Early election results showed Black and other minority candidates putting up strong performances in several contests. “It may be that the recent focus on Black Lives Matter and racial inequities in policing opened Democratic voters’ eyes even more to Black candidates,” said Kyle Kondik, an elections analyst at the University of Virginia.
People of color whose own culture and heritage wasn’t considered when those statues were erected a century or more ago now have a voice. It’s their time to be heard – unless louder voices upstage them. It has happened before. Larry Sabato, a longtime University of Virginia political science professor and founding leader of UVA’s Center for Politics, saw lawless and extremist groups hijacked earnest protests for their own destructive ends during his youth in the 1960s. “Civil protests eventually deteriorate, only to be taken over by fringe types. I personally saw that in the Vietnam era,” he sa...
Larry Sabato, founder of the Center for Politics and a UVA political science professor, said the death total in Florida will play a key role for DeSantis’ political reputation if the spike continues. But he doubted the governor would suffer much in a Republican presidential primary in 2024. “Republican activists are skeptical of masks and distancing, cheer President Trump for not wearing one, and have made it a machismo sign of manhood and patriotism not to pay any attention to scientists and health professionals,” Sabato said. “Since DeSantis is being seen as a member of the tough guy caucus,...
The stay-at-orders that shut down or reduced business activity in states around the country have been a source of frustration, even to people who support them. And men and women whose job status is determined by voters are certainly aware of the potential effect their actions can have at the ballot box, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan political analysis and handicapping newsletter from the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “You’d have to be fooling yourself if you think an elected official wouldn’t take politics into account,” he said.
Trump’s campaign has taken to ridiculing Biden for remaining in the shadows, Kyle Kondik of UVA’s Center for Politics wrote in a recent newsletter. “They need to draw Biden out and hope he makes mistakes, so Trump can make himself look better by comparison.”
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said the numbers show Trump “is in a polling slump and he’s in a bad position for reelection as the incumbent,” but they aren’t “even vaguely predictive.”
A study of 277 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome showed dexamethasone led to more ventilator-free days and fewer deaths. “It seems biologically plausible that you can extend that benefit to patients who have this new cause of the same syndrome,” Dr. Taison Bell, an infectious disease and critical care physician at the University of Virginia, said.
One expert on the mighty car lobby finds it refreshing that McDonald just comes clean. “It’s sort of understood that – in the real world – in a democracy if you have more money, you have more say,” UVA historian Peter Norton said. “But the official fiction is that that’s not how it’s supposed to work. This guy [McDonald] seems be quite willing to say, ‘the more you pay, the more it should go your way.’ It was striking that the author comes right out and says, ‘Look who’s paying the freight around here.’”
If staged systems could be rolled up into one engine, the huge efficiency gains would dramatically lower the cost of getting to space. “The holy grail is a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle where you just take off from a runway, fly into space, and come back and reuse the system,” says Christopher Goyne, director of the University of Virginia’s Aerospace Research Laboratory and an expert in hypersonic flight.
(Commentary) One thing is clear: The U.S. Supreme Court will have to settle these kinds of conflicts, said Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia Law School, who has defended both same-sex marriage and the religious-liberty rights of traditional faith groups. The court’s new ruling “will end all legislative bargaining over religious liberty in the gay-rights context,” he said. “There is no longer a deal to be had in which Congress passes a gay-rights law with religious exemptions; the religious side has nothing left to offer.”
The entire Lost Cause campaign, from its account of the war’s causes to its characterization of Black politicians, “absolutely is about white supremacy,” said Caroline Janney, director of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia.
Fear causes stress, which is linked to chronic illnesses, including cancers, heart diseases, strokes and miscarriage, said Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the University of Virginia. The prevalence of hypertension, or high blood pressure, for Black people in America is higher than anywhere else in the world, she also said, adding Black people die at younger ages and from more severe forms of cancers.
Advocates say the Latino community, which makes up more of the state’s cases than any other racial or ethnic group, is often particularly vulnerable to the disease. “There is no biological or cultural reason for us to have more COVID,” said Dr. Max Luna, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Virginia and director of the UVA Latino Health Initiative. “It is the particular socioeconomic struggle that many are confronting that exposes them to transmission and to continued infection.”
In celebration of Juneteenth, we follow up our initial list of 100 inspiring Black scientists in America with another 100 people that we can look to as examples of Black excellence in science. (The list includes Sarah Afua Owusu, clinical science coordinator, Department of Surgery; and Dr. David S. Wilkes, dean of the School of Medicine and James Carroll Flippin Professor of Medical Science.)
(Commentary by Kyle Kondik of UVA’s Center for Politics) It’s fair to say that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is emerging as a favorite in the presidential race. Not necessarily an overwhelming favorite, but a favorite nonetheless.
(Commentary) Independent research from the University of Virginia shows that multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment teams reduce suspensions and help ensure the equitable treatment of all students.
When you say “fire ants,” people likely think about the bad news -- painful stings, itching, and damage to crops. But some University of Virginia researchers now say the presence of this invasive insect species might also have an upside: reducing prevalence of red meat allergy caused by tick bites.
Kateri DuBay, an assistant professor of chemistry at UVA, is working to understand the physical forces that govern the structures of polymers and the mechanisms that control their growth. She has been named a Cottrell Scholar, which recognizes teacher-scholars for their innovations as researchers and their contributions as academic leaders.
(Editorial) A working paper from nonprofit education organization NWEA and scholars at Brown University and the University of Virginia offers a rather ominous assessment of the setback to education during the pandemic. The authors estimate that students will start the school year at roughly 70% of where they should be in reading levels, and at less than 50% of the expected level in math.
Caroline Wimbleton credits her ease in working with people from different countries and cultures to a new 10-month program she completed in 2018 that simultaneously earned her two business master’s degrees and a certificate from schools on three continents. A partnership between UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce, Lingnan (University) College at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, the program sends students to live and study as a cohort at all three institutions for stints ranging from nine to 15 weeks.