News
CNN talks to Schaffner about travel concerns during COVID-19
Jul. 13, 2020—With airlines introducing new measures like face masks and intensive sanitization routines to reassure passengers, people have been cautiously returning to air travel even while the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread around the world. Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, tells CNN he does not currently advocate traveling by airplane, particularly in the...
Neuzil shares her insights on path to COVID-19 vaccine
Jul. 10, 2020—Members of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) Working Group, which includes Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, DTPH, the Myron M. Levine, MD, DTPH Professor in Vaccinology and director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), assessed the practical considerations and prerequisites...
Talbot and Schaffner discuss wearing a mask in public
Jul. 7, 2020—Dr. William Schaffner and Dr. Tom Talbot discuss why wearing a mask in public can reduce the risk of spreading COVID 19.
Schaffner comments on contact tracking concerns in TN
Jul. 6, 2020—Tennessee reopens and people shop, eat out, and enjoy summer activities protecting against possible COVID-19 exposure is not so obvious said infectious disease doctor, William Schaffner. “There are people who have no symptoms what so ever who are capable of transmitting this virus,” explained Dr. Schaffner, “So contact tracing is very very important.”
Grijalva examines coronavirus transmission within households
Jul. 2, 2020—Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators are leading a new study that examines the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, within households in Nashville. The study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aims to understand how fast the infections spread within households and the factors that may be associated with...
Vanderbilt named to key role to streamline COVID-19 research response
Jun. 25, 2020—Vanderbilt MPH Program alumnus Wesley H. Self, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of Emergency Medicine, is among those involved in the Administrative Coordinating Center (ACC) of a national effort to streamline the research response to life-threatening lung and heart problems caused by COVID-19. The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) and RTI International, a non-profit clinical research...
Major U.S. trial closes showing no benefit for hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19
Jun. 25, 2020—Vanderbilt MPH Program alumnus Wesley H. Self, M.D.,M.P.H., is a lead investigator on the Outcomes Related to COVID-19 Treated with Hydroxychloroquine among In-patients with Symptomatic Disease (ORCHID) trial, which stopped enrolling new patients based on the fourth scheduled interim analysis showing no evidence of benefit or harm. “We rapidly conducted a high-quality study to understand...
Clayton receives grant to expand LGBTQ voices in biomedical research
Jun. 25, 2020—Vanderbilt MPH Program faculty member Ellen W. Clayton, M.D., J.D., the Craig-Weaver Professor of Pediatrics, was recently awarded a grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes for Health (NIH) to explore LGBTQ+ perspectives on a range of issues related to biomedical research. Dr. Clayton is the study’s principal investigator and director...
Tsosie offers insights on Indigenous science and research
Jun. 22, 2020—The power and enduring knowledge of Indigenous science have long been muted in modern science despite its validity. In a first, the journal Human Biology has published a special issue dedicated to Indigenous science. Guest co-edited by Krystal Tsosie, a Diné (Navajo) Ph.D. student studying genomics and health disparities, the issue includes perspectives written, edited and peer-reviewed by Indigenous...
Grome receive awards at Research Forum
Jun. 18, 2020—Heather Grome, M.D., M.P.H., a third-year infectious disease fellow who is pursuing a master’s degree in Public Health, won the 2020 Elliot V. Newman Prize for best abstract, “Association of STI Diagnosis with Incident HIV in a Southern Statewide Cohort.”
Schaffner comments on CDC tips for minimizing COVID-19 rise
Jun. 17, 2020—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted the guidelines Friday, along with a second set for organizing and attending big gatherings such as concerts, sporting events, protests and political rallies. “My empathy goes out to the CDC. It’s very, very difficult to have a precise answer for every circumstance,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious...
COVID-19 hospitalizations increase in TN
Jun. 16, 2020—The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached its highest level to date on June 15, when more than 400 patients were hospitalized across Tennessee, according to a report from researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “The recent rise in hospitalizations is not a simple story, and is a story...
A second wave of COVID-19 in the U.S. has begun warns Schaffner
Jun. 15, 2020—A second wave of coronavirus has started in the U.S. — and people need to remain careful or risk stressing out the health-care system again, said William Schaffner, a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “The second wave has begun,” said the professor of medicine told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday. “We’re opening up across the country, but many, many people are not...
In Washington Post, Neuzil comments on challenge trials for COVID-19 vaccine
Jun. 15, 2020—Kathleen Neuzil, director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is experienced running challenge trials involving potential vaccines for diseases that have treatments. “We’ve done them for malaria, influenza, shigella. What makes me personally cautious about doing them for SARS-CoV-2 is, at the moment, we...
Opioid prescriptions after childbirth linked to increased risk of overdose, persistent use
Jun. 12, 2020—MPH graduate and faculty member Carlos G. Grijalva, MD, MPH, associate professor of Health Policy, is a senior investigator for a study that found that women who are prescribed opioids after childbirth have an increased risk of persistent opioid use or other serious opioid-related events, including overdose, in their first year postpartum. This is true regardless of whether...