News
Health of families deteriorating under COVID-19 stress says Patrick
Jul. 31, 2020—The ongoing disruptive changes from efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are having a substantial negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of parents and their children across the country, according to a new national survey published today in Pediatrics. “COVID-19 and measures to control its spread have had a substantial effect on the...
COVID-19 vaccine may cause mild side effects says Edwards
Jul. 31, 2020—While the world awaits the results of large clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines, experts say the data so far suggest one important possibility: The vaccines may carry a bit of a kick. In vaccine parlance, they appear to be “reactogenic,” meaning they have induced short-term discomfort in a percentage of the people who have received them in...
CNN talks to Schaffner about COVID-19 prevention
Jul. 31, 2020—Hand sanitizers “need to have at least 60% alcohol in them,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. And don’t just put a little dollop in your hand and smear it around quickly. “You’ve got to use enough and get it all over the surfaces,”...
COVID-19 recovery can take a few weeks says Self
Jul. 30, 2020—Recovering from even mild coronavirus infections can take at least two to three weeks, according to U.S. research published Friday. The results are somewhat surprising, since with flu and many other viral infections, most patients recover completely within two weeks, said Dr. Wesley Self of Vanderbilt University. He leads a network of 14 medical centers...
NBC News talks with Patrick about in-person learning during COVID-19
Jul. 30, 2020—There’s no question that in-person learning is important to the growth and development of children. The question is how to do so safely. “Parents across the country and kids across the country are in distress,” said Dr. Stephen Patrick, the study’s author and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy in Nashville, Tennessee.
Wilkins discusses healthy equity during COVID-19 vaccine trial
Jul. 30, 2020—The unprecedented scientific quest to end the pandemic with a vaccine now faces one of its most crucial tests, and nothing less than the success of the entire endeavor is at stake. A vaccine must work for everyone — young and old; black, brown and white. To prove that it does, many of the 30,000 volunteers for...
Hartert leads study to track COVID-19 transmission between children
Jul. 24, 2020—Every year, children are a major driver of transmission for the viruses that cause the flu and the common cold. So this March, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, Tina Hartert of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine expected the same to be true for the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. But months later, Hartert and...
Creech discusses COVID-19 antibodies
Jul. 23, 2020—New research suggests that antibodies the immune system makes to fight the new coronavirus may only last a few months in people with mild illness, but that doesn’t mean protection also is gone or that it won’t be possible to develop an effective vaccine. “Infection with this coronavirus does not necessarily generate lifetime immunity,” but...
NBC News talks to Schaffner about COVID-19 vaccine trial results
Jul. 23, 2020—A coronavirus vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca is safe and shows signs of inducing an immune response, according to early clinical trial results published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet. It is “good news — another step forward on the long road” to having a COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. William Schaffner,...
Graves comments on TN COVID-19 hospitalizations
Jul. 21, 2020—Tennessee hit another milestone this week with the number of people currently in the hospital with COVID-19. Vanderbilt researchers said there are currently open hospital beds, but that could change as if the upward trend continues. “And so the concern is that if we continue to see increases in the number of COVID patients, that...
VUMC recruits volunteers for COVID-19 vaccine trial led by Creech
Jul. 16, 2020—In late July, Vanderbilt University Medical Center will begin recruiting up to 1,000 volunteers in a late-stage study of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. in collaboration with the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health. The randomized, placebo-controlled phase 3...
Self studies investigational glaucoma drug in COVID-19 patients
Jul. 16, 2020—Vanderbilt University Medical Center is evaluating razuprotafib, a drug being investigated for the treatment of glaucoma, in a new randomized, investigational trial for the prevention and treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in adult patients with moderate to severe COVID-19. “We urgently need to find effective treatments for COVID-19, especially for patients who develop...
MPH alumna works to fill COVID information gaps for web users
Jul. 16, 2020—For the world’s web users, Vanderbilt University Medical Center is working with Google to address COVID-19 information gaps. In April, Google Health began testing Question Hub in the U.S., beginning with unanswered questions about COVID-19. Becky Jerome, MLIS, MPH, a research services consultant at VICTR, worked on the project with Bernard, Jill Pulley, MBA, VICTR’s...
Stubblefield looks at COVID symptoms among health care workers
Jul. 15, 2020—Among 249 front-line health care workers who cared for COVID-19 patients during the first month of the pandemic in Tennessee, 8% tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies by serology testing, suggesting they had contracted COVID-19 in the first several weeks of taking care of COVID-19 patients. Among these health care workers with positive serology results, 42%...
As the school year approaches, Creech and Edwards examine risks
Jul. 13, 2020—In the U.S., children make up about 22 percent of the population, but kids account for only 2 percent of coronavirus cases so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s not yet known what accounts for that disparity, said Dr. C. Buddy Creech, an associate professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University...