“The pandemic has impacted more people’s lives directly than some of the other major events in the Trump era,” said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at UVA’s Center for Politics. “Combine that with the very concrete images of rioting and looting that have been blanketing the news, and I can see why the electorate would feel especially anxious.”
A new partnership aims to solve problems for both rural businesses and college students who lost their summer internships due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Central Virginia Small Business Development Center and the UVA Career Center launched the Propel Management Consulting Program.
Republicans are having a harder time gaining traction in Michigan, one of their few chances to go on offense in a state with a Democrat-held seat up for election. Recent polls show Biden leading Trump in Michigan. “We think the presidential and Senate races there are probably going to be tied pretty closely together,” said political analyst Kyle Kondik of UVA’s Center for Politics.
It has been over a week since George Floyd, an African American man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, sparking a wave of protests across the country against institutional racism. For Dr. Ebony Hilton, a physician at UVA Health, the issue highlights what she calls the threat of the two pandemics: COVID-19 and police brutality.
Richard Schragger, a UVA professor who specializes in constitutional law, said public health orders are generally valid. “There is no individual constitutional right to refuse to wear masks indoors and no general constitutional right for businesses to operate without government restrictions that protect the health, safety and welfare of the community,” he said in an email. “Even if a right were implicated, such as a First or Second Amendment right, the government has a compelling interest in requiring mask wearing.”
A new tool is helping biomedical scientists working with COVID-19. According to a release, the new tool is helping them better understand the virus and feel confident with the structural models they are using in their research. Wladek Minor of the UVA School of Medicine and top structural biologists led an international team of scientists to investigate the protein structures contained in this strain of coronavirus.
Updated modeling from the University of Virginia shows that the state’s peak in COVID-19 cases could arrive in late July or early August. The severity is largely dependent on how closely social interaction returns to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Last week, the VDH reported that mitigation efforts – stay-at-home orders, wearing masks in public and social distancing – are believed to have prevented 682,882 cases, according to the University of Virginia model. The model is designed to help policymakers determine the best course of action to take – posing “if-then” scenarios. The model is not designed to predict future numbers, but to offer a range of possibilities based on different policy actions.
The University of Virginia is among the top 20 law schools for 2021, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The University of Michigan is America's top-rated public college, based on national rankings issued by American City Business Journals. The University of North Carolina and the University of California-Berkeley are the runners-up in the 2020 academic standings, with the University of Virginia and the University of California-Los Angeles rounding out the top five.
Researchers project that coronavirus closures could lead to much greater learning loss in reading than usually occurs during the traditional “summer slide.” But with the stress and trauma that many students are experiencing during the shutdowns, it’s possible that the effects could be even greater, said Emily Solari, a professor of reading education at UVA’s Curry School of Education and Human Development.
Mendelsohn – a 1982 UVA alumnus, international bestselling author and translator who writes regularly for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books – shares his thoughts on the coronavirus and quarantine. His latest book, “Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate,” is due out from the University of Virginia Press in September.
Frontline workers at Sentara Martha Jefferson and UVA Health got an artful and luminous thank you Monday night. Once the sun set, both buildings were lit with a projection mapped art display, provided by The AV Company and Zilog80 Visual Art.
(Commentary co-written by Laura Morgan Roberts, professor of practice at the Darden School of Business) No matter your racial, political, or other identity, these events are almost impossible to escape. In particular, millions of Black people and their allies are hurting. And these issues are not ones that organizations or their leaders – from CEOs at the top of the hierarchy to team managers on the frontline – can ignore.
In other words, they are difference-makers like the University of Virginia’s Chloe Stegeman. She is considered a rarity by Professor Kimberly Whitler – a student who makes every classroom experience better. “Chloe emits positivity, caring, and a genuine, supportive community spirit,” Whitler writes. “It is one thing to contribute valuable comments to a case discussion — which she does. It is a whole other thing to make the community richer, more connected, and at peace…When you watch her enter the classroom — and see the love, joy, and admiration that her classmates have for her — you kno...
UVA Health is urging people who are suffering from symptoms of stroke to call 911 despite the pandemic, saying every minute is critical in preventing long-term injuries. UVA stroke expert Dr. Andrew Southerland said they saw a huge drop in people seeking help for strokes last month.
The science: It is incontrovertible that fitness helps strengthen the human immune system. Indeed, according to Zhen Yan of the UVA School of Medicine, recent medical research “strongly supports” the possibility that exercise can prevent or at least reduce the severity of acute respiratory disorder associated with COVID-19.
UVA Darden School of Business Dean Scott Beardsley on Sunday became the first prominent business school dean to speak out on the racial issues prompting major protests and violence in the U.S. Calling the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis “unjust” and “symbolic of the ongoing killing of and discrimination against black people and other minorities in the history of this country,” he maintained that the Darden School of Business condemns “racism in all its forms.”
UVA coaches also released statements over the weekend. Head football coach Bronco Mendenhall said he was “horrified and deeply saddened by the footage of the last moments in the life of George Floyd.” Mendenhall also expressed his gratitude and appreciation for being able to help lead young men from various backgrounds – all together “in a shared pursuit of excellence on the field, in the classroom and in life after college.”