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COVID-19 Research Working Group

Leading Coronavirus Research

News

UC Davis Health Joins State on Testing

After steadily increasing its own coronavirus testing capacity, UC Davis Health is now collaborating with the state to quickly and significantly boost California’s testing capacity, as announced Saturday (April 4) by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Dean Allison Brashear of the UC Davis School of Medicine said the university “is pleased to partner with Gov. Newsom on this important effort to increase testing capacity for Northern Californians.”

Safely conducting essential research in the face of COVID-19

Staying at home is not an option for scientists working on potential vaccines or caring for research animals. John Morrison, director of the California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis, is one of four scientists interviewed in this Nature article about the precautionary measures necessary to continue essential research in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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UC Davis Health speeds up COVID-19 testing

Academic medical center in unique position to benefit patients in the Sacramento region

(SACRAMENTO) — Clinical pathologists, infectious disease physicians and scientists at UC Davis Health are collaborating on new reagents (substances used for chemical analysis), diagnostic tests and a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus in hopes of preventing and ultimately treating the infection.

Impact of COVID-19 on California Traffic Accidents

The Governor's order for "shelter-in-place" in response to the COVID-19 pandemic went into effect on 3/20/2020. These maps show the hotspots for injury and fatal accidents on state highways and certain major roads patrolled by the California Highway Patrol for 3/21-3/30/2019 and the same period in 2020. Use the slider to see the injury accident reduction in 2020 compared to the previous year. You can read the report here: (PDF)

Coronavirus Economic Effects Might Last Decades, UC Davis Research Suggests

The economy could be suffering the effects of the coronavirus for decades, suggest economists at the University of California, Davis, who researched the financial effects of pandemics dating back to the 14th century. “If the trends play out similarly in the wake of COVID-19 — adjusted to the scale of this pandemic — the global economic trajectory will be very different than was expected only a few weeks ago,” the authors wrote in a working paper published this week

How Important Is Speech in Transmitting Coronavirus?

Normal speech by individuals who are asymptomatic but infected with coronavirus may produce enough aerosolized particles to transmit the infection, according to aerosol scientists at the University of California, Davis. Although it’s not yet known how important this is to the spread of COVID-19, it underscores the need for strict social distancing measures — and for virologists, epidemiologists and engineers who study aerosols and droplets to work together on this and other respiratory diseases.