Should Americans Stop Listening To The CDC Under President Trump?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently came under fire from public health experts for changing federal testing guidelines to say that people without COVID-19 symptoms should not be tested — despite the major role that asymptomatic people have been shown to play in the spread of the coronavirus. In response to this move, former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Harold Varmus co-wrote an op-ed for The New York Times with a blunt message: "It Has Come to This: Ignore the C.D.C.” Dr. Varmus joined Jim Braude to discuss.
Was Northeastern University Right To Suspend Socializing Students — Without A Tuition Refund — For Violating Coronavirus Rules?
As Northeastern University brought students back to campus this fall, the school warned them that violations of social distancing rules would be severely punished. And late last week, the school followed through on the threat, suspending 11 first-year students for the semester after they were found crowded together in a room without masks. The university told the students that they would not be refunded the $36,000 in tuition that they paid for the semester. The school's decision has added to an already-hot debate across the country about how schools should manage students returning to campus — and whether schools should have in-person classes at all during this time. To discuss, Jim Braude was joined by Professor Nancy Hill from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
The Close Results In MA-04 Heats Up A Debate About Ranked-Choice Voting
After days of waiting for the results, it was declared last Friday that Newton city councilor Jake Auchincloss won the Democratic primary for Massachusetts’ Fourth Congressional Ddistrict with just 22 percent of the vote — just ahead of former Brookline selectwoman Jesse Mermell, who received 21 percent. The outcome has renewed a debate about the merits of ranked-choice voting, which just happens to be on the ballot this fall. Adam Reilly reports.
