers of isolation for senior citizens who might not receive vital medical information and are...  

March 23, 2020

Social and Economic Implications of ‘Social Distancing’ during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Interviews with Nobel Laureates in Economics

Abraham Gutman (Hunter College, Class of 2016), editorial writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer, interviews three renowned economists, including two Nobel Laureates, on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gutman talked...  

March 19, 2020

Roosevelt House Advisory Board Member Stan Litow Weighs in on the Coronavirus and Public Education

Roosevelt House Advisory Board Member Stan Litow weighs in on the coronavirus and public education in his article for the Albert Shanker Institute titled “Education Must Be Part Of Our Coronavirus...