The University of Virginia Medical Center expects to receive its first shipment of Pfizer’s newly approved COVID-19 vaccine around noon Tuesday. Medical Center officials say they will begin vaccinating healthcare workers immediately that afternoon.
Among this group of flagship state universities in states with large Black populations, the smallest racial gap in graduation rates was at the University of Georgia. There, 83 percent of Black students graduate within six years of entering, compared to 87 percent of White students. At the University of Virginia and the University of South Carolina, the racial gap is only 5 percentage points.
The University of Virginia is outlining its plans for the upcoming spring semester as officials closely monitor the progression of the coronavirus. The University said in a new release Monday that it plans to welcome undergraduate students back to Grounds Feb. 1.
Dr. Tom Marshburn will serve as pilot for the commercial mission to the International Space Station, NASA announced Monday. The six-month mission will be his third to ISS, with his last trip ending in 2013. Marshburn, 60, earned a master’s degree in engineering physics from UVA.
Fifty years ago, Virginians voted to revise the state’s Jim Crow-era constitution, a colossal effort led by UVA Law professor A.E. Dick Howard. As executive director of the Commission on Constitutional Revision, Howard led the successful referendum campaign for the new constitution’s ultimate ratification in 1971.
For those who remain skeptical about vaccination, one high-profile medical doctor will give a day-by-day update of her experience. Dr. Ebony J. Hilton, UVA associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, plans to take the vaccine publicly and regularly update her health on YouTube.
Michael Mutersbaugh, a first-year Ph.D. student in Duke’s Neurobiology Graduate Program, died Saturday in a single-car automobile accident. Several other passengers are recovering from their injuries. Mutersbaugh graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering in spring 2019.
Spending by employees at other large colleges and universities in Virginia dwarf the donations made by Liberty workers ahead of last month’s election. For example, employees at the University of Virginia, including those who work at the institution’s vast health care system, spent more than $1.3 million on political donations in 2019 and 2020.
With a BA in Human Impacts on Ecosystems from the University of Virginia and a MA in Climate and Society from Columbia University, Tara DePorte’s formal education has focused on issues of sustainable development, society, and the environment. Professionally, her international experience includes work throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, working with colleagues throughout the world on creative community development, environmental education, social justice, policy and networking.
When the pandemic began draining bank accounts, disrupting lives and leaving people struggling to pay bills and buy food, one government body immediately sprang into action. It wasn’t the state legislature. It wasn’t Congress. It was the University of Virginia Student Council.
(Commentary) Laws managing satellite brightness and location need to be established to further pursue astronomical knowledge. University of Virginia astronomy professor Kelsey Johnson has observed that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are excessively bright, not located in predictable orbits, and will continue to increase in numerical density. These facets of Starlink satellites have hindered astronomers’ efforts to observe space.
“One of the reasons Ossoff fell short when he ran for Congress in 2017 is, he didn’t get the type of Black turnout that he needed,” said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “Now, with Warnock as something like a running mate, it may help with Black turnout.”
A.E. Dick Howard, a law professor at the University of Virginia who oversaw the drafting of the state’s current constitution, said the governor has the power to grant a posthumous pardon. “That decision does not require legislative or judicial affirmation, nor can the General Assembly or a court disturb that executive decision,” Howard said via email. A pardon removes punishment but does not take away a finding of guilt, Howard added. But a posthumous pardon can have “enormous symbolism.”
“These more recent conflicts represent more than 'uncooperative federalism,'“ Richard Schragger of the University of Virginia School of Law wrote earlier this year. “What has emerged instead is something that could be called 'punitive federalism'—a regime in which the periphery disagrees with or attempts to work around the center and the center seeks to punish those who do so, not just rein them in.”
A third panelist, Rachel Harmon, a former federal prosecutor who directs the Center for Criminal Justice at University of Virginia School of Law, said there were risks to eliminating police, or limiting policing to the fighting of crime. “I think we could reduce police a lot, but a society with no government organization to stop people from harming others could put a lot of violence in citizens’ hands,” she said. In particular, she pointed to “the risks of racial bias there, where citizens go out and start doing citizen’s arrests, that in their own ways are very dangerous.”
University of Virginia Dr. Cameron Webb, who lost to Good in last month’s election, tweeted in response to the Republican’s remarks: “I've seen firsthand the devastation COVID-19 causes. The fact is — even here in VA — the pandemic is surging right now. Anyone can be affected and it's our collective duty to respect this threat. It goes beyond partisanship or politics. This rhetoric is irresponsible and dangerous.”
“Cities with the highest use of public transportation did not have the highest rates of deaths; if anything just the opposite,” William A. Petri Jr., a professor of internal medicine and associate director of microbiology at the University of Virginia Medical School, said via email. “The authors are careful to point out the limitations of the analysis, but it really argues against conventional wisdom, and suggests that with proper safeguards of masking and social distancing that public transportation could be used safely.”
In 1955, when the polio vaccine became widely available in the United States, it was the news the nation had been waiting for. The disease had taken the lives of thousands, and left thousands more with permanent paralysis. Children were particularly affected, but beyond that, polio did not discriminate. It affected all races and income levels equally. “There were summertime epidemics every year,” said Dr. William Petri, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the University of Virginia. “In 1916, there were 2,000 deaths in New York City alone.”
If there’s such a thing as a date with destiny, it’s marked on Dr. Taison Bell’s calendar. At noon Tuesday, Bell, a critical care physician, is scheduled to be one of the first health care workers at UVA Health to roll up his sleeve for a shot to ward off the coronavirus. “This is a long time coming,” said Bell, age 37, who signed up through hospital email last week. “The story of this crisis is that each week feels like a year. This is really the first time that there’s genuine hope that we can turn the corner on this.”
David Green teaches engineering at the University of Virginia. But just a few generations before, his ancestor lived here: a slave. “Does it give me goosebumps? Yeah,” Green said as he stood at a farm outside Brownsburg. “It really kind of deepens my appreciation for my beginnings.”