The UW–Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs’ inaugural La Follette Policy Poll was conducted between July and September 2021 among almost 1,600 Wisconsin residents from all but one county. The poll’s margin of error is +/-2.5 percentage points.
The pandemic’s negative impact on enrollment was not ubiquitous, however. Enrollments at elite universities, such as Harvard and Stanford, held steady during the height of the pandemic. Several of the more-prestigious state flagship campuses, such as the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, recorded record freshman-class enrollments. Amid the adversity caused by the pandemic, in that sense, the rich simply got richer.
COVID-19 testing remains in high demand as cases continue to rise. Over 12,000 Wisconsinites tested positive in one day last week, a new record.
“It’s disheartening to be in this place where so many people are sick and there aren’t enough tests to keep up, but we can’t just pretend we aren’t sick, infect others, and carry on with our lives,” said UW Health chief quality officer Dr. Jeff Pothof.
Fiber is the material in plant-based foods that our body’s can’t digest. For a long time, scientists thought of it as junk, says Beth Olson, a professor of nutrition at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Today, we know that it’s essential. Fiber feeds the bacteria in our guts, which could have an indirect effect on everything from our mood to our immune systems, Olson says.
A local news report in Wisconsin quoting the lead doctor on the University of Wisconsin Health’s Moderna vaccine trial for children 6 months to 4 years old caused a stir on Covid and science Twitter over the weekend. That’s because he said FDA had again asked vaccine manufacturers to add a few hundred more kids to their trials. (Pros may recall this first happened over the summer.)
UW Hospital has had 65 to 80 COVID-19 patients the past two weeks, about 15% of total volume, spokesperson Emily Kumlien said.
Turning the tide for UW–Madison women’s basketball may be Moseley’s most formidable task yet. The Badgers have had losing records for 10 consecutive seasons.
Historically the public response to community health danger was ruled by the need to care about others. This tradition has served the country well over the last 300 years. But it is no longer standard in America. The freedom to not wear a face mask has become more important to many people than any obligation to others. Choosing narrow personal liberties over community cooperation and protection does not bode well for our ability to withstand future crises.Judith Walzer Leavitt is professor emerita in the history of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Amid the ongoing surge in COVID-18 cases, there are still a lot of questions and confusion out there about testing. UW Health’s Chief Quality Officer Jeff Pothof spoke with News 3 Now to answer some of those questions.
A recent survey found most people have good intentions, but fail to keep their New Year’s resolution.
Cliff Robb, an associate professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that although layaway is no longer used often, it did allow customers to purchase items without having their credit impacted.
Another striking example is the singing shawls made by the Karen people of Myanmar and northern Thailand, says Jennifer Angus, who teaches textile design at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. These woven garments, so named because they’re worn at funeral ceremonies where mourners sing around the clock for several days, sometimes have a fringe made from the shiny, iridescent elytra, or hard outer wings, of jewel beetles. Angus, who grew up in Canada, had never seen anything like it. “I really had trouble believing that it was real,” she says.
Ajay Sethi, director of the Public Health master’s program at UW-Madison, told the Wisconsin State Journal that if the Wisconsin Senate bill becomes law, “you would have people who falsely believe that they are protected against reinfection. And the science continually shows that people who are unvaccinated, even if they’ve had COVID before, are more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who are vaccinated and haven’t had COVID before.”
Dr. Ajay Sethi, a professor at UW-Madison and director of its Public Health master’s program, told the Wisconsin State Journal in an interview that communicating to the public that natural immunity is a substitute for vaccination will lead to more hospitalization and deaths. If the bill becomes law, Sethi said, “you would have people who falsely believe that they are protected against reinfection. And the science continually shows that people who are unvaccinated, even if they’ve had COVID before, are more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who are vaccinated and haven’t had COVID before.”
Kris Olds, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who studies the globalization of higher education, noted that in almost all cases, branch campuses are funded by their host nations, shifting the balance in setting an institution’s direction and agenda. Because they rely on their foreign sponsors, western universities don’t have full autonomy over their offshore campuses, Olds said. Texas A&M and its Qatar campus are “wholly dependent upon the largess of a foreign state.”
Bert also worked at the University of Wisconsin Physical Sciences Laboratory. He transferred to the UW Chemistry Department, where he worked for 20 years until his retirement in 1987.
After her kids were grown, she worked part-time for the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus housing, and retired in December of 1997.
Ms. Babinec’s first close encounter with electricity occurred when she stuck a scissors in a light socket when she was a child. She was briefly knocked unconscious and awoke on the other side of the room. She blacked out her house but was uninjured. She joined Dow Chemical in 1979 after earning a degree in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and became the chemical giant’s first female corporate fellow, the highest level scientist at the company, in 1998. She also worked for Dow’s venture capital group, where she gained experience developing new businesses.
