Latest news with #UniversityOfKansas
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
There's a war brewing between medical groups and RFK Jr. It's about to explode.
Dr. Beth Oller is no stranger to answering questions about COVID-19 and flu shots. As a family physician in Stockton, Kansas, she has fielded questions over the years about vaccine safety and effectiveness. But lately there are new questions that stump her: Can I get the shot this fall, and will my insurance cover it? 'I legitimately don't know, and that's why it's so confusing,' said Oller, who is also a clinical instructor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. Though Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has changed guidance recommending the COVID-19 shot for healthy people, medical groups representing doctors have publicly rejected those changes. RFK Jr. and ultra-processed foods: What does it mean for your diet? The back-and-forth between the department and the nation's top doctors is creating confusion and sowing distrust among patients and providers, said Dr. Stephen Patrick, chair of health policy and management at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health. As new developments emerge, policies affecting patients and their health care hang in the balance. "At the root level, these actions affect people and children,' Patrick said. 'Each of these things are linked to what we do (as doctors) and often linked to what states do and what insurance companies do, and that's where a lot of these things can be worrisome.' What has happened so far? In the span of just a few months, Kennedy has made monumental changes to a long-standing system that crafts health policy and recommendations. In June, he fired an entire vaccine panel and hired eight new members, including some vaccine skeptics. In its first meeting later that month, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to remove a controversial ingredient that had been largely phased out of influenza vaccines. On July 9, Kennedy postponed another health committee meeting hosted by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, sparking concerns that he may be planning to fire task force members. Medical groups pushed back immediately. The American Academy of Pediatrics refused to attend the ACIP meeting. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced it was no longer accepting federal funding. And the American Medical Association sent Kennedy a letter urging him to retain the preventive services task force's original members. Several organizations have sued Kennedy over HHS guidance that no longer recommended the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women, a move that broke with expert guidance and bypassed the normal scientific review process. The Health and Human Services Department also announced Aug. 5 that it was winding down development activities for mRNA, the vaccine technology behind the COVID-19 shot, according to a video posted on X. Liaisons that represented these professional organizations were banned July 31 from ACIP work groups that would typically assist with vaccine reviews and craft recommendation language, according to media reports. What does this all mean? Although many of the policies have yet to take effect, 'all the noise' in Washington has already affected Americans, Patrick said. A new survey from Emory University shows how most of the policy decisions haven't been widely popular and sowed more distrust and doubt in health systems. About 85% of Americans who voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election reported decreased trust from the ACIP firings, while only 34% of those who voted for President Donald Trump reported increased trust, according to the survey published Aug. 6. Similarly, about 65% of Harris voters reported decreased trust because of the COVID-19 vaccine recommendation changes, while only 35% of Trump voters reported increased trust. About half of Trump voters reported that ACIP and vaccine changes did not affect their trust. So, while many of the changes from HHS were made in the name of improving trust and reducing bias, it seems to have had the opposite effect, Patrick said. 'Many of these changes are not rooted in evidence and not rooted in public support, either, and that's worrisome,' he said. Otter urges patients to continue depending on their family doctors for trusted information. She keeps up with the developing news and tries to parse out the 'squabbling' and 'infighting' to help her patients make the best decisions for their health. 'That's the best we can do as medical organizations,' she said. 'Push out there what the truth is and keep encouraging patients when there are things that are confusing.' Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr.'s HHS and medical groups are at war. It's getting messy.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas receives $300 million gift from donor, one of the largest single gifts in college sports history
The University of Kansas football team received some excellent news Wednesday. The school received a massive $300 million gift from a donor, a portion of which will be allocated toward making improvements to the team's stadium, according to ESPN. The gift — which came courtesy of donor David Booth — is the largest in school history. It's believed to be one of the largest single gifts in all of college sports history, per ESPN. Kansas plans to split the money between renovations on David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium and other construction in that immediate area. The school will set aside $75 million for those improvements. The rest of Booth's gift will be used to "establish an annual additional revenue stream for Kansas athletics," per ESPN. Kansas athletic director Travis Goff confirmed the gift in a statement to ESPN, calling it "transformative and a game changer." "I'd say it's transformative and a game changer," Goff told ESPN. "This gift makes an immediate impact on our top priority in a profound way, and it also provides us with an incredible revenue stream that gives us a chance to really invest in unique ways in the future of Kansas athletics." Kansas is already in the process of updating Kansas Memorial Stadium and has contributed $450 million to efforts thus far. The stadium's southwest, west and north sides are expected to be finished with renovations before the team opens the 2025 season. Booth's donation will go toward additional renovations at the stadium. It will also be used to upgrade the immediate area surrounding the stadium, known as the Gateway District. The team plans to build a number of amenities in the Gateway District, including a hotel, student housing and restaurants, among other businesses. Booth received both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Kansas. He's given multiple gifts to Kansas over the years, including a $9 million donation in 2004 and $50 million donation in 2017. Booth, 78, currently serves as the chairman at Dimensional Fund Advisors, an investment firm. After going 9-4 in 2023, Kansas regressed to a 5-7 record last season. The team entered the 2024 season ranked in the top-25 for the first time in over a decade. It reached as high as No. 19 in the rankings before eventually falling off the top-25 list. Kansas did not appear on the first preseason AP top-25 poll ahead of the 2025 season, which was released Tuesday.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
KU researchers discover ‘big possum' species from 60 million years ago in Texas
Paleontologists at the University of Kansas have discovered a new 'big possum' species that lived in the warm, tropical and vegetation-filled ecosystem of far west Texas 60 million years ago. The scientists discovered a new species of ancient near-marsupials, or Swaindelphys, while analyzing fossils from Texas' Big Bend National Park, according to a news release from KU. The 800,000 acre park is roughly 500 miles southwest of Fort Worth. The fossils were originally found decades ago, but they had not been thoroughly studied. The project's lead author, doctoral student Kristen Miller, was particularly interested in unknown molar fossils. She wanted to find out what species they represented. The researchers, who published their findings last week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, were surprised at what they found. This new species, called Swaindelphys solastella, is remarkable for multiple reasons. First, it is much larger than any other similar species known from the Paleocene period, according to the release. This is the period that occurred just after the extinction of dinosaurs. The Swaindelphys solastella 'was gigantic by the standards of Swaindelphys,' but researchers estimate it was the size of a modern hedgehog. 'Since everything is bigger in Texas, this is perhaps not surprising,' said curator and professor Chris Beard, co-author of the study. Miller said the Swaindelphys solastella is also the youngest and most southern species from this time period. While the fossils were found in Texas, the ecosystem they came from was drastically different than the one we see today. Miller said the environment would have been warmer and more tropical than it is now, with lots of vegetation and rivers. The fossils were found in a deposit from an ancient river system, even though that river is long gone today. Researchers said Swaindelphys are very similar to early primates. So, they hope to use this new discovery to inform studies about early primates in the same ecosystems in Texas. Miller also said she wants to continue this research to see if ancient landscapes posed obstacles to species distribution, like the distribution of the Swaindelphys.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
KU researchers discover ‘big possum' that lived around 60 million years ago
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A team led by University of Kansas paleontologists has unearthed a giant prehistoric predator that once roamed the Earth not long after the dinosaurs went extinct. According to a news release from KU, a species of Swaindelphys was found for the first time in Texas's Big Bend National Park; however, the environment in which it flourished during the Paleocene was very different from what exists today. Download WDAF+ for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV The new species, Swaindelphys Solastella, is significantly larger than other Swaindelphys species that were known at the time. The peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology published their report on the ancient species, which was enormous by Swaindelphys standards but still roughly the size of a modern hedgehog. KU said the lead author of the report is a doctoral student at the university. Kristen Miller is a student in KU's Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and spent a year studying specimens collected decades ago in West Texas by the late Judith Schiebout, a paleontologist whose career was spent at Louisiana State University. According to a news release, Miller wanted to find out what kind of metatherians — the group that includes living marsupials and their extinct relatives — the Texas fossils represented. 'I compared them to a lot of other marsupials from around the same time period to see what they're most closely related to,' Miller said. 'It was a lot of morphological comparisons.' Download WDAF+ for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV At first, the scientists believed the fossils were either the oldest of a group of Eocene metatherians that appeared a few million years later, or they were survivors of a group of large Cretaceous metatherians that somehow survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Both theories were ultimately proven incorrect by Miller's analysis. The Texas specimens belong to a 'surprisingly large' species of Swaindelphys. 'Not only are they the largest metatherians from this time period, but they're also the youngest and located at the most southern latitude,' Miller said. 'Since everything is bigger in Texas, this is perhaps not surprising.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
30-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘My stomach just dropped': foreign students in panicked limbo as Trump cancels visa interviews
Students around the world who were gearing up to study in the United States this fall face growing uncertainty after the Trump administration temporarily halted student visa appointments this week. On Tuesday, a state department directive ordered US embassies globally to immediately stop scheduling visa interviews for foreign students while it prepares to implement expanded social media screening for all international visa applicants. While interview appointments that were already scheduled can proceed, the announcement sparked panic among students who have yet to secure interviews. Students who spoke with the Guardian expressed anxiety over delays in visa processing that could jeopardize scholarships, on-campus housing, their ability to start classes on time – and their very academic futures. 'My stomach just dropped,' said Oliver Cropley, 27, a student at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, who is meant to attend the University of Kansas beginning this August for a year abroad. The directive came amid a series of recent policy shifts targeting international students at US universities. This week, the Trump administration issued new measures targeting Chinese students, announcing it would focus on the visas of those studying in 'critical fields' and of students with ties to the Chinese Communist party, and implement heightened scrutiny for all future applicants from China and Hong Kong. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security said it would immediately ban Harvard University from enrolling international students, forcing the university's international student body to either transfer or leave the country. A federal judge blocked that effort on Thursday, but its long-term outcome remains uncertain. The changes have left many international students who are planning to come to the US for the 2025-2026 academic year scrambling and in limbo. Cropley said that he paid all of the application fees for the US visa including the last administrative fee last week to schedule his visa interview, but he has been unable to schedule it or reach anyone at the US embassy. 'I was looking forward to Kansas. I love America, the wildlife, the culture,' Cropley said 'It has demoralized me,' Cropley said. 'It's a stressful enough process, and then to get this sort of knockback at this stage … I'm supposed to be there on August 4.' The scholarship he received to go study in the US is also now in flux, he said, as it is contingent on him traveling. As he awaits updates from the US embassy, Cropley said he is exploring his options – inquiring about the possibility of re-enrolling at his home university in the UK and completing the year there instead of in the US. But he said 'it's quite late' to be picking classes and modules and finding accommodation. 'I'm sort of stuck in between the two different universities with no guarantee of getting into either,' Cropley said. 'Essentially, it's just a waiting game.' Another UK student, who has been accepted to Harvard for the fall, told the Guardian that they were in 'disbelief' over the administration's attempt to block Harvard from enrolling international students. 'In your head, you have the next kind of five years knowing where you'll be, and then suddenly, overnight, that changes,' they said, speaking anonymously out of fear their comments could affect their visa approval The student said that their visa interview was already scheduled when the directive was issued, so they hope their interview is still going ahead. The recent decisions by the Trump administration 'raise a lot of uncertainty for the future', they said, adding that the situation at Harvard feels 'very fragile'. 'We may still be able to go, but at any moment, that could change,' they said. 'And if you're going to this place, to do work, but your mind is consumed with a fear of how grounded you can be, will things change, that's also difficult to deal with.' Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion They said that if they get their visa, they still plan on enrolling at Harvard. The Guardian last week invited scholars in the US and students poised to study in the US to share their experiences navigating the Trump administration's recent actions targeting higher education. More than 100 people responded, many saying they were reconsidering their academic future in the country. Several international students who wrote in declined follow-up interviews with the Guardian, citing fear of repercussions. Alfred Williamson, a Harvard undergraduate from Wales in Denmark for the summer, told Reuters this week that he fears he may not be able to return to the US. 'We're being used like pawns in the game that we have no control of,' he said. 'We're being caught in this crossfire between the White House and Harvard, and it feels incredibly dehumanising.' Some universities have advised students who are already enrolled not to leave the US for the summer in case they won't be allowed back. There are currently more than 1.1 million international students in the US, comprising about 6% of the US higher education population, according to the Institute of International Education. They typically pay two to three times the tuition of domestic students, and for the 2023-2024 academic year international students contributed $43.8bn to the US economy, according to Nafsa. In a court filing on Wednesday as part of a Harvard lawsuit against the Trump administration's efforts to ban international students at the school, Maureen Martin, Harvard's director of immigration services, described 'profound fear, concern, and confusion' among students and faculty as a result of the action. Faculty and administrators, she said, have been 'inundated' with inquiries from current international students about their status and options, and several foreign consulates in the US have contacted the university seeking clarity on how the policy affects their nationals who are enrolled. Martin said that many international students are experiencing 'significant emotional distress that is affecting their mental health and making it difficult to focus on their studies'. Some, she said, are avoiding graduation ceremonies for fear of immigration action, while others have canceled travel plans due to concerns they might not be allowed back into the US. 'Too many international students to count' have inquired about the possibility of transferring to another institution, she said. Martin said that several current Harvard visa holders have also faced increased scrutiny at airports. The Guardian reached out for comment to a number of universities with large foreign student populations. Most said they were monitoring the situation and would do what they could to support their students. 'We have a robust set of resources for our incoming and current international students, as well as contingency plans for those who might experience disruptions to their learning,' said Renata Nyul, the vice-president for communications at Northeastern University. A spokesperson for Arizona State University, which has more than 17,000 international students, said that the university is 'monitoring the situation closely and remains committed to fully supporting all international students in completing their degree programs'.
