Experts in the News

“Health care is close to 20% of the nation’s economy and it’s a big source of economic revenue here in Houston,” said domestic health policy fellow Vivian Ho, who nevertheless stressed that safety should be the primary driver to rebooting the economy.

Health policy fellow Vivian Ho talked about society’s response to Covid-19 and the latest models and strategies for a return to relative normalcy.

“It’s incredibly hard to (make) projections about what’s going to happen because this is a unique first-time event and we have so little data,” said Vivian Ho, the director of the Center for Health and Biosciences, about the spread of coronavirus and the prediction that Houston-area hospitals won't have enough beds to deal with the crisis. “Because we don’t have that much testing, we do not know how quickly it’s spreading, what percent of cases are serious, if we can target hot-spot areas and essentially shut them down.”

"If you undercount the number of people, the [state’s per capita income] ends up looking higher, which means you’re going to get less Medicaid money,” said health economics fellow Vivian Ho about the importance of participation in the 2020 Census.

“I generally believe that statements about a looming physician shortage are overblown,” said health economics fellow Vivian Ho.