Editor's note
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Never have numbers seem so important. Daily death tolls are delivered by officials, dutifully reported by the media and consumed by the public – all eager for signs that the enemy might be in retreat.
As it is now with the coronavirus, so it was 50 years ago with the Vietnam War. History lecturer and veteran Shad Thielman explores the impact of counting the dead in such a consistent and clinical fashion. But turning human life into quantitative data isn’t the only parallel he sees. Both the conflict and the pandemic interrupted “grieving as normal” in similar ways, leaving families to mourn in private and without public celebration.
Also today:
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Matt Williams
General Assignments Editor
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Top story
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A lone visitor reads names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during the coronavirus outbreak.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Shad Thielman, California State University San Marcos
Unlike those who died during the Vietnam War, those who perish during the current pandemic are unlikely to receive a national memorial. Perhaps they should.
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Health
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Erin E. Kent, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The United States has 53 million caregivers, according to the latest estimate. And COVID-19 makes what they do much harder.
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Politics + Society
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David Swindell, Arizona State University
Federal authorities have input, but states reign supreme – unless they decide to let local governments make the call.
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Robert Muggah, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio); Richard Florida, University of Toronto
COVID-19 is spreading fast through not only the world's richest cities but also its poorest, ravaging slum areas where risk factors like overcrowding and poverty accelerate disease transmission.
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Stanley M. Brand, Pennsylvania State University
Did members of Congress illegally sell stocks after getting inside information about the pandemic from federal officials? A former lawyer for the House says proving such cases is very difficult.
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Arts + Culture
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Clint Randles, University of South Florida
When a 14-year-old Paul McCartney watched Little Richard in the hit film 'The Girl Can't Help It,' he couldn't have imagined that the two would one day take the stage together.
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Environment + Energy
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Margaret Birney Vickery, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Are facilities that produce necessities like energy and clean water doomed to be ugly? Not when artists and landscape architects help design them.
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Ethics + Religion
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Pierce Salguero, Pennsylvania State University
Many in the West may see Buddhism as more of a philosophy than a religion, but for millions of people worldwide Buddhism is very much a faith – and prayer is part of their COVID-19 response.
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Science + Technology
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William E.H. Harcourt-Smith, Lehman College, CUNY; Briana Pobiner, Smithsonian Institution
The footprints of over 20 different prehistoric people, pressed into volcanic ash thousands of years ago in Tanzania, show possible evidence for sexual division of labor in this ancient community.
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Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro
Women are underrepresented in technology fields, but especially so in cybersecurity. It's not just a matter of fairness. Women are better than men at key aspects of keeping the internet safe.
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David Braun, Vanderbilt University
A high-tech twist on an old idea – running on springs – could give human-powered movement its biggest boost in more than a century.
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From our international editions
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Simon Horobin, University of Oxford
The etymology of an epidemic.
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Shadreck Chirikure, University of Cape Town
Archaeologists have long studied diseases in past populations. They've explored the evolution of pathogens and how they interacted with humans.
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Faustin Etindele, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Getting a good night's sleep during COVID-19 confinement can be challenging, but there are ways to get enough shut-eye.
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