Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Second Ithaca Drought in Five Years Threatens Water Supply and Local Ecosystem – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Climate change is driving the development of drought patterns in New York, threatening the agricultural sector and drying up local water sources including Ithaca.

Last month, the water supply in Six Mile Creek was at a third of its average flow rate: an alarming five cubic feet per second as opposed to its standard rate of 15 cubic feet per second. The low flow rate prompted Cornell and the City of Ithaca to issue a Level 1: Limited Water Use Advisory to encourage more water conservation on Sept. 22. The advisory was only lifted on Oct. 21.

This is the second time in less than five years that Ithaca has experienced a drought. According to the Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions, the 2016 drought caused a majority of unirrigated rain-fed crops in New York to experience crop failures.

Drought is how far we are from our normal amount of rainfall relative to what the ecosystem has evolved to need, said Prof. M. Todd Walter, biological and environmental engineering.

This shift in water supply can be severely detrimental it would take only a year of continuous drought conditions in Ithaca for many species in the current ecosystem to either adapt or die off and be replaced with more drought-tolerant species.

We are very sensitive to short-term drought because our soil is shallow, and our plants have a small reservoir of water to draw from, Walter said.

Fall Creek is at half its average water level, further exacerbated by the Universitys lack of a water reservoir or other water storage methods.

Cameron Pollack / Sun File Photo

Cayuga Lake, as seen from Stewart Park, in 2017.

Another challenge we face here is this cyclical movement of people, said Harman Singh Dhodi, grad, who studies urban water systems. [Students] move in during the semester and [then leave].

The oscillating demand for water, which mirrors student residential periods, shapes the Universitys water management systems. Last semester when students were suddenly asked to leave campus there was an excess of water, but the University took no proactive measures to use the water, Dhodi said.

The University could not direct its water toward the citys needs because of the distinct systems that are employed by Ithaca and Cornell. This caused Ithacas water system to deplete while the Universitys supply sat idle, according to Dhodi.

On the other hand, Dhodi said that water recycling and reuse are not employed enough, and advocates for tackling the stigma against using chemically and biologically treated wastewater that is otherwise ejected into Cayuga Lake.

Because of water supply reducing naturally due to global warming and climate change, [time has come] to use our water more judiciously and efficiently, Dhodi said. Why is this not a common practice? Its because everyone thinks we have plenty of water, we have the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes, its a psychological thing.

The droughts in Ithaca represent a larger pattern across New York State as it increasingly experiences arid conditions due to climate change.

The biggest issue is communication and human behavior. People are struggling with the timescale of climate change, said Prof. Edwin Cowen, civil and environmental engineering, and director of the DeFrees Hydraulics lab. COVID-19 demonstrates the challenges we face with climate change. How can people worry about long-term consequences when they cant get food on the table for their kids?

Increased climate variance has major consequences on New Yorks ecosystems and the likelihood of future droughts in Ithaca.

I wouldnt be shocked before I die to hear that the Adirondacks and Catskills [are burning], Cowen said.

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Second Ithaca Drought in Five Years Threatens Water Supply and Local Ecosystem - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Human Behavior

Proposition 24 puts power back in the hands of consumers – The Stanford Daily

The November election is fast approaching. One of the most important decisions Californian voters have will not be concerning who gets voted into office. Instead, it will be a vote on a ballot proposition concerning the future of privacy in the digital era. Proposition 24 is a monumental leap forward in securing desperately needed privacy regulations on tech and data firms that ultimately places power back in the hands of consumers and the people.

Proposition 24 is a ballot measure that will build upon the pioneering work of the California Consumer Privacy Act by giving consumers greater control over their personal data and information. The following are among the many improvements to the CCPA that are introduced by Prop. 24: the right to correct your data, personal data minimization (preventing companies from collecting large amounts of unnecessary personal information), personal right to opt-out of precise geo-location targeting and more. They are a particularly promising set of improvements for those who identify as having minority status, as Proposition 24 grants greater control over the sensitive identifying information that exists on all of us in the digital sphere.

Notably, if implemented the proposition creates a state agency. The agency would be an offspring of the California Department of Justice and would be charged with oversight of state business and department compliance with privacy laws. It does not take away authority from the legislature, which rightly should continue having the power to implement privacy legislation. Rather, it utilizes the power of the people through the ballot measure process to ensure all businesses in California remain compliant with the shifting privacy landscape. The current regulatory environment makes it difficult for businesses especially non-Big-Tech giants to understand the complex legal landscape. The new state agency will bring power to small businesses and ensure that smaller firms can compete more effectively with the Big Tech monopolies, which have teams of lawyers to interpret the evolving landscape of privacy laws.

This ballot measure will bring the greatest benefit to the children of California, who are exceptionally vulnerable to privacy violations by tech firms. The measure increases the fines for illegal use of childrens data three-fold, ensuring that tech and data platforms are upholding the highest standards of privacy and efficacy in dealing with childrens data. For a generation that has grown up in the digital age, spending most of their lives online, it is vital that Proposition 24 is passed to ensure all children are protected from exploitative practices and that they have the right to self-determination in the digital age. Children deserve it.

Big Tech platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter effectively own a monopoly over the tech industry by engaging in freedom-destroying practices under the guise of capitalism, called surveillance capitalism. Their goal is not humanitarian in nature; rather, they seek to standardize and increase the efficiency of human behavior. They exploit our personal information and right to self-determination by placing bets on behavioral future markets bets that profit by predicting what you and I might do in the future given our past behavior on platforms. Proposition 24 is a safeguard against these exploitative practices and ultimately means greater freedom for all Californians.

Big Tech platforms now pose an existential threat to our cherished rights in the digital age. California has the chance to lead the country in Big Tech regulation and technology policy through the passage of the measure. Proposition 24 takes power away from Big Tech firms, which dominate so many aspects of our lives, and places power where it rightfully belongs: in the hands of the people and consumers.

For privacy, for children and for freedom, the Student Privacy Committee pleads to all eligible Californian voters: Vote yes on Proposition 24. It is the first step forward in what will be a long-term fight for greater privacy and power in the digital age. Lets win this fight, together.

Chaze Vinci Executive Director of the Student Privacy Committee. If you would like to contribute to the work of the committee and help advance privacy in the digital age, contact Chaze Vinci at [emailprotected].

Contact Chaze Vinci at cvinci at stanford.edu.

The Daily is committed to publishing a diversity of op-eds and letters to the editor. Wed love to hear your thoughts. Email letters to the editor to eic at stanforddaily.com and op-ed submissions to opinions at stanforddaily.com.

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Proposition 24 puts power back in the hands of consumers - The Stanford Daily

Human Behavior

Seasonality of the SARS 2 Coronavirus – Harvard Magazine

Many viruses are known to be seasonal, but as COVID-19 cases in late October reached a record high in the United States, even epidemiologists who have been warning for months that the pandemic will worsen with the approach of Northern hemisphere winter were surprised by the sudden upturn in casesand the accelerating pace of deaths.

The seasonality of the disease may have lulled many people into believing that their efforts at masking and social distancing were responsible for decreased cases during the summer, according to assistantprofessor of epidemiology Michael Mina, who is a leadingadvocate of the use of rapid testingas a public-health measure to suppress outbreaks and allow re-opening of schools and the economy. A better way to think about it, he said during an October 23 call with reporters, is thatWe had an opportunity to use and leverage the decreased transmission of the virus during the summer months to prepare for the fall. Now that the opportunity to deploy vast numbers of cheap tests before a fall reopening has been squandered, We are really left with impossible decisions, he said: either remaining locked down and dealing with the political and economic fallout; or staying open and reckoning with the health consequencesmeaning some people wont live as a result.

On October 25, Mina tweeted thatthe 14-day average rate of growth in COVID-19 deaths had leapt from 7 percent to 15 percent in just 3 days, meaning thatU.S. deaths were accelerating at a rapid pace.

As the reopening of society collided with seasonal factors, Mina and other epidemiologists had expected an increase in coronavirus infections and deaths. He had tweeted in early October that If we do not get this virus under control now, we are in for a perfect and terrible storm. But even experts have difficulty predicting the extent of seasonalitys impact in the months ahead,because We dont know either the magnitude or the mechanisms, says professor of epidemiology Marc Lipsitch, director of Harvards Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics.

Last spring, he and other epidemiologists estimated about a 20 percent difference in transmissibility between the seasonal trough in summer and the peak in winter, based on studies of other coronaviruses. That modest-seeming effect could nevertheless have a significant impact if the use of masks and social distancing in summer, plus a drop in viral activity, ensured thatinfected individuals transmitted the virus to just one other person on average. Conversely, an increase of 20 percent from that rate would drive anexpandingnumber of infections.

There are plenty of theories, and enough circumstantial evidence, to suggest that seasonality is driven by multiple factors, including environmental impacts on the virus and the host immune system, as well as human behavior. When temperatures drop below 65 degrees, for example, many people begin to spend more time indoors, where distancing is more difficult, and the lack of ventilation allows airborne viral particles to accumulate.

Edward Nardell, professor of environmental health and immunology and of medicine, illustrated the latter point during a June 26 talk. Much of the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is thought be via large respiratory droplets, he said:Normally we think of them as settling down within a meter or so of the source and for good measure, weve insisted on a six-foot distance between people. While facemasks capture large respiratory droplets, and even small ones to some degree, evaporation from very small exhaled particles can allow droplet nuclei to become suspended and move with air patterns. Nardell documented the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in an office with five occupants during a three-hour timespan. (Because people exhale CO2, the gas is a good surrogate for the fraction of rebreathed air in a room, and thus the risk of infection from airborne viral particles.) During the first two hours, with the window open, the level of CO2remained fairly constant. But within just 60 minutes of closing the window, the rebreathed fraction of air, and thus the risk of infection,doubled.

Several other factors could play a role in seasonal transmission:

On the other hand, Lipsitch said to reporters last week, scientists may already know the most important, actionable factors relevant to transmission of SARS-CoV-2: airflow, crowding, mask-wearing, and distance. It may not matter whether someone is in a grocery store, a fabric store, or a bar, he said. What may matter most is the number of people, the space between them, the ventilation, and the amount of vocalization.

As the holidays approach, students travel home, and temperatures drive people indoors, Lipsitch is often asked what he would recommend with respect to annual family gatherings. One neighbor asked him in particular what to do about Thanksgiving. His own gathering of 16 family members, he told her, would not be taking place this year. But people have a very real need to see their families and will have to figure out how to do that safely. One suggestion he made was to celebrate early, outdoors, with a couple of people at a time: a backyard Thanksgiving in October, or later in the yearfarther south.

The guiding principles are all the same, he continued: ventilation [by being] outdoors; small groups; staying at a distance; and masking. I dont think that big holiday gatherings make a lot of sense. So, I would recommend doing as much socializing as you can outdoors while the weather permits.

Asked why it was important to keep gatherings small, Lipsitch explained that the risk to each person in a group goes up in proportion to the size of the gathering. If theres a half percent chance that each person is infectious, then in a group of five, theres approximately a two-and-a-half percent chance that at least one person is infectious. The probability rises as the numbers increase, and at the same time, the chance that the number of people exposed goes up. Roughly speaking,doubling the size of a group increases the risk of transmission by a factor of fourandtripling(from two people to six, for example)raises risk ninefold, because you have three times as many potentially infectious people and three times as many recipients. Furthermore, Lipsitch added, Risk always rises with the prevalence of infection in the places people are coming from.

Knowing all this can help individuals, families, and local communities mitigate their risk, but What we dont have right now is a comprehensive answer for how to get from high levels of community transmission back down to very low levels without lockdown or intense social-distancing interventions, Lipsitch continued. That is the task that lies ahead for [epidemiologists] and I think testing would be at the center of that, but on a much, much larger scale than we have. Already, he pointed out, places that have the resources (including some universities, companies, and the NBA) have successfully controlled transmission with very extensive testing together with isolation of infected individuals. The question, he said, is whether the amount of testing that the United States can realistically create overlaps with the amount that would be effective at scale.

Mina, at the forefront of efforts to develop faster, cheaper testing, has met with officials at U.S. regulatory agencies, and says that several significant bureaucratic obstacles to rapid testing have been removed. Still missing, however, is a coordinated federal response, including a commitment to spend the $20 billion that he estimates would be needed to deploy a national testing strategy by Januarysmall change compared to the$16 trillion in estimated economic damagesattributable to the pandemic, includingthe loss of 2.5 million years of potential lifeso far in the United States alone. Were all hoping that a vaccine will create herd immunity, he continued, but there wont be enough vaccine for everyone until late spring or early summer.

At this point for Mina, it is dj vu, as once-avoidable increases in hospitalizations threaten to overwhelm the capacity of health-care systems, just as they did in April. I dont want to see everything close down again, he tweeted recently. I dont want to see people spending their last days alone.

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Seasonality of the SARS 2 Coronavirus - Harvard Magazine

Human Behavior

Bryant establishes Center for Health and Behavioral Sciences with $200000 Roddy Foundation Grant – Bryant University

Bryant Provost and Chief Academic OfficerGlenn Sulmasy, JD, LL.M,and College of Arts and Sciences InterimDean Wendy Samter, Ph.D., announce the establishment of the Center for Health and Behavioral Sciences (CHBS), which is supported by a $200,000 grant from the Fred M. Roddy Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the fields of medicine, health care, and education. Kirsten Hokeness, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Science department, was appointed by Sulmasy as Director of the Center.Joseph Trunzo, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Psychology department, will serve as Deputy Director.

Building on our historic strengths, we are developing strategies for innovation and future growth to position our faculty and students to make significant contributions in the areas of the healthand behavioral sciences.

A multi-disciplinary approach to improving health and well-being

The mission of the CHBS is to educate and train the next generation of leaders who are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of others.The challenges of the ongoing global pandemic have highlighted the critical need for multi-disciplinary approaches to identifying and solving problems in this sector.The Center will leverage the strength of Bryants business core to become a premiere choice for students pursuing a career in health sciences, health care, or behavioral sciences.

The truly innovative and holistic approach to research and health care is what attracted us to this initiative at Bryant University."

We are grateful for the generosity of the Fred M. Roddy Foundation in providing critical funding for this important initiative that will support research and education in these interconnected disciplines, says Bryant Provost and Chief Executive Officer Glenn Sulmasy, JD, LL.M. Building on our historic strengths, we are developing strategies for innovation and future growth to position our faculty and students to make significant contributions in the areas of the health and behavioral sciences.

The truly innovative and holistic approach to research and health care is what attracted us to this initiative at Bryant University. We are also pleased to support a generation of students who will be able to work across disciplines to address complex global challenges, said Elizabeth McIntyre, President of the Fred M. Roddy Foundation. The Foundations essential mission is to support organizations carrying on research, educational or operational efforts for the cure or alleviation of afflictions of body or mind, or for general educational or charitable purposes.

"Bryant is removing traditional intellectual, physical, and geographic boundaries to enable innovation and collaboration that will prepare leaders and practitioners to solve some of the most difficult problems we face today and in the future.

We recognize that the world is not divided by academic disciplines, adds Samter. Through initiatives such as the Center for Health and Behavioral Sciences, Bryant is removing traditional intellectual, physical, and geographic boundaries to enable innovation and collaboration that will prepare leaders and practitioners to solve some of the most difficult problems we face today and in the future.

Enhancing high-quality scientific research

In addition to providing needed funding to help establish the CHBS, the Fred M. Roddy Foundation grant is funding lab equipment that will enable high-quality research. This includes a Mass Spectrometer used for the study of small molecules as part of the antimicrobial discovery program; a Behavioral Assay set-up (an environment to test stimulus response) to support neuroscience and addiction research; Dissecting Microscopes; a Superspeed Centrifuge to process different types of biological materials; and a Psychophysiology iMotion Computer package that measures physiological responses to stimuli.

With this equipment, faculty, including the two newly hired tenure track faculty in the science and psychology departments and students will be better equipped to produce high-quality research and secure additional funding through various granting agencies. Undergraduate students will have the unique opportunity to work one-on-one with faculty on projects linked to health and healthcare, preparing them to be competitive when seeking employment or to succeed in gaining acceptance to prestigious graduate programs in the health and behavioral sciences.

A holistic view

Our goal is to ensure that students understand the scientific foundations of human health and disease along with the core concepts in their chosen field of study, while gaining a holistic view of the healthcare industry, human behavior, and mental processes, says Hokeness describing her vision for the Center. Student researchers and graduates will emerge with a skillset required of practitioners, employees, and scholars who will ultimately become leaders and change agents who value collaboration, enriching the lives of their community.

Whether its a practitioner on the front lines treating patients, a researcher hunting for vaccine candidates, a psychologist addressing the impact of the virus on the wellness of the population, a communication expert working to deliver messaging to the public, an economist examining the effects of the pandemic on the global economy, or a manager in a healthcare facility understanding patient needs, The education and training that happens at the CHBS will enable students, scholars, leaders, and practitioners to successfully navigate the interconnected nature of human health and wellness, adds Trunzo.

Building on Bryants unique integration of the arts and sciences with business, academic program development in the area of health and behavioral sciences will develop highly skilled employees for a sector that positioned for future growth.

For 158 years, Bryant University has been at the forefront of delivering an exceptional education that anticipates the future and prepares students to be innovative leaders of character in a changing world. Located on a contemporary campus in Smithfield, R.I., Bryant enrolls approximately 3,800 undergraduate students from 38 states and 49 countries. Bryantis recognized as a leader in international education and regularly receives top rankings fromU.S. News and World Report, Money, Bloomberg Businessweek, Wall Street Journal, College Factual,andBarron's.Visithttps://www.bryant.edu/.

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Bryant establishes Center for Health and Behavioral Sciences with $200000 Roddy Foundation Grant - Bryant University

Human Behavior

What’s behind Virginia’s increasing pedestrian death toll and how to reverse the trend – Virginia Mercury

On Thursday evening, friends and family were at the intersection of Jahnke and German School roads on Richmonds Southside to mourn the loss of 16-year-old Aajah Rosemond, who was killed by a driver while walking to the store.

According to police, a collision with a GMC Yukon sent a roughly 6,000 pound Nissan Titan spiraling up and onto the sidewalk, fatally striking the teenager. The evening news tells such tales with disturbing regularity, a product of Virginias rapidly rising pedestrian death rate. However, whats behind the spike and how to fix it are questions without simple answers.

Over the past half century, Virginia and the rest of the country have generally enjoyed a steady decline in traffic deaths. While fatalities have reached record lows for drivers, starting 10 years ago, however, that trend began to reverse for people outside of a vehicle. During the 10-year period from 2009 to 2018, the number of pedestrian fatalities increased by 53 percent (from 4,109 deaths in 2009 to 6,283 deaths in 2018), stated a recent report from the Governors Highway Safety Association. By comparison, the combined number of all other traffic deaths increased by 2 percent.

According to Mark Cole, a highway safety engineer with the Virginia Department of Transportation, pedestrian deaths truly began to shoot up in the state four years ago. Prior to 2016 Virginia was seeing about 80-100 pedestrian deaths per year. Then in 2016 we saw a big jump to over 120, he said. In 2018, there were 123 pedestrian fatalities, an increase of nearly 8 percent from the year before, according to the DMV.

Last year, 126 pedestrians and 13 bicyclists were killed on Virginias roads, the nonprofit Drive Smart Virginia reported. Nationwide, the number of people killed while walking hit a 30-year high and roads have only gotten more dangerous as some driving during the pandemic took empty streets as a chance to speed. Although some initially blamed the proliferation of smartphones, the past decade of data has shown the roots of the rising fatalities run far deeper.

One of the most obvious answers behind the jump in pedestrian deaths are the types of vehicles hitting people. It is hard to overemphasize just how suddenly and completely [SUV] crossovers have come to dominate the auto market in recent years, wrote Angie Schmitt, a planning consultant with 3MPH, in her recent book: Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America. When the economy was still recovering from a recession, in 2012, 83 percent of vehicles sold in the United States were sedans.

As wages rose and gas prices dropped, however, Americans increasingly began purchasing SUVs and heavy-duty trucks. Now almost no sedans are being sold, and the whole market is trucks and SUVs, she said in an interview. That means cars are getting bigger, taller and deadlier.

From his work mapping and analyzing crash data with VDOT, Cole agrees with the diagnosis: The vehicle fleet has been changing over time with SUVs and trucks becoming the greater proportion of the fleet thats on the road. Weve seen an increased number of those types of vehicles involved in crashes too. SUVs and pickups which have a higher center of gravity and higher weight result in more serious crashes.

When drivers in a sedan run into someone, that person is more likely to fly up onto the hood, an occurrence with a far higher survival rate than when someone is run over. With many SUV and truck grills now reaching as high as five feet, its nearly impossible for pedestrians not to be pushed under the vehicle. The data bear this out: One hundred percent of pedestrians in SUV collisions at speeds of 40 mph or greater died, versus 54 percent who were struck by cars.

Melicent Miller, a project manager with the state Department of Healths Virginia Walkability Action Institute, acknowledges the increased danger posed by this bigger fleet: There are some really monstrous vehicles on the streets. The odds of someone surviving contact with an SUV or a truck is much lower than when someone gets hit by a sedan.

Who pedestrians are and where theyre walking are also driving pedestrian fatalities to record highs. According to the Department of Motor Vehicles the number of individuals 65 and older killed while walking is up 95 percent over 2018 alone. Seniors have always made up one of the highest risk groups to be run over by drivers, and as the Baby Boomer generation ages, the number of those most vulnerable has multiplied.

The other factor influencing the rising pedestrian death rate is the displacement of the urban poor to the suburbs. As wealthier Whites return to city centers, Black and brown communities with lower rates of vehicle ownership are being pushed into suburban sprawl often characterized by 45 mile-per-hour speed limits, lack of sidewalks and eight-lane arterial roads.

Between 2010 and 2015, about half the growth in poverty took place in U.S. suburbs, according to the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of WisconsinMadison, wrote Schmitt. In the United States today, more than three million more people are living in poverty in suburbs than in cities. These places and their streets, almost without exception, were not designed to accommodate people walking or relying on transit.

Americas changing vehicle fleet and shifting demographics arent responsible for the entirety of the tragic trend. Its not always easy to put your finger on what causes a crash because they reflect a lot of structural issues like land use and how a road is designed but they also bring in human behavior, Cole said. The majority of crashes weve seen involve human error.

DOTs and traffic safety campaigns often note that 94 percent of all crashes are due to human error; however, a growing coterie of city planners and urbanists are increasingly pushing back on that claim as an out for engineers to place the blame on victims of traffic collisions rather than fixing the infrastructure and design failures that cause crashes to be so deadly.

In a recent interview, Leah Shahum director of the Vision Zero Network, which is pushing to eliminate traffic fatalities said, We need to debunk the 94 percent myth because it detracts focus from the actual risk factors that are most deadly, such as poorly designed roads and dangerously high speed limits. This myth keeps communities from implementing effective policy and design solutions, which is literally killing people, especially our most vulnerable road users, including children, seniors, people with vision impairments and those walking and biking.

When explaining the growing disparities in death rates, Schmitt points to the different attention paid to making roads safe for drivers versus ensuring that people on foot can safely get where they need to go. If youre on a highway you can count on everything you need to be safe like guardrails and good lighting to be there. On our local and arterial roads a lot of the things needed to keep pedestrians safe like guard rails and curb ramps are missing.

The engagement of public health officials has helped to strengthen this approach to the problem. One of the central tenets of Vision Zero is that humans are fallible and are going to make mistakes, but we can use that information to plan for human error, said Sarah Shaughnessy, the built environment & health specialist for the Richmond City Health District. We are smart enough that we should be able to put policies and infrastructure in place to account for that.

The skyrocketing pedestrian death rate over the last four years doesnt mean Virginia officials have been sitting on their hands. There are certain ways VDOT impacts this trend like our construction and maintenance programs, and there are certain ways we dont, said John Bolecek, VDOTs bicycle and pedestrian program manager. Every way in which we interact with this issue something has changed to improve it.

A new LED lighting policy has made it cheaper to keep streets well-lit a critical enhancement since 75 percent of all pedestrian deaths occur at night. A crash-mapping project begun several years ago has also borne fruit: We learned that the majority of deaths almost always occur when a pedestrian is crossing the road, but we dont do a good job as a state, as VDOT, and as a society in providing safe crossing infrastructure for pedestrians, Cole said.

Although Virginia hasnt fully embraced Vision Zero and its goal of zero traffic fatalities as the guiding principle of its transportation planning, VDOTs most recent Strategic Highway Safety Plan Arrive Alive comes close. The two year old Pedestrian Safety Action Plan is another VDOT tool meant to guide the commonwealths cities and counties to invest more in pedestrian safety.

When localities take pedestrian deaths seriously and apply for VDOT funding to fix bad infrastructure, Bolecek has seen dramatic results: In Northern Virginia alone over the past five years theyve built out over 200 miles of bike lanes, often via road diets which have also turned center lanes into pedestrian refuges. Thats added a lot of crosswalks and moved bus stops to better locations.

Recent pushes to lower speed limits and implement handsfree bans may help, but lacking infrastructure is such a localized problem that Schmitt advises communities to conduct pedestrian safety audits to identify and address unsafe streets. Shaughnessys office often helps Richmond residents invite key stakeholders like city council members, police officers and public works officials to walk with residents and then packages that information for grants to fix the problems found.

With so much of the problem beyond the power of local and even state governments, Schmitt hopes that a new presidential administration next year could begin to tackle the epidemic of pedestrian deaths at the federal level too by dedicating more dollars to pedestrian safety and by introducing stricter vehicle safety guidelines.

Pedestrian detection and automatic braking have reduced insurance claims for pedestrian crashes by 35 percent, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration currently doesnt require car companies to install those technologies, which limits how effective and widespread those are, Schmitt said. The U.S. government regulates vehicles for all kinds of safety issues like air bags and auto-lock brakes, but none of those things protect folks outside of the vehicle; they only protect drivers.

CORRECTION: Mark Cole works for the Virginia Department of Transportation. This story has been update to reflect that correction.

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What's behind Virginia's increasing pedestrian death toll and how to reverse the trend - Virginia Mercury

Human Behavior

Research finds a problem with concept of herd immunity in COVID-19 – News-Medical.Net

A recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in October 2020 suggests that arguments in favor of herd immunity are weakened by the fact that the steep increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths as a result of being exposed to the virus many times instead of once or a few times is not taken.

While most have mild COVID-19, a severe disease associated with diffuse pneumonia may require hospitalization. Many in this group will eventually require intensive care, with oxygen supplementation and mechanical ventilation.

In a sizable minority of cases, death supervenes due to multi-organ failure. The survivors in this group may experience permanent disabling symptoms.

Lockdown strategies were meant to buy time for productive and preparatory measures by slowing the pace of viral transmission. Vaccines are meant to elicit neutralizing immunity to the virus and prevent endemicity. Since this is an RNA virus, it is bound to undergo numerous mutations, which will make it more difficult to eradicate it in endemic form.

Another school of thought holds that herd immunity is the best way to handle the pandemic. Without any interventions, the population will develop immunity naturally, while the economy will remain stable, so goes the argument. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief has termed this an unethical idea.

The researchers in the current study say that herd immunity appears appealing only because it is backed by simplistic simulations that ignore real-time health care challenges. Moreover, durable immunity to SARS-CoV-2 has not yet been proved.

Again, this model does not consider the higher death rates bound to occur with an overburdened healthcare system as infections surge. And finally, it ignores the long-term disabling effects of this illness, the medical and the social costs of caring for such individuals.

The uncontrolled viral spread will cause endemic COVID-19. Novel variants may emerge that are more destructive to lung tissue. Even worse, multiple exposures may lead to a higher viral load, and therefore a more significant proportion of severe disease.

Repeated exposures could also trigger antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of disease severity. This is one area where wearing face masks in public all the time could make a big difference in the load placed on hospitals and HCWs, by preventing severe infections.

There are many distinct variants of the virus in circulation at the current time. These variants do show different degrees of infectivity and pathogenicity. It is unclear whether these can exist simultaneously in one patient and how they interact, if so.

Since current estimates of mortality depend on information from the early part of the pandemic, they are likely to be inaccurate since, at this time, individuals were unlikely to have repeated contacts with infected persons. One exception was HCWs, since their daily and repeated contacts with many potentially infected people rendered them capable of super-infections.

The present study aims to understand how mortality is related to the presence of multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 acquired through multiple exposures. This model also examines how measures intended to reduce contact with infected people affect super-infections and mortality. It uses a model adapted from the free tool CovidSIM.

The researchers assumed disease stages of latent (3.7 days), prodromal (1 day), fully contagious (7 days), and late infectious (7 days), and also assumed a doubling of infectivity in the fully contagious stage compared to the first two. They found that multiple infections had a ~64% risk of causing severe symptoms and 4% mortality compared to 58% and 3%, respectively, for single infections.

Multiple infections caused more symptomatic infections, therefore more isolation, resulting in less spread and a smaller peak. But while the total number of multiple infections is somewhat reduced, especially during the epidemic's peak, the number of deaths increases.

However, seasonal infections affect this relationship, with a higher narrower peak resulting if it overlaps with the beginning of the flu season. In this case, more multi infections, and significantly more deaths, will occur than expected.

Symptom severity is measured by the number of infected individuals who come to medical attention and enter isolation, with a direct relationship between the two parameters. Higher isolation of symptomatic multi infections reduces total infection numbers somewhat, reducing the epidemic's peak and of multi infections.

The total mortality rises, however, due to the increased number of deaths caused by multi infections.

Again, multi infections reduce the overall case number but push up the number of deaths in proportion to the case fatality rate of multi infections. Again, this is aggravated by seasonality, with a higher epidemic peak, more multi infections, and more deaths if the peak comes at the beginning of the flu season.

Multi infections may be caught by one or consecutive exposures. If the latter, the effects will be delayed, and in this period, the spread is limited, while recovery may occur rather than death. Thus, this subset of infected individuals does not significantly increase the total number of multi infections.

However, the higher the risk of multi infection spread, the higher is the epidemic peak, and the greater the case fatality.

Prior infection with one strain of SARS-CoV-2 may confer partial immunity to multi infections, depending on the contagious person's stage of infection. Susceptibility is significantly less, and therefore the risk of multi infections if the susceptible person is in the late infectious phase.

While variations in susceptibility do not affect the epidemic peak, they do affect the multi infection case number. Around the peak, multi infection by exposure to two or more single infections is more likely than that due to exposure to one multi infection.

The researchers also found that reducing inter-individual contacts over a range of scenarios ranging from a second lockdown to no intervention would result in a delayed but not smaller epidemic peak in a non-seasonal scenario. Case isolation reduces the peak. In both cases, multi infections and deaths are unaffected.

With seasonal changes, fewer contacts can delay the epidemic peak to coincide with that of the flu season, increasing the peak height. The narrow, sharp peak limits the multi infection case number slightly, and the number of deaths is also somewhat lower.

A second lockdown, properly timed, can reduce the number of infections occurring after the relaxation of the first, if the epidemic peaks while the reproduction number is declining. The earlier such a lockdown is put into force, the more it overlaps the pandemic's early peak, and the greater is the delay in the eventual peak. This will also result in a broader but flatter peak.

The number of cases and deaths can be still further reduced by extending an early lockdown. If too late, however, the lockdown will be ineffective as cases are already declining.

The researchers point out, "Multiple infectious contacts and longer (average) exposure to the virus is initially restricted to certain risk groups, but will become common during the pandemic peak."

Different variants of SARS-CoV-2 may be acquired at different points by exposure to different infectious individuals. Viral diversity will also only increase during a pandemic.

Herd immunity becomes a less attractive concept given the higher viral load and multi infection risk as the pandemic progresses, coupled with more significant morbidity and mortality. Herd immunity becomes a less attractive concept versus a properly timed second lockdown. The results may vary with the duration of immunity and human behavior. For instance, some individuals may choose to avoid most forms of contact with others. The model parameters can be tweaked for several such differences.

The researchers also point out, "Notably, multi infections are not the only danger when aiming for herd immunity. An uncontrolled (or hardly controlled) pandemic inevitably renders the virus endemic."

If so, not only will it become difficult to get rid of the virus, but it could find reservoir hosts in pet animals, escaping control measures. As viral diversity increases, so might its virulence, requiring the vaccines to be adapted each year. Multiple vaccination rounds will then be required to eradicate the virus, resulting in ADE in some individuals.

The study concludes, "Increased morbidity and mortality due to multi infections is an important but overseen risk, particularly in the context of herd immunity. Evidence-based research on multi infections is necessary."

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

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Research finds a problem with concept of herd immunity in COVID-19 - News-Medical.Net

Human Behavior

Add-On Psychotherapy a Win in Bipolar Disorder – Medscape

Adding psychotherapy to pharmacotherapy benefits patients with bipolar disorder (BD), particularly when delivered in family or group settings, results of a new meta-analysis confirms.

Outpatients with BD receiving drug therapy "should also be offered psychosocial treatments that emphasize illness management strategies and enhance coping skills; delivering these components in family or group format may be especially advantageous," the investigators, led by David Miklowitz, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, write.

The study was published online October 14 in JAMA Psychiatry.

It's increasingly recognized that drug therapy alone can't prevent recurrences of BD or fully alleviate post-episode symptoms or functional impairment, the researchers note in their article. Several psychotherapy protocols have been shown to benefit patients with BD when used in conjunction with drug therapy, but little is known about their comparative effectiveness, the authors point out.

To investigate, the researchers conducted a systematic review and component network meta-analysis of 39 randomized clinical trials (36 involving adults and three involving adolescents).

The trials involved 3863 patients with BD and compared pharmacotherapy used in conjunction with manualized psychotherapy (cognitive-behavioral therapy [CBT], family or conjoint therapy, interpersonal therapy, and/or psychoeducational therapy) with pharmacotherapy delivered in conjunction with a control intervention (supportive therapy or treatment as usual).

Across 20 two-group trials that provided usable information, manualized psychotherapies were associated with a lower probability of illness recurrence (the primary outcome) compared with control interventions (odds ratio [OR], 0.56; 95% CI, 0.43 0.74).

Psychoeducation with guided practice of illness management skills in a family or group format was superior to these strategies delivered in an individual format (OR, 0.12; 95% CI, 0.02 0.94).

Family or conjoint therapy and brief psychoeducation were associated with lower attrition rates than standard psychoeducation.

For the secondary outcome of stabilization of depressive or manic symptoms over 12 months, CBT and, with less certainty, family or conjoint therapy and interpersonal therapy were more effective than treatment as usual.

The investigators note that the findings are in line with a network meta-analysis published earlier this year that found that combining psychotherapy with pharmacotherapy is the best option for stabilizing episodes and preventing recurrences of major depression.

"[T]here is enough evidence from this analysis and others to conclude that health care systems should offer combinations of evidence-based pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy" to outpatients with BD, the researchers note.

"When the goals center on prevention of recurrences, patients should be engaged in family or group psychoeducation with guided skills training and active tasks to enhance coping skills (eg, monitoring and managing prodromal symptoms) rather than being passive recipients of didactic education," they write.

"When the immediate goal is recovery from moderately severe depressive or manic symptoms, cognitive restructuring, regulating daily rhythms, and communication training may be associated with stabilization," they add.

The coauthors of an editorial in JAMA Psychiatry note that the findings "further reinforce extant treatment guidelines recommending medication management and adjunctive evidence-based psychosocial treatments for individuals with BD."

The findings also "identify specific treatment components and formats most strongly associated with preventing relapse and addressing mood symptoms," write Tina Goldstein, PhD, and Danella Hafeman, MD, PhD, from Western Psychiatric Hospital, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The study "may further serve as a call to action to enhance availability and uptake of these treatments in the community. Unfortunately, data suggest substantially lower rates of psychotherapy receipt (26%50%) compared with medication management (46%90%) among adults with BD," they write.

Goldstein and Hafeman note future steps for the field include "demonstrating effectiveness of evidence-based treatment approaches for BD in the community, maximizing accessibility, and furthering knowledge that informs individualized treatment selection with substantial promise to optimize outcomes for individuals with BD."

The study was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. Miklowitz has received research support from the NIHR, the Danny Alberts Foundation, the Attias Family Foundation, the Carl and Roberta Deutsch Foundation, the Kayne Family Foundation, AIM for Mental Health, and the Max Gray Fund; book royalties from Guilford Press and John Wiley and Sons; and served as principal investigator on four of the trials included in this meta-analysis. Goldstein has received grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and royalties from Guilford Press outside the submitted work. Hafeman has received grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation.

JAMA Psychiatry. Published online October 14, 2020. Abstract, Editorial

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Add-On Psychotherapy a Win in Bipolar Disorder - Medscape

Human Behavior

Research in 11 countries: citizens fear the use of robots may lead to a society full of inequality – Innovation Origins

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) appeal to the imagination of the general public. Research in eleven countries into peoples attitudes towards these technologies has shown that they feel uncomfortable with robots that look like humans and exhibit human behavior. A study of the SIENNA project shows that people assume that their lives and society will change as artificial intelligence and robotics are increasingly applied. They also expect the degree of inequality in society to increase as a result.

We are getting used to interacting with intelligent machines. We bring robot vacuum cleaners into our living rooms and ask Siri, Alexa, or Google to help us with the navigation when we drive our cars. Robotic dogs, such as the Sony Aibo, are used in the care of dementia patients. These developments are already visible. Society relies more and more on these technologies. Almost every day we use smart devices and intelligent software.

Also read: Service robots have to think like people, but theyll never become human

As part of the EUs SIENNA project, which is led by UTwente, research has been conducted among 11,000 adults from Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea and the United States about their attitude towards these new technologies. In all countries where the research was carried out, respondents expect the rapid development of intelligent devices that could lead to artificial understanding and communication on a human level. Their expectation is that this will change society.

Half of the interviewees do not want robots to look and behave like humans.

80% of those questioned think that AI and rapid developments in robots will significantly change their country over the next 20 years. Less than half (46%) were positive about the impact these devices can have on their country, a third (30%) were even negative. The Dutch and South Koreans are the most positive (61% and 55%), the French the least positive (31%). More than half of those questioned (55%) think that these technologies give them less control over their own lives, only 13% think they have more control.

With respect to robotics, more than half of those questioned (52%) said that they did not want robots to look and behave like humans in their workplace or in the public space. Less than a third (29%) have no problem with it. The South Koreans accept this the most (52%), the French the least (17%). In none of the countries did more than a third of the participants find the idea of a robot as a romantic partner acceptable.

Unless everyone has equal access to technology, we run the risk of building a society of inequality.

Most people are open to robots and artificial intelligence, but they reject robots with human traits, says Philip Brey, professor of science philosophy at Twente University and coordinator of the SIENNA project. We know that interaction with machines can offer enormous advantages. But with increasing dependence on technology, we can also lose some of our autonomy. Unless everyone has equal access to technology, we run the risk of building a society in which inequality prevails.

According to Philip Brey, the research clearly shows that people see a greater degree of inequality as one of the dangers, with the result that individual autonomy is endangered. The data from these studies are a snapshot of what people know about technology and how they see the benefits and dangers, says Brey.

The SIENNA project (Stakeholder-informed ethics for new technologies with high socio-economic and human rights impact) was funded by the European Union in the framework of the H2020 research and innovation program. The project focuses on ethical and legal issues in three new technological areas under development: human genomics, human enhancement, and the interaction between man and machine. The SIENNA project is coordinated by the University of Twente and has 12 partners in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.

The results of the SIENNA research are available at https://www.sienna-project.eu/publications/.

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Research in 11 countries: citizens fear the use of robots may lead to a society full of inequality - Innovation Origins

Human Behavior

What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots – MIT News

As Covid-19 has made it necessary for people to keep their distance from each other, robots are stepping in to fill essential roles, such as sanitizing warehouses and hospitals, ferrying test samples to laboratories, and serving as telemedicine avatars.

There are signs that people may be increasingly receptive to robotic help, preferring, at least hypothetically, to be picked up by a self-driving taxi or have their food delivered via robot, to reduce their risk of catching the virus.

As more intelligent, independent machines make their way into the public sphere, engineers Julie Shah and Laura Major are urging designers to rethink not just how robots fit in with society, but also how society can change to accommodate these new, working robots.

Shah is an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and the associate dean of social and ethical responsibilities of computing in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Major SM 05 is CTO of Motional, a self-driving car venture supported by automotive companies Hyundai and Aptiv. Together, they have written a new book, What to Expect When Youre Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration, published this month by Basic Books.

What we can expect, they write, is that robots of the future will no longer work for us, but with us. They will be less like tools, programmed to carry out specific tasks in controlled environments, as factory automatons and domestic Roombas have been, and more like partners, interacting with and working among people in the more complex and chaotic real world. As such, Shah and Major say that robots and humans will have to establish a mutual understanding.

Part of the book is about designing robotic systems that think more like people, and that can understand the very subtle social signals that we provide to each other, that make our world work, Shah says. But equal emphasis in the book is on how we have to structure the way we live our lives, from our crosswalks to our social norms, so that robots can more effectively live in our world.

Getting to know you

As robots increasingly enter public spaces, they may do so safely if they have a better understanding of human and social behavior.

Consider a package delivery robot on a busy sidewalk: The robot may be programmed to give a standard berth to obstacles in its path, such as traffic cones and lampposts. But what if the robot is coming upon a person wheeling a stroller while balancing a cup of coffee? A human passerby would read the social cues and perhaps step to the side to let the stroller by. Could a robot pick up the same subtle signals to change course accordingly?

Shah believes the answer is yes. As head of the Interactive Robotics Group at MIT, she is developing tools to help robots understand and predict human behavior, such as where people move, what they do, and who they interact with in physical spaces. Shes implemented these tools in robots that can recognize and collaborate with humans in environments such as the factory floor and the hospital ward. She is hoping that robots trained to read social cues can more safely be deployed in more unstructured public spaces.

Major, meanwhile, has been helping to make robots, and specifically self-driving cars, work safely and reliably in the real world, beyond the controlled, gated environments where most driverless cars operate today. About a year ago, she and Shah met for the first time, at a robotics conference.

We were working in parallel universes, me in industry, and Julie in academia, each trying to galvanize understanding for the need to accommodate machines and robots, Major recalls.

From that first meeting, the seeds for their new book began quickly to sprout.

A cyborg city

In their book, the engineers describe ways that robots and automated systems can perceive and work with humans but also ways in which our environment and infrastructure can change to accommodate robots.

A cyborg-friendly city, engineered to manage and direct robots, could avoid scenarios such as the one that played out in San Francisco in 2017. Residents there were seeing an uptick in delivery robots deployed by local technology startups. The robots were causing congestion on city sidewalks and were an unexpected hazard to seniors with disabilities. Lawmakers ultimately enforced strict regulations on the number of delivery robots allowed in the city a move that improved safety, but potentially at the expense of innovation.

If in the near future there are to be multiple robots sharing a sidewalk with humans at any given time, Shah and Major propose that cities might consider installing dedicated robot lanes, similar to bike lanes, to avoid accidents between robots and humans. The engineers also envision a system to organize robots in public spaces, similar to the way airplanes keep track of each other in flight.

In 1965, the Federal Aviation Agency was created, partly in response to a catastrophic crash between two planes flying through a cloud over the Grand Canyon. Prior to that crash, airplanes were virtually free to fly where they pleased. The FAA began organizing airplanes in the sky through innovations like the traffic collision avoidance system, or TCAS a system onboard most planes today, that detects other planes outfitted with a universal transponder. TCAS alerts the pilot of nearby planes, and automatically charts a path, independent of ground control, for the plane to take in order to avoid a collision.

Similarly, Shah and Major say that robots in public spaces could be designed with a sort of universal sensor that enables them to see and communicate with each other, regardless of their software platform or manufacturer. This way, they might stay clear of certain areas, avoiding potential accidents and congestion, if they sense robots nearby.

There could also be transponders for people that broadcast to robots, Shah says. For instance, crossing guards could use batons that can signal any robot in the vicinity to pause so that its safe for children to cross the street.

Whether we are ready for them or not, the trend is clear: The robots are coming, to our sidewalks, our grocery stores, and our homes. And as the books title suggests, preparing for these new additions to society will take some major changes, in our perception of technology, and in our infrastructure.

It takes a village to raise a child to be a well-adjusted member of society, capable of realizing his or her full potential, write Shah and Major. So, too, a robot.

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What to Expect When You're Expecting Robots - MIT News

Human Behavior

Clearing the record on Holiday Inn – Columbia Daily Tribune

JohnGlascock| Columbia Daily Tribune

On Tuesday, we learned that the management of the Holiday Inn Executive Center, a staple in the Columbia hotel and convention industry for over 30 years, would transfer from Executive Hotel Management to Driftwood Hospitality Management.

The new management company has indicated they are excited to become part of Columbias hotel and convention providers and announced there would be no closure of the facility. Driftwood manages more than 70 hotels under 20 brands across the United States.

Ed and Kathy Baker, who are part of the management team for Executive Hotel Management, also announced they would no longer retain a residence at the Executive Center. We appreciate Ed and Kathys contributions to our community and we wish them the very best in their future endeavors.

On Tuesday afternoon, Boone County Commissioner Fred Parry posted to his Facebook account a lengthy commentary regarding the closure of the Executive Center and made a number of statements which I would like to correct or add context too. Much of the post centered around the health orders currently in place to protect our community from the highly infectious coronavirus, forwhich there is no vaccine or approved therapeutic drugs.

To be clear, the pandemic has been very difficult for hotels and convention centers to navigate locally as well as across our state and country. While some industries were able to adapt to local health regulations and changes in human behavior due to the pandemic, the lodging industry simply must rely on people being present to conduct business.

I am proud of the cooperative agreement the city of Columbia and Boone County entered into many years ago to have a world-class accredited public health department providing direction and services to Columbia and Boone County. I am also proud of how our health and human services teams have worked with large and small businesses in Columbia and Boone County to find solutions which allow businesses to operate, with some restrictions, while protecting the health of the community and the employees of those businesses.

Since the pandemic was declared, Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services (PHHS) has issued 13 health orders for both Columbia and Boone County. While the City Council and Boone County Commission do not vote to adopt each order, I am told Commissioner Parry has supported each order.

Since the initial emergency order was enacted on March 16, our Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services department has conducted almost 1,500 interactions with local businesses to provide guidance. These interactions include phone calls, meetings, emails and site visits to ensure each business has ample access to make safe business plans.

It is important to note that 11 of those interactions were directly with the management of the Holiday Inn Executive Center. One of the largest events since the start of the pandemic was held at the Executive Center in July, when the Missouri Bar Association administered the bar exam to more than 600 people. This event alone involved dozens of hours of interactions, including site visits to the Executive Center by PHHS so the exam could be conducted safely.

For Commissioner Parry to suggest we did not work with the management of the Executive Center is simply wrong. In addition to providing business guidance when requested, the Columbia Chamber of Commerce hosted a meeting with local health officials and leaders. The Columbia Hospitality Association invited health officials to one of their meetings as well. The Executive Center was represented in at least one of those meetings by a member of the management team. The Convention and Visitors Bureau is hosting another meeting this week where health department leaders will be present.

At the request of Commissioner Parry, Scott Clardy, assistant director of Public Health and Human Services, reached out to Mr. Baker to discuss his concerns with the local health ordinance. Unfortunately, Mr. Baker did not return Mr. Clardys call. Mr. Baker did not reach out personally to me or Mayor Brian Treece requesting a meeting. Had he done so, we would have met with him to discuss his concerns.

Commissioner Parry also stated that Columbia Public Schools would lose almost $300,000 in property taxes remitted by the Executive Center. This is also incorrect. The facility remains open, and even if it closed, the owner would be responsible for paying the property taxes, regardless of who they are. The Executive Center remits to the City of Columbia, on average, $30,000 a month in combined utilities. In reviewing the account, that continues to be the case despite the downturn in business.

Commissioner Parry seemingly indicated he feels that PHHS has overreacted with the health orders as they pertain to local business. I am told that Commissioner Parry has not voiced objections to each of the 13 health orders, although the County Commission does not take a formal vote like the Columbia City Council does. Its interesting to me that in theColumbia Missourians candidate Q&A, Commissioner Parry gave PHHS an A+ for their handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

The city of Columbia values the health and well-being of all of our residents, visitors, students and businesses. Additionally, we know our small and locally owned businesses are vital to our communitys success. We work tirelessly to protect the public health of everyone while balancing that with the short-term economic impact. We want our community and businesses to be able to remain open and not have to revert back to another stay at home order or full closure.

We are a resilient community. We will get through this together.

John Glascock is Columbia's city manager.

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Clearing the record on Holiday Inn - Columbia Daily Tribune