URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2020_Melissa-McCarthy

Catherine DeCesare Senior Lecturer History Department

decisions. “Pandemics are recurring,” DeCesare said. “Historical studies can directly inform policy initiatives today. Don’t discount history.”

Rhode Island wasn’t unique in its response, according to DiNardi. In early March 2020, prior to most official restrictions, people across the country increasingly reduced their travel. As stay-at-home orders went into effect in late March, travel outside the home entered a low plateau, but toward the end

STAYING AT HOME SLOWED THE SPREAD Much of the early government response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been framed through stay- at-home orders, but as states re-opened people were increasingly on the move. For Assistant Professor Michael DiNardi of the URI Economics Department, anonymous mobile device GPS location datasets like those from Google’s Community Mobility Reports and SafeGraph Inc. are useful proxies for answering questions about compliance with social distancing guidelines and how movement has varied among states. DiNardi researched people’s behavior based on mobile device movement five weeks before Governor Gina Raimondo’s emergency declaration on March 9, three weeks after the stay-at-home order, and continued his research through early May. “The data shows that following the state of emergency declaration in March, Rhode Islanders were taking this pandemic seriously,” said DiNardi. “Before the state of emergency, 20 to 25 percent of mobile devices did not leave home, after March 9 nearly 40 percent stayed home, and leveled off at 45 percent in early May.”

Archive photo of people wearing masks to avoid being infected by the 1918 flu pandemic.

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