Column by Dr. James Stein, a cardiologist and faculty member at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Dr. James Stein: How to manage COVID-19 risk as you leave your cocoon
Wisconsin State Journal
Category: Health
UW Health workers can now sign up for $500 tax-free bonus
NBC-15
Employees will have to fill out an application, found on the employee intranet U-Connect, and if an employee is approved, they will receive $500 as assistance payment added to their next paycheck, UW Health says.
I’m heading out into this newly opened Wisconsin. What do I need to know? Our experts are here to help. John Diedrich, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Publi
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: The CDC recommends the public wear cloth masks and not use masks meant for health professionals, including N95 masks. Given that you have “significant underlying conditions,” it’s important that you keep yourself safe and consult your doctor on how best to do that.
It’s safer to avoid public restrooms. If you must use one, be sure you have your mask on when you are inside. If you are not the only occupant, keep six or more feet from others. Avoid touching surfaces including doors, faucet handles, pump soap, etc. If you can wash your hands safely and properly inside the restroom, it’s still a good idea to use alcohol rub to disinfect your hands once you get outside the bathroom. Avoid touching your face unless your hands are clean.
— Ajay K. Sethi, associate professor, population health sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Flu cases drop off as season ends, no clear timeline for COVID-19
NBC-15
“Especially the school closure part, which might explain why influenza disappeared as well,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, UW Health’s medical director for infection prevention.
Wisconsin Supreme Court order opened bars and restaurants, but an analysis shows only a 3% increase in total movement statewide
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease expert with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said factors such as improved weather and the end of at-home schooling in some districts have likely contributed to a general trend of increased movement.
“I think there were things that helped people stay put in the beginning of this, which is that there was a lot of fear and uncertainty and the weather wasn’t great,” she said. “I’m sure people are experiencing some cabin fever despite their best intentions.”
Thomas Oliver, a health policy expert, also at UW-Madison, said the increased movement in Wisconsin and mixed messaging sent by the patchwork of rules from authorities at all levels is concerning.
“It was inevitable you would see slipping adherence to the recommended guidelines regardless, but now we have so many contradictory and competing guidelines,” he said.
Oguzhan Alagoz, an expert in infectious disease modeling at UW-Madison, said the pictures he saw after the court order of unmasked people standing close together inside bars is troubling and likely to lead to more cases.
‘It’s like slowly being strangled’: Worn out, hooked to a ventilator, coronavirus patient still beats odds
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Noted: Weeks passed without the expected surge of new patients. UW Health established two special units for people hospitalized with COVID-19, but no patients arrived. Staff waited.
“None of us have done this before,” said Ann Sheehy, a doctor there for 15 of her 46 years. “We had to create new processes.”
Sheehy helped build a large backup team of doctors and other clinic staff who don’t normally practice in the hospital but are certified to do so. They were offered special training and the chance to shadow hospital staff in preparation for COVID-19 duty.
UW Health seeing 40% more home-related burns
WISC-TV 3
In what could be another effect of more of us staying at home, UW Health’s Burn Center is seeing more home-related injuries.
Burn injuries spike as people spend more time at home: UW Health
NBC-15
“So during our time when we’re asked to be safer at home, maybe people haven’t been going out to eat, parents and children are at home, they’re not at school, so maybe it’s a result of that,” UW Health Burn Center Director Dr. Lee Faucher said.
Zero coronavirus counties: limited testing, low population
USA Today
But researchers like Malia Jones, an assistant scientist in health geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, say the impact of COVID-19 can’t always be traced to an urban-rural divide.Jones studies how infectious diseases spread. In Wisconsin, four rural counties have remained case-free, yet plenty of other rural counties have not.
Questions linger as new research suggests election was linked to rise in coronavirus cases
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Nasia Safdar, an infectious disease expert with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and medical director of infection control at UW Health, said the study addresses an important question, but cannot eliminate the possibility that other activities during the same time period might have been the real cause of cases.
“They did a pretty careful assessment of traffic during the period of interest, but these challenges remain with these kinds of studies,” Safdar said. “It’s association, but not causation.”
Oguzhan Alagoz, an expert in infectious disease modeling at UW-Madison, said he thinks a slight bump in COVID-19 cases after the election may be attributable to in-person voting.
Beware This COVID-19 Vaccine ‘Study’ From an 80s Teen Tech Titan and a Carnivorous Plant Smuggler
Dr. Ajay K. Sethi, an infectious disease epidemiologist and associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, cautioned that there is no evidence Gold and his co-investigators “used a scientific approach to test their hypothesis that ‘different exposure to vaccines between younger and older people may account for this different morbidity rate [in COVID-19].’”
But Dr. Jim Conway, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said readers “need to be cautious when people are trying to draw associations that don’t have a lot of biological plausibility.”
How to Maintain Motivation in a Pandemic
The New York Times
Richard J. Davidson, professor of psychology and neuroscientist at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has demonstrated that “when individuals engage in generous and altruistic behavior, they actually activate circuits in the brain that are key to fostering well-being.”
How To Eat For A Healthy Gut
Wisconsin Public Radio
For years, people with irritable bowel syndrome symptoms were told the issues were related to stress, it was in their heads or they needed to exercise more, said Melissa Phillips, a clinical nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Health System’s Digestive Health Center.
UW Health expands telemedicine capabilities
WISC-TV 3
Since the start of the pandemic, UW Health says it has rapidly expanded telemedicine capabilities.
As Some Places Reopen, Public Health Official Says Significant Risk Of Infection Remains
Wisconsin Public Radio
Dr. Patrick Remington, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Preventive Medicine Residency Program, said it’s a natural reaction to start testing the waters and evaluating risk after a period of intense measures.
Area hospitals prepare to move forward without ‘Safer at Home’ order
NBC-15
UW Health Chief Quality Officer Dr. Jeff Pothof said they have been ready and planning for an increase in COVID-19 patients and a surge, should there ever be one.
Antibody testing for COVID-19 now offered at Madison hospitals, clinics
Wisconsin State Journal
UW Health, UnityPoint Health-Meriter and SSM Health said Tuesday they are offering antibody testing, which they said is covered by insurance.
Racial disparities heightened with COVID-19 crisis
The Capital Times
Rebalanced-Life Wellness Association, has hosted virtual support group meetings during the pandemic. The groups have included Alvin Thomas of UW-Madison’s School of Human Ecology, Logan Edwards from UW-Madison’s Department of Kinesiology, Dr. Jonas Lee from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and Darryl Davidson of the city of Milwaukee’s Health Department.
Opinion: The University of Wisconsin and other public universities are on the front lines of the battle against coronavirus
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
From Rebecca M. Blank is chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and chair of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, a research, policy, and advocacy organization. Peter McPherson is president of APLU and former president of Michigan State University.
Communicating science’s inherent uncertainty and avoiding its use as a weapon during a crisis
Wisconsin Examiner
Quoted: How science, and those who communicate it, deal with changing sets of facts is an important question in a pandemic. Uncertainty must be clearly demonstrated and explained — or used in bad faith, according to Richard Keller, a professor of science history at UW-Madison.
“Scientists are comfortable with uncertainty — they don’t like it, they want to be certain — but they recognize that you’ll never be completely certain,” Keller says. “There’s a degree of comfort with uncertainty the general public doesn’t have. We want to know what we should likely do, what we have to do.”
At least 400 people have died from coronavirus in Wisconsin. Here’s what trends are emerging.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: These conditions are important to help understand who is most vulnerable to the disease and how to take protective measures, according to Dr. Patrick Remington, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
But Remington cautioned against “othering” people, thinking that COVID-19 is a problem affecting someone else.
“Remember, most Americans have comorbidities,” said Remington, a former CDC epidemiologist and now the director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at Madison. “I wouldn’t want anyone to think this is another person’s disease.”
‘Almost a death sentence’: How Wisconsin doctors, peers are rethinking ventilators for coronavirus
Wisconsin State Journal
COVID-19 patients experience many symptoms: Fever, chills, muscle pain, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, cough. But one of the biggest concerns for Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality officer at UW Health, is shortness of breath.
Paul Fanlund: How to think about science in the time of COVID-19
The Capital Times
With scientists and science itself seemingly under attack during the COVID-19 crisis, I find myself wondering what Dietram Scheufele thinks.
No Spike, but No Certainty on Fallout of Wisconsin Election
AP
“It’s safe to say (the election) didn’t help,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control and prevention at UW Health, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s medical arm. “But whether it actively hurt people, it’s very likely but not possible to really prove it.”
Hundreds Of Wisconsin Families To Be Part Of Study Looking At Kids’ Role In Coronavirus Pandemic
Wisconsin Public Radio
“So what I always enjoy about this study is that it means rural people and farm families are represented in important research,” said Bendixsen, co-investigator of the WISC study along with Drs. James Gern and Christine Seroogy with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Madison School District among Wisconsin Partnership Program grant recipients
The Capital Times
The grant is part of a $2.2 million round of funding from the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Eleven of the grants went to community-led initiatives, and 10 went toward research partnerships.
What Wisconsin’s Shifting COVID-19 Numbers Show As Testing Broadens
WisContext
“An epidemiologist is a scientist in search of a denominator,” said Dr. Patrick Remington, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
Honoring retired nurses called back to work
NBC-15
Beth Sommerfeldt and Barb Uselman were happy to answer the call when they got it from UW Health to work on the COVID-19 hotline.
Genetic sequencing supports Wisconsin stay-at-home order, shows clusters of coronavirus in Madison and Milwaukee
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: “The fact that we are not seeing those from one community cropping up in the other community suggests that the stay-at-home orders are working,” said David O’Connor, a UW professor of pathology and laboratory medicine.
During COVID-19 Crisis, Some People Opt To Delay Other Medical Care
Wisconsin Public Radio
UW Health in Madison is treating patients who are a lot sicker, said Dr. Joshua Ross, executive vice chair of the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
UW Health eases visitor restrictions starting Tuesday
WISC-TV 3
Starting Tuesday, each adult patient will be allowed one visitor age 18 or older. One visitor age 12 and older will be allowed to accompany adult patients to outpatient clinic appointments.
Community, research efforts related to COVID-19 funded by UW medical school
Wisconsin State Journal
Virtual health assessments at a Madison homeless shelter, support for students with medical conditions at Madison schools and research on ways to better test and track COVID-19 are among 21 projects receiving $2.2 million from a COVID-19 Response Grant Program at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Nebraska Will Open Voting Sites for Primary Despite Concerns
AP
Quoted: “If you’re asking me as a public health official whether this increases the risk of transmission, the answer is definitive — yes,” said Dr. Patrick Remington, director of the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Preventative Medicine Residency Program. “That is a scientific fact, no matter how much protective equipment people wear.”
PolitiFact | Has “Safer At Home” in Wisconsin saved 300+ lives?
Politifact
Quoted: “It’s quite common to project with a model sort of what would be expected in epidemiology,” said Patrick Remington, a former CDC epidemiologist and director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “What better way to predict than … to say, particularly early in an epidemic, what if we did nothing? The early transmission velocity in an epidemic, what if that were to continue throughout the course of the epidemic?
Hilldale donates 2,000 flowers to UW Health workers
WISC-TV 3
Nearly 2,000 colorful flowers were delivered Friday to healthcare workers at UW Health as a thank you from Hilldale and its landscaping firm, according to a news release.
UW Health expands COVID-19 testing
WKOW-TV 27
While access to key supplies remains a limiting factor, UW Health expects to see further increases to their number of daily completed COVID-19 tests, according to a news release.
LIST: UW awards $2.2 million to groups, scientists fighting the coronavirus in Wisconsin
NBC-15
UW School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) is announcing a total of $2.2 million in awards given to researchers and community organizations who are working to lessen the impact of coronavirus in Wisconsin.
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.
Human behavior, anxiety and privilege underlie the dystopian feeling of our new coronavirus norms
Cleveland.com
Quoted: That non-verbal communication is complicated if a mask covers half of your face. If others are unable to see your mouth, they’re left to guess how you’re feeling, said Dr. Shilagh Mirgain, a health psychologist with the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health.
“When we don’t get that nonverbal feedback, we feel more distance from one another, [and] it makes the other person feel less safe,” she said.
Student’s pug first U.S. dog to test positive for COVID-19
The Dartmouth
Quoted: Director of the Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sandra Newbury, who has been conducting research on how COVID-19 impacts animals, stressed that the news is no reason to panic.
“We really don’t want people to freak out in general,” Newbury said. “In fact, it looks like dogs are not very good hosts for the virus … Most dogs that have tested positive have been asymptomatic.”
As More Wisconsinites Leave Home, Health Experts Warn Against Ending Social Distancing
Wisconsin Public Radio
Quoted: Song Gao, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been aggregating cell phone data that shows how far Wisconsinites are traveling each day as a way to understand if residents are following the state’s “Safer At Home” order. Gao said residents’ mobility has been reduced significantly in the past month, especially in urban areas like Dane and Milwaukee counties.
But he has seen increased movement around Wisconsin starting last week
“I think this is also linked with last week’s events. Like people started getting (outside) and also last Friday, they also had some protests outside the state Capitol,” Gao said.
Asthma may protect against severe COVID-19, rather than raising the risk, UW study finds
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that contrary to government guidelines, asthma may not put a person at increased risk for severe COVID-19, but may, in fact, offer some protection against it.
Experts split on whether Wisconsin should reopen on a regional basis
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: Jim Conway, an infectious disease expert and associate director for health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute, argued loosening restrictions regionally is a short-sighted idea.
“It’s like being in a swimming pool and having one area of the pool that it’s OK to pee in,” he said.
Conway said because the economy relies on travel in many sectors, there would be no way to ensure new cases weren’t brought to areas with few cases and few restrictions under a regional plan — especially in a state like Wisconsin with a lot of recreational tourism in rural areas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wisconsin Republicans haven’t come together on a COVID-19 response plan
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Quoted: But James Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute, called opening different regions of the state at different times “terrifying.”
“It’s almost like the least common denominator will prevail if you do start to allow certain areas to open more liberally and have other areas still confined because you know there’s going to be travel and transit between those places. And as we saw in the Green Bay area it doesn’t take much for something to go from a small number of cases to exponentially exploding in just a few short days,” said Conway, who supports Evers’ plan.
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 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 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.
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.
UW Health respiratory therapists discuss COVID-19 pandemic
WISC-TV 3
Respiratory therapists at UW Health say they’ve never experienced anything like COVID-19 before.
Wisconsin is weeks from using anywhere near the listed coronavirus testing capacity
PolitiFact Wisconsin
Here’s the breakdown from Dr. Alana Sterkel, assistant director of the Communicable Disease Division of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She’s one of the people coordinating testing and distribution of collection supplies statewide.
Plasma treatment for COVID-19 at UW Hospital promising, but more research needed
Wisconsin State Journal
Two weeks after the first Madison-area donor contributed plasma to treat COVID-19 patients at UW Hospital, 14 patients have been treated, with some showing significant improvement, a doctor said Friday.
Cap Times’ Evjue Foundation announces $635,000 in special COVID-19 grants
The Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin-Madison will receive $90,000 to be divided among three programs: an emergency student support fund; the Odyssey Project family fund focused on educational opportunities for local families in poverty; and UW’s Global Health Initiative, which is performing COVID-19 research and acting as a clearinghouse for information.
Police credit ‘commitment to public safety’ as students forego Mifflin Street Block Party
Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison students appeared on Saturday to have listened to warnings not to attend the Mifflin Street Block Party for the sake of social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, police said.
Spurred by COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth becomes mainstream at Madison clinics, hospitals
Wisconsin State Journal
“In this pandemic, we really want to put as much space as possible between our providers and our patients,” said Dr. Tom Brazelton, medical director for telehealth at UW Health. “With COVID-19, the silver lining is that it’s really allowed the jump-starting of telemedicine.”
UW Health not billing uninsured patients right now for COVID-19 care
WISC-TV 3
UW Health is accepting all patients with or without insurance during the coronavirus pandemic.