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August 12, 2021

Top Stories

UW School of Medicine to begin enrolling children ages 6 months to 11 years for Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Vaccinating children as young as 6 months of age against COVID-19 may become the new front in the global pandemic fight, if the vaccines prove to be safe and effective.

One such trial by the American pharmaceutical company Moderna will begin enrolling children 6 months through 11 years old on Friday at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. UW will be one of 75 to 100 sites in the U.S. and Canada for the trial, which has been named the KidCOVE study.

Research

Wisconsin Natural Resources Board Sets Quota Of 300 Wolves For Fall Hunt

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Adrian Treves, an environmental studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the population is at risk of dropping below 350 wolves. A recent study by Treves and other researchers concluded that hunters and poachers might have killed a third of the wolf’s population since the animal’s delisting.

In a statement following the vote, conservation group Wisconsin’s Green Fire said the quota is likely to cut the state’s wolf population in half.

“Removing 300 wolves in another hunt would likely have a destabilizing effect on almost every wolf pack in the state,” said Adrian Wydeven, a former DNR wolf biologist. “There is no other wildlife species where that level of reduction would be acceptable. And it’s highly likely it would trigger a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review of state management.”

Higher Education/System

The critical race theory controversy drives an hourslong legislative debate over classroom instruction in Wisconsin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “Teachers do not deliberately set out to make students feel bad about themselves. The problem this bill seems to identify, that Wisconsin’s teachers intentionally or otherwise want to make students feel bad, is simply not real,” said Jeremy Stoddard, a University of Wisconsin-Madison curriculum and instruction professor.

“What I fear is that if it becomes law, it will have a chilling effect inhibiting teachers from teaching a full account of history.”

State news

Pandemic Inflation Trends Put Wisconsin Businesses, Consumers Under Pressure

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: “I think that there was some concern that inflation would continue to accelerate,” said Tessa Conroy, an assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Producers haven’t been able to respond with supply as enthusiastically as consumers have responded with demand as the economy has sort of opened back up.”

Conroy said the new numbers indicate the current accelerated inflation is a temporary trend brought on by supply shortages.

“I think that’s hopeful for a lot of consumers in particular, that as some of the short-term problems resolve themselves, prices will stabilize,” said Conroy.

Athletics

Former Badgers star and Colts running back Jonathan Taylor gives financial advice to Urban Underground youths

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Former Wisconsin Badgers star Jonathan Taylor, now a running back for the Indianapolis Colts and brand ambassador for UW Credit Union, recently gave financial advice to an audience of about 30 youths at American Family Field’s Skyy Pavilion.

Taylor went to University of Wisconsin-Madison on a football scholarship and graduated in 2017.

UW Experts in the News

Bill Gates Pledges $1.5 Billion for Infrastructure Bill’s New Climate Projects

Wall Street Journal

Gregory Nemet, a University of Wisconsin professor who has written a book about recent innovation in solar power, said the policy shift will put pressure on government officials who will have to sort through complex market dynamics while managing demands from companies seeking profits and lawmakers pushing for home-state handouts.