Columns:: Newsmakers

since 12/15/98

Columns::October 29, 2001

It takes a village
Research figures show increase for fiscal year 2001
Research professor receives ‘MERIT’ award from NIH
Killer diagnosis
Gearing up for the future
Well-connected: Internet access is now in 96 percent of UGA residence hall rooms
E-mail distribution list being developed for major UGA news
New Peach State Poll surveys Georgians about public policy issues
Linguistics professor examines effectiveness of vernacular speech
College of Pharmacy names assistant dean for MCG pharmacy programs
Heads up

Campus News

Newsmakers

Links between diet, genes
A lengthy feature in the Sept. 14 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education explores the links between diet and genes. Carolyn Berdanier, professor emerita of foods and nutrition at UGA, explains how she discovered that rats with a genetic predisposition toward a mitochondrial form of diabetes lived longer and had a delayed onset of symptoms when fed an egg-rich diet. The large amounts of Vitamin A found in the eggs caused changes in mitochondria that resulted in the beneficial results, despite the conventional wisdom that says high fat, particularly eggs, is bad for you.

The politics of stocks
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the stock market fell sharply. Afraid of what might happen to their finances, many stockholders considered transferring their stakes to more secure realms, including government bonds and precious metals. However, politicians, corporations and financial advisers urged people not to engage in panic selling, which could even be interpreted as victory for the terrorists. UGA finance professor Marc Lipson told the Detroit News, “The best thing is just to hold tight for a few days and see what the situation is.”

Unsure about insurance
UGA risk management and insurance professor Robert Hoyt was interviewed by several publications about the effects of the Sept. 11 attacks. The collapse of the World Trade Center meant major financial loss for many investment firms. Just how costly the catastrophe will be remains uncertain. Hoyt told the Hartford Courant, “The property damage is a relatively short-term expense, but the business-interruption claims and liability lawsuits could drag on for years.”
The Washington Post analyzed a proposed White House plan to offer “terror insurance” to businesses such as hotels and restaurants. Many analysts were skeptical about the idea. Hoyt was quoted as saying, “It’s just my experience that government programs come easily and go away with difficulty.” He argued the government should instead use the money to help rebuild New York.
Another issue was the possible definition of terrorism as war. Most insurance policies do not include coverage for acts of war. Do the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks qualify? According to Hoyt, quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune, “Traditionally, act-of-war exclusions have been written with a more traditional definition of war in mind--armed conflict between countries, not murderous acts committed by terrorists.” However, Hoyt predicts the insurance industry will work expediently to include terrorist attacks in act-of-war exclusions. “Every one of us is thinking about what our risk is and how do we finance it. . . . And now [that] we know we face heightened risk of terrorism, our insurance coverage for that will clearly be limited.”
Hoyt was also quoted in an Omaha World-Herald story about the complexities of insurance coverage. When two airliners hit the towers at the World Trade Center, was that one terrorist event or two? The insurance industry usually pays a maximum amount per event, essentially doubling claims if the attacks are counted as two separate events. Hoyt told the newspaper that he expected rates would go up as a result of the attacks and that liability claims could mushroom.

Kim Osborne of the UGA News Service monitors coverage of UGA in local, state and national media. Contact her for information about these or other stories in the news. Newsmakers appears in every other issue of Columns.

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