Smart Talk Wednesday; COVID survey collects extensive data; Swing state Wisconsin look-in; Trusting News

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.
• Merideth Bucher
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Producer of WITF's Smart Talk

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Analyzing the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic comes down to the numbers.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports the numbers daily: the number of positives, hospitalized, tested, deaths and so on. Data is driving our understanding of the impact and the government’s response.

In April, Carnegie Mellon University’s Delphi Research Group began collecting real-time expanded data from around the country through a survey distributed using social media outreach. To date, that survey has reached and collected information from more than one million people in the U.S.

Anecdotally, this is the largest survey ever taken in the U.S., outside of the census.

The CMU survey collects information on COVID-19 symptoms, providing county-level information about the coronavirus pandemic that is “updated continuously and available from no other source.” It has now expanded to include questions about how people are responding to public health recommendations, such as mask use, and access to COVID-19 testing.

Joining Smart Talk to detail the initiative are Zachary Chase Lipton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Operations Research and Machine Learning, Tepper School of Business, CMU and Alex Reinhart, Ph.D., Assistant teaching Professor in Statistics & Data Science, CMU.

Also on Smart Talk Wednesday, we continue to talk with journalists in swing states about the presidential election.

Tom Zalaski, an anchor at WFRV-TV in Green Bay and host of the program Newsmakers Sunday, joins us to discuss the presidential race in Wisconsin.