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July 29, 2021

Research

State health officials encourage local leaders to follow CDC guidelines on masking

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: The CDC based their recommendation on new evidence about the delta variant. Ajay Sethi, associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, said he would classify the latest science as “a bit of a game-changer.”

“We didn’t know this was going to be the case until we discovered that people who are vaccinated and get a breakthrough infection can potentially spread that to other people and that wasn’t the case before delta,” Sethi said.

Ron Johnson criticizes new CDC guidance, questions effectiveness of masks despite research showing they reduce COVID spread

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Public health officials do not know how long the immune system protects itself after an infection with COVID-19 and encourage all eligible people to get the vaccine.

“The duration of that protection is unknown,” said Ajay Sethi, associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “The science is already showing that people who have had the vaccine have better responses to the (delta) variant than people who had past infection.”

Higher Education/System

Campus life

As Fall Semester Approaches, Delta Variant Complicates School Districts’ Plans

Posted on
WORT FM

While Madison’s students are preparing for the fall semester, the Delta coronavirus variant is complicating plans for the upcoming school year. According to local public health officials, Delta is now the dominant coronavirus strain in Dane County.

For more on what the Delta surge means for local students, our Producer Jonah Chester spoke with Dr. Gregory DeMuri, a professor of pediatrics at UW-Madison.

State news

Department Of Health Services: ‘We’re On The Path To A 4th Surge’

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: “Breakthrough infections started out at a very low rate. But now with the delta variant and the higher ease of transmissibility, those breakthrough infections are growing,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, director of infection control at UW Hospital and Clinics and faculty at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “So, the mask then will be this extra layer of protection in addition to the vaccine. Of course, it’s crucial for unvaccinated people (to mask up) because they don’t have that layer of protection from the vaccine.”

What You Need To Know About The End Of The Federal Eviction Moratorium

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it, it’s going to be bad,” said Kurt Paulsen, University of Wisconsin-Madison urban planning professor. He explained that the eviction moratorium barred landlords from evicting tenants who were unable to pay their rent during the pandemic, but that renters are still ultimately on the hook for all the rent they missed when the moratorium expires.

“Thousands and thousands of renters have been unable to pay the rent because of unemployment or COVID-related financial hardships, and eventually the rent comes due,” Paulsen said.

Health

Athletics

UW Experts in the News

The Unraveling of the Trump Era

Posted on
The Atlantic

Noted: Trump’s agencies wrote fewer rules than past administrations, including other Republican ones, says Susan Yackee, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin who focuses on rule-making. Although many controversial regulations wind up in court, agencies typically win those cases, she told me. Here, too, the Trump administration was an outlier: It lost a lot.

COVID-19 spread from vaccinated to unvaccinated may already be happening in Dane County

Posted on
WKOW-TV 27

A day after the CDC announced new mask guidance based on new research that shows infected, vaccinated people could spread the Delta variant of the coronavirus to unvaccinated people, researchers at UW-Madison say that type of spread is likely happening here, too. Professors Dave and Shelby O’Connor say that the new research shows vaccinated people who experience a breakthrough infection of the Delta variant carry high loads of virus deep within their noses.

Obituaries

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