UVA researchers are working with a lab at Virginia Tech to find a vaccine for COVID-19. But even if one is approved, its success depends on how many people agree to take it.

A tale of two campaigns is emerging ahead of the first face-to-face meeting in the general election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday night on the presidential debate stage. All told, Biden has participated in 26 vice presidential and presidential primary debates in the 33 years since he launched his first presidential run in 1987, according to a list of debates compiled by UVA’s Center for Politics.

Democrats say the new justice could shift the court’s balance to 6-3 in favor of conservatives and lead to the overturning of the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, the ending of the Affordable Care Act, and restriction of LGBTQ rights. “The court plays an outsize role in constitutional law,” says Saikrishna Prakash, the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law at the UVA School of Law. “These nine people decide what our Constitution means.”

The COVID pandemic has prompted more doctors and nurses to see their patients online, but more than 300,000 rural residents of this state lack high-speed internet. Recent budget cuts in Richmond will delay the expansion of broadband, but a UVA team is proposing another way to make telemedicine available.

UVA researchers compared course completion rates for students at the Virginia Community College System who were enrolled in online courses from the start of the spring semester against those who were enrolled in in-person courses at the start and had to switch to virtual instruction due to the pandemic. They found that the shift to virtual instruction resulted in a 6.7-percentage-point decrease in course completion. 

This summer has been a season of tests or lack thereof. In between checking for COVID-19, many high school seniors also experienced a test of their patience. With no in-person classes, they couldn’t take the SAT or ACT tests. As a result, college admission offices across the country changed course to accommodate a lack of standardized college admission testing. That includes colleges in Virginia, as they went “test-optional or “test blind” due to a shortage of testing availability.

As the novel coronavirus vaccine would be approved in the U.S. by Food and Drug Administration before the end of 2020, University of Virginia researcher Dr. Steven Zeichner said that the vaccine would not be effective at all if a certain number of people don’t get the shot.

(Commentary) Nor is there any rational basis for the claim that Trump is violating historical precedent by nominating Ginsburg’s successor so near the end of his first term with no assurance that he will be reelected. University of Virginia professor Barbara A. Perry has pointed out in the Washington Post, six lame duck presidents (Harrison, Hayes, Tyler, Van Buren, Jackson, and Adams) nominated justices shortly before leaving office.

Kimberly J. Robinson, a professor of law at the University of Virginia, said the outcome was “horrific” but it could be a transformative moment for the future of the Black Lives Matter movement. “I think the risk with the Black Lives Matter movement is that it could dwindle out without requiring the systemic reforms of education and other areas that are needed,” Robinson said. “This moment will be one that people will point to as something that continues to fuel the need to move forward.”