In the Media

A recent study from researchers at U-M concluded that vaccine hesitancy could impede a goal of herd immunity when it comes to COVID-19. Shobita Parthasarathy, a co-author of the study and director of the Ford School's Science, Technology, and Public...

“We’re at a moment” where science has the potential to make a difference on issues of social justice and inequality, Shobita Parthasarathy said. “I know my students are increasingly concerned about these questions, and think rank-and-file scientists...

John Ayanian commented that "in well-organized health systems, we're doing a better job of monitoring and controlling blood pressure, but the U.S. has a fragmented health care system." In a recent news article, the American Heart Association cited...

"Science is always going to be viewed through the lens of people through their values, assumptions, biases, and politics," said Shobita Parthasarathy. But, she said, "bias is natural....It's not a bad thing to have bias."  It's necessary for...

The Biden administration changed a key climate change metric—the social cost of carbon—to $51 in late February, in a move that will allow regulators to write more stringent carbon emissions rules. Barry Rabe said two of Biden's priorities—cutting...

An article in Nature notes that the National Institutes of Health will invest over $1 billion to research ‘long COVID’ — the long-lasting health effects of a SARS-CoV-2 infection. People who have experienced COVID-19 and its long-term aftermath,...

Barry Rabe comments on the relatively unknown Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which plays a prominent role in overseeing the nation's pipelines, natural gas infrastructure, and more: "I would put FERC in the basket of agencies that have...

Noting fierce partisan debates over the science behind COVID-19, Shobita Parthasarathy comments that "These are really values debates masquerading as scientific debates. And putting them into the language of science is bad for science, but it is...

Emphasizing a need to pay attention to marginalized communities, Shobita Parthasarathy says "Giving people more involvement in decision-making about what research is prioritized and how it is carried out could help "align government's values with...

"What an incredibly important and forward-thinking move to include social perspectives on science and tech policy in the office," said Shobita Parthasarathy about Alondra Nelson, the new deputy director for science and society in the White House...

Ford School professor Shobita Parthasarathy believes that as a matter of public policy, people should have more control over what researchers can do with their cells. In a recent segment on NPR's Planet Money, she noted that you can find human...

"These technologies are least accurate among students who are already marginalized in schools,” Parthasarathy says. She notes that school officials are often ill-equipped to handle the security and privacy of children’s biometric data and ensure the...

“I’m not sure that Proposal 2 goes far enough at this moment when we have more and more electronic data we’re generating and more and more interest from not only law enforcement but the private sector to collect our data,” said Shobita...

“These kinds of technologies tend to disproportionately burden students of color who are already often assumed to be somehow deviant... and so these technologies tend to exacerbate that kind of racism by rendering it quantitative and technological...