Helena Zeweri, a professor of global studies at the University of Virginia, was born in the United States, but has watched in horror as the country her parents evacuated in the late 1970s is once again in a state of violence and chaos. “I have family members who are stuck and we’re trying to help them. I’m still processing it. I mean the first reaction I think I had was this is the human fallout of unbridled imperialism and corruption in the government. This is the human consequences of that,” she said.
(Commentary – and art – by Ashon Crawley, associate professor of religious studies and African American and African studies) There was so much loss. Rumors and gossip were in the atmosphere. The hushed conversations and whispers felt unavoidable. These rumors, this gossip, is the reason I didn’t want to be a musician of the infamous Hammond B-3 organ or be a choir director, though I had an affinity for and joy in this music. Because, even at a young age, I was able to sense a relationship between the genius musicians performing those chord progressions, the flamboyant choir directors moving th...
The Blue Ridge Health District said Friday that in conjunction with the University of Virginia Medical Center, it would offer free COVID tests in the Charlottesville area five days a week to meet local demand. UVa is offering tests Monday nights at The Church of the Incarnation and Tuesdays at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church. On the other three days of the week, BRHD staff will be in the parking lot outside the former JC Penney at Fashion Square mall.
UVA Health is improving its standard of care by opening a new training space to help kidney patients. Some pediatric patients require treatments at home, like dialysis. The Family Education Room in the Battle Building will be a place where parents can learn how to confidently care for their child.
In its weekly report Friday, the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute says 33 of the state’s 35 health districts are experiencing a surge in cases. The only health districts not in surge are Fairfax County and Alexandria. The institute continues to project that the number of new cases by mid-September could rival the January peak of over 6,000 a day.
University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute has put out a model predicting a spike of delta variant cases in late August. The model shows a possibility of 1,531 cases at its peak in the first week of UVA undergrad classes. “The really good news is the vaccine works wonderfully well against the delta variant,” UVA Medical Center Dr. Bill Petri said. “So that vaccine that we all received last winter, spring is still very effective even though this is a mutated virus.”
Amid a backdrop of growing COVID-19 cases in all corners of the commonwealth, a projected surge could be staved off if Virginians practice the “tried-and-true” prevention methods, a new report stated. The University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute’s projections are designed to show what could happen if things continue on a certain path. Currently, models suggest by September COVID-19 cases could easily exceed the high records set in January.
Universities are known for fomenting dissent in students who then challenge prevailing societal norms, but sometimes dissent and challenge come from an unexpected direction. Consider the Future Medical Professionals for Life chapter at the University of Virginia, a recently formed organization that is exactly what it claims to be.
University of Virginia students are all officially moved in, and 96.6% of them are fully vaccinated. The distanced move-in process ended Saturday. Students are now beginning what they hope will be a normal school year. First and second-year students participated in convocation Sunday, where they all took the honor pledge. Activities have already started opening up for vaccinated students, like a welcome week concert.
(Commentary by Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies and Gerald L. Baliles Professor at UVA’s Miller Center) Forget the poet (T.S. Eliot) who proclaimed April to be the “cruelest month.” August is no summer picnic for U.S. presidents. As President Biden has discovered, a presidential vacation can be rudely interrupted by foreign and domestic crises.
What is a psychologically rich life? According to authors Shige Oishi, a UVA professor of psychology, and Erin Westgate, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida, it’s one characterized by “interesting experiences in which novelty and/or complexity are accompanied by profound changes in perspective.”
UVA Health is making some changes to its visitation policy. Starting Thursday, inpatient and transitional care patients can choose two visitors who will stay the same for the patient’s entire stay. Only one can stay overnight. People in the emergency department are limited to one visitor.
What should be done about the crisis of housing and homelessness in the District? While many hold theories, the District’s Attorney General, [UVA Law alumnus] Karl A. Racine wields powerful tools to address matters directly.
The Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents today announced the appointment of an advisory council that will assist in planning for a new Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington, D.C. The advisory board is composed of 19 citizens, the Smithsonian secretary, a member of the Board of Regents and four members appointed by congressional leaders. The members appointed so far include Vivian Riefberg, a director emeritus with McKinsey & Company and a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
January 6th Select Committee Chief Legal Counsel Tim Heaphy expects his work to take six to 12 months with the committee, after which he’ll return to work as the University of Virginia’s chief legal counsel. Heaphy tells Morning News the mandate is “hold some hearings, and do some fact gathering, and issuing a report about what happened at the Capitol Jan. 6.”
While Massie and Paul double down on their COVID-19 rhetoric, another Kentucky Republican in Congress is promoting a sharply different message on vaccines: Senate Minority Leader McConnell. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said of Kentucky’s powerful senator: “McConnell is, in my view, the most prominent Republican advocate of the sensible scientific point of view about vaccines.”
Justin Kirkland, political science professor at the University of Virginia, said McAuliffe appears to be playing on people’s dislike of Trump over his own past accomplishments. “I would say sort of the strategy is trying to tie Youngkin to the Trump arm of the Republican Party more than it is to discuss what McAuliffe was able to do when he was governor,” Kirkland said.
Darryl Brown, a professor of criminal law at the University of Virginia, said Thursday he believes current state code would restrict English from seeking geriatric release at all, because it prohibits inmates convicted of Class 1 felonies from doing so. While the rape, sodomy and penetration convictions are all unclassified felonies, with no numerical degree, they involved a victim under age 13. “For that version of the offense, the mandatory sentence is life, which makes it a class 1 felony,” Brown wrote in an email. “The statute defining punishment for class 1 felonies says that sentences fo...
The Norweigian study provided much-needed long-term data on survivors of testicular cancer, said Dr. Robert Dreicer of the UVA Cancer Center. “Additional information on this population is very important given they are young men when treated with long life expectancies,” Dreicer, a clinical expert for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, wrote via email. “This study showed a significant excess of second cancers over time and for the first time appears to show that exposure to more than two cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy increases this risk after 10 years of follow-up. Additionally ...
A collection of some of the nation’s top public health officials, faculty experts and leaders from across both sides of the political arena have sent a letter to institutions of higher education calling for them to strengthen their COVID-19 pandemic procedures and strategies. Among the signatories is Philip Zelikow, director of the COVID Commission Planning Group and professor, University of Virginia.