This is the first in a two-part series about the coronavirus pandemic’s effects on the town of Wise and the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
Despite a short spring season, Virginia’s athletic programs still made big impacts during the 2019-20 academic year. From the football team finally winning the Commonwealth Cup to the field hockey team punching a ticket to the Final Four, there was no shortage of memorable sports moments in Charlottesville during the past collegiate sports season.
The spring semester is coming to a close, and final exams have begun for students across the country. UVA students say those exams look very different this year: they’re being taken at a distance, after a semester conducted largely in the same way.
Blood tests that check for exposure to the coronavirus are starting to come online, and preliminary findings suggest that many people have been infected without knowing it. Even people who do eventually experience the common symptoms of COVID-19 don’t start coughing and spiking fevers the moment they’re infected. William Petri is a professor of medicine and microbiology at the University of Virginia who specializes in infectious diseases. Here, he runs through what’s known and what isn’t about asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
Diana Tinta, a fourth-year student at the University of Virginia, has felt the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic disrupt nearly every facet of her life. After being forced to finish the semester online, she and other fourth-year students won’t be able to walk the Lawn in May. However, Tinta’s most pressing concern is an inability to pay rent and a dissatisfaction with the options her leasing company has offered.
University of Virginia medical intensive care unit nurse Miriam Karunakaran said she never thought she would have found herself fighting a pandemic. She said the experience has been “absolutely humbling.” This is a common sentiment among nurses and doctors I have interviewed – astonishment at one’s positioning at the center of the fight and gratitude to be a part of it.
Rajesh Balkrishnan, professor of public health sciences at the University of Virginia, decided to be a part of the effort as soon as he heard about the open letter. He explains that, although he understands that there are economic pressures on small businesses and daily wage earners because of the restrictions, Virginia is not yet ready to open back up. “The incidence of cases is still on the rise,” he says. “We need to bring the incidence of cases drastically down in the state before we can start easing restrictions.”
One of the state’s largest hospitals is announcing major budget cuts today – joining other medical centers in trimming salaries, reducing hours and laying-off staff. The UVA Medical Center has been losing $3 million a day during the coronavirus pandemic.
Modeling from the University of Virginia, for example, assumed that only 15% of infections were being detected. Antibody studies in other areas imply this detection rate might be even lower. As testing increases in the commonwealth – it has gone from about 1,500 a day at the beginning of the month to roughly 3,500 now – so will case counts.
The Central Virginia Partnership is working with its economic developers representing its nine partner localities, seven chambers of commerce in the region, the Central Virginia Small Business Development Center, the Lord Fairfax Small Business Development Center and the University of Virginia. The partnership and economic developers are working to lead a collaborative forum to learn more about local challenges, explore creative solutions and develop action-oriented strategies.
More than 200 UVA medical students are coming together to organize volunteer efforts throughout the Charlottesville community.
Although much can change by Election Day, favorable signs for Democrats are evident. Analysts point in particular to two Republican senators whose re-elections were once considered safe – Lindsey Graham in South Carolina and Steve Daines in Montana – but now face credible Democratic challengers. “The race for control of the Senate has gotten more competitive,” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at UVA’s Center for Politics.
Starting this week, the UVA School of Medicine and Madison House are providing free virtual tutoring for children of health care workers. Parents of K-12 students can sign up their kids for assistance in the subject of their choice and be matched with a volunteer tutor.
It started as a joke, but the question “if a fart can make it through jeans, how can a cloth mask save you from coronavirus?” has turned into a chemistry lesson. Trevor Makal, a UVA chemistry professor, took to Twitter to share his take on the question.
The centrist Biden’s win over liberal Senator Bernie Sanders in the nominating race mooted worries that a self-described democratic socialist at the top of the Democratic ticket would damage down-ballot candidates in swing states. “It’s basically around 50-50,” Kyle Kondik, an elections analyst at the University of Virginia, said of the Senate odds. “For most of this cycle, I had things leaning to the Republicans. The playing field has gotten somewhat bigger, and the states we knew were going to be competitive have gotten a little better for Democrats over time.”
Even during this pandemic, Scott Beardsley still strolls over to his office at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. The place is so eerily quiet with few students, faculty, or staff on the school’s grounds that he could hear his footsteps echo in the somber emptiness of Saunders Hall. In common with business school deans all over the world. Beardsley finds himself grappling with the most severe crisis to confront society in this generation. Unlike many of his peers, however, the former McKinsey & Co. senior partner has made Darden an exemplar in how to lead and manage an...
Are different types of soap better at killing coronavirus? Dr. Gonzalo Bearman, an infectious disease specialist at VCU Medical Center, and Dr. Amy Mathers, at the University of Virginia, answer today's questions.
Facing a deficit of $85 million a month, UVA Health announced a plan Tuesday “to mitigate the financial effects of COVID-19” that includes furloughing employees and having leaders take pay cuts. Citing a 70% decline in surgeries and 90% drop in clinic visits, the health system said that its decision to reduce expenses was needed to ensure it would have necessary funding.
Meanwhile, the University of Virginia Health System announced that it would implement a series of moves in response to lost revenue stemming from the outbreak, among them reductions in pay for leadership and physicians and reduced contributions to retirement funds.
On Tuesday, April 28, the University of Virginia Health System announced it has had a deficit of $85 million per month since the onset of COVID-19 shutdowns. One of the biggest reasons for the loss of money is the lack of elective surgeries and clinic visits.