Media Coverage

Children under the age of 12 are not currently able to get any COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, which prompts the question: Is it safe to travel with an unvaccinated child? A lot of it comes down to personal risk tolerance, says Mark D. Hicar, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases. “The amount of risk one tolerates on a day-to-day basis varies by person, so something that one considers ‘safe,’ others may think is risky,” he points out. Still, there are some other factors to consider. “If the location you are planning to travel is experiencing high rates, I would consider canceling the trip or making sure the location you are staying in and the people you will interact with have been practicing social distancing and optimal safety measures,” says Hicar.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released updated guidance for the 2021-2022 school year, with an important point that differs from advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The AAP recommends that all students and staff wear face coverings, regardless of vaccination status. “The Delta variant looks like it’s behaving much more aggressively than prior strains of the virus — it’s much more contagious and seems to be impacting kids more,” says Dennis Z. Kuo, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and chief of the Division of General Pediatrics. “As a pediatrician, I want to see the kids in schools with the goals of schools staying open and all kids in schools. Masking can help.”

UBMD Pediatrics has received accreditation from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, making it Western New York’s only pediatric-dedicated sleep center with this accreditation. The report quotes Geovanny Perez, MD, clinical associate professor of pediatrics and chief of the Division of Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, who said: “Our center takes a holistic approach to sleep problems and collaborates with different subspecialties to provide the best treatment approach.”

The Buffalo News interviewed Peter Winkelstein, MD, executive director of UB’s Institute for Healthcare Informatics and clinical professor of pediatrics, about the rise in COVID-19 cases in Western New York. “The virus is not gone,” said Winkelstein, who suspects that the highly contagious delta variant and the easing of COVID-19 restrictions are two factors at play. “The virus, unfortunately, will probably never be gone. It is probably with us for the rest of human history,” he said.

The Buffalo News, WGRZ-TV, Spectrum News andWIVB-TV quoted Erie County Health Commissioner Gale Burstein, clinical professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, in stories about a pilot program in Erie County to test wastewater for presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. The program could display outbreaks in certain geographic areas served by a specific sewer district. If an area “lights up,” Burstein said it would give public health officials a chance to more quickly respond with resources, such as pop-up testing clinics and other methods to stay ahead of a potential outbreak.

Technology.org covered a UB story about mental health screenings in place since 2013 for patients with cystic fibrosis and their caregivers. “It can be challenging for people with CF and their families to sustain daily therapies and to live with a life-limiting disease,” said Danielle M. Goetz, clinical associate professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School. “Our team began to feel that mental health screening was an important part of care to look at.”

An article in the Daily Mail about a family whose son was diagnosed with an extremely rare genetic condition called FDXR, claimed that UB’s Taosheng Huang, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics and chief of the Division of Genetics, is the only doctor in the world known to research FDXR. The family has donated 700,000 pounds (approximately $952,000) to FDXR research, including to help Huang set up a lab to study the disease, which affects 32 people in the world and has no cure or treatments.

The Paper Gown quoted Peter Winkelstein, MD, executive director of UB’s Institute for Healthcare Informatics and clinical professor of pediatrics, in an article on new provisions in the 21st Century Cures Act that expands patient access to electronic health records. “A lot of people have adopted the idea that patients should have access to this, and that it improves care because a patient can say, ‘That’s not quite what I meant,’ and it makes patients more comfortable that nobody is keeping things from them,” says Winkelstein.

New guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been put into action by New York State, allowing vaccinated individuals to access some public spaces without masking. Dennis Z. Kuo, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and chief of the Division of General Pediatrics, points out that there may be some confusion about what this announcement actually means. “There were some at the individual and at the public health level that may be interpreting this as we’ve made tremendous strides, and we don’t need to take those precautions that have worked. And there's certainly a balance we need to strike with, we need to get out, we need to get our kids in school, we need to get our businesses reopened, fully reopened, we’re not talking partial, we need to get back to that level of activity.” He adds that reopening must occur “in ways that continue to be safe and continue to protect the rights of all of those who deserve that level of protection, and can utilize these businesses and utilize these public spaces and return to school.” 

Innovative research and procedures are underway in Western New York. Steven E. Lipshultz, MD, A. Conger Goodyear Professor and Chair of pediatrics, led a study at 14 centers across the country that found a genetic cause in most children with cardiomyopathy. “It’s the leading cause of death around the world of children who need heart transplants when the medications don’t work anymore, and if they don’t get a heart transplant they’ll die,” he says. Also, Erie County Medical Center has been growing its work on the research side to better treat patients with viral illnesses, including those with COVID-19. That’s what led to a new collaboration last year with the Mayo Clinic and the Food and Drug Administration tied to using convalescent plasma from people who have recovered from the virus to treat others. “Everyone realizes that trials are the only way we get definitive answers to whether a therapy is valid,” says Brian M. Murray, MD, associate professor of medicine.

Stephen J. Turkovich, MD, chief medical officer​ at Oishei Children’s Hospital​, was interviewed in a Q&A. “I firmly believe that the risks that come to a child’s physical, mental, emotional and academic and psychological well-being are so high right now that continuing to keep them out of school is going to cause some long-term harm,” says Turkovich, clinical assistant professor of pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “So, from a pediatrician’s perspective, I think the American Academy of Pediatrics was right when they said school is essential, school is important. It’s incumbent upon us as a community to figure out how we develop creative solutions to implement these risk-reduction strategies so all kids can be in school.”

Technlogy.org wrote about the “national, University at Buffalo-led study on genes in pediatric cardiomyopathy (that) demonstrates strong evidence for routine genetic screening in children with the disease,” according to the article. “The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, revealed wide variation in screening, with some centres conducting routine genetic testing and others conducting none.” “Even in families without a family history of cardiomyopathy, we found that many children with cardiomyopathy have a genetic cause that we can establish,” said Steven E. Lipshultz, the study’s senior author and principal investigator, and A. Conger Goodyear Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

An article in Medicalxpress on UB’s studies of the need to screen children with cardiomyopathy for genetic mutations quotes Stephen E. Lipschultz, A. Conger Goodyear professor and chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. “We found that many children with cardiomyopathy have a genetic cause that we can establish, even in families without a family history of cardiomyopathy,” said Lipschultz. “We assumed that many of the life-threatening cardiomyopathy in children was due to genetic mutations. This study supports that assumption. Once the cause is known, treatment of these children more effectively.” 

National Public Radio reports on complaints of toe pain or ringing of the ears after a COVID-19 vaccine. Oscar Gomez-Duarte, division chief of infectious diseases at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, said such occurrences are rare. "So there might be a sort of cross-reaction, where those immune responses recognize proteins within the individual," he explains. "If it's in the skin, you might see a skin rash; if it's in the nervous system, there might be issues with pain, or inability to move; if it's the lung, then this individual might wheeze." For the vast majority of people, he said, the side effects of vaccination are mild and they're worth the price of bringing a quicker end to the crisis. "What's most important is that people who are eligible for immunization get immunized," Gomez-Duarte said.

A report on WGRZ on WNY health leaders working to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine quotes Thomas Russo, professor and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Jacobs School. "I think getting the last 30% of individuals vaccinated to achieve what we hope will be the proportion needed for herd immunity is going to be a heavier lift," Russo said.