Ten UW Health employees on Monday were among the first people in Wisconsin to get the nation’s first approved vaccine against COVID-19, as 3,900 doses of Pfizer’s inoculation arrived at UW Hospital in ultra-cold freezers, offering a glimmer of hope against the pandemic.
Few states controlled tuition at their public universities as tightly as Wisconsin has done in recent years and the handful that did offset the squeeze with some additional state money, according to a new report released Tuesday.
On the day U.S. deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 300,000, respiratory therapist Tina Schubert became the first UW Health employee and one of the first Wisconsinites to be inoculated with the vaccine made by Pfizer and the German biotechnology firm BioNTech.
A new report on the financial health of Wisconsin’s state universities and technical colleges found lagging state investment, enrollment challenges and — for University of Wisconsin schools — an ongoing tuition freeze as some of several factors threatening their competitiveness.
UW Hospital began vaccinating frontline health care workers on Monday after the hospital received thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the beginning of an effort to tamp down the pandemic.
The Madison School District and the UW-Madison School of Education announced Monday the formation of a joint early literacy task force to analyze teaching methods for reading and make recommendations to the district to reduce achievement gaps.
Some of the causes of the revenue declines, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, include shifts in how Wisconsin funds the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS).
The University of Wisconsin System President Tommy Thompson announced additional details today about incentives to UW students with nursing skills and other health backgrounds to work on the front lines of Wisconsin’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. These include qualifying criteria, deadlines and how students can apply.
According to a news release, the program is open to all students who are currently employed or become employed in a Wisconsin clinical or health care setting.
The Early Literacy and Beyond Task Force will focus on using literacy, at every level, as an equity strategy to make sure that all MMSD students are receiving the high-quality, grade-level instruction, according to a news release.
UW Health is the health system of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has more than 1,750 doctors and 21,000 staff at seven hospitals and more than 80 outpatient sites, according to its website.
UW Health has received its first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning.
“(They will) be monitored for a short period of time after the vaccine to make sure there are no adverse effect,” Dr. Matt Anderson said. “Then, they’ll be on there way and get the follow-up one done in about three weeks.”
“It’s important because so many people have died from this,” Schubert told UW Health staff afterwards. “I wanted to have an impact on my community about this and show them that I’m playing my part and getting vaccinated.”
The first UW Health employee to get the Pfizer COVID-19 was respiratory therapist Tina Schubert, who received the vaccine around 2:30 p.m. from manager of UW Health’s employee health services Megan LaClair-Netzel.
UW Health will immediately begin to vaccinate its employees Monday afternoon.
Noted: It also includes some of the losses sustained by the University of Wisconsin athletic department and the Green Bay area following the cancellation of October’s scheduled football game at Lambeau Field between the Badgers and Notre Dame.
Chryst said he hasn’t had conversations with his team about playing or not playing a bowl game, but sounded as if he would support playing if the Badgers are afforded that chance.
It’s time for federal and state legislators to work together to make targeted public investments, close resource gaps, and address structural barriers to opportunity that have plagued the higher education system for decades and that have been made only more urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic and our national reckoning on racial justice. It’s time for a real conversation about equity-based funding in U.S. higher education.
Nick Hillman is associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Follow him on Twitter: @n_hillman
“Research would confirm again and again, when people feel that what’s asked from them is not actually followed by those in power, there’s a sense of betrayal that will occur,” said Dominique Brossard, professor and chair of the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“But a lot is happening that’s taking away habitat at the same time,” said Karen Oberhauser, a restoration ecologist and arboretum director at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “It’s like we’re running fast but staying in the same place.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Barry Burden thinks it’s important that voters know – no matter whom they picked on the ballot – they didn’t get to vote for the president and vice president.
