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Fellows Match to the Department of Medicine

December 16, 2020
While the pandemic made this year particularly challenging for fellowship recruitment efforts and interviews, a series of videos showing each program’s strengths was a creative solution, introducing viewers to faculty and current fellows, with a brief glimpse into what it might be like to join the program. And although it...

Carey Will Retire in 2021

December 16, 2020
Timothy Carey, MD, MPH, the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Social Medicine, will retire in January after 35 years as a UNC faculty member. As a health services leader and researcher, active in both inpatient and outpatient care, Carey says serving UNC and the state’s residents...

Kim Says Allergic Reactions to COVID-19 Vaccine Likely To Be Extremely Rare

December 16, 2020
As the US Food and Drug Administration considers whether to authorize emergency use of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, medical experts are paying close attention to reports of allergic reactions to the vaccine. Edwin Kim, MD, associate professor of medicine and pediatrics in the division of rheumatology, allergy and immunology, says...

Group In East Informing Minority Groups About COVID-19 and Its Vaccine

December 16, 2020
WNCT (Greenville) reports vaccinations are starting across North Carolina, with CarolinaEast Health System in New Bern giving medical workers the first shots in the Greenville region. But the report also recognizes that there are many people who don’t feel comfortable getting the vaccine and introduces a group in the east...

Sheikh Leads Largest Ever Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled SLE Study

December 16, 2020
Saira Sheikh, MD, led the “BASE” study, now published in The Lancet Rheumatology, which found mortality, AESIs among SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus) patients taking Benlysta similar to placebo. Learn more from the UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.

Genetically Altered Pigs Approved For Food, Potential Medical Use

December 15, 2020
Agri-Pulse reports the Food and Drug Administration has for the first time approved an intentional genomic alteration, or IGA, in animals that can be used for both food and human therapeutics. The IGA is in what are called GalSafe pigs, bred to eliminate alpha-gal sugar on the surface of the...

North Carolina Needs to Do More to Protect Workers From COVID-19, Civil Rights Leaders Say

December 12, 2020
A labor advocate group is asking a North Carolina court to have the state’s Department of Labor reconsider additional actions to protect frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. ABC-13 News reports the request comes after Labor Secretary Cherie Berry said the pandemic is not a workplace hazard. “We know that...

Make Sure To Get Both Doses of Coronavirus Vaccine, Physicians Urge

December 12, 2020
The first two coronavirus vaccines seeking emergency authorization from federal regulators require two doses, and medical professionals worry that some people may be tempted to get only one dose. Experts say that could allow the virus to mutate and once again expose a danger to people. WRAL interviewed Cindy Gay, MD,...

Researchers Rank Various Mask Protection, Modifications Against COVID-19

December 12, 2020
It’s been shown that when two people wearing masks interact, the chance of COVID-19 transmission is drastically reduced. This is why public health officials have pleaded for all people to wear masks: they not only protect the wearer from expelling particles that might carry SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus...

Who Is Rochelle Walensky, Biden’s Pick For CDC Director?

December 11, 2020
Ada Adimora, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, was a guest on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and asked about Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease specialist chosen by president-elect Joe Biden to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Oh, my God. You know, honestly, there...

Inside the Battleground: The Frontline of the Coronavirus Pandemic in the US

December 11, 2020
The view of the devastation of COVID-19 from the inside is far different than from the outside, CBS17 (NewsNation) reports. In a political climate consumed by masks and relief money, a look behind the intensive care curtain finds unprecedented work and camaraderie, impossible sadness and even a little bit of...

Obesity Rates Significantly Higher in Black Women With Breast Cancer

December 10, 2020
Physician’s Weekly featured a recently published retrospective review by Kristen Nyrop, PhD, assistant professor of oncology, on racial disparities in the prevalence of comorbidities in general and obesity-related comorbidities in Black and White women with early stage, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Read the article here.