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Three Questions

  • The Secret of Connecticut’s Success in Battling COVID-19

    Prof. Edward Kaplan explains how Connecticut has dramatically reduced the rate of infection of COVID-19 in the state—and what risks still remain.

    Shop window in a Connecticut town
  • U.S. Jobs Numbers Show an Uptick from a Grim Baseline

    We asked labor economist Barbara Biasi what can be understood from the latest Employment Situation Summary—including whether the numbers are accurately reflecting the effects of a fast-moving crisis.

    City employees handing out unemployment applications in Hialeah, Florida, in April 2020. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
  • To Stop Violent Policing, Build Effective Police Organizations

    For the last three years, Yale SOM's Rodrigo Canales has led a project studying police forces in Mexico and testing approaches to building more effective and trusted departments.

    Police officers talking with citizens in Mexico
  • Can Mobile Cash Transfers Help the Very Poor Survive COVID-19?

    In the developing world, many of those most at risk from the economic effects of COVID-19 are beyond the reach of aid programs. Yale SOM’s Kevin Donovan is testing the use of the transfers in a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi.

    A street in Dandora, Nigeria
  • Is It Time to Reopen?

    Around the United States, states are easing the restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19. We asked Yale SOM’s Dr. Howard Forman if these moves are premature and what is needed for Americans to return to school and work safely.

    A reopened Apple Store in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 13, 2020. Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images.
  • Will COVID-19 Force Us to Rethink Our Healthcare System?

    Since health insurance is tied to employment in the United States, Americans are losing their insurance just as they need it most. We asked economist Fiona Scott Morton, an expert on the healthcare industry, what a better system would look like.

    A patient outside Gateway Care and Rehabilitation in Hayward, California, in April 2020. Photo: Yalonda M. James/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images.
  • How Will We Tell the Story of COVID-19?

    We asked Yale SOM’s Robert Shiller, whose latest book is 'Narrative Economics,' to tell us what collective stories are forming around the pandemic and what they might mean for our economic future.

    Parents waiting to receive meals at Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley, California, on April 17, 2020. Photo: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.
  • What Is the Impact of Trump’s Immigration Order?

    We asked Cristina Rodríguez of Yale Law School, whose research interests include immigration law and policy, to explain the consequences of President Donald Trump's April 22 proclamation on immigration during the COVID-19 crisis.

    New U.S. citizens at a ceremony in Salt Lake City in April 2019. Photo: George Frey/Getty Images.
  • Can Big Data Fight a Pandemic?

    The COVID-19 crisis has intensified the debate over big data and privacy. Governments are pulling together data from public and private systems in order to predict and counter the spread of COVID-19. But setting aside privacy protections in a time of crisis could lead to new, permanent norms.

    An illustration of an eye made out of data with an image of the COVID-19 virus in the center
  • Time to Put on a Mask

    A team of Yale researchers says we should all be wearing cloth masks, but give the surgical masks to healthcare workers.

    Two women wearing cloth masks color-coordinated with their clothes