human health

Answering reporters’ coronavirus questions

CFAES’ Linda Saif, an international expert on coronaviruses and Distinguished University Professor, has been rightly extremely busy lately answering reporters’ questions, including “Can pigs catch COVID-19?” “Can pets get coronavirus from humans?” and “Can veterinarians prevent the next pandemic?”

You can learn more about Saif’s and her colleagues’ expertise on coronaviruses here, and if you’re a journalist and want to ask them questions, their contact information is there, too.

Saif gave a good backgrounder on coronavirus biology, genetics, and related matters in a recent webinar, which you can watch in the video above.

When might the drug-based cavalry be coming?

Toledo Blade journalist Tom Henry talked to CFAES scientist Linda Saif, among others, for a March 20 story titled “Cavalry isn’t here yet: Coronavirus-killing drugs are still being sought.”

Saif is a Distinguished University Professor with CFAES’ Food Animal Health Research Program, a member of Ohio State’s Infectious Diseases Institute, a co-director of the institute’s Viruses and Emerging Pathogens Program, and an international expert on several types of viruses including coronaviruses.

Read the story.

Something to do while you’re staying at home

The video above, by CFAES horticulture educator Pam Bennett, is seven years old, but the suggestions are still good today. Now’s the time of year to get your garden ready for spring, and, with Ohio’s coronavirus “stay at home” order about to begin, you might have some time for a good head start.

Bennett is also the program director of our state Master Gardener Volunteers program, and if you’re interested in joining and serving with the program at some point down the road, you can learn more about it here.

Tonight: Hear from real-life ‘Dark Waters’ hero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd7mPSuVjDg

The 2018 documentary The Devil We Know screens at 7 p.m. tonight, Tuesday, March 3, in Ohio State’s Environmental Film Series. The event’s website describes the film this way: “Lax oversight of industrial pollutants in West Virginia and corporate greed contributed to the death of cattle and cancer in people. A Cincinnati corporate attorney decided to help local residents.” That attorney, Rob Billott, will appear in person at the screening.

Billott’s memoir detailing the case, titled Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against Du Pont, inspired the 2019 major motion picture Dark Waters, which starred Mark Ruffalo as Billott.

Admission to the screening is free and open to the public. Get details.

CFAES experts can comment on coronavirus

Zoonotic disease experts from CFAES are available to comment to the media about the new coronavirus that has emerged from China.

Zoonotic diseases are diseases that spread between animals and humans.

A Jan. 26 Washington Post story said evidence has emerged that the new, potentially dangerous coronavirus “was transmitted to humans through a market in the city of Wuhan that traded in game meat.”

How to eat well and under budget—and also why it matters

It’s surprisingly inexpensive to eat good, healthy foods—as little as $4.50 per person per day—according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a Nov. 1 CFAES “Chow Line” column.

Continue reading How to eat well and under budget—and also why it matters →

Lake Erie’s algal bloom was twice as bad as last year’s

This summer’s harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie was twice as severe as last year’s—7.3 compared to 3.6, respectively, on a severity index of 1–10—and was slightly less than 2017’s, which was rated at 8. That’s according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a Nov. 4 story on cleveland.com. Chris Winslow, director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory, was quoted in the story.

Continue reading Lake Erie’s algal bloom was twice as bad as last year’s →

Lake Erie algae ‘not just a western-basin issue’

A study on harmful algal blooms in central Lake Erie, featured in earlier posts here and here, was recently covered by the Columbus Dispatch.

“The main takeaway,” study leader Justin Chaffin is quoted as saying in the story, “is that cyanobacteria blooms are not just a western-basin issue.”

Chaffin is research coordinator at CFAES’ Stone Laboratory.

Read the full story.