The UW Health Transplant Center performed more paired kidney exchanges in 2020 than any other transplant center in the entire country, the health system announced Wednesday.
Messages sent to UW-Madison students last fall, like “Follow public health guidelines or risk suspension,” laid out the high stakes for students weighing whether to break COVID-19 rules. Disciplinary data show UW-Madison went to that extreme just once, suspending a single student last fall. The university sanctioned nearly 1,400 others for COVID-related public health violations so far this school year.
The UW Health Transplant Center performed 64 paired kidney exchanges last year, which the organization said Tuesday was more than any other transplant center in the country.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, UW Hospital joined select medical centers in treating severely ill patients with antibodies from donors who had recovered from infections, with five of the first six patients in Madison improving enough to be released from the hospital … But since late January, the spotlight on convalescent plasma has dimmed.
The challenge now is logistics. Dr. Peter Newcomer, chief clinical officer for University of Wisconsin Health, said the treatment never really took off at his facility. And now, with a low load of cases to begin with, his hospital is only treating a patient or two a day. Wisconsin hasn’t seen the same surge as Michigan.
As the vaccines have rolled out, many experts have strenuously rejected the idea that there’s any “best” vaccine. “The best vaccine is the one that goes in your arm,” said Mary Hayney, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy who researches vaccination. “I truly believe that there is not a big difference among the vaccines, or a discernable difference. Whatever one is offered to you, take it.” (Again, Hayney spoke to Slate before the latest J&J news.)
Another hurdle is getting local, state and federal labs all working together. “There are lots of cats that need to be herded,” said University of Wisconsin virologist Thomas Friedrich.
Column by Kevin Reilly, former president of the University of Wisconsin System and a senior fellow at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison administered a record 2,729 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine last week, more than double any week so far, but supply remains low and unreliable despite students’ looming summer break.
Doctors are encouraging parents of children ages 16-17 to get their teen vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the less chance there will be of a vaccine backup as more children become eligible and in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“When the time is right, it will be vital to vaccinate children if we hope to provide broad immunity for Americans against this dangerous virus,” Conway said. “However, children are not small adults and we must make sure these vaccines are safe for them.”
The new funds will support organizations that are working to address inequities in Madison, according to a news release, and are in addition to the more than $3 million UW Health has committed every year to support organizations making a difference in our community.
Persuading people to get a COVID-19 vaccine remains a challenge even as more than a 120 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose.
Public health officials have struggled to find persuasive and accessible approaches throughout the pandemic, from explaining where COVID-19 originated to how the virus spreads among individuals, along with steps to prevent its transmission, its inequitable impacts on people’s lives, and now relevant risks and benefits information about vaccines.
-Dominique Brossard, Todd Newman, Emily Howell
Most of the vaccine doses UW Health has received have been Pfizer, but health care workers plan to pause use of any Johnson & Johnson shots they have on hand.
UW Health senior medical director of primary care Matt Anderson said this news should not impact what people think about other COVID vaccines, including Pfizer and Moderna. Anderson said several months of data show those vaccines to be safe and effective.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison paused Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccine distribution following an April 13 advisory from the CDC and FDA.
Oguzhan Alagoz is a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies infectious disease modeling. He agrees another surge in cases in Wisconsin would likely not be as bad as surges before vaccinations started.
“Even if we do see an increase in cases, as long as we vaccinate the vulnerable individuals, our hospitalization and deaths are not going to be as bad as what we have seen over the last several months,” Alagoz said.
Quoted: “I think we’re all at the edge of our seat, fingers crossed we don’t experience that, but all the signs indicate that we could experience it,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re headed in the wrong direction.”
Although vaccines appear to be highly effective against new variants of COVID-19, not enough of the population is yet vaccinated to prevent a surge without other precautions, Sethi said.
“It doesn’t happen in the summer,” says Beth Drolet, professor and chair of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who is studying the covid toe phenomenon. “The toes can stay blue for weeks, but eventually go back to normal.”
As the vaccine rollout accelerates this spring and summer, “we would expect to see a decrease in post vaccination covid toes,” says Lisa Arkin, director of pediatric dermatology at Wisconsin. “Covid toes are easily treatable with rewarming. They resolve spontaneously. Sometimes, we use topical medicines to treat inflammation in the skin. Most patients experience mild swelling and itch, which resolves within days to weeks.”
An uptick in liver disease among young people, especially women, may be tied to increased drinking related to stress from the pandemic, a UW Health doctor said.
According to UW Health, liver disease and cirrhosis, or significant scaring of the liver, can be caused by multiple different conditions. It includes viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and also heavy alcohol consumption.
UHS does not currently have the supply to serve all students who are eligible, encourages students to seek vaccine at a variety of locations.
With college-age students now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, University of Wisconsin campuses have a new rule that leaders hope will encourage young adults to get their shots.
UW System interim President Tommy Thompson asked campus chancellors Wednesday to allow students who have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 to be exempt from the weekly COVID-19 testing regimen.
“One of the inducements, encouragements to not to have to go through testing is to get vaccinated,” Thompson said.
Noted: University of Wisconsin students who get their vaccines will be exempt from weekly testing requirements under new system guidance.
UW System interim President Tommy Thompson asked campus chancellors Wednesday to allow students who have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 to be exempt from the weekly COVID-19 testing regimen.
“One of the inducements, encouragements to not to have to go through testing is to get vaccinated,” Thompson said.
Previously, he (Pierre Kory) worked in the health system for the University of Wisconsin at Madison but left that job last May, he said, because his superiors refused to follow his recommendation that covid-19 patients be treated with steroids. That was a month before the first big clinical trial — the British Recovery trial — showed the value of the steroid dexamethasone. The health system declined to comment.
Students at all University of Wisconsin System campuses will be able to avoid regular COVID-19 testing requirements if they get vaccinated.
University of Wisconsin students who get vaccinated for COVID-19 will no longer have to be tested weekly for the virus under a policy change that interim President Tommy Thompson on Wednesday called an incentive to bolster vaccination rates on campus.
UW Health has had a few “vaccine racial equity days” at its Arboretum Clinic on South Park Street and plans to continue holding at least one a week, said Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, chief diversity officer. Groups representing communities of color invite people to come, and interpreters and printed materials in several languages are available, she said.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank has several times in recent weeks noted her disappointment with the amount of vaccine allocated to University Health Services. Officials have encouraged the campus community to look elsewhere, noting in a Monday social media post that appointments for the week were already full.
To help equitably vaccinate the public against COVID-19, UW Health is partnering with community organizations serving communities of color for population-specific vaccination clinics, the health system announced Tuesday.
Latinx-owned businesses, like restaurants and markets, were able to get their workers vaccinated at a clinic on Monday. Nearly 200 people got their shots.
The vaccines have been tested on tens of thousands of people in clinical trials, millions have been inoculated across the globe and complications have been rare. Still, there are those who are taking a wait-and-see approach, said Patrick Remington, former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Preventive Medicine Residency program.
University of Wisconsin Health Services vaccine appointments opened up to all students and employees Monday after Wisconsin expanded eligibility to everyone 16 and older.
Comprehensive guide on how to get COVID-19 vaccine on, off campus.
Dr. James H. Conway, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said what we really care about is a vaccine’s effectiveness — its real-world potential.
Testing will remain crucial to this effort, and screening programs are starting to ramp up at re-opening schools and offices, the story states. Testing also will be important to determining how well the COVID-19 vaccines protect against variants of SARS-CoV-2, according to a University of Wisconsin, Madison, virologist quoted in the piece.
These factors make Wisconsin well-prepared for the next phase of its immunization campaign, as the challenge of insufficient supply gives way to issues of access and vaccine hesitancy, said Jonathan Temte, associate dean for public health and community engagement at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. That’s because a robust network of small and midsized providers allows tailored outreach to vulnerable or resistant groups.
A masked pedestrian walks near Camp Randall Stadium on the campus of UW-Madison on Thursday. The university is one of multiple Wisconsin universities that took dramatic steps to ward off or curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.
UW epidemiologist Ajay Sethi calls the potential eligibility of 12- to 15-year-olds “a very important step to increase immunity to the virus in our community.” But he said it may take time to get some parents on board. Some, he said, will probably wait and see if the virus is under control in terms of infection rates before making a decision, and some may decide to vaccinate their children after more is known about the disease.
All University of Wisconsin-Madison employees became eligible for vaccine appointments at University Health Services this week, but with a continued shortage of doses, the university is also pointing people toward various off-campus locations.
Specifically, the language would prevent any mandates that individuals seeking state or governmental services, looking to gain access to a building, or aiming to participate in any government function show that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. It appears the language would apply to schools, the University of Wisconsin System and government-run nursing homes, to name a few.
The University of Wisconsin System will continue offering $500 tuition credits for nursing and pharmacy students who work at COVID-19 vaccination sites through May.
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s health system will be able to start vaccinating all students on Monday as eligibility expands to everyone 16 and older in the state.
In the wake of yesterday’s announcement that all adults in Wisconsin will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting next week, WORT producer Jade Iseri-Ramos hosts a discussion of vaccine allocation ethics with Paul Kelleher, professor of bioethics and philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“I’d say this is preliminary information that the vaccines are going to be able to protect middle and high school kids quite nicely,” said Dr. James Conway, a pediatrics professor at UW-Madison and the medical director of UW Health’s immunization program.
First-year student Peyton Zibell — like many students as of late — is struggling with her mental health. “Learning how to transition to online school has been a huge challenge,” said Zibell. “I feel like because we’re all online it’s really hard for me to have the motivation to go and get the help I need.”
Quoted: The known benefits of directly protecting vulnerable people outweigh those of indirectly protecting them through immunizing less at-risk community members, said R. Alta Charo, professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “While the data is showing good signs of reduced spread by vaccinated individuals, that data is still not as robust as the data demonstrating personal protection from being vaccinated,” she wrote in an email. Meanwhile, for high-risk individuals — “until they are vaccinated, they have limited ways to protect themselves.”
A newly-created master’s degree program at UW-Madison will study how psychoactive chemicals like psilocybin — found in so-called “magic mushrooms” — can treat conditions like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. We hear more about it from the program’s director.
Little went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating undergraduate coursework in 1942. He then went to the UW-Madison Medical School, earning a doctor of medicine degree in 1944. The school is now called the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
’I’m privileged I was able to do an extra step and actually help out in the community,’ UW nursing student says.
Noted: Taken together, while vaccine supply is still limited, if vaccine passports are widely used not only for travel but for other social events such as concerts, broadway shows, nightclubs, it would “double privilege” people got vaccinated early on, said Christine Whelan, clinical professor in the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison.
Quoted: Given that most kids are at low risk for complications from COVID, the need for a pediatric vaccine for the disease may not seem pressing. But scientists say the pandemic may never be fully controlled until kids are inoculated. When we only vaccinate adults, we leave vulnerable “an enormous, immunologically naive population,” says James H. Conway, a pediatrician and associate director for health sciences at the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Without a pediatric vaccine, “the disease, even if our kids don’t get super sick with it, is going to be there and continue to circulate routinely.”
Jennifer Gaddis, Assistant Professor of Civil Society & Community Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Before the pandemic, a growing number of schools were employing cafeteria staff to cook nutritious meals from scratch, and implementing farm-to-school programs and other practicesto improve jobs, local economies and the environment.
Due to fewer kids eating school meals during the pandemic and the increased costs associated with COVID-19 safety protocols, these positive changes may stall, or even be reversed.
My research suggests these reforms are needed to transform the school lunch experience and maximize the ability of school meals to improve public health and contribute to a post-pandemic economic recovery.
A short list of schools that have canceled or altered spring break plans includes Ohio State University, the University of Tennessee, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Baylor University, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, Purdue University, the University of Kentucky and Davidson College, according to the website Inside Higher Ed.
Band: Earlier this month, the University of Wisconsin-Madison changed its COVID-19 guidelines to allow 50 people to gather indoors and 150 people outdoors. This paved the way for the school’s varsity band to have its first large group practice in over one year.
UW Health’s Dr. Matt Anderson attributes the turnaround to hard work from health care workers, tackling the immense learning curve quickly.
UW Health is now welcoming eligible members of the public to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine at its locations.
UW-Madison’s obstetrics and gynecology department changed its surgical consent process to ask patients to sign consent forms on the day of surgery, not before, after a case in which a patient’s ovaries were not removed as desired during a hysterectomy.
David L. DeMets, a University of Wisconsin at Madison biostatistics expert, said that while he has no specific information on what occurred in this case, his experience serving on data safety and monitoring committees for nearly half a century was that it would be “very uncommon” for those experts to challenge a company or scientists on the content of a news release.
Care Direct is UW Health’s home care affiliate that cares for those who are homebound and require medical services. Recently, the state Department of Health Services approved Care Direct as a COVID-19 vaccinator, and it is receiving shipments of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, clearing the way to vaccinate those who can’t leave their homes to visit a vaccination clinic.
