The Associated Press cited UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor Michael Jerrett in response to a recent study tying particle pollution from wildfire smoke to 24,100 U.S. deaths per year. “The estimates they’re coming up with are reasonable,” said Jerrett. “We need more of them. It’s only if we’re doing multiple studies with many different designs that we gain scientific confidence of our outcomes.” Read more about UCLA in today's New York Times, Agence-France Presse and other outlets.

UCLA in the News: Feb. 5, 2026

The Bay Area is skeptical that ICE won’t conduct a Super Bowl surge | New York Times

Scott Cummings, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said there were cases decided under the 10th Amendment, which protects state sovereignty, that affirmed that the federal government can’t force states and cities to cooperate with enforcing federal law, including the use of state and local property. “The cities and counties here would have a pretty strong argument under this precedent,” he said.

Trump attacks electoral system with call to ‘nationalize’ voting | Agence France-Presse

Trump’s administration has falsely claimed that undocumented migrants are illegally voting on a large scale. Such actions were “part of a broader strategy to, at least, cast doubt on the validity of the upcoming elections,” Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, told Agence France-Presse.

Expert warns of eerie similarity to fire aftermath and 9/11 sickness | New York Post

Medical experts at the University of California, Los Angeles, believe survivors are still dealing with the ramifications of the fires and that they’ve seen adverse effects well after the tragedy. “This was a catastrophic event that changed much of Los Angeles — its community, its landscape and our health,” said Dr. David Eisenman, professor-in-residence at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. (UCLA’s Dr. May-Lin Wilgus was also quoted.)

Optimal off-the-shelf immunotherapy design for solid tumors discovered | Scienmag

A pioneering study conducted by a team of researchers at UCLA has unveiled a groundbreaking advancement in the field of cancer immunotherapy that holds immense promise for treating a wide range of solid tumors. This novel therapy hinges on the use of engineered invariant natural killer T cells, or NKT cells, which possess a remarkable ability to infiltrate and destroy solid tumor masses — a feat that has eluded many existing immunotherapeutic approaches, particularly those based on CAR-T cells. (UCLA’s Lili Yang was cited.)

Odds for these emergency room visits rise after guideline change in infants | Healio

“This study emphasizes the importance of proper anticipatory guidance following the change in early introduction guidelines,” Dr. Aaron Chin, clinical informatic fellow at UCLA Health, told Healio. “Given the lack of increase in severe reactions, we suspect that many of the emergency room visits were for mild reactions that may have been prevented with appropriate guidance.