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.
Will California have another year of record-setting wildfires? | Fast Company
Fires are natural in the ecosystem; decades of aggressively fighting those fires has meant that the amount of fuel keeps piling up, making the fires that get out of control far more intense. “We put out all fires immediately, and essentially completely removed natural fires from the landscape — the lower-to-medium intensity fires that would come through periodically and naturally thin the forest,” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and research fellow at NCAR’s Capacity Center for Weather and Climate Extremes.
Workers look to their bosses for mental health support. Many aren’t getting it | Los Angeles Times
Emanuel Maidenberg, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, said corporate attitudes must change, and this moment offers business leaders an incentive to reevaluate their approaches to mental health support. “I think the stress of last year could be used as an opportunity to open up to that investment, financially and otherwise, because it’s well worthwhile,” he said.
Gov. Newsom names new attorney general | Southern California News Group
“I applaud Governor Gavin Newsom for making California a model for the country in how to rectify the willful neglect of growing and youthful communities of color who are left out of key decision-making positions across our most fundamental institutions by sending the first Filipino to lead the nation’s second largest Department of Justice,” said Sonja Diaz, founding director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative.
As Biden reacts to shootings, ATF remains without a permanent leader | New York Times
“It is hard to think of any federal agency that has been so completely handcuffed as the A.T.F. has been by the N.R.A. and its friends in Congress,” said Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law specializing in gun statutes at the University of California, Los Angeles.
U.S. economy benefits if unauthorized immigrants granted citizenship | KCRW-FM
Rodrigo Dominguez Villegas, research director of the [UCLA] Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, said in a statement: if the economy is truly the priority, “it’s clear that exclusionary policies are costly compromises.” (Approx. 1:12 mark.)
Fearmongering vaccine stories go viral | National Public Radio
“This problem is not theoretical. It’s not hypothetical,” said Sarah Roberts, an information studies professor at UCLA. “This thorny issue directly lands in this gray area of an emergent information crisis that has really clear real-world implications.”
Free with your COVID shot: Beer, arcade tokens and doughnuts | New York Times
“Behavioral nudges” that are based on scientific observations may be a more cost-effective way to persuade people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 than straight-up incentives, said Hengchen Dai, a professor of management at the University of California, Los Angeles. In a recent study, Ms. Dai and her colleagues found that text messages could boost uptake of influenza vaccinations. (UCLA’s Jon Bogard was quoted.)
U.S. COVID death count could have stayed under 300,000 | Reuters
U.S. COVID-19 fatalities could have stayed under 300,000, versus a death toll of 540,000 and rising, if by last May the country had adopted widespread mask, social distancing, and testing protocols while awaiting a vaccine, estimated Andrew Atkeson, economics professor at University of California, Los Angeles. (Also: Washington Post.)
Few health care workers infected with COVID after full vaccination | ABC News
Infections among health care workers who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 are extremely rare, according to a new study. … The study period lasted from Dec. 16, 2020, when the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) started their vaccination programs, until Feb. 9, 2021. (Also: Reuters, Business Insider and KCBS-TV.)
What’s safe to do for fully vaccinated people? | KCRW-FM’s “Press Play”
“I do think we have to be careful, and I think that it still needs to be emphasized that unvaccinated individuals need to maintain social distancing practices and masking. Because as we’ve seen in a lot of other countries, and unfortunately I think we may see here, there may be another, hopefully much smaller, surge due to the lack of public health guidelines following by unvaccinated individuals,” said UCLA’s Dr. Omai Garner.
Distributing COVID vaccines to unhoused Angelenos poses challenges | LAist
Though the effects of the pandemic took longer to reach some Angelenos experiencing homelessness, new research from UCLA epidemiologists shows that unhoused L.A. county residents who contract COVID-19 are 50% more likely to die than members of the general population.
Access to at-home COVID-19 tests will soon be easier | Popular Science
Now, there are a wider, more effective variety of options for diagnostics. The gold standard, says Omai Garner, the director of clinical microbiology in the UCLA Health System, is the PCR test, which replicates and senses viral RNA in samples. While most PCR tests (also called molecular tests) are conducted by health care professionals, people can also take saliva samples and and swab their nostrils at home. “They all have pretty good accuracy in the symptomatic patient,” Garner says.
Whatever the language, babies love baby talk | HealthDay News
“Crucially for parents, we found that development of learning and attention is similar in infants, whether they’re learning one or two languages,” said Megha Sundara, director of the Language Acquisition Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “And, of course, learning a language earlier helps you learn it better, so bilingualism is a win-win.” (UCLA’s Victoria Mateu was also quoted. Also: Motherly, KFI-AM, KNX-AM and Spectrum News 1.)
Could Jan. 6 rioters be charged with sedition? | PolitiFact
“The most famous use of ‘sedition’ has been in statutes such as the Sedition Act of 1798, which expressly covered anti-government speech, building on the common-law offense of ‘seditious libel,’” said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at University of California-Los Angeles. “The current meaning, though, has to do with ‘seditious conspiracy.’”
People who save more skimp more on these things | MarketWatch
Hal Hershfield, associate professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, was one of three researchers in a study published in the journal Marketing Science in November 2020. The findings may help you set up a recurring savings plan, where money is automatically moved to a savings or investment account on a regular basis.
Oregon State President resigns over past handling of sexual misconduct | Chronicle of Higher Education
“When you lead an institution, anything that happens on your watch is going to be a reflection of you and your leadership, fairly or unfairly,” says Eddie R. Cole, an associate professor of higher education and organizational change at the University of California at Los Angeles. “A lot of other university presidents are looking at this Oregon State situation, making personal notes and taking stock of their own campuses.”
After mass shootings, some states loosen gun laws | The Conversation
(Commentary by UCLA’s Christopher Poliquin) As impressive as this 15% increase in gun bills may sound, gun legislation can reduce gun violence only if it becomes law. And when it comes to enacting these bills into law, our research found that mass shootings do not regularly cause lawmakers to tighten gun restrictions. In fact, we found the opposite; Republican state legislatures pass significantly more gun laws that loosen restrictions on firearms after mass shootings.
NRA still ‘very powerful’ in gun reform debate | Newsweek
“Clearly things inside the NRA are in very bad shape, but I don’t think that means the NRA is finished or is done as an organization,” Adam Winkler, a gun policy expert at UCLA’s School of Law, told Newsweek. “The NRA has too many members, it’s been around too long and its brand identity is just so strong.” (Winkler was also interviewed on KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk.”)
