Available data shows mRNA vaccines remain above the protection threshold established by regulatory agencies, although there is still the chance boosters would be needed earlier than after increased hospitalisations, particularly in certain at-risk subpopulations, noted Dr Steven Zeichner, professor, UVA Department of Pediatrics and Microbiology.
When it comes to treating COVID-19, by now most of us have heard of Remdesivir, the antiviral drug given to former President Donald Trump and used to treat hospitalized patients. But what many may not know is there’s another successful treatment, available right now, for those who have underlying conditions. “What we like to do is prevent you from having come into hospital,” said Dr. Bill Petri, a UVA professor of infectious disease. Petri said antibody infusions are doing just that.
Dr. Amy Mathers and her team of infectious disease specialists at UVA are tracking variants of COVID-19 in Central Virginia, studying nearly every single positive case in our region. “It’s been pretty interesting. We’ve been trying to get all sequences of all positive cases done since Feb. 1, so we’ve been watching a change in emergence of the different variants,” Mathers said in a press briefing hosted by UVA Health on Friday.
The hustle to allocate J&J immediately raised questions about whether America’s “problematic” vaccine was being earmarked for communities who are already distanced from medical resources and disproportionately pummeled by the virus, says Rachel Hardeman, a health-equity expert at the University of Minnesota. “There’s this undercurrent of tension,” Taison Bell, a critical-care physician at UVA Health, told me. Many of the populations described as good J&J candidates “feel, rightfully so, that they receive second-rate care.”
Tim Farmer believes he’s had the best job anywhere in the state. As public relations coordinator for the Blandy Experimental Farm/State Arboretum of Virginia, Farmer has combined his loves for communicating with people and exploring the outdoors. But after nearly 25 years in that role, he’s ready to explore beyond the Northern Shenandoah Valley. He’ll be retiring after this weekend’s Garden Fair. Operated by UVA, the 712-acre farm off U.S. 50 in Clarke County does agricultural research projects and holds educational programs to increase people’s awareness and understanding of nature.
(Podcast) The project on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region, and the National Security Task Force the Hoover Institution hosted a conversation on, What’s Next for U.S.-Taiwan Economic Relations?, on Thursday, May 6. The speaker was Evan A. Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was also the 2019-20 James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, where he is now a practitioner senior fellow.
(Commentary co-written by Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology and a senior fellow of the Institute for Family Studies) President Biden’s $1.8-trillion American Families Plan suffers from a common problem in work-family policy today. Much of it favors the family preferences of one group, our elites, rather than giving parents of every social background the choices they really want.
In March, the University of Virginia accepted the institute’s request for the repatriation of 17 items from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. They will arrive in Australia next month to return to Arrernte, Warlpiri and Warumungu communities.
To help treat residents who were sick, Our Lady of Peace staff participated in daily calls with the COVID team at the UVA Medical Center, who provided medication regimens and orders. That information was essential, she said.
UVA Health’s pop-up vaccination clinics will soon become part of the new normal, starting this week. On Fridays, the hospital will have a pop-up vaccine clinic from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the Downtown Mall near the Sprint Pavilion.
A new series of murals will be coming to UVA Health’s Department of Inpatient Psychiatry. According to a release, the Charlottesville Mural Project is commissioning a series of neighborhood-themed murals on the walls of the facility with the support of the UVA Hospital Auxiliary Committee.
Similar autism-related behaviors in boys and girls are the result of different genetic variations and brain functions, according to UVA School of Medicine researcher Kevin Pelphrey, who has long studied autism. The discovery means there could be other autism-related behaviors that are less likely to be noticed in both girls and boys.
A year ago, as the pandemic took hold, demand for electricity dropped, but now it’s coming back and will rise dramatically in the decade to come according to a new report from the University of Virginia. For years now, demand for electricity has been falling or flat in Virginia. Professor of public policy Bill Shobe says energy-intensive industry has been leaving the state and commercial requirements are also down.
Paid family leave policies need not burden employers wityh undue costs related to employee performance, ease of schedule coordination and planning for absences of duration, according to new research based on New York’s 2018 family leave policy. (The researchers include Christopher J. Ruhm of UVA and the National Bureau of Economic Research).
The possibility of a summer surge of COVID-19 infections easily could vary across the commonwealth, based on vaccine acceptance. The communities in which a higher percentage of the population gets a shot of protection – such as Northern Virginia – appear to escape an uptick in cases, even in a worst-case scenario forecast. These scenarios are updated weekly by 鶹ƽ Biocomplexity Institute and made public each Friday in a summary report, along with an analysis that’s dozens of pages long.
Northern Virginia, because of its relatively high COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate, could be largely protected from a possible surge in COVID-19 cases this summer, according to the latest report from 鶹ƽ Biocomplexity Institute.
The district has seen relatively few new cases, hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks and joins 23 other health districts around Virginia currently showing a declining case trajectory, according to the weekly update of 鶹ƽ COVID-19 model posted at the VDH site on Friday.
On Sunday, members of the Class of 2020 of 鶹ƽ College at Wise were honored in a Commencement ceremony at Carl Smith Stadium. Although each of the 230 graduates of this class had their degrees conferred at a virtual ceremony last May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunday’s event provided an in-person opportunity for many class members to come together with their friends, family members, faculty and classmates present. Each member donned a branded mask, maintained social distance and crossed the stage, nearly a year after earning either a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Sc...
Some top M.B.A. programs, including 鶹ƽ Darden School of Business, temporarily changed their testing policies last year, allowing test waivers, though it’s unclear which, if any, of these changes will become permanent.
As construction continues at UVA with crews rebuilding the Alderman Library, Skansa Construction, a company involved in the project, is giving their workers some extra safety tips to prevent them from getting hurt on the job.