UCLA in the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription. See more UCLA in the News.
Is the mask mandate ending too soon for kids? | Los Angeles Times
Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a UCLA epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert, said if a child younger than 2 is going into a mask-optional day care center, if there’s not older people in their household, or someone who is immunocompromised, case rates locally are now low enough that sending children into such a setting is “relatively safer than it would have been before.”
Gov. Newsom’s State of the State address | KCBS-TV
“State of the State, like the State of the Union, is an opportunity for the chief executive to lay out a vision for the future. The State of the State needs to be about the future, not about the past. The two major issues in the state right now are obviously homelessness — which is a state-wide issue, especially in urban California — and criminal justice and criminal justice reform, as well as public safety,” said UCLA’s Zev Yaroslavsky.
Gov. Newsom lauds state, hints at gas tax rebate | Los Angeles Times
California’s economy contracted less than those of other states during the pandemic and experienced the fastest-growing gross domestic product in the first three quarters of 2021, said Jerry Nickelsburg, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast and a professor of economics.
UCLA launches program on ‘long COVID’ | KCRW-FM’s “Greater LA”
While the worst of the pandemic seems to have subsided, some people continue to suffer from long COVID. These mysterious symptoms persist long after contracting the virus and continue to baffle scientists. The UCLA Health Long COVID Program, directed by Dr. Nisha Viswanathan, was recently formed to diagnose, manage and treat the symptoms of long COVID. (Viswanathan is interviewed.)
Lack of consensus on treating ‘long COVID’ | Medical Xpress
In a new report, researchers say the challenges of treating long COVID are amplified by a critical issue: We do not know what constitutes long COVID or how to formally diagnose it, an issue that is further exacerbated by limited research data of varying quality and consistency … “We need high-quality data and information that supports an accurate diagnosis before patients can receive appropriate supportive care and effective, disease-specific therapy,” said Joann G. Elmore, MD, MPH, professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, the article’s senior author. (UCLA’s Dr. Lauren Wisk is also quoted.)
Latest on the pandemic and mask mandates | KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk”
“I’m feeling brighter and more hopeful about the future than I was a few weeks ago. It’s really uplifting to see our case counts, hospitalizations and deaths all coming down so much here in L.A. County. I know that there’s probably a lot of mixed feelings out there about the lifting of mask mandates, and that’s true for myself as well. I also think it’s a signal that we’ve made progress, and that’s a really positive thing to see,” said UCLA’s Kristen Choi. (approx.
Medi-Cal expansion a sign of progress | Capital & Main
In a moment of genuine emergency like the pandemic, any move toward covering more residents of the state is welcome. A study published in January by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that nine in 10 people who were uninsured said their lack of coverage — or the sheer cost of the care itself — had caused them to delay seeking a doctor. That was more than twice the rate among those who were able to enroll in Medi-Cal.
Female cinematographers make strides onscreen | Variety
In 1997, UCLA cinematography professor William McDonald was home with his newborn daughter. As he looked into her eyes in his sleep-deprived state he began to wonder what her life would be like if she grew up and wanted to become a cinematographer. Would she have the same opportunities as men who wanted to study cinematography? (McDonald and UCLA’s May Hong HaDuong are quoted.)
The future of space exploration: Tiny, laser-propelled craft | Space.com
In the new study, the researchers suggest that a more humble ground-based laser array — one that’s 3.3 to 33 feet (1 to 10 meters) wide and 100 kilowatts to 10 megawatts in power — could still prove useful by sending tiny probes across the solar system, propelling them to much faster speeds than rocket engines could. “Such lasers can be built already today with a relatively small investment,” study senior author Artur Davoyan, a materials scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Space.com. “We do not need to wait till a 100-gigawatt laser becomes available.”
Learning to live with extreme climate events | Scienmag
“There’s no question the planet is warming. But the most uncertainty exists about the events that affect us the most — occurring one city, one forest, one continent at a time,” said climate scientist Daniel Swain. Cyclones, floods, heat waves, tornados, and other kinds of extreme weather emerge from the same processes that make up the climate, explains Swain, who works at the University of California Los Angeles’ Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
