CLOSE
Tags Posts tagged with "pandemic"

pandemic

Moore Field House interior, April 1, 2020

Trucks with hospital beds and medical equipment pulled up outside Moore Fieldhouse on March 31, 2020, as the National Guard began the assembly of a 300-bed “Connecticut Medical Station” inside the facility. Southern is providing “overflow” beds for Yale New-Haven Hospital, in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 patients throughout the month of April . The university has also made available 2,500 rooms in nine residence halls for an as yet undesignated purpose, although at least one hall will be used to house medical personnel.

“As a public institution dedicated to the pursuit of social justice, Southern is committed to helping the state mitigate the spread of COVID-19,’” said SCSU President Joe Bertolino. “With hundreds of graduates from our College of Health and Human Services on the front lines fighting the pandemic, it was a natural step for the university to make our facilities available during the duration of this public health crisis.”

See a photo gallery of the field house’s conversion into a field hospital

See media coverage of Southern’s conversion to a medical station:

Gov to visit ‘hospital in a box’ at SCSU (WFSB, April 1, 2020)

National Guard soldiers help build field hospital to help overflow of coronavirus patients (WTNH, April 1, 2020)

Field hospital for non-coronavirus patients built at SCSU (New Haven Register, March 31, 2020)

National Guard, SCSU To The Rescue (New Haven Independent, March 31, 2020)

Overflow hospital to be set up at Southern Connecticut State University (WTNH, March 31, 2020)

National Guard Sets Up Field Hospital at SCSU For Coronavirus Patients (NBC CT, March 31, 2020)

COVID-19 overflow site being constructed at SCSU (WFSB, March 31, 2020)

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (third from left) at Moore Field House to inspect the Connecticut Medical Station that the National Guard set up there (April 1, 2020)

 

 

Frank LaDore teaching the Death and Dying class (photo courtesy Cara McDonough, New Haven Independent)

The New Haven Independent ran an article, “SCSU Prof, Students Work Through The Covid Grief” (March 31, 2020), about Frank LaDore, director of Transfer Student Services, who teaches the Death, Dying & Bereavement class at Southern. LaDore, who has worked at the university for 28 years in a variety of departments, has been teaching the course since 2012.

The class, offered by the Department of Public Health, is described on the university’s website as “understanding death in our culture and social and personal mechanisms for responding to death, dying and bereavement.”

While the university remains closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the course is meeting online for the rest of the semester.

 

Journalism Professor Frank Harris III

Journalism Professor Frank Harris III, an award-winning columnist for the Hartford Courant, speculated about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in a recent op-ed, “We don’t know where the coronavirus is taking us, but off we go nonetheless” (Hartford Courant, March 17, 2020). As Harris writes, “I will adjust and adapt, just as we all must in this journey along the road of our oh-so-exciting lives.”

In addition to teaching journalism and writing a column for the Courant, Harris formerly served as chair of the Journalism Department. He also makes documentary films.

 

 

A scene from the film "Outbreak"
You’ve probably said it to yourself more than once during the past few weeks: “I feel like I’m living in a movie.” The coronavirus pandemic has turned people’s lives upside down, and the daily news reporting is unnerving, and even frightening. Images in the newspaper and on TV can seem unreal, like something we’ve only seen in films. Troy Rondinone, professor of history, is a scholar of American culture, and in a recent blog he published in Psychology Today, he discusses the portrayal of pandemics in film. In the blog, he addresses the question, “What has Hollywood taught us about pandemics?”
Rondinone is also the author of Nightmare Factories: The Asylum in the American Imagination.
Troy Rondinone

From: James Thorson, Chairman of the SCSU Department of Economics:

How likely is a recession as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of many businesses?

If the social distancing measures remain in place for a month or more, then a recession is almost inevitable. Even in our increasingly online economy, many of our transactions involve face-to-face transactions. In many sectors of the economy, spending is being curtailed — which results in lower incomes. The good news is that if the virus gets under control fairly quickly, any downturn should be relatively short.

James Thorson

Will the economic stimulus help stave off a worse recession and help it bounce back more robustly when the virus is finally under control?

In all likelihood, economic stimulus should lessen the severity of a recession — as long as the stimulus induces additional spending in the economy. This additional spending is likely because many people have had their incomes reduced dramatically, so they will need the stimulus money to survive. Once the virus is under control, the economy should bounce back pretty quickly because there will be much pent up demand.

What are your thoughts on the volatility of the stock market?

The stock market hates uncertainty and this virus has caused uncertainty. What we thought was going to be a two week or so social distancing period has extended to an uncertain period of time. This is having devastating effects on businesses such as restaurants, hotels, airlines, among others. When this will end is anybody’s guess. Such uncertainty always makes investors nervous. The good news is that the virus will eventually come under control, and the economy and the stock market will eventually recover.

What effect is the pandemic having on small businesses?

Many small businesses are going to be hit very hard by the pandemic, at least in the short term.  For example, many restaurants and stores have shut down for the time being.  That means that these business owners are still paying rent and property taxes, but they are receiving no income. Even businesses not directly affected are likely to see a slowdown.  The supply chain in the United States is still operating, but more slowly and not as completely.

Also, productivity is likely to be lower, even with people working from home.  For most of us, our houses are just not set up as efficiently as our workplaces, so that makes it more difficult to get work done.

With the market in decline, is this generally a good time for people to increase their investments, such as in a 401(k), or to sit tight?

The general question of market timing is always a difficult one, and stock prices are inherently unpredictable.  For a person with a long-tern horizon, I would not shy away from investing in the market.  Those who invested in the market in 2008-2009 still have done very well, even with the market decline.

The best time to invest in the market is when things are at their worst. But there are two potential challenges with that strategy.  First, we never really know beforehand when “the worst” is.  Second, it can be psychologically difficult for many people to do this. That is one reason why automatic investment strategies, such as when we have money withheld from our paychecks to be put in a 401(k) or 403 (b), can be very successful over time.

 

 

 

 

© 2016 Southern Connecticut State University.