For a second straight week, faculty experts in public policy gathered virtually to share insights on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sponsored by the Sanford School of Public Policy, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity and Polis: Center for Politics, the April 15 event was moderated by Sanford professor Christina Gibson-Davis.
The talk featured Sanford professors Steve Sexton and Nathan Boucher on the topic “Policy Tradeoffs in the Fight Against COVID-19” and Sanford professors Deondra Rose and Eric Mlyn on the topic “Higher Education, Politics, and COVID-19.”
In the first talk, Boucher brought extensive medical expertise to the conversation, with 25 years in health care delivery and public health-oriented roles, including as a professor at Duke’s School of Medicine and as a research health scientist within the Durham Veterans Affairs Health System. At the outset he summed up a key issue our nation—and the world—are facing.
“For the first time in many of our lives, we’re seeing the tension between the rights of individuals collide with the rights and safety of larger society,” Boucher said.
He spoke about the deficiencies of U.S. preventive care: “We’re largely reactionary. We’re waiting for something to break, and then we prefer to respond with full force.”
Efficiencies in our health care system have meant we’re “unable to pivot adequately when there’s a disaster.” He hopes that the pandemic inspires more people to want to help, and to become “more human.”
Sexton, an applied economist, studies and determines outcomes caused by government policies. His presentation covered several points, including how “epidemic policy has to weigh the benefits of social distancing with the costs of social distancing.”
He shared examples of political leaders making statements that seemed to ignore the costs. Instead, Sexton believes the costs of a shutdown (e.g. financial ruin) must be measured against the benefits of saved lives.
He also shared that the government should accomplish its objectives as narrowly as possible; COVID-19’s elevated targeting of the elderly and lesser targeting of the young should help inform social distancing policy. He walked through the ethical and philosophical questions involving the value of a life, and how some economists measure value differently across populations.
In the second half of the event featuring Deondra Rose and Eric Mlyn, Mlyn opened by praising Duke for “doing an impressive job of doing the incredibly complex task of closing down a university.” He outlined the extraordinary pressures higher education faces during—and assuredly in the aftermath—of COVID-19.
But Mlyn’s primary focus was on the health of our democracy, including the “very important role” universities must play in preserving and strengthening our democracy, including endorsing universal mail-in voting, 30 days of early voting, and making Election Day a national holiday.
He also introduced a concept he called “Duke Corps,” which could fund 10 percent of Duke graduates unable to find work, and which could help rebuild the U.S. and other parts of the world impacted by the pandemic.
Additionally, he reminded the audience that “crises are opportunities,” drawing from the story of Tulane University after Hurricane Katrina. “There was talk of closing Tulane,” he said. Instead, the school’s president, Scott Cowen, “decided to make service-learning courses a mandatory part of every undergraduate experience.” It forever changed the course of Tulane for the better, according to Mlyn.
Finally, Rose pointed out that COVID-19 is proving that “priorities are political”— that policymakers can come up with resources when they need to.
“We’ve heard for years that we don’t have the resources to have equitable K-12 education in the U.S., or free college in the U.S,” she said. If we can spend trillions of dollars to bolster our economy, Rose added, then we can invest in other areas that significantly impact our future.
“One thing we should think about is what higher education means to our society,” she said. “Are we endeavoring simply to foster the creation of workers? Or are we working to build strong workers who are also strong citizens?”
Rose also looked inward, asking, “What’s my responsibility in the aftermath (of COVID-19)? We need to be especially mindful of the what vulnerable members of our society grapple with.”
Nearly a 100 people -- comprising students, faculty, staff, alumni, Durham community members and others -- attended the virtual event. The video can be found here.