Faculty and staff at UW-Madison put together a new website and app to help people navigate through COVID-19.
New website and app to help navigate COVID-19 pandemic
NBC-15
Author: gbump
UW Health makes it easier to get tested for COVID-19
NBC-15
According to the health system, they have both increased the number of tests they can perform and reduced the turnaround time. UW Health says it doubled the tests it can perform in a day to 400 over the past ten days and expects to be able to run even more soon. It is also now to get results in hours, rather than days.
Yandell, Keith Edward
Wisconsin State Journal
Dr. Yandell taught at UW-Madison from 1966 until 2011.
Global race for COVID-19 vaccine includes Madison contenders
Wisconsin State Journal
“That is incredibly accelerated when you consider most vaccines have been in development 10 to 15 years before they come to market,” said Dr. Jonathan Temte, a family medicine professor and associate dean at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Philanthropy bolsters UW legacy as a top 10 research university
Wisconsin State Journal
Experts present data on coronavirus pandemic, social distancing
Badger Herald
Most Wisconsinites have complied with social distancing, despite protests in Madison last week.
Public History Project hosts live online event to honor 30th anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act
Badger Herald
Project assistant for Public History Project spoke about specific challenges students with disabilities faced throughout history of UW.
UW System starts Plan Ahead Team to prepare for fall semester
WKOW-TV 27
The system formed a Plan Ahead Team to review the best practices and criteria for a return to in-person instruction for the fall semester.
Trump harshly blames China for pandemic; a lab ‘mistake’?
AP
Quoted: But virus expert David O’Connor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said he thinks too little is known to rule out any source, except the idea the virus was man-made. Finding the source is important, he said, because it may harbor the next pandemic virus.
UW System forms ‘Plan Ahead Team’ to prepare for fall semester
NBC-15
They will be reviewing practices and criteria for in-person instruction.
30% drop in heart attack patients worries UW Health cardiologists
NBC-15
Local cardiologists are concerned that people are avoiding treatment for heart attacks during the coronavirus pandemic, potentially putting their lives at risk.
US intel says virus not manmade, still considers Chinese lab
Wisconsin State Journal
But virus expert David O’Connor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said he thinks too little is known to rule out any source, except the idea the virus was manmade. Finding the source is important, he said, because it may harbor the next pandemic virus.
Unique position as Badgers’ director of meditation training offers Chad McGehee chance to explore mental performance
Wisconsin State Journal
Chad McGehee is fond of a comparison between strength training and mental training, perhaps even more so now that he has been hired as a director of the latter for the University of Wisconsin athletic department.
Wisconsin businesses urge lawmakers to pass ‘Back to Business’ plan
Wisconsin State Journal
Dr. James Conway, a professor at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health who specializes in infections diseases, said loosening up restrictions regionally would more easily allow for infection to spread rapidly in places other than Madison and Milwaukee.
State labs could test more COVID-19 samples but supply shortage hampers efforts
Wisconsin State Journal
UW Health relies solely on its own in-house laboratories to process COVID-19 tests, though it is purchasing reagents, which are chemicals needed to identify the virus’s genetic material from a patient’s sample, from Promega, headquartered in Madison.
COVID-19 virus samples in Dane, Milwaukee counties differ, UW genetic sequencing reveals
Wisconsin State Journal
Most COVID-19 viruses sequenced from Dane County patients appear to come from Europe, while Milwaukee-area samples stem from Asia, according to preliminary genetic sequencing data by UW-Madison researchers. “There’s not much mixing between the two locations,” Thomas Friedrich, a UW-Madison professor of pathobiological sciences, said. “This suggests to us that there’s been some success in the travel restrictions that we are still under.
The U.S. labeled a white supremacist group as ‘terrorists’ for the first time. It’s less significant than you think.
Washington Post
On April 6, the State Department announced it would designate the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) as terrorists. This marks the first time that the United States has officially applied the “terrorist” label to a white supremacist organization.
Anna Meier (@annameierPS) is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
UW-Madison to mandate staff furloughs over the next six months
WKOW-TV 27
The furloughs will range from three days to six days over the next six months, UW Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced Wednesday.
Faculty union concerned UW furloughs will disproportionately hurt most vulnerable
WKOW-TV 27
For Franze, the furloughs add an extra layer of uncertainty. While she’s been teaching at UW-Madison for five years, Franze works on a semester to semester contract. She worries cutting salaries may escalate to cutting staff and she anticipates those without long-term contracts or low salaries will be hit the hardest.
Can Genetic Engineering Bring Back the American Chestnut?
The New York Times
Donald Waller, a forest ecologist recently retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, goes further. “I sketched out a little balance with risks on one side and rewards on the other, and I just kept scratching my head over the risks” that this transgenic tree could pose to the forest, he told me
Evers’ attorney warns of safe-at-home patchwork
NBC-15
Quoted: Dr. Jim Conway, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told reporters on the call that if the statewide order is erased the state would start seeing major outbreaks within a week.
UW-Madison orders furloughs through October
NBC-15
University of Wisconsin-Madison officials are ordering most employees to take furlough days through October and top campus leaders will take pay cuts as the school tries to absorb a $100 million loss due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Free applications to 2-year UW campuses from June 5 – 15
NBC-15
The UW System is now offering free applications for anyone applying to any of its two-year campuses, but only during an 11-day period this summer.
UW study finds stay-at-home order is flattening curve in Wisconsin
NBC-15
Thomas Friedrich, professor of pathobiological sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine, and his team at UW-Madison are tracking how the coronavirus changes, ever so slightly, as it moves from person to person.
UW announces furlough plan; top execs to take 15% pay cut
Madison365
University of Wisconsin Chancellor Becky Blank announced today in an email to all staff and faculty a graduated furlough plan for most staff, a work-share program for some units and a 15-percent pay cut for Blank and all vice-chancellors. Under the plan, most staff will be furloughed just a few days over the next year. The number of days furloughed will depend on salary.
UW professionals help meet hospitals’ PPE need, solve distribution issues
Badger Herald
UW engineering professor, graduate student create website designed to match PPE producers with hospitals.
UW prepares fall semester instruction plans amid COVID-19 uncertainty
Badger Herald
UW spokesperson Meredith McGlone said to the WSJ the current discussions revolving around the fall semester outline three plans, including a mix of face-to-face classes and online instruction — large lectures could possibly remain online while smaller classes would be in person.
UW announced 2020 Academic Staff Excellence Awards recipients
Badger Herald
Though the in-person award ceremony has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, UW recognizes and celebrates the achievements and contributions of its academic staff.
UW economist explains state of Wisconsin economy during COVID-19 pandemic
Badger Herald
CROWE director said Wisconsin unemployment rate has reached 19% overall.
How Close Are Wisconsinites Sticking To Home As The COVID-19 Crisis Continues?
WisContext
A group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison used data from multiple vendors to estimate the impact of in-person voting on movement patterns during Wisconsin’s election on April 7.
Could asthma and allergy protect against severe COVID-19?
Reuters
“We were surprised to learn that the COVID-19 pandemic in China did not seem to impact people with asthma as severely as we would’ve expected it to,” lead investigator Dr. Daniel Jackson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health said in a statement.
UW-Madison Announces Furloughs To Address $100M Shortfall Caused By COVID-19 Pandemic
Wisconsin Public Radio
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced campus-wide furloughs for faculty, and academic and university staff to help address a $100 million budget deficit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Expert: Public Health Measures Like Hand-Washing, Social Distancing Hold Key To College Sports’ Return
Wisconsin Public Radio
The conference created its first-ever Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases on March 7. The group, which includes a representative from each of the conference’s 14 member schools, meets weekly with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. Dr. Ann Sheehy, a faculty member from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, represents UW-Madison.
Flu ‘backbone’ headstart for Covid vaccine development: Krishna Ella – Daijiworld.com
Daiji World
CoroFlu, being developed under an international collaboration, is built on the backbone of FluGen’s flu vaccine candidate known as M2SR. Based on an invention by the University of Wisconsin-Madison virologists and FluGen co-founders Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Gabriele Neumann, M2SR is a self-limiting version of the influenza virus that induces an immune response against the flu.
UW furloughs employees, expects to save about $30 million
The Capital Times
University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty and staff will be taking three to six unpaid furlough days over the next six months, which Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Wednesday will save the university up to $30 million.
Madison hospitals ask for more donated homemade masks amid COVID-19 pandemic
Wisconsin State Journal
“As the situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve, area hospitals are still in need of supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for non-direct caregivers and support staff, especially masks,” the hospitals said Wednesday in a statement.
UW-Madison orders furloughs for most employees as COVID-19 keeps campus mostly closed
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison is ordering most of its employees to take varying amounts of unpaid time off over the next six months and university leaders will take a 15% pay cut over that same time as COVID-19 costs grow and the campus remains mostly closed.
UW-Madison names Karl Martin UW Extension director
Wisconsin State Journal
Karl Martin, who has served as interim dean and director of Extension since June 2018, will lead the division, which has more than 700 faculty and staff located in 72 county offices.
Planning for Camp Randall Stadium premium seating addition continues amid COVID-19 questions
Wisconsin State Journal
Amid questions about how the coronavirus will affect the 2020 football season and the rest of college sports, senior associate athletic director for capital projects Jason King said UW isn’t changing course until it has a clearer picture.
Meat shortages may be coming at grocery stores soon. Here’s why
CNN
“We definitely can see shortage of products in the grocery stores,” said Jeff Sindelar, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with an expertise in meat processing. If the larger processing plants continue to shut down or operate with limited capacity, certain products may be unavailable and others could get really expensive, he added.
Why Zoom Is Terrible
The New York Times
“Our brains are prediction generators, and when there are delays or the facial expressions are frozen or out of sync, as happens on Zoom and Skype, we perceive it as a prediction error that needs to be fixed,” said Paula Niedenthal, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who specializes in affective response. “Whether subconscious or conscious, we’re having to do more work because aspects of our predictions are not being confirmed and that can get exhausting.”
The Revolving Door Of Disease Between Humans And Animals
WisContext
Charting the animal origins of human diseases like COVID-19 can be difficult and often leads to unexpected discoveries, explained Dr. Tony Goldberg, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. During a January 29, 2020 presentation at the Wednesday Nite @ the Lab lecture series on the UW-Madison campus, Goldberg recounted the growing body of research into pathogen transmission between animals and humans over the past three decades.
Planned Madison Overflow Facility To Treat COVID-19 Patients On Hold
Wisconsin Public Radio
One isolation center is at the Lowell Center on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. Since opening April 1, eight people have used it. The other state-run isolation facility is at a Super 8 motel in Milwaukee, where 37 people have stayed over the same time period.
The Man Who Runs 365 Marathons a Year
Outside Online
Bipolar disorder, a condition that causes erratic shifts in mood and activity, affects about 1 percent of Americans. It is often misdiagnosed as depression, largely because the people who suffer from it tend to seek help in their depressive stages, says Claudia Reardon, a psychiatrist and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Reardon has worked with a handful of bipolar athletes, most notably middle-distance runner Suzy Favor Hamilton.
Also: Shortly after, in mid-December, Shattuck was fired from his job as a senior financial specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Losing his job hit him hard.
US marriage rates: CDC report says rate in 2018 at all-time low
Today.com
Christine Whelan, Ph.D., professor in the School of Human Ecology at University of Wisconsin – Madison, told TODAY she believes that the falling importance of religion in today’s society also plays a role, evidenced in part by more unmarried couples living together.
“The idea of first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby — it could be any order you choose at this point,” she said. “For the last couple decades, we’ve seen ’choose your own adventure’ when it comes to marriage patterns.”
Hurricanes Make Lizards Evolve Bigger Toe Pads
Smithsonian Magazine
“This is a striking case of rapid evolution, which, as we can see here, can proceed exceedingly fast, even within a generation,” Carol Lee, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the research, told Ed Yong of the Atlantic in 2018. “I expect there will be many more cases like this in the future, where catastrophic events impose strong selection on populations, and where populations will need to evolve or go extinct.”
UW Health works to keep hospitals, clinics safe places to seek care
WISC-TV 3
“Providing safe treatment and care for all of our patients is always our top priority,” a release said. “Patient safety and care has driven many UW Health operational changes in the last two months to address the COVID-19 situation.”
UW-Madison geology professor tweets at The Rock, he responds with geological opinions
WISC-TV 3
UW-Madison Department of Geoscience Professor Stephen Meyers tweeted at Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on Thursday asking the famous actor what some of his favorite geological topics are as a way to send his geology students off with a fun memory.
UW now offering new cybersecurity, liberal arts degrees for 2020-21 school year
NBC-15
The university says the 60-credit UW Associate of Arts and Sciences program provides students with a broad liberal arts background, and offers an online option that can lead to early graduations.
UW Health still says no layoffs planned for hourly workers amid pandemic
NBC-15
UW Health continues to insist that no layoffs are planned for its hourly workers at the time, after another local medical system, SSM Health, announced it will furlough 2,000 employees to combat financial challenges caused by the pandemic.
Karl Martin chosen as permanent dean of UW-Madison Division of Extension
NBC-15
Karl Martin, who is serving as interim dean and director of the UW-Madison Division of Extension since June 2018, has been chosen to serve as the permanent dean and director of the division, the university announced Tuesday.
UW begins plasma transfusion treatments for COVID-19 patients
Badger Herald
Treatment reserved for patients life-threateningly ill, severe symptoms.
UW researchers collaborate with New York doctors for improved COVID-19 treatments
Badger Herald
Treatments involve application of mass spectrometry techniques.
Baer, Kathleen “Kathy” Ann
Wisconsin State Journal
Kathy proudly retired after 40 years working at the University of Wisconsin.
Alliant helps DNR go off the grid; utility to serve park buildings with solar panels and batteries
Wisconsin State Journal
Pioneered by researchers at UW–Madison, the idea of a self-contained electricity system that can function independent of the larger electricity grid is not new.
Wisconsin colleges weigh how to reopen campuses in fall amid COVID-19 uncertainty
Wisconsin State Journal
“There may be some things we simply cannot do in the fall,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said Monday to the University Committee, a small group of professors representing faculty members on campus. “It is quite possible that 80,000 people cannot gather in Camp Randall.”
Task force to look at safe operations in state courts during COVID-19 pandemic
Wisconsin State Journal
The task force includes judges from a cross-section of counties throughout Wisconsin, along with medical consultants from the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, circuit court clerks, county corporation counsels, district attorneys, public defenders and county sheriffs.
Badgers basketball player Joe Hedstrom receives plenty of support during father’s recovery from serious accident
Wisconsin State Journal
Agorgeous spring day had finally arrived April 5, and Joe Hedstrom decided to spend it fishing with his brother Eric at one of their favorite spots along Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.
From Fox News, a big dose of dumb on hydroxychloroquine
The Washington Post
Quoted: None of these studies provides the sort of evidence that health professionals consider robust, like a large double-blind trial. Nasia Safdar, a professor with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, says the current state of research, while not optimal, has inspired caution. “At the moment there’s no evidence to suggest that this is a harmless, helpful treatment, as was suggested by some,” says Safdar. The pitfalls of the studies to date, says Safdar, are “exactly why you need to wait for the science to demonstrate whether it works.”
Stimulus Checks Show Trump, Congress Abandoned Kids Mid-Pandemic
Fatherly
Last year, the University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist Nathan Seltzer analyzed 24 years of data, looking at every birth in America at the county level. He found that a lack of manufacturing jobs in an area was an incredibly accurate predictor of fertility rates compared to unemployment rates, which have long been used as the ur-economic indicator.