Dr. Daniel Hu recently published an article titled “How the United States Flunked the COVID-19 Test: Some Observations and Several Lessons” in the American Review of Public Administration (50(6-7) 568–576).

Abstract: The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has already caused enormous economic and human life losses in the United States and it is still ravaging the country. In this article, the authors argue that the pandemic has exposed key issues of concern in several areas of the American government system ranging from federalist intergovernmental relations to public health system and to health care policy. These issues of concern include the strained federal-state relations in emergency management, inadequate data collection and data reporting for disease surveillance and control, politicization and diminished role of science and evidence in administrative decision making, and underinvestment in public health programs especially in minority health. Based on their analysis, the authors admonish that it is critically important for the U.S. government to learn from the failed response to the pandemic and offer several recommendations for improving its response to future public health emergencies and research in public administration.

See: https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020941701

Prof. Hugh Lee is currently working as a co-principal investigator on a CARES ACT funded grant to develop ethical guidelines for vaccine distribution in North Carolina.

Dr Francia, Dr. Morris and Dr. Dave Morris authored an article, “A Fake News Inoculation? Fact Checkers, Partisan Identification, and the Power of Misinformation.” The article was recently published in Parties, Groups, and Identities.

Abstract: Previous research finds that misinformation is often difficult to correct once a person accepts it as truth. Nonetheless, a few studies have shown evidence that fact-checkers can help lower an individual’s susceptibility to believing false news and rumors. Our study builds on this research by examining the fact-checking inoculation effect on political misinformation (also known as “fake news”) that circulated on the Internet in the months following the election of President Donald Trump. Using an experimental design, we find only selected instances of inoculation effects. Instead, our results are consistent with previous studies that show individuals are more likely to accept or reject misinformation based on whether it is consistent with their pre-existing partisan and ideological beliefs. However, partisanship and ideology played a much stronger role in predicting believability for fake news stories critical of Democrats than stories critical of Republicans.

See: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21565503.2020.1803935?journalCode=rpgi20

Dr. Sharon Paynter is actively working on securing external funding for several projects. One of these, for $75,000, is focused on the bio-based economy. See below for the project description:

“The Biobased economy has often been cited as a growing source of economic activity, job creation and environmental benefit through sustainable renewable energy production and use and biobased product manufacturing and consumption. Surprisingly there is relatively little data and indicators available to validate the assertions. There is a need for metrics to be collected and evaluated in order to make informed investment, purchasing and policy decisions.

“This project will continue to advance the nation’s understanding of the benefits and possible impacts of the biobased economy. The public will benefit from this work through an increased understanding that certain bioeconomy sectors lead to environmental benefits in air quality, water quantity and quality, climate change and waste minimization. The result of the project will be report titled “The 2021 Report on Indicators of the U.S. Biobased Economy”. Prior year reports are available from the USDA.”

On November 6-7, Dr. Daniel Xu presented research on collaborative governance in local public health services at the Annual Northeastern Conference for Public Administration.

Abstract: Joint provision and collaborative governance has increasingly been a key strategy for local government to address administrative and fiscal challenges in public service. The research utilizes the data from a recent national survey to test competing hypotheses on the factors associated with the collaborative activities in local public health departments. The factors that it studies include leadership characteristics, organizational and institutional settings as well as budget condition which are commonly believed to be related to the collaborative activities of local government services. An index is developed in the research to measure the extensiveness and depth of collaboration by local health departments. The analysis suggests that both characteristics of individual administrators such as education attainment and prior job experience and institutional settings such as local ownership and organization size are associated with the extent of collaboration in local public health service whereas budget condition appear not a significant predictor. Further research on the topic will need to address data limitations and incorporate alternative theoretical perspectives.

On November 11, Dr. Baumgartner was invited by psychologist Dr. Thomas Ford to deliver a virtual lecture to his class at Western Carolina University on the subject of political humor. Ford himself is a humor scholar and editor of the international journal of humor studies (“Humor”).

Dr. Dennis McCunney, with Gretchen Rudham, Tyson Beale, and Adriel A. Hilton, has penned a new blog post in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, about the need to “initiate courageous discussions and implement actionable accountability plans to lessen opportunity gaps and pitfalls for populations historically dubbed at-risk” during the pandemic.

See: https://diverseeducation.com/article/195460/

The Center for Survey Research released two final polls on the 2020 election in North Carolina and South Carolina. Both polls received media coverage in local, state, and national media outlets. These can be seen at: https://surveyresearch.ecu.edu/ecu-poll/

The Center also released a second report from its ECU Covid-19 Impact Survey titled, “Impacts on Staff and Staff Adherence to Pandemic Protective Practices.” See: https://surveyresearch.ecu.edu/impact-survey/

Dr. Francia spent Election Night in the studio of WNCT in Greenville, offering his analyses and insights into the 2020 elections. Dr. Baumgartner appeared via Zoom on both WCTI (New Bern) and “Capital Tonight” on Raleigh’s Spectrum News 1, offering his analyses.

Prof. Hugh Lee has another article coming out in Elder Law Advisory dealing with Covid 19 and nursing home entitled “Nursing Home Liability for COVID Transmission and Death: Proposed and Enacted Federal and State Responses to the Pandemic.”