WashU Experts

President Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation this week that will suspend most new H-1B and other visas through the end of the year — a move the administration said was to protect jobs for unemployed Americans affected by COVID-19. The industries most reliant on visas to fill open positions, however, have relatively low unemployment rates, according to an Olin Business School expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Over the years, the global HIV response has provided the modern medical community with valuable experience about responding to outbreaks and preventing the spread of the disease. These lessons should inform our approach to COVID-19 — especially in lower-income and Black communities, according to Shanti Parikh, associate professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Ahead of the anticipated SCOTUS ruling on landmark abortion case, Marie Griffith, director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, discussed the Supreme Court case, the history of the abortion debate across religious/political lines and a way forward.

All of the issues surrounding COVID-19 trace back to a single legal stream, says an expert on drug policy and health law at Washington University in St. Louis. The lack of diagnostic testing. The lagging development and distribution of personal protective equipment. Shortages of ventilators. Finding prescription medication to treat the disease. They all are related by law and policy.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision June 18 that the Trump Administration cannot shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program will allow more than 700,000 “Dreamers” to worry a bit less and continue focusing on their jobs, education and futures, said an immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Umbrella Man. Outside agitators. Agents provocateur. As protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd continue, conspiracy theories and “false flag” charges have flown fast and furious. But sometimes the conspiracy is real. In “F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature” (2015), William J. Maxwell, professor of English in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, details a decades-long harassment campaign waged against prominent African American writers and activists.

In the wake of national protests following the death of George Floyd, some activists are calling on cities to defund their police departments. But what does that mean exactly? Robert Motley, a PhD candidate in the Brown School and manager of the Race & Opportunity Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, explained it’s more of a reallocation of funds for public safety and health.

“This new study shows that the extinction crisis is even worse than realized,” said Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor and professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and director of the Living Earth Collaborative.

The U.S. sports blackout because of the pandemic has left at least a $12 billion crater in the national economy. And even if stadiums and arenas light up anew soon, they won’t look the same. A sports business expert from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis doesn’t expect the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball to welcome fans if/when they return in 2020, for example.

After President Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims on Twitter about mail-in voting and Twitter responded by attaching a link to his tweets, Trump threatened to close down the social media giant. “The president appears to have no understanding of or concern for free speech,” says a constitutional law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.