According to Dr. Taison Bell, a physician at UVA Health who serves on its vaccination distribution committee, says that the hesitancy among some Black Americans and the vaccine is not monolithic. The nurses he spoke with are concerned it could damage their fertility. A Black co-worker questioned him on the Moderna vaccine’s safety, considering it was the company’s first round released to the market.
Vivian Riefberg, professor of practice at UVA’s Darden School of Business, said the new administration should enlist as many approaches to vaccination as possible: mass distribution centers, community health facilities, physician’s offices, pharmacies, schools. “You’ve got to provide an array of places that administer vaccines,” she said.
Dr. Cameron Webb has been tapped for a senior role in President-elect Biden’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Webb, a doctor at UVA Health and former candidate for 5th District representative, has been named the senior policy advisor for COVID-19 equity.
(Podcast) How will the new Biden Administration structure its own frameworks for regulatory oversight? What old and new tools will it keep? And what new innovations might it deliver? To discuss these and other issues, the Gray Center hosted a webinar conversation with experts including Michael Livermore of the UVA School of Law.
In 1910, it’s estimated that African Americans owned up to 16 million acres of land. Today, they own under 5 million acres, says historian Andrew Kahrl, a UVA professor who has extensively studied African American landownership.
It’s an inaugural week like no other – the Capitol is on lockdown, the Senate could begin an impeachment trial, and the nation is grappling with a pandemic and an economic crisis. This all falls onto soon-to-be President Joe Biden’s plate. “Joe Biden has his work cut out for him; that is a gross understatement,” said Barbara Perry, presidential studies director at UVA’s Miller Center.
“At a time when we need a celebration as best can be had under COVID; at a time when we need to unify; at a time when we need to say to the world ‘We are a beacon of democracy and a shining city on a hill,’ our own hill, Capitol Hill is an armed fortress,” said Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at UVA’s Miller Center. “It is not like we have not faced anything like this, but we have not faced anything like this in the modern age, even since 9/11,” Barbara added.
The capital is on edge. Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics, who has attended every inauguration since 1976, said: “We’ve had some strange ones over a couple of hundred years, but nothing like this, and what’s really sad is people are nervous. I would say a fair number of people are hoping they move it inside. You can’t put anything past these people and they clearly have been talking assassination – there’s no other way to put it. These people are crazy and they’ve been legitimized by Trump.”
Presidential historian Russell Riley said 1968-69 was a somewhat comparable time, when Richard Nixon – who had campaigned on a wave of resentment – took office after the country was riven by riots, antiwar protests and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. “It was a country that was torn apart, and Nixon understood that his chief mission was healing,” said Riley, from UVA’s Miller Center. “That’s not a word that’s usually associated with Nixon because of what happened in subsequent years, but certainly in January of 1969, that was something that was pre-eminent in...
(Commentary by Kristen E. Eichensehr, Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law) When a state seeks to defend itself against a cyberattack, must it first identify the perpetrator responsible? The U.S. policy of “defend forward” and “persistent engagement” in cyberspace raises the stakes of this attribution question as a matter of both international and domestic law.
(Commentary by Nicholas Sargen, lecturer at the Darden School of Business) Since the November elections, investors have been focused on President-elect Biden’s efforts to bolster the U.S. economy, including the latest $1.9 trillion plan. But investors should not lose sight of potential regulatory changes that could unwind much of the deregulation that occurred in the Trump era. Three areas – the environment, health care and tech giants – are among those likely to be most affected.
(Commentary by Elizabeth R. Varon, Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History) President Trump’s second impeachment, on Jan. 13, 2021, is an important historical marker – a stern repudiation by the House of Representatives of his conduct in office. But what will it take to defeat the broader phenomenon of Trumpism? Andrew Johnson’s presidency furnishes a cautionary tale about the limits of impeachment as a political remedy.
(Commentary by Melody Barnes, co-director of UVA’s Democracy Initiative, and Caroline E. Janney, John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War) Long before the Trump presidency spiraled completely out of control, many Americans comforted themselves by asserting we were not in a civil war. As we sift through the debris left by the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 – and anticipate what is likely to come – we ignore at our peril the cautionary tale of the last Civil War and what followed it.
The Health Wagon was founded by sister Bernadette Kenny. More than 40 years on, the mobile health units Kenny set in motion continue their daily rounds, demonstrating the same kind of creativity that has always driven the ‘wagon.’ And now thanks to a partnership with UVA, they’ve expanded their services to include telemedicine.
UVA Health has been selected for a pilot program that will aim to provide connected care services in urban and rural places.
Researchers say they’ve found no evidence to support GOP grievances that tech companies target conservative voices. “I know of no academic research that concludes there is a systemic bias – liberal or conservative – in either the content moderation policies or in the prioritization of content by algorithms by major social media platforms,” Steven Johnson, an information technology professor at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce, told USA TODAY in November.
This week at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey present the most detailed look yet at the warp of our own Galaxy. “Our usual picture of a spiral galaxy is as a flat disk, thinner than a pancake, peacefully rotating around its center,” said Xinlun Cheng of the University of Virginia, the lead author of the study. “But the reality is more complicated.”
A co-author on the paper is Zachary Irving, a UVA assistant professor of philosophy who explored the psychological and philosophical underpinnings of mind-wandering as a postdoctoral scholar at UC Berkeley. “If you focus all the time on your goals, you can miss important information. And so, having a free-association thought process that randomly generates memories and imaginative experiences can lead you to new ideas and insights,” said Irving, whose philosophical theory of mind-wandering shaped the study’s methodology.
Heart failure affects roughly 5.7 million Americans and that’s why doctors at UVA are working on a therapy to improve the quality of life for their patients suffering from this disease.
A COVID-19 model from UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute that updates each Friday predicts the state could reach a peak of weekly cases in mid-February with at least 50,232 reported. This could continue into April, partially due to the slower-than-promised vaccine rollout and pandemic fatigue.