UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription to view. See more UCLA In the News.

How people with autism forge friendships | Scientific American

“Most kids with autism think about a friend, or they have close acquaintances. I don’t think they’re friendless,” says Connie Kasari, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied autistic children in mainstream schools for years. Often, however, the quality of autistic children’s friendships is poor in terms of companionship and support. Their social networks are also often small, studies suggest.

Their tenants can’t pay, so these landlords aren’t collecting rent | Vice

“This is a real crisis and we have to have some compassion here,” said Eric Sussman, an adjunct professor of real estate and accounting at University of California, Los Angeles, who is also a managing partner at a real estate firm. “But I think it’s in everyone’s financial interest to work together.”

Rapid health declines in COVID-19 patients jar doctors and nurses | Reuters

The quick turns for the worse are likely products of an “overly exuberant” reaction by the immune system as it fights the virus, said Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious disease specialist at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Coronavirus death rate among Latinos appears low, but data are thin | Los Angeles Times

The new findings ran counter to assumptions from public health experts who focus on the Latino community. “The first time I read these results, I was quite surprised,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, professor of health policy at UCLA, adding that he expected “that Latinos would do worse compared to the white population, and really relatively close to the outcomes of African Americans.” (UCLA’s David Hayes-Bautista is also quoted.)

Is bringing back sports realistic or safe? | Los Angeles Times

“I would be very nervous about having any sports, whether it’s football or basketball or even baseball,” said Dr. Richard Jackson, a former CDC official and professor emeritus at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health. Jackson dismisses the idea that professional athletes, young and fit, hold some kind of “get out of jail free card” when it comes to the coronavirus. “This is not just the plain-old flu,” he says.

Coronavirus demand is driving up the price of eggs | Los Angeles Times

The rules are hard to enforce, said Diana Winters, assistant director of the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. The state attorney general’s office relies on consumer complaints to ensure essential items, such as food, don’t exceed that 10% price-gain cap, she said.

Racial disparities in death rates from COVID-19 | MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes”

“This pandemic is happening not just in test tubes. It’s happening in populations. And when we think about the ways in which the virus spreads in populations, we have to consider the inequalities that are already there,” said UCLA’s Chandra Ford.

How long will pandemic conditions last? | CNN

“I think this is exactly what Sanjay was just saying, which is… we’ve made so many gains by having a really good national effort at social distancing and doing everything we can to flatten the curve. But if we start to open up, we’re going to see these numbers rebound,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin (approx. 4:20 mark).

CDC website drops guidance on hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 | USA Today

“We often see antiviral therapies (that are promising) in the test tube and animal models. But before we give it to patients with confidence, we really need to see the data in humans,” said Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine and public health at the University of California-Los Angeles. 

The latest on COVID-19 | KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk”

“I agree with the World Health Organization that this is not a productive use of our time. Really, we need to be focusing on the problem and solutions. It’s very difficult. The World Health Organization is dependent on member states to provide it with information and resources. So it’s very difficult for them to act independently of individual member states,” said UCLA’s Dr. Timothy Brewer.

A psychologist on healthy escapism | Boston Globe Column

“In general, there is [a] sense of comfort [we get from] narratives that are, for lack of a better word, out of this world. If it’s about science fiction, if it’s about fantasy, healthy escapism is a component here. We’re looking for moments of just detaching from our experience and immersing ourselves in other narratives and stories,” said UCLA’s Drea Letamendi.

States should offer provisional bar licenses during the pandemic | Law.com Opinion

(Commentary co-written by UCLA’s Jennifer Mnookin) As some states have already recognized, the July bar exam will almost certainly not take place this summer as scheduled. The best path forward is for states, at a minimum, to accord two-year provisional licenses to practice law to law school graduates, on condition that they practice under the supervision of a licensed attorney.

Anxiety about coronavirus is widespread in L.A. County | KCRW-FM

The poll was taken by researchers at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and is part of its annual Quality of Life Survey. This year included four questions about the coronavirus. Officials say they polled 1,500 people, and found that nearly 80% were worried about the financial costs of staying home.

An inside look at coronavirus testing | NBC’s “Today”

“Everybody needs to do the exact same test at a very high volume. This has never happened before. We’ve never experienced a pandemic on this scale, where we need to do this much testing. And the manufacturers just didn’t have enough product that was made,” said UCLA’s Omai Garner.

Preparing to give birth during the pandemic | Los Angeles magazine

“The visitor policy for every hospital has been changing,” says Dr. Aparna Sridhar, associate clinical professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. While UCLA is currently limiting visitor policy to one support partner — whether a spouse, doula, or otherwise — doctors have been encouraging patients to utilize virtual options like Zoom, FaceTime, or other platforms. “We understand that it’s hard for patients, but for their safety we have to make certain rules and we are encouraging women to have people there virtually, both during childbirth and post-delivery.”

Air quality is improving | Washington Post

According to Yifang Zhu, a professor at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, the Los Angeles region, long notorious for its traffic and smog, has seen improvements in air quality in recent weeks that can be partly tied to the coronavirus response. Before stay-at-home orders were issued March 16, Zhu said, the EPA’s Air Quality Index, which incorporates multiple air pollutants, including NO2 and PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), was about 60, or in the “moderate” category. Since then, it has improved by about 20 percent and recorded the longest stretch of “good” air quality in March seen since at least 1995.

California labs fashion Covid-19 masks and ventilators | Stat

Glen Meyerowitz, a first-year electrical engineering graduate student at UCLA, had been closely tracking the new coronavirus since January because his brother is an infectious disease fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.… Meyerowitz is now working with UCLA anesthesiologists and hoping to get the device into clinical use within months.

California’s early action against COVID-19 delayed surge at hospitals | CBC

Dr. Robert Kim-Farley is an epidemiology professor at UCLA, as well as a former official with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. He cautions against premature optimism. He says there are asterisks when comparing the current situation in California’s biggest cities and the nightmare unfolding in New York. For example, he says, compared to New York City, Los Angeles County is a much less dense metropolitan area. (Kim-Farley is also quoted in the Los Angeles Times.)