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.
Omicron surge means delays in testing results | Los Angeles Times
“I think that unfortunately, we are as unprepared for the type of surge we are experiencing — from a testing perspective — as we were a year ago,” said Omai Garner, who directs the clinical microbiology testing laboratory for UCLA Health … So far as the challenge comes down to supply and demand, argues Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, the lulls and surges of the pandemic put undue pressure on manufacturers to respond accordingly.
Public health in America is at a breaking point | USA Today
Keeping people healthy is essential to a healthy economy, said Dr. Jody Heymann, professor of health policy and management and founding director of UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health WORLD Policy Analysis Center. “There’s no way we can save our economy without better investment in public health,” she said.
Solving ‘cold case’ killings from the civil rights era | Los Angeles Times
My conversation with Price came back to me when I saw a few weeks ago that Brenda Stevenson — a history professor at UCLA whose book on the 1991 killing of Latasha Harlins I admire — had been nominated by President Biden to serve on the new Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board. Last week, she and others nominated for the board testified at Senate confirmation hearings.
Why Latino-led shows keep getting canceled | ABC’s “Good Morning America”
The 2021 Hollywood Diversity Report from UCLA said the TV industry is still failing at accurately representing Hispanics and Latinos, the largest ethnic minority in the U.S. Hispanics and Latinos make up 18% of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, they make up only 7.1% of leads in broadcast scripted shows, 3.9% in cable scripted shows and 4.7% in digital scripted shows, according to the UCLA report.
‘Functional beverages’: Do they really work? | New York Times
Dr. Emeran Mayer, a gastroenterologist, neuroscientist and the founding director of the UCLA Brain Gut Microbiome Program, believes there’s little to no “hard-core science” to support the many claims of functional beverages, but he does think there’s “something there” beyond mere marketing.
Legacy of New Queer Cinema after 30 years | New York Times
Last year, one of the cornerstones of New Queer Cinema — Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman” — was chosen for preservation on the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. This year it’s among the 33 titles in “Pioneers of Queer Cinema,” a retrospective that is scheduled to begin Feb. 18 at the Billy Wilder Theater of the UCLA Film & Television Archive in Los Angeles. May Hong HaDuong, the director of the archive, said plans are afoot for the films — “queer heirlooms,” she called them — to travel to other cities.
Comedy writer turns to moral philosophy | New York Times
When [Michael Schur] found concepts to be impenetrable, he sought out professionals. He asked Pamela Hieronymi, a philosophy professor at U.C.L.A, to be an adviser for the show, and she gave lectures in the writers room and guided writers through conundrums like the Trolley Problem. “He wants it to be digestible, but he doesn’t want to water it down,” she said of Schur.
Interview with an architect of critical race theory | Washington Post
Kimberlé Crenshaw, 62, is a legal scholar who developed the notions of critical race theory and intersectionality. She is a law professor at UCLA and Columbia, where she is co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies. (Crenshaw is interviewed.)
The latest on the current wave of COVID | CNN
“I think that that should give us a lot of hope. What we have seen is that this wave really has been, really, a tsunami — has just washed over the globe. There are certain places that are going to be peaking early, and we’ll see those cases come down,” said UCLA’s Anne Rimoin.
Alcohol and sexual assault prosecutions | USA Today
“There’s several factors that make (the Minnesota) ruling, I think, so dangerous for college students in particular,” Sara Wilf, a doctoral student and a member of the Survivors and Allies organization at the University of California, Los Angeles, told USA TODAY. “College students have higher rates of drinking alcohol than the general population,” Wilf said. “Colleges often have extremely harsh punishments for students who drink underage, and so that can stop survivors from coming forward.”
Tips on how to achieve more in your life | CNN Health
If you’re having trouble getting quality sleep, Dr. Alon Avidan, director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center, recommended to start by removing certain items from your evening routine. Say goodbye to televisions and electronic devices in the bedroom, he said. It’s important to also sleep in a room that’s free of noise and light, added Avidan, who is also a UCLA professor of neurology.
Latino group sues over Washington state redistricting | Associated Press
The lawsuit … says the new voting area is a “façade” of a majority-minority district and violated the Voting Rights Act because it won’t allow Latinos the chance to elect candidates of their choice. “There’s a very long history of voting rights discrimination in the Yakima Valley region,” said Sonni Waknin of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, an attorney representing the plaintiffs.
No evidence breastfeeding moms pass COVID to infants | Insider
Breastfeeding while infected with COVID-19, or just after an infection, is unlikely to spread the virus from mother to child, scientists have said. A small study from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found the breast milk of mothers with COVID-19 didn’t contain infectious virus particles and there was no “clinical evidence” of babies contracting the virus due to breastfeeding. (UCLA’s Paul Krogstad is quoted. Also: HealthDay News, Reuters and Scienmag.)
New school debate over ‘curriculum transparency’ | NBC News
While most schools have insisted that they don’t teach critical race theory, a new report by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access found that local efforts to restrict schools from teaching or using critical race theory emerged in at least 894 school districts, which enroll more than a third of all K–12 students in the country.
Prostate cancer risk higher among Black men | HealthDay News
Even in a setting where White and Black people have equal access to medical care, Black Americans fare worse than White Americans in terms of prostate cancer, new research shows. A review of nearly 8 million men seen at America’s Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals found that Black veterans had nearly twice the incidence of localized and advanced prostate cancer as White men. (UCLA’s Dr. Isla Garraway is quoted.)
Scientists tried to quantum entangle a tardigrade. What? | Gizmodo
A group of physicists recently placed a microscopic animal known as a tardigrade onto a superconducting qubit, in an attempt to mingle the realms of quantum and classical mechanics … “I think it’s very cool to start thinking about interfacing quantum things and biology. But with the right claim,” said Clarice Aiello, a quantum engineer at UCLA, in a phone call. “I don’t think the experiment qualifies as quantum biology.”
How omicron has changed the outlook on COVID | FiveThirtyEight
Omicron carries a lot of mutations that make it able to evade antibodies — and it doesn’t really matter how you got those antibodies in the first place, said Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.
California’s Randall wildlife preserve: A living laboratory | CalMatters
“It’s a crazy admixture of stuff that makes it very diverse and unique,” said Brad Shaffer, director of the UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science. “From a biological point of view, that whole region has been known for a long time to harbor all of this very specialized diversity of salamanders and snakes.”
Microsoft intends to acquire Activision Blizzard | KPCC-FM
Activision has nearly 10,000 employees worldwide, with many located in Santa Monica and Irvine. Jay Tucker with the UCLA School of Management says he doubts Microsoft will force all those workers to move to Washington state. “We’ll see how much of the organization they want to bring back to the mothership. But I wouldn’t assume that this means Activision’s just going to close up shop.”
Fact-check on COVID testing | PolitiFact
A halt in testing would eliminate data showing where and how the virus has spread — it would not mean that the virus would no longer exist, said Vickie Mays, a professor of psychology and health policy and management at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health. “It’s the data that indicates that, not only does the problem exist, but it also tells you about the magnitude of the problem,” she said.
