5th District Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman credits UVA and Virginia Commonwealth University for quickly developing in-house tests for the coronavirus. He says that’s leading to faster and better protocols and testing.
WVIR-NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
Richmond Times-Dispatch
“We’re probably testing the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Bill Petri, a professor of medicine and vice chair for research of UVA’s Department of Medicine. “If the estimates are correct that eight out of 10 people have no symptoms with this, and maybe only the people with severe symptoms are the ones that are coming for testing, we could probably multiply the number of positives by at least 10 or something to have a better estimate of how many people are infected.”
Richmond Free Press
“The health of our residents and the community is our top priority.” So said Dr. M. (for Mohammed) Norman Oliver as he faces his biggest test as Virginia health commissioner in dealing with the coronavirus that has upended normal life. A longtime professor of family medicine at the UVA School of Medicine, Dr. Oliver has led the Virginia Department of Health for nearly two years.
Builtin.com“Calm brings calm; panic brings panic.” That epigrammatic bit of guidance, courtesy of Cathleen Swody, an organizational psychologist and founding partner of management consultancy Thrive Leadership, would have been sound advice even prior to t
CBS 19 News (Charlottesville)
Researchers at UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute received a $10 million grant to plan for and respond to epidemics and pandemics. The five-year collaborative “Expeditions in Computing” grant from the National Science Foundation will be used by a team of researchers at 14 institutions across the United States.
WVIR-NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
UVA says a timely $1 million grant from the Quantitative Foundation will help it produce COVID-19 test. The university announced Thursday that the additional funding is expected to help increase the numbers of tests produced daily from 200 to more than 500. A portion of the tests will also be made available for other Virginia hospitals, clinical providers, and first responders.
The New York Times
Laurie Archbald-Pannon, a geriatrician and an associate professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Virginia, recently wrote about her concerns and advice for older Americans. “As geriatricians, we promote the benefits of social engagement to our patients; we remind them of the poor health outcomes associated with social isolation,” writes Dr. Archbald-Pannon. “Now, with COVID-19, the times have changed. But along with the risk of coronavirus infection comes the risk of social isolation.”
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
The spiky proteins of the new coronavirus appear all over the place. From the evening news to this newspaper, close-up pictures of the proteins poking out of a sphere represent the virus at its most pared down. To Dr. William Petri, those proteins are more than an informative illustration. At his UVA lab, he believes understanding them is key to unlocking a potential solution to the ongoing crisis.
CBS 19 News (Charlottesville)
The University of Virginia says it has issued offers of admission to more than 2,400 students during the regular admission cycle. The students received notifications last week. According to a release, Dean of Admission Greg Roberts says he recognizes this is an extraordinarily challenging time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Charlottesville Daily Progress
Efforts by UVA Health researchers to increase UVA’s COVID-19 testing capacity received a $1 million boost on Thursday in the form of a grant from the Charlottesville-based Quantitative Foundation.
PBS “Newshour”
A more accurate comparison to the novel coronavirus pandemic is an incident like the deadly polio outbreak under President Harry Truman in the late 1940s, said Barbara Perry, the director of presidential studies at UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.
Biz Journals
The University of North Carolina and the University of California-Berkeley are the runners-up in the 2020 academic standings, with the University of Virginia and the University of California-Los Angeles rounding out the top five.
Enterprise AI
A hotly debated coronavirus-related issue is President Trump’s stated desire that the country be “opened up” from social distancing by Easter (April 12). A data-driven answer to the controversy may come in part from the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute, whose AI-based simulation platform is designed to help public officials understand how the contagion is spread and anticipate where hot spots will happen. The ultimate goal: enable state and local governments to predict the public impacts of coronavirus policies, such as imposition – and lifting – of stay-at-home orders.
Wall Street Journal
(Subscription required) State and local officials are struggling to understand how their decisions about public services and businesses will affect the spread of the new coronavirus. UVA researchers are looking to help by making widely available an artificial-intelligence system that can simulate the impact of policy decisions on health outcomes in a particular community.
Charlottesville Daily Progress
Despite continuing supply shortages, UVA Health testing between 25 and 50 patients a day using its own COVID-19 test. Dr. Amy Mathers, an infectious disease physician and associate director of clinical microbiology, and Mendy Poulter, director of clinical microbiology, led the effort to create the tests at the University that were announced last week.
WVIR-NBC-29 (Charlottesville)
A UVA professor is doing his part to try to help parents explain the importance of hand-washing to children. As an engineering professor at UVA, Keith Williams is trying to use his knowledge to teach necessary information in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Lacrosse Magazine
It’s been almost two weeks since the UVA’s men’s lacrosse team found out that it wouldn’t get a chance to defend its national championship. Two weeks that have provided little clarity.
Non Profit Quarterly
Rebecca W. Rimel announced last year that she would be retiring from her role as president and CEO of the Pew Charitable Trusts, so last week’s news that the board had named a replacement was not a surprise. Prior to Pew, Rimel had established herself as a leader in the medical field. She was the first nurse to hold a faculty position at the University of Virginia’s Medical School, and she served as an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery.
Poets & Quants
UVA’s Darden School of Business announced Tuesday the most sweeping changes in MBA admission policies of any business school yet. Darden said it would now accept undergraduate entrance exam scores on the SAT and ACT in lieu of a GMAT or GRE, will “transition” its round three deadline of April 6 by more than three months to July 15, and even nudge writers of recommendation letters on behalf of candidates.
The Great Courses Daily
“In 1775, Scottish watchmaker Alexander Cummings received a patent for a flush toilet with an all-important innovation: an S-bend in the drainage pipe,” said Dr. W. Bernard Carlson, professor in UVA’s Department of Engineering and Society.