Spectrum

Some Memorial Day crowds seemed large and people were not self-distancing. They were jammed in swimming pools, on crowded boardwalks and watching auto racing. Most without masks. It seems that many want to reopen the economy and break out of isolation regardless of the risks. They are tired of lockdowns and restrictions. However, recent polling still shows the large majority of Americans are fearful of re-entering into normal daily activities such as work, shopping, hair care, and being around large groups of people. These people also get angry when they see others flaunting rules and regulations promulgated by Health Departments. Dr. Kenneth Johnson, executive dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University and a frequent guest of the Spectrum Podcast, reminds us that the dangers of the virus are still present and probably will be until we find therapeutic drugs or a vaccine. It has not gone away, says Johnson, the chief medical affairs officer at Ohio University and chair of th

Colleges and universities and average families are all feeling the financial pinch from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts are dramatic. Dr. Richard Vedder, emeritus distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University, outlines, for the Spectrum Podcast, how these loses will really be felt. He notes that higher education was already under financial distress before the pandemic arrived. Many universities were facing declining enrollments and rising expenses. Cutbacks were already in the offing. However, the pandemic added another layer of financial losses on top of a crumbling financial model for many colleges. He notes, that across the country, universities were having to cut staff and administrators even before closing campuses this spring. Some colleges are even closing their doors—not to be reopened. Now, with declining state funds along with plummeting enrollments, higher education is making further cuts of staff, administrators and faculty in unprecedented fashion. At the same time, Vedde

Almost every aspect of government and certainly the legislative and executive branches are addressing multiple aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic from medical protocols and providing medical supplies to economic devastation. Some view the partisan pull about this issue in Washington as a battle between science/medicine and ideologies. However, TIME Washington Correspondent Philip Elliott says that characterization is not quite accurate. Instead, he claims it is more nuanced. He says that members of the federal government are traveling paths never trod before. They are trying to find their way and they are trying to overcome major fear factors simultaneously. There is fear in government itself and fear across the nation, he adds. This pandemic is unprecedented, according to Elliott, and it is having an unprecedented impact on our government and our politics. There is no roadmap to follow to predict next events or next steps. This pandemic is drawing battle lines between the President and Governors who

Colleges and universities across the country are trying to anticipate how to handle their students this fall. Will they teach remotely or have students back on campus for in-person instruction? Will there be hybrids of partly remote instruction and partly regular classroom teaching? Several institutions have already made decisions to have students back while others have chosen to teach primarily remotely. Many other universities are waiting until later in June to make their decisions. Before academic administrations can make those final calls, they need data and they also need to have criteria to help make those decision. They need to determine what factors are most important to protect the health and safety of students, faculty and staff at the same time that they provide quality educational opportunities. In this episode of WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast, Dr. Kenneth Johnson helps us understand some of the criteria being used to make these critical decisions. Dr. Johnson is the executive dean of the Her

There are valid arguments for opening the country after the COVID-19 shutdowns. But those actions must be tempered by good medical data and with the safety of people being foremost, says Dr. Todd Fredrick, Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. These decisions to open our businesses and society should be based on good science that minimizes the risk of a resurgence of the virus, Dr. Fredrick adds. He cautions against having the decisions of when and how to safely reopen society being based on politics. He notes that politics of the extremes on the right and the left often cloud decision making that should be neutral and fact-based. He also cautions against people looking for “perfect” solutions but instead, Dr. Fredrick suggests that we need to find “acceptable” options knowing there will be some increase in infections with the Coronavirus after states reopen. He notes that we should not be seeking a “one-size fits all” solution for reo

Local news outlets are being used more than ever by people during the Coronavirus pandemic. However, these local outlets are struggling for financial survival and many are losing the battle. For the past month, major news outlets such as The New York Times, Atlantic, The Hill, Fortune and others have been ringing the death knell of local news media. On April 10, the New York Times reported that 33,000 journalists have either lost their jobs, been furloughed or had their pay cut since the virus hit the United States. Local advertising dollars have evaporated, according to Andrew Alexander, an award-winning journalist, former Washington Bureau Chief for Cox Newspapers and a former ombudsman at the Washington Post. Although subscriptions are up, print advertising has hit a steep decline and online advertising is far less lucrative for local news outlets. Besides, digital advertising is dominated by Google and Facebook, Alexander says. This dilemma leaves local news entities in the lurch. Money to produce a

While most of the focus, during this time of crisis, has been on our major metropolitan areas and big-city hospitals, state public health officials and local county health commissioners have been working overtime to make sure we are as safe as possible. State Public Health doctors, like Dr. Amy Acton in Ohio and others have led the way in advising governors and assuring the public of up-to-date information and warnings, says Dr. Kenneth Johnson, executive dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and medical affairs officer at Ohio University. Public Health professionals have been the leaders in social distancing and other mitigation steps that have helped to blunt the curve of new COVID-19 cases. Normally, public health doctors seldom gain any notoriety, but this health crisis has put many into the spotlight. We have been able to see a system working that is mostly invisible to us in normal times, Dr. Johnson says. This includes the local county health commissioner who do the bulk of the “con

In any type of crisis, disaster or peril, trust is the most important element in successful crisis communications to the public. This is according to John Born, who has had more than 30 years of experience in crisis communication. Born served as the director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety for Gov. John Kasich and was on board during the Ebola crisis. He also previously served as colonel and superintendent of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, capping a 26-year career in law enforcement. Although he admits that there are many different crisis communication styles among leaders, there are some fundamentals that are basic to all good communication. Born says that the spokesperson must be “truthful, consistent and trustworthy” in his/her messaging if he/she is to be believed by the public. He also says that it is imperative that the messages presented by public officials be based on good science and be grounded in strong underlying facts. He also adds that in today’s social media age, not only do crisi

While we concentrate on medical pandemic experts and public health officials for prognostications about the Coronavirus pandemic, primary care physicians are often on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19. They frequently go unnoticed by the pundits and the policymakers. They are the “unsung heroes” of this fight, says Dr. Kenneth H. Johnson, the Executive Dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the chief medical affairs officer at Ohio University. Often, the primary care doctor is the first to determine whether a patient needs tested for the Coronavirus and handles the initial care of a patient. More often, today, these initial decisions about care are made through telemedicine techniques including internet conversations and phone conferences, according to Dr. Johnson. This is a major change from the old method of going into an office to see a doctor. The primary care physician routinely is in charge of a patient’s care before and after any hospitalization. The frontline doctor al

When we are in times of crisis, we look to our leaders nationally, statewide and locally to provide us with guidance on how we will make it through the crisis and arrive safely on the other side. At the foundation of what we expect from leadership is honesty and transparency, says Beverly Jones, an author, career consultant and executive coach. Jones has been an attorney, lobbyist, corporate executive, trainer and career specialist as well as authoring the book, “Think Like an Entrepreneur and Act Like a CEO. Also, she is the host of WOUB’s Jazzed About Work podcast. Jones notes that “positivity” is also at the top of the list of what we admire in leaders – not the overly optimistic type of positivity but the kind that gives confidence that we will get through this crisis and get through it together. We also want our leaders to care about us, to have empathy and compassion—to be responsive to the broader needs of citizens or, at least, show concern about people’s pain and fears. We hate arrogance from our l

Health care will be one of the main issues facing Presidential candidates in the 2020 Election, according to Dr. Daniel Skinner, a political scientist and health policy professor at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. People are concerned about issues of health costs, access and health care quality, says Dr. Skinner. They also are extremely concerned that health insurance proposals cover pre-existing conditions. He states that there is some confusion among the electorate when President Donald Trump says he is protecting people with pre-existing conditions at the same time his administration is in federal court asking that pre-existing protections be removed from the Affordable Care Act. He says that determining President Trump and the Republicans position on health care is difficult because they really have not advanced or articulated a policy. Dr. Skinner says that the Democrats certainly have not embraced a unified approach to health care. In the podcast, he breaks down

Long before the Civil War and the Underground Railroad, “free people of color” were instrumental in settling the Northwest Territory as Americans pushed West after the Revolutionary War. Dr. Anna-Lisa Cox, an award-winning historian on the history of racism and race relations in 19th Century America, has discovered hundreds of Black families who came West, owned land, and were instrumental in taming the frontier. “When Detroit was still a Fort, African American pioneers were succeeding and rising on the nation’s earliest frontier,” says Cox. “Their story is one buried by violence and denial but a story of success on a level never thought possible.” Their story, unfortunately, is one of backlash by many white settlers who, for example, taxed Black property owners for schools that African Americans were prohibited from attending among other discriminatory and prejudicial acts. Cox tells the story of these black pioneers in her book, “The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Black Pioneers and the Struggle

Anne Hazlett is the Senior Advisor for Rural Affairs at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In the year she has been in that post, she has traveled rural America to assess the drug crisis. After meeting with grassroots elements across the country, she is encouraged that progress is being made in the opioid battle. Overdose deaths are down breaking a long-time upward trend. Hazlett says she is heartened with the efforts generated by small rural communities across the country in taking command of this issue and providing innovative approaches to addiction and treatment. She is especially laudatory about efforts at Ohio University to help local and regional communities. She especially noted a virtual reality segment on administering NARCAN in the case of an overdose. That project is being developed by the Game Research and Immersive Design Lab (GRID Lab) in the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. While on the Ohio University campus, Hazlett met with community officials an

Lisa Friedman, a veteran reporter about climate change and environmental policy, says that covering climate change issues during the Trump administration has been a real challenge. “I often feel like I’m just writing the obituaries for environmental and climate change policies,” she added. Friedman notes that the Trump Administration has spent the bulk of the first three years in office ‘’undoing” the climate change policies and agreements of previous administrations. She says, although currently the Trump Cabinet seems to have been purged of outright climate change deniers, that deregulation of climate issues still remains the norm. Even though climate change is a global issue, the United States under the Trump presidency has tended to become more isolationist in its approaches. Climate change, however as a political issue, is not dead, according to Friedman. She believes that it will be a vital part of the policy debates in the 2020 Presidential Election. Candidates will debate both climate change general

Three cases are pending before the Supreme Court of the United States that could have significant impacts on the employment rights of LGBT workers. Decisions will be issued before the Court recesses at the end of June. These cases will determine if the 1964 Civil Rights Act prevents employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation and transgender status. Lydia Lavelle, politician and law professor, breaks down these cases in plain English and gives us some context for these monumental decisions that could be issued at any time. Lavelle is mayor of Carrboro, North Carolina near Durham. When she was elected in 2013, she was the first openly-lesbian mayor in North Carolina. Lavelle also is a law professor at North Carolina Central University and one of her research areas has been the effects of anti-discrimination laws on LGBT people. She notes that currently states across the country have a patchwork of civil right laws and employment discrimination against the LGBT population is allowed in much of the n

We often hear stories about drug addiction and the opioid crisis from physicians, policy makers or people involved with the legal system. However, we rarely hear from people directly impacted by the epidemic. That’s not the case in the book “Not Far from Me: Stories of Opioids and Ohio” co-edited by Dr. Daniel Skinner and Dr. Berkeley Franz from the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. They collected some 50 personal stories from people living in 20 Ohio counties. The stories come from those directly affected by the drug and opioid epidemic. It showcases stories from drug abusers, their family members, member of the clergy, health professionals and policy makers. The stories range from personal narratives to poetry and even photographs. Although the book focuses on Ohio, the stories are reflective of personal experiences across the nation, Dr. Skinner says. He believes it is important to hear first-hand from those who are directly involved in the opioid epidemic because it gives diffe

The Friday killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani by an American drone has thrown the Middle East into chaos. Philip Ewing, the former national security editor for National Public Radio (NPR) and currently an election security editor on the NPR Washington Desk, sorts out some of the possible short term and long term consequences of this action. Even after Iranian officials have pledged “revenge” for the death of their national hero, United States President Donald Trump continues to threaten Iran with more violence and destruction claiming the United States will “take-out” 52 important targets in Iran – including cultural icons. The U.S. is beefing up its military presence in the region by sending thousands more troops and B-52 bombers nearby. Meanwhile, while the war of words escalates and preparations for possible conflicts solidify, the parliament in Iraq has passed a resolution demanding that America withdraw its troops from the country. Mixed messages have been issued by the Pentagon whether t

Abdul Williams has had a hot decade of screenwriting for both the big screen and television. Over the past 10 years, he has written a feature film and two award winning series for the Black Entertainment Network (BET). In 2010, his first feature film “Lottery Ticket” was released and in 2017 and 2018 BET released major series – “The New Edition Story” in 2017 and “The Bobby Brown Story” in 2018. Both are winners of NAACP awards. Williams was the recipient of NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Television Movie (2018) and he received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie, Miniseries, or Dramatic Special (2019). Williams talks to WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast about his career, his work, and his creative process. He breaks down his writing rituals and explains how he develops and nurtures stories from his imagination to the final product. He also discusses how he decides what projects he will work on and how he goes from the seed of an idea through all of the iterations of the work. Beside

Since 2002, Rachel Dissell has been a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. During her 17 years at the newspaper, she has covered trauma and trauma victims and one major tragedy after another. Her career has focused on complex and emotionally draining issues such as the impact of violence on women and children, life-changing environmental topics, corruption and several instances of social injustice. Her reporting has instigated major policy changes, new governmental procedures, and legislation to protect the citizenry. Covering trauma victims and tragedies call for several special reporting techniques, according to Dissell. It often takes a special cautious approach and patience on the part of the reporter to get victims to tell their stories completely and thoroughly, she notes. A reporter often must approach a victim with caution not to scare them or push them into isolation, Dissell adds. She also notes that burn-out is a major factor facing reporters who spend their careers covering human tragedies.

The concept of using foreign correspondents housed in other countries to help inform the American public of the news is a concept that goes back to Colonial days. Yet today, news organizations have drastically cut back on full-time correspondents abroad opting instead for a smaller reporting corps and the use of free-lancers and citizen journalists. So says long-time journalists and authors John Maxwell Hamilton and Peter Copeland as they discussed the history, present and future of using foreign correspondents to report news to America. Hamilton claims that Colonists re-published the news from newspapers abroad that arrived in the Colonies on ships. He says that the interest in the American public, at that time, was high to learn of news from the homelands of immigrants. Foreign correspondents also were used to convey news in the 19th Century and on through the 20th Century, according to Hamilton. He believes, however, that the pinnacle of the status of the foreign correspondent was between World War I and