(Commentary by W. Bradford Wilcox, sociology professor and director of the National Marriage Project; subscription required) On March 13 – the day my wife informed me that our weekend date night was off because our governor had declared a state of emergency – I had an inkling that big changes were in store for our marriage. A few days later, as we found ourselves barely managing to home-school six children, work two jobs and run a big household on lockdown, I knew that the loss of a regular date night was going to be the least of our marital challenges.
With nearly everyone focused on the coronavirus, discussions about other health issues have taken a back seat. However, UVA Health wants people to know other medical problems are alive and present. If you’re experiencing any sort of medical difficulties, there are still doctors and nurses ready to provide you care.
(Commentary by Arlene W. Keeling and Kenneth R. White of UVA’s School of Nursing) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are telling nurses to reuse masks or, if necessary, “use a bandana.” This is an outrage.
“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.
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.”
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 order...
As Closures Continue Amid Outbreak, Liberty University Welcomes Thousands of Students Back to Campus
Unlike the privately held Liberty University, Virginia’s public K-12 schools will remain closed through June, Northam announced yesterday, and the University of Virginia, for example, is only allowing students who truly have nowhere else to go to remain in on-campus housing.
An increasing number of law schools are willing to take the GRE in lieu of the LSAT in admissions decisions. And because of COVID-19, the GRE is being offered from the comfort – and more importantly, safety – of your own home. The University of Virginia is among the 50-plus schools that accept the GRE for admissions purposes.
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 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.
“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.