Quoted: “If you’re vaccinated and boosted, holiday celebrations for the most part pose really low risk,” UW Health Chief Quality Officer Dr. Jeff Pothof said.
For unvaccinated people, that’s not the case. If someone gets vaccinated or boosted now, they won’t be fully protected by Christmas Day, but Pothof said some protection is better than none.
“The best day to get your booster shot, if you haven’t gotten it, is today, as soon as possible,” Pothof said.
Quoted: “We’ve entered a convergence of timing here of cases are rising,” said. Dr. Dan Shirley, an infectious disease physician with UW Health. “There’s this kind of variant question, and obviously the holiday season is an important time to get together.”
With older children or adults who have spent years trying to pinpoint the cause of their conditions, speed is not as vital, he said. That’s why genome sequencing for patients at the new Undiagnosed Genetic Disease Clinic is done at UW-Madison’s Biotechnology Center, which can run so-called “long-read” sequencing that can provide even more answers. UW plans to study up to 500 patients at the clinic over five years, with the goal of diagnosing rare disorders and discovering new disease genes.
Noted: Zuckerman dedicates nine pages to Jon Wolff, an mRNA pioneer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison School of Medicine. In 1990, Wolff and several colleagues published an article about “the first successful use of mrna” that could be used as a vaccine, as it ultimately was for Pfizer and Moderna.
Antibody-like proteins found in a shark’s immune system could be a natural COVID killer that not only prevents the virus that causes it, but also different variants – such as Omicron that is currently spreading across the globe.
The proteins, known as VNARs, are one-tenth the size of human antibodies, making them small enough to ‘get into nooks and crannies that human antibodies cannot access,’ Aaron LeBeau, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of pathology who helped lead the study, said in a statement.
Antibody-like proteins developed from the immune systems of nurse sharks can prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 from infecting human cells, a University of Wisconsin researcher reports.
University of Wisconsin-Madison health services reported 75 positive COVID-19 tests among students Thursday, the highest number of confirmed cases in a single day yet this semester. The previous high was 65 cases one Sept. 16, a week after fall semester began.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers at UW Health are sharing their experiences in the intensive care unit (ICU) at University Hospital in Madison. University Hospital is a level one trauma center, a referral center for other hospitals, and often sees the sickest patients or patients that need a higher level of care.
Nurse sharks gliding around a tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison may hold the secret to an unusual, previously unexamined treatment for COVID-19, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications.
In a statement Tuesday, UW-Madison spokesperson Meredith McGlone said the pause, announced Monday, is effective immediately.
One year ago, Tina Schubert became the first person in the state of Wisconsin to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. As a respiratory therapist for UW Health, she saw firsthand the damage the virus could do to a person, and she was scared. But she says she felt something different after receiving the shot.
UW Health Respiratory therapist Tina Schubert was the very first person in the state to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Schubert says vaccines have allowed schools to return to in-person learning, families and friends have been able to come together and the medical community has learned more about vaccines. These are all things that give her hope.
UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee joined dozens of colleges that are halting COVID-19 vaccine mandates after a federal judge last week blocked the Biden administration’s order requiring shots for federal contractors.
Quoted: Greg DeMuri is a pediatric epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has also been advising the Madison Metropolitan School District on its testing program. He said it took some time to get the program up and running, but it’s starting to work well.
“It is very, very useful,” he said. “They are seeing cases there, and detecting cases, and they’re able to keep (sick) kids out of school because of it, so it’s a big asset to the schools and to the community.”
Quoted: Ajay Sethi, associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said no one is discouraging the use of the remedies Johnson is proposing but the public should know they are not proven to be effective in protecting against COVID-19 infection.
“Things like home remedies, vitamins and supplements, new diets have been advertised to and used by people in our society for decades, centuries even, for all sorts of ailments. No one is discouraging their use, but they do not provide tangible benefit against Covid, and they are not a substitute for vaccination,” Sethi said.
Patrick Remington, a former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s preventive medicine residency program, said the NIH relies on proven treatments.
“Simply put, the NIH and other researchers set a high bar for proving that a treatment is effective. Studies done in the lab or in animals, or clinical anecdotes play an important part in the research process, and lead to hypotheses that are then tested in rigorous, controlled trials,” Remington said.
Noted: A 2019 report from the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute that examined gaps in the state’s behavioral health system found that 55 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties had a significant shortage of psychiatrists, particularly of those who could provide support for both mental health and substance use issues.
“Omicron seems more infectious than delta and increases risks for both vaccine and natural immunity, but those with vaccine or natural immunity who are reinfected have far lower risks of severe infection and even lower risks of death,” Dr. Charles Hennekens of Florida Atlantic University and Dr. Dennis Maki of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health said via email.
Quoted: Jonathan Patz, a professor of environmental health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said those effects are to be expected when wildfires blow your way.
“It’s not rocket science,” he said
In Madison, increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations could lead hospitals to again postpone some elective procedures like knee and hip surgeries if the situation continues to get worse, said Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at UW Health. “The next few weeks are going to be tough,” Safdar said. “If the hospitalizations continue to rise, I think that will put the health systems under enormous stress.”
With all the focus on a new COVID-19 variant, it’s easy to forget about the flu. But University of Wisconsin-Madison officials warn cases are picking up on campus and around the state.
The family of a Sun Prairie man who died after being treated at UW Hospital in late 2018 is suing the hospital, saying he contracted Legionnaires’ disease during the hospital’s previously reported outbreak of illness from the pneumonia-like bacteria that spread in water systems.
Quoted: Dr. Nasia Safdar, the director of infection control at UW Hospitals and Clinics, said she and other health care experts are wondering whether the omicron variant will be more contagious, how serious infections will be and how effective current vaccines will be in combating it. Safdar said it’s important to remember that even if existing vaccines are less effective on this new strain, they are still likely to offer some protection.
“Every decision that we make in this pandemic is going to be a trade-off between the risk and the benefit, and it’s what can one do to mitigate that risk,” said Safdar. “And of course, we don’t know how this is going to unfold fully yet. But it is a reminder that let’s do everything that we can on our end to mitigate things.”
UW-Madison Police and University Health Services counselors have answered four mental health calls together through a co-responder model that launched last month.
A new COVID variant of concern has been named: Omicron. Dr. Dan Shirley with UW Health says there are a few next steps in dealing with this variant to focus on in the weeks to come. “The first step, that is still kind of ongoing, is to one: develop a way so everyone knows to look for this variant,” explained Dr. Shirley, an Infectious Disease Physician.
“We’ve been dealing with a variant here in the US already with Delta, that has spread very fast,” UW principal investigator for COVID-19 Dr. Bill Hartman said. Now the world is bracing for a new COVID-19 mutation, Omicron, and health officials like Dr. Hartman are worried.
The NFL announced a partnership last week with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and three other research universities to study head impacts during football games and practices using mouthguards fitted with sensors.
Be thankful for the teachers who allow our children to go to school, the clerks who stock the shelves, and everyone else who makes or delivers what we need. Be thankful for the science that helps protect us, including abundant vaccines, a promising new pill to treat COVID and ongoing research at UW-Madison and elsewhere.
Doctors at UW Health say the pandemic is now largely one of the unvaccinated. To help protect people and stop new variants from developing and spreading, getting a booster dose is a powerful tool in the fight against the pandemic, according to Dr. Jim Conway, pediatric infectious disease specialist, UW Health, and professor of pediatrics, UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
More than two decades after she was critically injured in a shooting, a local woman got the chance to reunite with a nurse who helped save her life.
To assess how missed screenings might affect cancer mortality rates, the National Cancer Institute turned to Oguzhan Alagoz, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison whose research involves modeling both cancer epidemiology and infectious diseases.
“The question is really interesting because it’s a combination of the two areas I work in,” Alagoz says. His first estimates, unveiled in a widely read editorial published in Science in June by NCI director Normal E. Sharpless, showed that missed screenings might result in 5,000 additional deaths in breast cancer alone over the next decade. A separate group, looking at missed colon cancer screenings, predicted another 5,000 deaths.
When Alagoz produced his breast cancer estimates early in the pandemic, he thought the numbers might not be truly representative. So he worked to refine them, using better data with three powerful cancer models that incorporated numerous factors related to breast cancer—such as delayed screening, treatment effectiveness and long-term survival rates—and the nuanced ways they intersect to affect mortality over time. “Everyone can tell you what will happen immediately, but it’s hard to say what’s going to happen in five or 10 years,” Alagoz says. “If there’s a huge increase in smoking, you’re not going to see more lung cancer right away. You’re going to see that 10 or 15 years down the road.”
This month, most University of Wisconsin campuses celebrated hitting a threshold of having 70% of students fully-vaccinated against COVID-19 with full pomp and circumstance.
They doled out nearly $500,000 in scholarships through a UW System lottery, with 70 lucky students taking home $7,000 each. Other students won t-shirts, iPads, campus swag and scholarships through campus-sponsored programs aimed at encouraging vaccinations.
But one campus in southwestern Wisconsin — UW-Platteville — fell far short of the 70% goal, illustrating the challenges officials face trying to encourage vaccination in some rural areas.
In a statement Monday, pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Jim Conway urged eligible people to get booster shots.
Quoted: If the child may not be aware of the incident, adults can start with a general question, like, “Were kids at school talking about anything in the news today?” suggested Travis Wright, an associate professor of counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
If the answer is no, Wright said an adult may end the conversation with an open invitation, like: “Great. Lots of times there are things we hear about in the news that can be scary. If you ever hear anything that makes you feel upset, please know you can always talk to me.”
In some cases, especially if it’s expected that a child will find out about the incident, adults may want to introduce the subject. Wright suggested sharing something like: “There was a parade and someone injured some people at the parade. If you hear about it, I want you to know you can talk to me about it.”
UW Health officials say a COVID booster shot is a “powerful tool” in the fight to end the pandemic. In a statement Monday, pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Jim Conway urged eligible people to get booster shots.
University of Wisconsin System campuses are taking different approaches as COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadlines near for federal contractors.
UW-Madison has extended its mask mandate to Jan. 15, citing holiday travel and increasing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in other parts of the state, the university said.
UW Health will require that all organ transplant patients be fully vaccinated, effective on Monday, Nov. 15.
Hospitals in Wisconsin and across the country have implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates for their staff. Now, UW Health Hospitals is requiring some patients to be protected against the disease as well.
The University of Wisconsin System early this year came out against a mandate, a stance that frustrates some students and staff who believe a requirement would not only provide a much safer environment for working and learning but also increase overall vaccination rates. The System instead requires unvaccinated students to test regularly. It has also incentivized students to get the shot by offering $7,000 scholarships to 70 vaccinated students enrolled at a campus that reached a 70% vaccination goal by Oct. 31. At UW-Madison, which did not participate in the incentive campaign and does not have a mandate, 95% of the student body is vaccinated, far and away the best outcome statewide among responding campuses that followed neither route.
UW Health is joining a growing number of organ transplant programs in requiring patients to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to get transplants or be put on organ waiting lists.
UW-Madison told its employees on Thursday that they must be vaccinated by early 2022 to comply with a vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The university said the order applies to all workers, including student employees, those working remotely from home and part-time workers. About 95% of employees are already fully vaccinated.
How did major Chinese and U.S. outlets differ in their initial coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic? That’s the central question behind a new study published last week in the Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly journal.
The overall finding: Chinese outlets’ focus on Covid-19 was much more domestic, perhaps because they were focused on trying to contain the outbreak, while the U.S. view was much more focused on politics and the conflict between various levels of government when it came to combatting the crisis.
“Some are more party-focused in China and some more investigative and we tried our best to cover a variety of mainstream outlets,” said Kaiping Chen, an assistant professor of life sciences communication at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the senior author of the new paper.
UW Health announced Thursday that patients waiting for organ transplants will now be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they can be added to the waitlist or receive a transplant.
UW Health will host a hiring event next week, focused on environmental and food service jobs. The event will be held on November 16, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Best Western InnTowner Hotel at 2424 University Ave.
Alders Lindsay Lemmer and Patrick Heck said Tuesday that UW Health had contracted consultants Axley Brynelson LLP and Chessboard Consulting, both of which the alders claimed are anti-union.
The KidCOVE trial had been looking at vaccine.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health participation in pediatric COVID-19 vaccine testing will now target an even younger age group. UW Health is helping test the safety and effectiveness of Moderna’s version of the vaccine on children between the ages of six months and five years old.
As children ages 5 to 11 begin to get vaccinated against COVID-19, even younger kids are participating in clinical trials that will determine if they will be able to get similar protection against the disease in the near future.
This week, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health announced a phase 3 clinical trial of the Moderna vaccine in kids ages 6 months to 4 years old had filled up. The trial has been underway for two weeks.
Dr. Ellen Selkie, an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of Wisconsin, noticed that many of her patients came to terms with their gender identity through social media.
“This has become a disease of the unimmunized,” said Dr. James Conway, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and associate director for health sciences at the school’s Global Health Institute.
“The guidelines are unnecessarily complex, but there is a fair degree of latitude,” David O’Connor, a pathology professor at the University of Wisconsin, told Insider.
Pearlman is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Men’s Health Program Director of Urology at the University of Iowa. Levine is a Professor of Urology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Le is an Associate Professor of Urology at the University of Wisconsin. Levin then announced, “men who have had Covid are six times more likely to develop erectile dysfunction.”
“These are often the ones that are distressing both to persons with dementia and especially with their family members,” said Dr. Art Walaszek, Geriatric Psychiatrist, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, on the University of Madison-Wisconsin’s podcast from the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
The University of Wisconsin System announced Wednesday that it will comply with an executive order issued by President Joe Biden more than six weeks ago requiring federal contractors to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Interview with Heather Kirkorian, a professor of Human Development and Family Studies at UW-Madison.
UW Health says ECMO technology to treat cardiac arrest will now be available for children as young as 13.
On Monday, Moderna announced its COVID-19 vaccine generates a strong antibody response in children ages six to eleven. This comes as the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine is conducting the state’s first ever pediatric COVID-19 vaccine study for Moderna.
The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health was one of the hospitals that was participating in pediatric clinical trials, dubbed the KidCOVE study, for Moderna. Children as young as six-months and as old as 11 years old were selected for the study, UW Health said when it announced its selection.
The combination of delayed preventative care and the stress that the pandemic has caused has significantly increased the number of people seeking care.
