CU Anschutz In The News

The state will suspend or cut funding for drug abuse prevention and treatment programs created by six recent laws, totaling about $26 million in reductions, according to Rob Valuck, director for the Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention at the CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy. It could affect everything from public health campaigns to syringe exchange programs. “We know if there aren’t as many harm reduction services, people will invariably have to reuse equipment, they’ll be reusing needles, at increased risk of spreading disease like HIV and hepatitis C,” Valuck said.

Public health officials say that indicates the virus has been present in prison populations for far longer than had previously been understood. “If you don’t do testing, you’re flying blind,” said Carlos Franco-Paredes, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

As for cloth masks, the protection depends on what they're made out of and how well they fit. But with the right combination of materials, you can create a cloth mask that offers protection to the wearer in the 30% to 50% range or more, says May Chu, an epidemiologist at the Colorado School of Public Health who co-authored a paper published on June 2 in Nano Letters on the filtration efficiency of household mask materials.

Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, said while protesting during a pandemic is not optimum timing, people can’t choose the moment when an officer-involved killing will trigger anger and rage. Several medical students and residents from the school signed the letter praising the recent protests. “People want to make their voices heard at this moment,” he said. “I’m not going to urge people not to gather. But I would not say these protests are risk-free. It’s an individual decision.”

For example, pools, smaller lakes and beaches are more likely to have large crowds, so travelers should look at going when there are likely to be fewer people, said Glen Mays, a professor of health policy at the Colorado School of Public Health.

Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz, said his eyebrows didn’t shoot up when he read the email—but “they arched a little. I think it's incredibly common for people to send letters of introduction,” Wynia said. At the same time, “He's skirting the issue of, ‘I'm not going to lobby for you by doing no lobbying for the plan, per se, but lobbying for the intent of the person who presumably put the plan together.’”

But for very young children, say 2 or 3 years old, wearing a mask can sometimes be counterproductive, said Dr. Sean O’Leary, M.D., the vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Brandi Freeman joined KUNC’s Colorado Edition to give advice about how to talk with children about the protests, racism and police violence. Dr. Freeman is a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado and director of diversity and inclusion for the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.