News
Talbot reveals how easily COVID-19 spreads inside a home
Nov. 3, 2020—The new study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center reveals how vulnerable family members can be inside a home where someone has contracted the coronavirus. “What we found is COVID spreads very rapidly and very quickly inside a home,” said Dr. Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Once it’s in your house, it’s very hard...
Dusetzina comments on proposed debit cards to offset seniors’ drug costs
Nov. 3, 2020—The nation’s 46.5 million enrollees in Medicare’s Part D prescription drug program — except for those who qualify for low-income subsidies — face unlimited out-of-pocket exposure to drug costs even though the Affordable Care Act finally closed the infamous “doughnut hole.” After Part D enrollees have spent $6,550 and reached the catastrophic threshold in a...
PBS talks to Schaffner about COVID-19 vaccine expectations
Nov. 2, 2020—The White House and many Americans have pinned their hopes for defeating the COVID-19 pandemic on a vaccine being developed at “warp speed.” But some scientific experts warn they’re all expecting too much, too soon. “There’s a tension between getting every piece of information and getting a vaccine [out] in time to save lives,” said...
Grijalva leads transmission of SARS-COV-2 infections in households study
Nov. 2, 2020—Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs within households; however, transmission estimates vary widely and the data on transmission from children are limited. Findings from a prospective household study with intensive daily observation for ≥7 consecutive days indicate that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among household members was frequent from either children or adults. Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is common and...
NPR talks to McPheeters about missing COVID-19 data
Oct. 30, 2020—As coronavirus cases rise swiftly around the country, surpassing both the spring and summer surges, health officials brace for a coming wave of hospitalizations and deaths. Knowing which hospitals in which communities are reaching capacity could be key to an effective response to the growing crisis. That information is gathered by the federal government —...
MPH alumna graduates from SCARD-GE LEAD program
Oct. 29, 2020—Lucy Spalluto, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Radiology and Director of Women in Radiology (WIR), recently graduated from the Leading, Empowering and Disrupting (LEAD) Program, a joint initiative of the Society of Chairs of Academic Radiology Departments’ (SCARD) and GE Healthcare. She was among 20 emerging leaders from radiology and industry selected to participate in the 2019-2020 LEAD Program....
Areas with mask requirements continue to see less COVID-19 hospitalizations says Graves
Oct. 28, 2020—Areas without mask mandates are leading to a larger increase in hospitalizations due to COVID, according to local hospital researchers. This analysis comes from researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. These researchers said there has been “a resurgence in hospitalized COVID-19 patients since early October.” The hospitals taking in patients...
MPH students dive into COVID-19 response on local and state levels
Oct. 28, 2020—From accomplished alumni to first-year trainees, the Vanderbilt Master of Public Health (MPH) program has brought a wave of support to fight the spread of COVID-19 in Tennessee.
COVID treatment studied by Creech gains FDA approval
Oct. 28, 2020—Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center played a key role in the development of remdesivir, the first drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19. The FDA announced last week that it had approved remdesivir for use in adult and pediatric COVID-19 patients 12 years of age and older who require...
CNN talks to Schaffner about how vaccines can help end racial disparities
Oct. 28, 2020—The world is focused on a Covid-19 vaccine to get everyone back to some version of normal, but the vaccine could also have another beneficial effect: It could reduce the disparities that have made the disease so deadly for some racial groups. A recent study showed that a vaccine against pneumococcal disease erased racial differences in the...
Patrick: COVID is making it harder for pregnant women who use opioids to get effective treatment
Oct. 28, 2020—Opioid use in pregnancy has prompted new guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics aimed at improving care for women and for newborns affected by their mothers’ drug use. The number of affected women and infants has increased in recent years but they often don’t get effective treatment, and the coronavirus pandemic may be worsening that problem,...
Schaffner discusses how COVID-19 is affecting the NFL
Oct. 25, 2020—The NFL and the players association are trying to play this season during the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 in the United States, with some survivors left dealing with issues months after infection: fatigue, headaches, muscle and joint paints, fuzzy thinking and organ dysfunction. Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at...
Foster looks at how Hep A research can help with COVID-19
Oct. 22, 2020—Roslyn Stone, who manages health incidents for many of the nation’s largest restaurants and foodservice chains as the chief operating officer for Zero Hour Health, clearly has Dr. Monique Foster, who is epidemiology lead for hepatitis A at the Division of Viral Hepatitis at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC0 in Atlanta, on...
McPheeters discusses Tennessee’s latest COVID-19 outbreaks
Oct. 22, 2020—In Tennessee, more people than ever before are currently hospitalized for COVID-19. A little more than 200 intensive care unit beds are left in a state with a population of more than 6.8 million people. In Nashville, only eight percent of ICU beds remained available over the weekend. Since August, outbreaks have shifted from the...
NPR talks to Buntin about reopening schools during the pandemic
Oct. 22, 2020—While agreeing that emerging data is encouraging, other experts said the United States as a whole has made little progress toward practices that would allow schools to make reopening safer — from rapid and regular testing, to contact tracing to identify the source of outbreaks, to reporting school-associated cases publicly, regularly and consistently. “We are...