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.

Angelenos explain why they haven’t been vaccinated  | Los Angeles Times

“It’s the same communities who have been impacted the most that are still not getting vaccinated,” said Dr. Yelba Castellon-Lopez, an assistant professor with UCLA’s Department of Family Medicine. “It’s a preventable catastrophe.”

Assessing L.A. schools chief’s tenure | Los Angeles Times

“Beutner’s most important contribution may be the way that LAUSD responded to the pandemic,” said Tyrone Howard, a UCLA education professor who also directs the university’s Black Male Institute. “Feeding children and families in an organized and comprehensive way was a huge success.” But when it comes to leadership on academic achievement, “the pandemic really disrupted any long-term vision he may have had,” Howard said.

COVID made L.A. smaller. Let’s keep it that way | Los Angeles Times

Do we really want to return to the way we were prior to the pandemic? I know that I do not. I agree with Brian Taylor, director of UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies, who in June posed the big traffic question: Will we “resort back” to our old living patterns? If we do, he said, we’ll also go back to getting nowhere fast.

Online spread of COVID misinformation | MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“We have to interrogate and understand the engines by which misinformation and disinformation spread. And that’s fundamentally about big technologies. They prey on suspicions, they prey on doubts,” said UCLA’s Ramesh Srinivasan (approx. 2:15 mark).

Health care for older undocumented immigrants | Associated Press

Immigrants are more likely to remain in the U.S. compared with two decades ago, according to Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Fielding School of Public Health. According to a July study he co-wrote, immigrants’ median age increased from 37 to 45 between 2000 and 2018. Without action, America faces a health care crisis as immigrants age, Bustamante said, adding that offering insurance will save money by reducing reliance on emergency rooms.

Poetry websites saw boost during pandemic | NPR’s “Morning Edition”

“Among cognitive psychologists, I’m one of the few who’s also a published poet … What you see when you study people reading and reacting, or listening and reacting to poetry, is the kinds of areas of the brain that tend to be stimulated by music also are engaged to some extent by poetry,” said UCLA’s Keith Holyoak (approx. 0:22 mark).

The latest on the pandemic | KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk”

“We are seeing pretty big increases in coronavirus cases, which are almost all the Delta variant at this point, which we know is much more transmissible than the original coronavirus strain,” said UCLA’s Kristen Choi (approx. 1:35 mark).

NFL players who won’t get vaccinated | Los Angeles Times

“There’s no scientific reason to avoid getting vaccinated,” said Anne Rimoin, a UCLA epidemiologist. She noted that the NFL has every right, and every reason, to punish those who make that choice. “Businesses, and the NFL is a business, are going to have to make important decisions about what their risk threshold is, what they’re willing to tolerate, and unvaccinated people are at increased risk to everyone else,” she said.

Pride patches for police officers | Los Angeles Times

Today, lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer youth and adults are six times more likely than the general population to be stopped by the police, according to data published in May by the UCLA Williams Institute. And survey results indicate that nearly 1 in 4 LGBQ people say they are unlikely to call the police. The study did not include transgender people.

Young students and masking guidance | Los Angeles Times

(Commentary by UCLA’s Karolina Corin) As the school year approaches and children under 12 remain ineligible for vaccination, this chaos is downright dangerous. The answer is simple: The CDC urgently needs to reinstate mask recommendations for everyone. Without clear, uniform guidance from the top, patchwork implementation of masking across the U.S. will leave many, if not most, children vulnerable.

California affordable housing bills stuck in Assembly | Cal Matters

“This question of good jobs versus affordable housing is a false question,” said Lola Smallwood Cuevas, a project director at the UCLA Labor Center. “It’s a question that has been living for 15 years that cannot afford to live on.”

How severe is the megadrought in the West? | The Hill

(Commentary co-written by UCLA’s Park Williams) But for much of the United States, this year’s extreme drought, wildfires, smoke and heat waves have made enjoying outdoor activities nearly impossible and continue to threaten the livelihoods and health of people and ecosystems across the country. With summer 2021 barely half over, and conditions likely to worsen in coming months, these extreme conditions provide a stark reminder that the chronic impacts of climate change will be one of our greatest 21st-century challenges.

Is government hiding behind ‘state secrets’ privilege? | Los Angeles Times

“Our position has always been that the state secrets privilege has to have limits because otherwise it works as a blank check for government abuse,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, the UCLA law professor who is the lead lawyer in the case.

Starz network makes its name on diversity and inclusion | CNET

At Starz, 46% of its showrunners are people of color, as are 63% of actors and actresses with leading roles. Woman make up 55% of Starz’s showrunners — and 75% of the network’s executive team (with half of those execs being women of color), according to a study Starz commissioned at UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers. The picture on the rest of television looks a lot different. Although people of color make up more than 40% of the US population, they’re represented by lead actors and actresses only about 24% of the time on scripted broadcast shows and 35% of the time on cable scripted programming, according to UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity report last year. 

Humans cause most wildfires. Climate change makes it worse | The Hill

“There’s just no question about that because we bring electricity long distance into the urbanized areas,” said Stephanie Pincetl, a professor-in-residence at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “So the more that that electricity goes through highly burnable areas — we’re not really maintaining the corridors well — the likelihood of fires being ignited increases.”

Back to school: Pediatricians firm about masking | Forbes

(Commentary by UCLA’s Dr. Nina Shapiro) As the summer of 2021 begins to wind down, and the Delta variant continues to surge in the midst of nearly half of the U.S. remaining unvaccinated, plans for the school year remain in flux. In recent weeks, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued guidelines for children heading back to the classroom for the 2021–22 school year. In the statement, they emphasized how critical it is for all eligible individuals ages 12 years and up to get vaccinated.

What to know about myocarditis | U.S. News & World Report

Myocarditis is any inflammation of the heart muscle, says Dr. Karol Watson, a cardiologist and a professor of medicine/cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. This inflammation can have many causes. A virus like the coronavirus is one of the most common causes, but bacterial infections, chemotherapy drugs or a dysfunctional immune system may also be behind it.

UCLA professor on mask mandates | Fox News

“The Delta variant is so much more contagious, so we’re dealing with a much more difficult opponent here. We have to do more. We need to be able to not only get people vaccinated, but we need people to wear masks, in particular in indoor settings, because this virus is spreading so quickly,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin.