Pandemic Response:

 

The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst public health, economic, and societal crisis of our lifetimes,” said National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt. “When this global emergency hit, our entire institution quickly pivoted to deliver the types actionable science decision-makers need in times of crisis.Our work is aimed not only at solving the immediate, day-to-day challenges posed by the pandemic but also toward eventually rebuilding a more robust, resilient nation and world.”   

 

Economic Recovery

The pandemic is a public health emergency, but we also need to begin now to anticipate its continuing cascading impacts on the economy, personal income, supply chains, education, and other aspects of modern society,” said National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt. To that end, McNutt has spearheaded the Response and Resilient Recovery Strategic Science Initiative. “The purpose of this initiative is to take a careful look at what immediate ‘no regrets’ actions could prevent dire cascading impacts on essential aspects of modern society in the months and years ahead.” 

The first project of the initiative is examining the degree to which the pandemic is driving property evictions within low- and middle-income communities and disadvantaged groups. The project will identify potential chains of consequences — Will evictions lead to increased spread of COVID-19 due to homelessness or displacement? Will it impair people’s ability to maintain employment? — along with potential interventions that can mitigate these harms.

The Strategic Science Initiative is expected to also tackle other economic aspects of the pandemic — for example, examining vulnerability in the food production sector, and the education and research capabilities of U.S. research universities, which are major engines of regional and national economic growth.

Climate Change

 

As the COVID-19 pandemic quickly engulfed the nation and the world, a slower-moving crisis — but potentially even more damaging — has been unfolding for decades. The effects of climate change are already being felt by millions.  In the last year alone, the western U.S. experienced the worst wildfire season on record, there was historic flooding in the Midwest, and the Atlantic had a record-breaking hurricane and tropical storm season. Given current and projected global greenhouse gas emissions, more extreme events of this kind are inevitable. And just as with the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts of climate change are being disproportionately borne by society’s most vulnerable — racial and ethnic minorities and the poor.

 

President Biden has called climate change “the existential threat of our time” and has signaled his commitment to a unified, coordinated national and international response from the United States.  On his first day in office, Biden signed executive orders to reenter the nation into the Paris Climate Agreement and to reestablish federal efforts to estimate the social cost of carbon — the cost of damages, in dollars, caused by each ton of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere — to be informed by recommendations in a 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

 

Indeed, the National Academies have an extensive body of work to inform the new administration’s efforts to fight climate change, transform the economy, and build a more resilient, sustainable society.

 

Equity

 

Last summer’s widespread protests against police brutality and racial inequality — taking place in the midst of a pandemic that has exacted a heavy toll on communities of color — forced the nation to face the reality of the continuing toxic effects of centuries of systemic racism, a reality that many Americans know all too well.

“The tragedies of the last year harshly exposed just how persistent and corrosive systemic racism is across our entire society — infecting our systems of health care, justice and law enforcement, employment, housing, and education,” said National Academy of Medicine President Victor Dzau. “We are at a moment of reckoning, and the time for real action is long past due.”

 

 

From: National Academies <NationalAcademiesPress@nas.edu>
Reply-To: "us4-136a47f7c6-6f5c94044e@inbound.mailchimpapp.net" <us4-136a47f7c6-6f5c94044e@inbound.mailchimpapp.net>
Date: Monday, January 25, 2021 at 7:31 PM
To: Lloyd <lloyd.michener@duke.edu>
Subject: Informing the New Administration

 

View this email in your browser     The nation is facing several serious challenges that the Biden administration has identified as top priorities — the COVID-19 pandemic, economic recovery, racial equity, and climate change. A new series of articles explores how the National Academies are providing timely, actionable advice to inform the new administration’s efforts on these multiple crises.     PANDEMIC RESPONSE AND RECOVERY Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the Biden administration’s most urgent priorities. The National Academies have been rapidly delivering science to help decision-makers respond to and recover from this crisis. ECONOMIC RECOVERY FOR ALL AMERICANS Science, engineering, and medicine can provide essential tools for the new administration’s efforts to recover from the pandemic’s devastating economic toll and build a more inclusive economy that benefits all Americans.   LEADERSHIP ON CLIMATE CHANGE The National Academies have an extensive body of work to inform the new administration’s efforts to fight climate change, transform the economy, and build a more resilient, sustainable society. ADVANCING  RACIAL EQUITY The new administration has pledged a “major mobilization of effort and resources” to advance racial equity in America. The National Academies are marshalling the best evidence on the nature and consequences of systemic racial inequities to point the way toward solutions.     FOLLOW US   Copyright © 2021 National Academies Press, All rights reserved. You are receiving this e-mail because you signed up at NAP.edu to receive updates on new publications from the National Academies Press. Our mailing address is: National Academies Press 500 Fifth St. NW Washington, DC 20001 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.