Where did omicron come from? It might have originated in South Africa, where it was first detected in Pretoria, one of the country’s three capital cities. Dr. Peter Kasson, a virologist and biophysicist at the University of Virginia, entertains the possibility due to South Africa’s low vaccination rate (26%). The more a virus spreads and infects, the more opportunities it has to replicate, resulting in more mutations. “The best way to prevent variants is to give the virus fewer people it can infect,” Kasson said.
A new national Covid-19 commission aims to answer how best to find new viral threats and study them, said Philip Zelikow, professor of history at the University of Virginia who was executive director of the 9/11 commission. He is leading a planning group for the new commission, which is seeking support from the Biden administration or Congress to conduct a broad inquiry into the pandemic’s lessons.
(Commentary by Edgar O. Olsen, adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor emeritus of economics) Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) effectively killed the Build Back Better Act and, fortunately for American taxpayers, its numerous misguided housing proposals likely are gone along with it.
(By Bart Epstein, research associate professor at the School of Education and Human Development and president and CEO of the EdTech Evidence Exchange) Ironically, the sector of our economy in which our federal government arguably does the least to facilitate information-sharing is education.
(Commentary by Neeti Nair, associate professor of history) The recent assembly of so-called sadhus at Haridwar in Uttarakhand has called for the mass murder of Muslims. The videos of the vitriolic, hate speeches have now been in circulation for a few days, and have been analysed by the media in some measure. Yet, with Covid surging and election news dominating headlines, this latest avalanche of hate speech has already begun to drop off the front pages of newspapers. We neglect this new low at our peril.
(Commentary by Mehr Afshan Farooqi, associate professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures) I’ve been cleaning out closets; dusting bookshelves packed with love. Every book in this big room, every artifact, photograph, calligraphic art, assortment of pens and writing tools, pen drives and the computer, bears my father’s touch.
UVA immunologist and COVID-19 researcher Dr. William Petri continues to answer reader questions about COVID-19, vaccines and, now, the omicron variant.
(Book review by Jack Hamilton, associate professor of American studies and media studies) The latest entry in the literature of Cash is Michael Stewart Foley’s “Citizen Cash: The Political Life and Times of Johnny Cash,” which argues for considering Cash as a political artist, a performer deeply engaged with the issues of his time who deployed his magnificent instrument in quietly radical ways.
Mincer’s has been established on the Corner since 1954, selling all kinds of University of Virginia apparel. As owner Mark Mincer battles brain cancer, his son Cal Mincer has taken over to continue the shop’s legacy and tradition for a fourth generation. “UVA is our life and our family’s history. All we’ve ever known or cared about is UVA,” said Cal.
Medical Equipment Recovery of Clean Inventory, also called MERCI, is repurposing hospital gear. Volunteers turned clean medical supplies into Christmas stockings. It puts an environmentally friendly spin on gift giving. LaDelle Gay is the volunteer coordinator for UVA Health volunteer services. “For the Christmas program, for the Stitches for Stockings, they peel the sheets of blue wrap apart so there’s a blue side and a white side and then the sheets of white they use to make the Christmas stocking,” Gay said.
Children spending Christmas Day at UVA Children’s got a special visitor: Santa Claus.
The second person in the country to receive a COVID-caused double lung transplant was Powhatan County resident R.J. Redstrom, who received his new lungs in the fall of 2020. He spent a month recovering at UVA Health. Now, he runs at least 3 miles a week at the track at Powhatan High School.
Typically, the University of Virginia runs between 500 and 600 each day. “Monday and Tuesday of this week, we hit 1,000 tests per day, which is pretty much the maximum that our laboratory can handle in any single day,” UVA Medical Laboratories Medical Director Dr. Chris Moskaluk said Thursday.
UVA Health officials say they expect a potential post-holiday surge of COVID-19 cases in Central Virginia. Dr. Costi Sifri, head of epidemiology at the UVA Medical Center, said he anticipates a steep rise in cases from the omicron variant.
The average number of pediatric hospitalizations has skyrocketed nationwide in the past week. Doctors in the Charlottesville area say beds at UVA Children’s have not been overwhelmed, but the return to school could be a better indicator of worry. “There are definitely more cases in children, but that’s a reflection of all of the cases that we’re seeing locally and nationally,” Dr. Debbie-Ann Shirley with the UVA Medical Center said.
Citing a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases, UVA Health officials are implementing a ban on visitors at the UVA Medical Center and Transitional Care Hospital that began Thursday at 9 p.m.
UVA Children’s doctors reviewed practices for bathing newborns. They uncovered a lack of standards for newborn skin care and professional advice for parents.
A group from The University of Virginia came out with a tuna robot that moves its tail like the real deal. The researchers think that this tail design may one day be used to propel the underwater vehicles of the future.
Around 250,000 documents, some stretching to hundreds of pages, are being carefully untangled and digitized by a transatlantic team of researchers, archivists and digital detectives in a join project involving Edinburgh University and the University of Virginia Law Library. Dr James P. Ambuske, co-director of the Scottish Court of Session Digital Archive Project at the UVA Law Library, said: “These are stories of people at their very worst and their very best, waiting to be told, and because they are printed documents, once digitized we can use advanced technology to reassemble complete cases,...
A new paper published in Frontiers in Psychology provides more evidence that a Montessori education may be superior to traditional methods of education, especially on measures relating to students’ long-term psychological health and well-being. “Wellbeing, or the felt experience of health, happiness, and flourishing, predicts several desirable outcomes including better health and work performance, longevity, and more positive social behavior and relations,” say the authors of the research, led by Angeline Lillard of the University of Virginia.