The UVA Medical Center reported a seven-day average of 5.29 patients per day admitted for COVID-19 as of Sunday and listed 33 patients currently being treated in its COVID care units. The hospital registered as few as five COVID patients being treated through much of June and early July.
In ”Permanent Crisis,” just out from the University of Chicago Press, Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon, professors of German, respectively, at Ohio State University and the University of Virginia, suggest that today’s preoccupation with crisis in the humanities is historically and conceptually overdetermined, less a response to current material realities than baked into the modern humanities’ self-conception.
A project at the University of Virginia is getting money from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The NEH announced $28.4 million in grant funding for 239 projects across the country on Tuesday. The release says several of the projects will focus on the intersection of the humanities and technology, while others will go toward editorial projects, including the one at UVA. At UVA, John Stagg is working on “The Papers of James Madison,” which is preparing for publication of two volumes of Madison’s papers and working toward finishing three more volumes.
For the first time this year, 33 of Virginia’s 35 health districts are experiencing rapid growth in COVID infections. Ten of them were last week, according to data from the UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute, which has developed and analyzed infectious disease models for decades. Daily vaccinations have increased slightly to almost 15,000 after plateauing for weeks at figures below 12,000. If vaccination rates pick up, UVA’s model – which projects what could happen, not what will – estimates over 60,000 cases could be avoided.
A study coming out of the University of Virginia suggests common blood pressure drugs may help colorectal cancer patients. After reviewing outcomes of nearly 14,000 patients, researchers found ace inhibitors, beta blockers, and thiazide diuretics were associated with decreased mortality. More research is needed to change existing treatments.
A new public transportation service has been given the green light in the Shenandoah Valley. After years of planning, the Afton Express bus service is launching Sept. 1. According to the Afton Express website, the service will connect communities to the west of Afton Mountain, such as Waynesboro, Staunton and Fishersville, to Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, this fall, will have more women beginning their MBA candidacy than men. Seven U.S. schools – including UVA’s Darden School of Business – reported women made up 45% of incoming classes.
On a sunny morning in May, a crowd gathered before the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, a monument constructed last year on the University of Virginia’s campus, to celebrate a historic moment. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) was in attendance for the ceremonial signing of HB1980, which requires five state colleges and universities to grant scholarships to qualified students whose ancestors were enslaved on their campuses.
In the neonatal intensive care unit at UVA Children’s, Dr. Brooke Vergales noticed that many babies who were nearly recovered had to overcome one more hurdle: feeding. These babies were often fitted with a nasogastric tube to help them take in nutrients as they are bottle-fed around-the-clock to ultimately move them off the tube. Vergales, an associate professor of pediatrics and neonatology, suspected that babies would do better at home, where their parents could care for them.
Local hospitals say they are extremely busy, but there is still bed space available for people who need it. UVA Health spokesperson Eric Swensen says the hospital normally is very busy, and some delays are possible. “We can experience delays in a patient’s admission if this specialty bed is not immediately available while we wait for a patient to be discharged,” he said in a statement.
Afghanistan is about 6,000 miles away, but students at the University of Virginia are mourning for their home country. UVA organizations like the Afghan Student Association and Persian Cultural Society are taking action and raising awareness for Afghanistan.
When former All ACC wide receiver Canaan Severin set aside his NFL dreams he started writing, and that writing turned into his newest short film "Lean In."
Ben Kohles is back on the PGA Tour. The former University of Virginia golfer earned his PGA Tour card for the second time in his professional career on Sunday after finishing in the top 25 of the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2020-21 regular season points standings.
Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political handicapping newsletter at UVA, believes that GOP redistricting gains might go as high as five or six seats. But Kondik stresses that just because the Republicans can rig more districts than that does not mean they actually will. It is not as if the GOP suddenly will become the party of good-government reformers. But Kondik points out the forgotten part of the equation “is what House members want and what state legislators want.”
(Editorial) The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol showed wisdom in choosing Tim Heaphy as chief investigative counsel.
Larry Sabato, the director of the UVA Center for Politics, says it is a difficult situation for Americans to watch unfold. “The loss of life is the most important thing of all. The fact that over 2,400 Americans have lost their lives trying to preserve freedom for Afghans, and now we don’t see a return on that very high price and blood and treasure ... it’s easy to understand why people are so upset,” Sabato said. “It’s gonna be a miracle if there isn’t a lot of bloodshed.” However, Sabato says, sending troops back likely will not be the cure-all solution.
Some analysts are skeptical that Biden will pay a price at the ballot box. Larry Sabato of the UVA Center for Politics, noted that the fall of Saigon hardly featured in the 1976 presidential race. “Vietnam was not an issue just a year later in the presidential election, and we lost 58,000 Americans there in a war that was more intense.”
As schools nationwide emerge from a pandemic that upended educational norms, and caused rates of depression and anxiety to increase among teenagers, reformers hope educators will use this moment to remake middle school, turning it into a place where early adolescents not only survive, but thrive. “This is an opportunity to think about what we want middle school to look like, rather than just going back to the status quo,” said Nancy L. Deutsche, the director of Youth-Nex: The UVA Center to Promote Effective Youth Development.
Not requiring employees at a company making COVID-19 vaccine to be vaccinated against the disease seems counterintuitive, experts said. Vivian Riefberg, a professor of practice at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, said a vaccine mandate from vaccine makers could show faith in their product. "It could send a signal to other companies that could be valuable," she said.
The Blue Ridge Poison Center is seeing several calls about snakebites. According to a release, the center has received more than 85 calls about snakebites. "I would say we're about on where we usually are," said Dr. Chris Holstege, chief of UVA’s Division of Medical Toxicology.