A new vaccine that could provide protection against existing and future strains of the COVID-19 coronavirus, other coronaviruses, and cost about $1 a dose has shown promising results in early animal testing, according to scientists at the UVA Medical Center and Virginia Tech.
Dr. Neal Frederic Kassell and Meredith Jung-En Woo, best of friends for years, were ambivalent about marriage as recently as three months ago. But on Sept. 9, while sitting next to each other on an airplane in relative silence, Dr. Kassell leaned over to say something to Ms. Woo, who was reading a book. Dr. Kassell, who previously served as a co-chair of neurosurgery at the University of Virginia, met Ms. Woo, 63, after she was hired as dean of the University’s College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in May 2008.
(Press release) After a national search, Ellen M. Bassett has been selected as the John Portman Dean’s Chair of Georgia Tech’s College of Design. Bassett is currently a professor of urban and environmental planning and the associate dean for Research in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. She is also director of the school’s Real Estate Design and Development certificate program.
Additionally, a May report from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics found that the birth rate and fertility rate in the U.S. fell to historic lows in 2020. W. Bradford Wilcox, who directs the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, called the CDC report was “pretty sobering.” Wilcox, also a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, said in an interview with Catholic News Agency that the U.S. might be “on the cusp of” something similar to “a demographic earthquake.”
At the same time, drawing the line at viability has long been the subject of criticism. “The viability framework has always been something of an embarrassment, in large part because viability hinges on medical technology and access to it,” said Julia D. Mahoney, a law professor at the University of Virginia.
The president’s remarks came as Covid infection rates climb again in parts of the midwest and north-east, with health workers and hospital systems saying they are preparing for an influx of Covid patients due to holiday travel. “It is a race against time,” said Kyle Enfield, the associate chief medical officer of critical care at UVA Health.
Dr. William A. Petri, an immunologist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, answers this week’s questions from readers on COVID-19.
University of Virginia law professor Rich Schragger has authored legal reviews and newspaper columns about the legality of moving war memorials. Opinions on whether to move Confederate statues tend to split along partisan lines, he said during a phone call. “It’s interesting that these things got on the ballot in the first place,” Schragger said, adding that city councils or county supervisors can elect on their own to move monuments. “They can do a referendum, but they don’t need to.”
The plaintiffs have a few ways to collect their money. They can place liens on houses or properties and garnish future wages. University of Virginia professor of law Micah Schwartzman says collection efforts all come down to symbolism. “For some of them, it will mean financial ruin and bankruptcy. They may be judgement proof, in the sense that they simply don’t have the financial means to pay out these damage awards. In those kind of cases the damages may be symbolic, but I think here the symbolism matters,” Schwartzman said.
Yet to be seen is whether substantial damages awarded under Virginia law will inhibit far right violence elsewhere in the country. A University of Virginia Jewish history professor, James Loeffler, who is covering the case, quoted lead defense attorney Roberta Kaplan as saying outside the court that she plans to retry based on the two federal claims.
Legal experts, however, said that the jury’s decision came down heavily on the side of the plaintiffs. “Though there is some ambiguity in the verdict, the bottom line is that the jury found for the plaintiffs and awarded significant compensatory and punitive damages,” said Richard C. Schragger, a professor at the University of Virginia Law School who had been following the case closely. Mr. Schragger said the outstanding question was why the jury found a racial conspiracy to commit violence under state law but deadlocked over a similar provision of federal law.
Many of the new laws instruct employers to accept religious exemption requests at face value. At least one requires businesses to offer exemptions based on “sincerely held personal beliefs” that aren’t tied to faith. These policy moves will further complicate efforts to sort out how to apply existing religious freedom protections to the workplace, legal experts said. They also make it difficult for businesses covered by proposed federal vaccine mandates to know how to proceed. “We’re in uncharted territory here,” wrote Douglas Laycock, a UVA professor of law and religious studies, in an email....
“He was fiercely independent,” says A.E. Dick Howard, the University of Virginia law professor who led the 1970 campaign to ratify a new state constitution at Holton’s request. “He was never anybody else’s man. No one ever commanded Linwood Holton.”
Ranked as CNBC’s Top State for Business for two consecutive years, Virginia earned the distinction in part for its “wealth of colleges and universities.” These are some of the educators and leaders who are helping to grow that national reputation for academic excellence. (The list includes Pam Cipriano, dean of the School of Nursing, and Whitt Clement, rector of the University.)
These are Virginians who feed and delight us, nourishing body and soul through arts and entertainment, media, food, hospitality and tourism. (The list includes Mattherw McLendon, dorector and curator of The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA, and alumnus Jamelle Bouie, a columnist for The New York Times.)
High achievers all, these Virginians are well-rounded leaders in their fields and their communities, sharing their expertise and moving the needle for growth and progress. (The list includes alumnus and former Cavalier football players Ron Carey, founder and CEO of Tilt Creative + Production.)
The flu season is beginning to gain traction with a predominant strain that concerns one infectious disease expert, and he’s urging everyone 6 months and older to get a flu shot. “We’re starting to see the first cases,” said Dr. Bill Petri, UVA professor of infectious diseases. “And it’s the more dangerous of the three strains that’s here. It’s what’s called influenza A (H3N2), which is associated with worse diseases, especially in the elderly.”
“We don’t if it’s more transmissible. We don’t know if it’ll evade vaccines, but we’re issuing travel bans. What’s gotten everyone so concerned?” News 5’s Caleb Perhne asked Dr. Kyle Enfield of the University of Virginia. “The omicron has more mutations in the spike protein than other previous strains have had,” Enfield said. “So there are a lot of questions about, ‘Will it spread more rapidly?’”
The variant was discovered in South Africa at the beginning of November. UVA Professor of Infectious Diseases Dr. William Petri said it’s more infectious than the delta variant. “It’s concerning because it replaced the delta variant in South Africa. Omicron could outcompete delta indicates – at least in South Africa – it’s more infectious,” he said.
Omicron was first identified in South Africa. It’s not deadlier, but it does appear to spread easier than other variants. “It’s gone from about 300 cases a day in Johannesburg for example to like 20,000, 30,000 cases a day today,” said Dr. Bill Petri, an infectious disease specialist out of UVA Health.