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.
It came from outside our solar system and now it’s breaking up | New York Times
The clincher came on March 30, when a group led by David Jewitt at the University of California, Los Angeles, downloaded a fresh image taken by Hubble. Instead of just a circular blob that would show the comet’s nucleus, they saw an elongated shape, suggesting a smaller fragment of the nucleus had split off and was slowly drifting away from the main object. “It’s like a little lug nut dropped off your car,” Dr. Jewitt said. (Also: Scientific American)
Black Angelenos have higher death rate from COVID-19 | Los Angeles Times
These underlying health conditions coupled with a lack of access to affordable healthcare puts blacks at greater risk, said Chandra Ford, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “There’s something about the context in which people live, the inequalities in our society, that render some groups more susceptible to the same exposure,” said Ford, founding director of the Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice and Health at UCLA. “If they are exposed to the same thing another group is exposed to, they’ll fare worse.”
What will it take for the U.S. to get back to normal? | CNN
“Our new normal will only begin to occur once we have vaccines and therapeutics and widespread testing. We still don’t have any of those things in place, so it is going to take time,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin.
There also a shortage of medical workers who operate ventilators | Los Angeles Times
“I’ve never heard them use the word ventilator in the news as much as I’ve heard it in the last week or so, and talking about respiratory therapists in the news was relatively nonexistent,” said Jeffrey Davis, director of respiratory care services at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. “Now we’re in the news like crazy.”
Exposure to air pollution linked to higher coronavirus death rates | Los Angeles Times
Michael Jerrett, a professor of environmental health science at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health who read the study, called it “a good first look” and “a potentially important finding given that so many Americans and people all over the world live in areas with unhealthy pollution levels.” (Also: UCLA’s Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang is quoted in the New York Times and the Times-Picayune.)
Air quality in Los Angeles is way up | CNN
Dr. Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, said that she and her colleagues identified a similar trend. Between March 16 — three days before California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s 40 million residents to stay home — and April 6, Zhu’s team found there was a 20% improvement in overall air quality in Southern California. Zhu’s team also found a 40% drop in levels of PM 2.5, a class of microscopic air pollutants that have been linked to serious cardiovascular and respiratory problems, especially in children and the elderly.
Coronavirus concerns for pregnant women, newborns | Fox News
“People, in general, are thinking twice as to whether they should schedule medical appointments and be in contact with hospitals or clinics as they are afraid of becoming infected with the novel coronavirus. On the other hand, pregnant women still need to have regular prenatal care and need to be in contact with their OBs throughout this time,” stressed Dr. Karin Nielsen-Saines, a professor of clinical pediatrics at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics and a member of the American Pediatric Society (APS).
How to take care of someone with COVID-19 at home | KCRW-FM’s “Press Play”
We talk about how to do that safely with Richard Jackson, M.D., M.P.H. He’s a professor emeritus at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, and former head of the California Department of Public Health. Jackson says, “This is a stinker of a virus. It’s a relative of the common cold. It’s pretty good at getting by masks and onto surfaces. One thing that I think is important is the bigger the dose of the virus, the more likely you are to get sicker.”
UCLA doctor leads trials for possible COVID-19 treatment | KCRW-FM’s “Press Play”
“It was originally developed as a candidate for Ebola. It inhibits an enzyme that many viruses use to make copies of their genetic material. So, it stops the virus from replicating by inhibiting their ability to copy their RNA,” said UCLA’s Dr. Otto Yang (approx. 1:20 mark).
Pandemic offers lessons for combating climate change | KCRW-FM’s “Greater LA”
UCLA Biological Anthropology Professor Dan Fessler says the feeling of being under threat often leads to the kind of collective energy that really solves problems. He says September 12, 2001 is a great example: “Strangers were embracing on the street, everyone was putting their shoulder to the wheel about how we can unite. The idea that the only context in which people can really unify like that is when they face an enemy group is entirely understandable given our evolutionary history.”
How those struggling with addiction are dealing with COVID-19 | KPCC-FM
“It’s so interesting where patients are showing me their home environment. That’s very informative, where you can see how people live. And that brings up things to talk about in therapy,” said UCLA’s Dr. Timothy Fong.
Coronavirus treatment could be paid by Medicaid under bill | Orange County Register
Gerald Kominski, a health policy professor at UCLA who specializes in public insurance programs, called Cisneros’ bill a good coronavirus fix for Americans who have no insurance. But he doesn’t see it as a fix for Americans who are simply underinsured, meaning they have coverage but face high deductibles and co-pays.
