It’s an exciting time for internet in America. The federal government is set to spend $65 billion on Broadband funding in the new infrastructure bill — the largest single investment in expanding internet access in our country’s history. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put a tremendous dent in the Digital Divide,” University of Virginia Professor Christopher Ali told us.
(Podcast) Psychologist Ben Converse of the University of Virginia considers whether we might find geoengineering a socially acceptable approach to tackling climate change.
Dr. Michael Nelson of the University of Virginia School of Medicine emphasized the need for parents to have conversations with their pediatricians. “Providing choice to a fully risk-informed public using a shared decision-making model with their trusted providers, to me, is a pretty reasonable way ahead,” he said, adding that there were millions of high-risk children and family members who needed the vaccine.
Margaret Foster Riley, JD, a law professor at the University of Virginia, said that although vaccine requirements may not be popular among certain groups, they work — often better than more popular incentive programs such as vaccine lotteries. “Our previous experience with flu vaccine mandates in healt hcare settings shows that vaccine mandates can bring compliance up from about 70% to 90%,” she said. “Anecdotal evidence from employer mandates with COVID seem to be similar.”
But if federal religious protections are that available, why the long nights and hours of debate at the end of the Legislature’s fall session to clarify that the Illinois right of conscience law doesn’t cover rejection of the coronavirus vaccine? “It wouldn’t do much good to amend it if the same exemptions were available elsewhere,” said Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia law professor whose writings on religious liberties have been compiled into five volumes. “They are not, unless the Supreme Court changes the law.”
(By Dr. Philip Carrott, thoracic surgeon and the surgical director of the lung transplant program) As a thoracic (chest) surgeon, I’m part of the team at UVA Cancer Center that provides care for people diagnosed with lung cancer. Lung cancer is a difficult disease to face. But I’ve seen an encouraging trend over the past decade: Thanks to screening, more of my patients are diagnosed with lung cancer at an early stage.
(Commentary by Dr. Shiran Victoria Shen, assistant professor of politics) The most recent United Nations climate report warns that we are running out of time to mitigate the worst effects of manmade climate change. We need to bring greenhouse gas emissions to even lower levels than were agreed upon during the 2015 Paris climate talks. We need accelerated action from individuals, sectors, cities and countries. China was highly expected to set an example in the form of an ambitious new emissions reduction pledge on the occasion of the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. However, Chi...
Two doctors from UVA Health are discussing the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11.
UVA Health held a COVID-19 briefing Friday morning to discuss children between the ages 5 to 11 getting a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric COVID-19 vaccine. The difference between the pediatric dose and the adult dose was addressed. “It’s a new pediatric formulation, so we’re not using the adult formulation. This is a brand new formulation at a lower dose that’s for children,” said Dr. Debbie-Ann Shirley, who is a pediatrician in the UVA Department of Pediatrics and also the head of the UVA Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease.
Texting strategies have been shown to effectively combat “summer melt,” the period between high school graduation and freshman year where students do not follow through with attendance. A study performed by Benjamin Castleman from the University of Virginia, showed that when sending high school students personalized weekly messaging, there was a 7% higher enrollment rate compared to students who did not receive these messages.
Infectious disease modelers at UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute caution that a large surge is still possible. About 2.6 million Virginians have not had any shots.
Infectious disease modelers at UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute caution that a large surge is still possible. About 2.6 million Virginians have not had any shots.
ROTC cadets at the University of Virginia are participating in a vigil for veterans, prisoners of war, and those missing in action. On Monday, the cadets will begin marching across the McIntire Amphitheater stage for 24 hours. They will switch out in half-hour intervals. This annual tradition is done in preparation for Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
A recent study of patients in Brazil showed that a low-cost antidepressant is effective in keeping high-risk COVID-19 patients out of intensive care units, but the hypothesis at the center of the study started right here in Charlottesville. The study evolved from a UVA medical researcher’s study of the drug, called fluvoxamine.
(Co-written by Daniel W. Gingerich, associate professor of politics, director of the Quantitative Collaborative, and co-director of the Corruption Laboratory for Ethics, Accountability and the Rule of Law) The legacy of the Black Death goes well beyond human suffering. The unparalleled pandemic did not just devastate the population in the areas it hit the hardest; it killed off entire social and economic institutions – especially ones that had, up until that point, restricted human freedom and stifled prosperity.
It’s a piece of doctorly advice you have probably heard dozens of times: “Drink plenty of fluids.” But have you ever wondered what it actually means? How much is “plenty,” what kinds of “fluids” are best and why do you need them? “That’s a great question,” says Mitchell Rosner, a nephrologist who focuses on fluid and electrolyte disorders and is the chair of UVA’s Department of Medicine.
Relative to Northam, McAuliffe’s share of the vote consistently declined more in the southern half of the state, an area with relatively fewer college graduates, than it did in more white-collar Northern Virginia. “An engaged GOP base delivered Republicans even bigger landslides than usual in rural central and western Virginia,” the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics wrote in its analysis of the results yesterday. “In 2013, McAuliffe lost the 9th Congressional District, in the southwestern corner of the state, by about 30 percentage points. Last night … McAuliffe’s deficit there fell...
(Commentary) Republican politicians like Glenn Youngkin oppose vaccine mandates in general. But he was smart enough to couple his opposition to mandates with enthusiasm for the vaccines. That turned out to be a winning strategy which enabled him to take the issue of vaccines off the table and focus on education, crime, and the economy. The University of Virginia Center for Politics notes that Republicans swept Virginia on Tuesday night, “winning statewide for the first time in a dozen years and running much better than they did in the Trump years.”
It’s not just partisan who see good recruitment news for Republicans in the results from Tuesday night. Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia made a series of race ratings changes in the wake of the 2021 results. “If [President Joe] Biden’s approval rating is in the low-to-mid 40s next year, as it is now, everything we know about political trends and history suggests that the Democrats’ tiny majorities in the House and Senate are at major risk of becoming minorities,” wrote Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman. They changed four races -- all in Republicans’...
Is Joe Manchin the James Comey of the 2021 elections? That’s what some are suggesting: That by announcing problems with fellow Democrats’ spending plans at a fiery news conference the day before Election Day, the West Virginia moderate all but handed his party a series of losses or close races – especially in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. “There are lots of reasons why a candidate doesn’t win, but at the end of the day, there’s usually a straw that breaks the camel’s back,” said Jennifer Lawless, chair of the political science department at the University of Virginia. And in this case, I thin...