Penn Integrates Knowledge Professors

PIK Professor Herbert Hovenkamp spoke about a new antitrust lawsuit filed against Amazon in Washington, D.C. “It’s not nearly as direct as a federal case,” he said. “In this case, we’ve got one party suing in one state court, so if they win it’s going to cover D.C. and that’s pretty much it.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel and a University of Denver colleague wrote an opinion piece critiquing Covax’s population-based global vaccine distribution formula. “Distributing vaccines purely on the basis of population means some vaccines will fail to reach those whose actual current risk is highest,” they wrote.

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel commented on the CDC’s revised mask and social distancing guidelines. “It wasn’t well done,” he said. “Slowing this down would have been the prudent thing to improve the communication and ensure that all the considerations that were needed on such a momentous decision were in fact taken into account and that the administration had answers for the very, very obvious potential scenarios.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel said that, while more research is needed to confirm the safety of vaccinating children against COVID-19, the outlook is promising. “We have to do a risk-benefit calculation, but so far the risks of vaccines are incredibly low and the protection is incredibly high,” he said.

PIK Professor Herbert Hovenkamp spoke about an antitrust lawsuit against Apple that hinges on the definition of a “relevant market.” Hovenkamp said that while the law requires a definition, “the economics really suggests that a market definition is not necessary.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel talks about why a vaccine mandate for some types of workers may be a necessary last resort in establishing herd immunity. “I don’t think the risks of the vaccine compare to the risks for the country of the coronavirus is really at issue,” he said.

PIK Professor Herbert Hovenkamp said Microsoft may be pursing large acquisitions now in case the regulatory environment becomes more restrictive in the future. “It’s a bit like gun control,” he said. “As soon as somebody is sniffing around about increasing legislation, everyone goes out and buys guns.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel proposed that for the next few weeks all COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. should go to people receiving their first dose. “That should be enough to quell the fourth surge, especially in places like Michigan, like Minnesota,” he said.

PIK Professor Michael Platt and Camille Testard, a Ph.D. student in the Perelman School of Medicine, spoke about their research on how rhesus macaques in Puerto Rico adapted in the wake of Hurricane Maria. “We see this massive surge in the time they spend in proximity to other partners, and their social tolerance increasing toward many different partners,” said Testard. “We saw active building of relationships with individuals that they didn’t really interact with before.”

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel spoke about so-called “vaccine passports” and privacy. “In public health there’s a principle that you should use the least restrictive method necessary,” he said. “This allows us to say, ‘Those people who’ve gotten vaccinated, you don’t have to adhere to certain restrictions because you are now immune.’”