UW In The News

The Safety Net Got a Quick Patch. What Happens After the Coronavirus?

Quoted: Despite the declines, child poverty in the United States remains higher than in most similar countries. About 17.2 percent of American children live on less than half the median income, said Timothy Smeeding, an economist at the University of Wisconsin, citing data from Luxembourg Income Study.

U.S. Panel Outlines How Doctors Should Ration Care in a Pandemic

Quoted: Dr. Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin, said shifting to crisis standards allowed states or healthcare providers to relax or change certain rules, such as using medical devices in ways they were not originally approved for, if they offer a “better-than-nothing option.”

With Maintaining Care In Mind, Veterinarians Adjust Practices During Coronavirus Pandemic

Quoted: Vaccinations are a crucial form of preventive medicine in an animal’s development, said Dr. Ruthanne Chun, associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and director of UW Veterinary Care.

Death Projections Can Make Us Feel Helpless. One Expert Explains a Better Way to Get People to Act.

Quoted: What kinds of communication can actually push people to take action—to, among other things, socially distance, wash their hands, and not freak out? I recently posed this question to risk communications expert Dominique Brossard, a professor and chair in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Coronavirus Pandemic Deals Another Blow To Wisconsin’s Newspapers

Quoted: The COVID-19 shutdowns have taken away cornerstones of newspapers’ already-struggling revenue: business ads and events, said Mike Wagner, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

How Climate Science Is Expanding the Scale of Ecological Research

Quoted: “Climate scientists have a whole suite of tools by which they’re able to look at things like variability and changes over space and time, and now we can take those same approaches and think about how we can capture those dynamics for ecological responses,” said Benjamin Zuckerberg, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and lead author on the new study. “It’s basically treating the biological observations of, say, birds and plants in the same way that climatologists treat observations of temperature and rainfall.”

UW-Madison will be a clinical trial site for a coronavirus treatment that uses plasma from recovered patients

What began two weeks ago with a pair of scientists urging the use of plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to rescue the sick has blown up into a national movement.

A ‘negative’ coronavirus test result doesn’t always mean you aren’t infected

Quoted: But the experience in the United States appears to be different, so far. Jeffrey P. Kanne, chief of thoracic imaging at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said that U.S. experts are not currently recommending CT scans to diagnose patients without the genetic test.

‘I have no money’: debt collection continues despite pandemic

Quoted: “Garnishment is a really important issue, especially for low-income, economically vulnerable families, the exact workers being laid off in the US right now,” said J Michael Collins, faculty director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Pandemics and the Shape of Human History

Quoted: “The discovery of America was followed by possibly the greatest demographic disaster in the history of the world,” William M. Denevan, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written. This disaster changed the course of history not just in Europe and the Americas but also in Africa: faced with a labor shortage, the Spanish increasingly turned to the slave trade.

Why Are Barns In Wisconsin Painted Red?

Quoted: Apps, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of dozens of books chronicling rural life in Wisconsin and helped answer Tucker’s question.

Bernie Sanders’ Campaign Turns To A New Foe: The Coronavirus

“It’s Sanders’ last stand in electoral politics,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Quoted: Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “He’s old enough that I don’t think anyone expects him to make another run for the presidency. He may be in his last term in the Senate or near it. Right now, he still has something of a national stage. Once he leaves the campaign, that will be gone.”

Working At Home With A Toddler Will Be Chaotic. Here Are Some Tips To Help.

Quoted: In the new-world realities brought on by COVID-19, the disease spread from the new coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, early childhood specialist Lorena Mancilla urges parents and guardians to be kind to themselves while figuring out what works.

“Children need regulated, healthy parents more than anything else during this period of social distancing and shelter-in-place orders,” she said. “Life happens. Schedules may not work. It’s okay. Do what you can to keep your children safe.”

It’s Easy to Feel Overwhelmed, but It’s Critical to Remember the Good, Experts Say

Quoted: “What we’re facing is unprecedented, and I don’t want to downplay its seriousness, but it’s not the worst-case scenario,” said Malia Jones, a researcher who studies infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Coronavirus Highlights the Love-Hate Relationship With New York

Quoted: Trump’s insistence on referring to the illness as the “Chinese virus” plays into a central theme of his presidency, experts say, with the president demonizing foreigners. “I think that approach to this whole catastrophe just feeds the culture wars,” says Katherine Cramer, an American Politics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The GAO told the government in 2015 to develop a plan to protect the aviation system against an outbreak. It never happened.

Quoted: Vicki Bier, director of the Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said such scenarios are common, not just in government, but in virtually all industries and organizations.

Self-Help If You Display Mild Symptoms of Coronavirus

Quoted: “Stay well hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids. Warm tea with honey and broth soups (yes, chicken soup!) can also be soothing,” Morgan says. The most important thing is to stay hydrated, emphasizes Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality and safety officer at UW Health, which is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Here’s What Wisconsin Health Departments Consider Before Releasing Details On Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

Quoted: Even in communities where no one has tested positive, it’s important people avoid contact as much as possible, said Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Charo cited recent information coming out of Iceland, which claims to have tested a larger percentage of its residents than any other country, showing only about 50 percent of people with the virus felt symptoms.

‘On My Own’ Author discusses her new book on community college STEM transfer students — and the challenges they face amid the coronavirus.

Community college transfer programs face challenges both at their home institutions and at the institutions to which students want to transfer. Add STEM to the equation and the challenges grow. Xueli Wang, a professor of higher education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, explores those challenges and the way students meet them in On My Own: The Challenge and Promise of Building Equitable STEM Transfer Pathways (Harvard Education Press). The book follows 1,670 community college students for four years as they transfer to four-year institutions.

Can he do that? The law (and history) behind the governor’s emergency powers

Quoted: “One thing to keep in mind, particularly during a crisis like this, is that state actors and governors in particular can often just act more swiftly and more nimbly than the federal government can,” University of Wisconsin Law School professor Miriam Seifter said.

Seifter studies administrative law and constitutional law; much of her recent work has focused on the powers of state leaders.

Wisconsin Farmers Brace For Impact Of Coronavirus

Quoted: Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he doesn’t think the agriculture industry has seen the full impact of the pandemic yet.

Vaccines Won’t Work for Some Coming Health Threats, Like Climate

Quoted: Environmental degradation has already been identified as a cause of the Covid-19 pandemic. China’s wildlife markets—where both live and dead animals are bought and sold in tight quarters—likely allowed viruses to mix across species, creating conditions “ripe for new emerging agents of disease, like Covid-19,” said Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Daily meditation could slow aging in your brain, study says

A recently pubished 18-year analysis of the mind of a Buddhist monk by the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found daily, intensive meditation slowed the monk’s brain aging by as much as eight years when compared to a control group.

So long, lecture halls: UW-Madison professors shift to online classes amid COVID-19 crisis

UW researchers study COVID-19 coronavirus to try to develop treatments, vaccines

The Urgent Battle To Flatten Wisconsin’s COVID-19 Curve

Quoted: “It is a fundamental principle of outbreak control to slow transmission,” said Dr. Patrick Remington, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

How to Triage Patients Who Need Intensive Care

“A lot of times, medical professionals are really focused on making this one decision for the patient who is right in front of them,” says Laura Albert, a systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved in the study.

How to Build an Emergency Fund in the Middle of an Emergency

Quoted: Loans aren’t taxable but must be repaid, and they can be risky because if you leave your employer you generally have to repay the loan quickly, said J. Michael Collins, director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Can Pets Contract Or Transmit COVID-19? A Virologist Answers Your Household Pet Questions

WHYsconsin has received numerous questions from audience members about COVID-19 and we are working to answer them. Here are the answers to some of those questions you have submitted. WPR’s Mary Kate McCoy spoke with Kristen Bernard, a virology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to answer some of your questions.

Coronavirus pandemic: 8 ways to stop spread of COVID-19 misinformation

Quoted: “This is a moment where misinformation can have real consequences, beyond what we have seen in elections,” says Dhavan Shah, the Louis A. & Mary E. Maier-Bascom professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, director of the university’s Mass Communication Research Center and scientific director of the Center for Health Enhancement System Studies. “This is a moment where misinformation can have life-and-death consequences.”