“We were anticipating that once the vaccines were going to become available, we would need to be able to have our students ready to go to support these efforts. They have a few experiential requirements, but this is going to be above and beyond what students would normally do. So, we thought why not make it fun, let’s create a competition,” said Dr. Dana Hammer the Faculty Lead for Student Professional Development in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.

“This is very exciting,” said Dr. Ross Kedl, a professor of immunology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “It’s another home run.” While some are quick to point out that both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines have higher efficacy rates, Kedl says it’s not as big of a difference as it seems. “The differences between 80% and 95% are not exactly quibbling, but they’re less significant than the overall message,” Kedl said. “We’re super excited when the flu vaccine has somewhere between a 30 and 60% efficacy.”

Actor Gary Sinise is expanding his philanthropic work and that means more help for Colorado veterans with brain injuries. His new network will give money to the Marcus Institute for Brain Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

“Some of the root causes stem from the history of this country and health care. Just like anything, when you build something and add other pieces in afterwards, they never fit just right,” said Dr. Jacqueline Ward-Gaines. Ward-Gaines is the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Educational Lead at the University of Colorado Department of Emergency Medicine. She says the health disparities between Black and White Americans are rooted in centuries of racism.

“In terms of rolling it out to larger populations of children, we’re several months away from that,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado and professor of pediatrics at CU Anschutz.

“We have two independent scientific experiments that come up with the same results that demonstrate that both of these vaccines are highly effective,” said Dr. Thomas Campbell, a professor of infectious disease medicine at CU Anschutz Medical Campus. “We are able to do that already with lots of other vaccines, I don’t think that will be a big issue.”

Dr. Elizabeth Carlton with the Colorado School of Public Health said young adults usually show lesser symptoms and don’t need to be hospitalized. However, she is seeing that trend shift. “More concerning is percent of hospitalizations of people under 40 is upwards,” Dr. Carlton said. “Which means of the people hospitalized with COVID, more and more are young people.”

It’s unlike any other ventilator on the market. Thomas Greany, DDS, at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine faculty member designed a ventilator that can support 12 patients at once. “In my entire career, there’s been nothing more gratifying than the work that I’ve been involved with over the past four weeks,” Greany says.