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.
Queer advocates laud Biden’s executive orders | Bay Area Reporter
The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think tank at UCLA School of Law, noted in its news release that this is “the first-ever executive action to mention those who identify as ‘queer’ by name.” The Williams Institute claims that 13 million Americans are LGBTQ, and that 60% reported being denied or fired from a job.
Cesar Chavez bust in Oval Office symbolizes new era for Latinos | KTTV-TV
Meanwhile, UCLA Chicano Studies Associate Professor Raul Hinojosa says, “I think it’s incredibly significant.” He says it also suggests Biden’s priorities like, “healing of a really horrible phase of exclusion, kids in cages and now turning the page to an inclusive-bringing-into-the-family of the most humblest of workers like the farmworkers for example. So I think he’s sending a really powerful message.”
The ‘California miracle’ dissolved into a coronavirus nightmare | Los Angeles Times
“Had we had the same level of compliance that existed with the first wave, we could have avoided the magnitude,” said UCLA epidemiologist Dr. Robert Kim-Farley. “This wave has turned into a tsunami.” (Kim-Farley was also quoted by the Daily Breeze.)
Mayor says vaccines for seniors, medical workers won’t finish until summer | KTTV-TV
“We have data from the trials which is what informs us about vaccine efficacy and what we know is the Pfizer vaccine after the first dose is about 50 some odd percent effective but the Moderna vaccine can provide up to 80 percent protection after one dose compared to 95.6 percent in the second dose. We really do need to have this second dose to really carry us over the line to have really optimal protection,” said [UCLA’s Anne] Rimoin. (Rimoin was also quoted by CNN and Health.)
Buyer beware: COVID-19 vaccines netting big bucks online | KCBS-TV
UCLA epidemiologist Dr. Shira Shafir says it’s doubtful the vaccines are legitimate. Because the vaccines have to be kept at well below freezing temperatures — and would require a special shipping — what you find on the internet may not be the real thing. And even if it is it may be worthless. “Even if in an unlikely circumstance it was taken and was legit, it’s extremely unlikely it’s an effective vaccine,” Shafir said.
Vaccine rollout in L.A. County leaves many frustrated | Daily Breeze
Zev Yaroslavsky, a former Los Angeles County supervisor and director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, said the confusion has stemmed from a lack of a national plan. Hopes the President Joe Biden administration will remedy that. “I don’t put this on the county or the city exclusively,” he said. “Everybody’s culpable on this, starting with the White House on down and hopefully this is going to change in the days ahead with the new leadership.”
North Carolina prisons have started vaccinating inmates and staff | The Hill
Prisons across the country have been hit hard by the raging pandemic. More than 355,000 cases have been reported among inmates nationwide with 2,087 deaths, according to UCLA’s COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project.
FDA approves 1st long-acting HIV drug combo, monthly shots | Associated Press
“Even people who are taking one pill once a day just reported improvement in their quality of life to switch to an injection,” said Dr. Judith Currier, an HIV specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. She consults for ViiV and wrote a commentary accompanying one study of the drug in the New England Journal of Medicine.
SoCal slides into drought, but much-needed rain is in the forecast | KTLA-TV
And in the Sierra Nevada, the snowpack levels from north to south are all well below normal for this time in January. That’s due to dry and record warm conditions, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. “But these numbers will improve — perhaps significantly — as multiple cold storms arrive this weekend into next week,” Swain tweeted.
Recruiters less likely to contact ethnic minority groups on Swiss site | New Scientist
“This is the kind of data analysis that shows us racial discrimination is still a deeply entrenched practice,” says Safiya Umoja Noble of the University of California, Los Angeles. “What we need is rigorous monitoring of systems to ensure such systems do not make discrimination even more opaque.”