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.

Florida not protecting inmates from COVID surge | Miami Herald

(Commentary by UCLA’s Amanda Klonsky and Neal Marquez) As Florida sees another spike in COVID-19 cases, driven by the even-more-contagious delta variant, it’s important that all government agencies take steps to protect all Floridians. Instead, the Florida Department of Corrections is acting as if the pandemic is over, posing a grave danger to people in prisons and surrounding communities.

Studies: Mental health issues tied to COVID death risk | Reuters

Dr. Bowen Chung of the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in either study, said patients with mental health disorders tend to have other risk factors as well, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease, some of which can be linked to their medications. “Antipsychotics in particular, have lots of metabolic effects, including obesity and high cholesterol,” Chung said, and anxiety drugs can affect breathing.

U.S. economy can’t afford to forgo paid sick leave | The Hill

(Commentary by UCLA’s Jody Heymann and Aleta Sprague) As the Delta variant drives a new surge in COVID-19 cases and more Americans begin returning to in-person work, the need for paid sick and medical leave for all is clearly urgent. We’ve already seen that when paid leave is available, COVID-19 transmission drops — and when it’s not, people go to work sick and spread accelerates. 

Unions continue to challenge Amazon | Capital & Main

“The thing you have to remember about Amazon is that it’s really two companies these days,” says Sanford Jacoby, Distinguished Research Professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, whose latest book is “Labor in the Age of Finance: Pensions, Politics, and Corporations from Deindustrialization to Dodd-Frank.” “There’s the Amazon we know as consumers and then there’s Amazon Web Services, which is a much more profitable part of the company.”

Kimberlé Crenshaw, critical race theory and culture wars | Vanity Fair

Kimberlé Crenshaw is tucked in her UCLA office with ceiling-high shelves … Most frustrating for Crenshaw has been watching the GOP reduce critical race theory to a cudgel to attack progress in the guise of protecting democracy. “In the same way that anti-racism is framed as racism, anti-indoctrination is framed as indoctrination,” Crenshaw says.

Anti-camping ordinance approved by L.A. City Council | KNX-AM

Chelsea Shover, an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, told KNX the ordinance would cover about 40 percent of the city’s available space. “It would be hard for people to know where they could set up, since we don’t currently have enough beds in shelters to accommodate all the people that are unhoused,” she said. “You can’t go to a shelter, and you can’t stay here. Where are you supposed to go?” (Shover was also interviewed by KCAL-TV.)

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

“I think that these mandates are a good direction to go in at this point. We have made the vaccine widely available, but there are still some people who haven’t made the time to get vaccinated, because they have other commitments. There are people who are still on the fence. But the reality of it is that we are now contending with a variant that is so much more transmissible. The game has changed,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin (approx. 1:00 mark. Rimoin was also interviewed by CNN and the BBC.)

Vaccine mandates for employees | NPR’s “Marketplace Morning Report”

“It is absolutely allowable to mandate a vaccine when it’s under an emergency use (authorization),” [UCLA’s Shira] Shafir said. “I am optimistic that when governments such as the state of California are mandating it for their employees, that will inspire private entities as well to require vaccination.” (approx. 3:50 mark in “Big Tech benefits from big spending” segment).