Skip to main content

Category: UW Experts in the News

Climate change could be driving record-breaking December temperatures, storms across Wisconsin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Jonathan Martin, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said stormy days aren’t that rare of an occurrence at this time of the year for the state.

“Even in a normal year, under perfectly normal circumstances, we’d have a nice progression of pretty stormy days, followed by a couple of clear days, followed by stormy,” he said. “But there are a couple of things that might be fueling a little bit of an extra punch for these things.”

Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist with the Nelson Institute for Climatic Research at UW-Madison, said the amount of time where tornadoes are a risk for the state is only going to grow.

“On the whole, we’re not sure how (tornadoes) are going to change in the future, whether they’re going to become more intense, less intense, more common, less common,” he said. “But in a warmer climate, we’ll start to see conditions more favorable for tornadoes earlier in the year, in April or May, and then becoming more common in the fall through November.”

Seeking Refills: Aging Pharmacists Leave Drugstores Vacant in Rural America

Kaiser Health News

“It’s going to be harder to attract people and to pay them,” said David Kreling, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. “If there’s not a generational thing where someone can sit down with their son or daughter and say that they could take the store over, there’s a good chance that pharmacy will evaporate.”

Labor shortage or labor reckoning? Wisconsin stakeholders weigh in on job force changes

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: People are quitting their jobs at nearly twice the rate they did before the pandemic. And they’re not in a rush to come back, Michael Childers, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business professor, said.

“Workers are more selective and have that opportunity right now based on the job market. And that almost becomes self-fulfilling. It’s sort of this sustaining cycle that we’re in,” Childers said at Tuesday’s event.

Food prices have gone up in the last year. But Wisconsin producers aren’t necessarily being paid more

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Jeff Sindelar is a meat specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension. He said most of the price increases have been in fresh meat products, with more processed items like hot dogs or lunch meat seeing small price growth or none at all.

But Sindelar said the meat industry is “too dynamic” to clearly point to the factor that is driving up prices.

He said farmers are facing increased costs to raise animals. But price changes are more likely to come from the processing companies, which have a greater influence on what consumers pay for products. Sindelar travels the state to work with all sizes of meat processors, and he said they’re seeing higher production costs, too.

“Regardless of where I go, I get the same response: they can’t hire enough people, they have open positions. When they’re trying to produce products, it’s taking them seven days to produce five days worth of product,” Sindelar said. “So 20 to 25 percent more resources to produce the same amount of product as they once did.”

Mark Stephenson, UW-Madison’s director of dairy policy analysis, said mixed market signals for dairy farmers could be keeping prices from increasing as rapidly as other food groups.

“Our future markets are showing that we would expect higher (commodity) prices over the next several months. But we’ve also had a few reports that are kind of pulling back on those reigns a little bit. One of them are the stocks reports,” Stephenson said.

How your tax dollars keep Milwaukee renters in danger from faulty wiring

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: The Journal Sentinel’s findings that tax dollars are going to landlords who fail to fix potentially dangerous electrical violations are “shocking and terrible,” said Mitch, a housing law expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who legally goes by just his first name.

“It would be as if a health inspector found rats at a restaurant and said, ‘Here’s a whole bunch of government coupons that you can use to give out and make your food less expensive — never mind the rats,’” he said.

Mitch, who oversees the UW-Madison Neighborhood Law Clinic, which primarily serves low-income renters, said it’s possible to hold landlords accountable while still protecting tenants.

“We can have safe cars, and people still buy cars,” he said. “We can have regulations on restaurants, and we still have restaurants. We have regulations on banking, and we still have banks. Every industry has regulations, and it still survives.”

The ‘perfect storm’: High inflation rates hit Wisconsin businesses and consumers hard

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: “We’re learning that it’s pretty easy to turn the economy off. But it’s really hard just to flip the switch and turn it back on,” said Steve Deller, a professor in agriculture and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“What COVID has done is, among other things, it’s changed the risk-benefit calculation that workers do,” said Menzie Chinn, a professor of public affairs and economics at UW-Madison.

Opinion | Is the University of Austin Just a PR Stunt?

New York Times

To debate the free speech crisis — or lack thereof — on campuses, Jane Coaston brought together Greg Lukianoff, the president and C.E.O. of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and Mark Copelovitch, a professor of political science and public affairs and the director of the Center for European Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mexico’s monarch butterflies are falling victim to a real-life butterfly effect

Vox

Climate change may be one of the other threats pushing down monarch numbers. It’s messing with weather across their range, which plays a huge role in how many butterflies ultimately arrive in Mexico each year, according to Karen Oberhauser, a monarch expert and professor of entomology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. It’s getting hotter where monarchs breed, for example, and that makes it harder for them to flourish, she said.

Tanzania must face up to calls for reform if it wants to keep the peace

The Conversation

The emerging partisan politics and the polarisation it creates is a new threat. It does not provide space for democratic contestation, as opposition parties are restricted from political activities. If unaddressed, the polarisation and increasing grievances could destabilise the country. The future of politics in Tanzania depends on the ability of the policy makers and politicians to take advantage of a more enlightened 2021 citizenry as compared to 1961.

Aikande Clement Kwayu is an Independent researcher & Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Redeeming Justice

C-SPAN.org

Attorney Jarrett Adams discussed his criminal conviction and exoneration as well as the path to his current legal career. He spoke at the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison. (With Steven Wright)

Is the urban-rural divide a myth?

The Hill

The results of the 2020 presidential election suggest that the divide increased further due to differences in views about the COVID-19 pandemic. An NPR report quoted Kathy Cramer of the University of Wisconsin saying, “There’s this sense that decisions about the pandemic are being made in cities and kind of imposed on rural spaces.”

As medicine aims to close diversity gaps, orthopedic surgery is an outlier

STAT News

The lack of diversity is painfully obvious to patients as well. When one of her family members needed a serious operation recently, Angela Byars-Winston, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin who is Black, scoured the internet looking for expert orthopedic surgeons who could provide a second opinion. She was struck that nearly all of them were white. “Really,” she told STAT, “there’s hardly anyone that looks like us? In the whole country?”

Most Wisconsin school districts joined state COVID-19 testing program, but parents say testing still comes with challenges

Wisconsin Public Radio

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.”

Ron Johnson says mouthwash can kill COVID-19. Manufacturer of Listerine, medical experts say there’s no evidence yet to prove that.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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.

UW Health offers tips to avoid toy related injuries

WKOW-TV 27

“Kids love this time of year and they make important childhood memories during the holiday season,” said Rishelle Eithun, the program manager for injury prevention at UW Health Kids. “But we want to offer tips to minimize the risk of injury at home. The last thing a family wants is to spend the holiday in the emergency department because of a toy-related injury.”

In 2021 map fight, what’s old is new

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: The Republican resolution passed the Senate and Assembly on party-line votes, and when Republicans released their maps in October, they were pretty true to its principles.

Because of that, the 2021 map looked a lot like the 2011 map. In the world of redistricting shorthand, this is often referred to as “core retention.” But Rob Yablon, University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor, has a different name for it: “gerrylaundering.”

“‘Gerrylaundering’ is an attempt to perpetuate an existing biased map by carrying forward the existing lines with as little change as you can get away with,” Yablon said.

Wisconsin Republicans Introduce Bill Authorizing Sandhill Crane Hunt

Sierra Club

The Wisconsin Corn Growers Association and other farmers have been among the most vocal supporters of the SB-620, arguing that the Sandhill Crane is a pest that damages their crops. But  advocates with the DNR and ICF argue that an autumn hunt will not prevent crop damage, which most frequently occurs in the spring. Currently, farmers in Wisconsin can apply for a federal permit that allows them to kill Sandhill Cranes that are destroying crops after nonlethal deterrents have failed. These permits are approved on a limited basis and according to the University of Wisconsin-Extension, there are no data to support that hunting permits are effective in controlling crane damage to corn fields.

Conservationists aim to protect songbird in Wisconsin as its population sees steep decline

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Staffen said it’s unclear how many Connecticut warblers have historically been found in Wisconsin. There are around 1.5 to 2 million birds worldwide, said Stan Temple, professor emeritus of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Temple noted Connecticut warblers and other species like spruce grouse and boreal chickadees are occupying the southern edge of their range in northern Wisconsin. Those forest-dwelling species are contending with habitat loss as climate change is causing those forests to shift further north. In the next several decades, the southern limits of the songbirds’ range likely will no longer include Wisconsin.

“So in the long term, assuming that climate change continues unabated, the bird is destined to disappear from the Wisconsin landscape, regardless pretty much of what we do,” said Temple.

Omicron variant could test natural immunity, vaccine protection

ABC News 4

“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.

Wisconsin’s system for paying for local government is broken. The state Legislature needs to find ways to fix that.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

What is the fairest and most efficient way for citizens to pay for police and fire protection, safe streets, libraries, parks and other public services cities provide?

This is the real question University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Manuel Teodoro indirectly raised in his recent commentary urging elimination of the long-standing practice of municipal water utilities making payments in lieu of taxes — what are known as PILOTs — to municipalities. But Teodoro is mistaken in calling for an end to PILOTs in the absence of making any other changes to how municipalities are funded.

Gun violence sends injury reports soaring

NBC-15

Dr. Ann O’Rourke, the Trauma Center Medical Director at UW Health, says 38 gun-shot victims have been treated through October of this year. “These injuries are devastating injuries,” said Dr. O’Rourke. “We should look at firearm-related injuries more like how we would look at a pandemic.”

Wisconsin reports more than 5,000 COVID-19 cases, daily record for 2021

Wisconsin State Journal

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.”

Bail for Waukesha parade suspect Darrell Brooks was lower than average, analysis shows

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Michele LaVigne, a former director of the Public Defender Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the preventive detention statute “is oddly not used in this state” but said Brooks’ earlier cases would not have met the threshold for using it.

“None of this guy’s cases would have qualified for preventive detention so bail had to be set,” she said.

What a Giant Map of Fungus Tells Us About Climate Change

AP

“When you talk about carbon cycles you really want to start thinking carefully about decomposers,” said Anne Pringle, a professor of botany and bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “A massive and coordinated effort to collect biodiversity data on a global scale is badly needed and will be very welcome”, she added, saying “there are good reasons to include all kinds of fungi in that effort.”

Loyalty to family — instead of CNN — puts Chris Cuomo at risk

AP

While people can relate to wanting to help a family member, his primary obligation as a journalist is to CNN’s viewers, said Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. These revelations can damage CNN’s reputation, and all journalists, at a time people are already suspicious of the profession, she said.

Wisconsin health officials waiting for more data on omicron coronavirus variant

Wisconsin Public Radio

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.”

 

Madison West students tackle climate change with simulator activity

Capital Times

In just over a half-hour, a class of West High School students made a big dent in the warming climate.

“We all today found a menu of options that when we add them together we can reach our climate goals,” Wisconsin Energy Institute outreach and events coordinator Allison Bender told them.

Bender, through a partnership with the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs, had presented the students with the En-Roads Climate Change Solutions Simulator. About 100 Advanced Placement Environmental Science students at the high school saw the presentation and got to consider their own climate solutions throughout the day Tuesday in an event funded through the Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies.

Despite drought in southern Wisconsin, crop researchers say average yields are expected this year

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Joe Lauer, agronomy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reviewed historical weather data at the UW Research Station in Arlington to see how dry 2021 was. The statistics date back to 1963.

He found this summer was similar to some of the driest years the station had on record, including 1988 when the station saw some of its worst corn yields.

“In the southern two tiers of counties in Wisconsin, we had some pretty dramatic drought conditions that farmers were experiencing. And it really didn’t let up until probably the end of September,” Lauer said. “We were dry most of that time. But having said that, we seemed to get a little bit of rain … that allowed the crop to keep going.”

‘Sad and angry and frustrated’: Black moms on the Rittenhouse verdict

NBC News

“He was 17 at the time of the offense,” said Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin. “Having someone who looks like a child there might make some jurors see their younger selves in him or their children in him, and they might think, ‘What would my younger self have done or my son or daughter have done in his position?’”

Wisconsinites increase movement, travel in 2021 compared to last year

NBC-15

The holiday weekend hasn’t started yet, but one UW-Madison researcher says he can already see more movement among Americans in 2021 than he did in 2020. Assistant Geography Prof. Song Gao says visits to transportation hubs like airports, train stations and bus stops have significantly increased since last year, according to anonymous cell phone motion tracking data.

The COVID Cancer Effect

Nature

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.”

 

In his taxpayer-paid election review, Michael Gableman calls meetings with conspiracy theorists and a convicted fraudster

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the people Gableman is meeting with “are all election skeptics who have bought into the big lie.”

Gableman, who last year without evidence claimed the election was stolen, has insisted he has no preconceived ideas about his review and hopes to find that the election was run properly.

“It’s hard to see how he could ever reach such a conclusion given this set of oddballs who he’s working with,” Burden said.