Human & Animal Health

Prioritizing Who Gets Vaccinated for COVID-19 Saves Lives

Vaccinating Seniors, Essential Workers First Offers Greatest Public Health Benefit

Waiting for your turn can be frustrating, especially when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations. But prioritizing who receives the limited supply of vaccines available saves lives and reduces spread of infection, according to a study published today in the journal PNAS from the University of California, Davis. 

Can the Right Probiotic Work for Breast Milk-Fed Babies?

Study Finds Specific Strain Takes Residence in Infant Gut for 1 Year

Probiotics — those bacteria that are good for your digestive tract — are short-lived, rarely taking residence or colonizing the gut. But a new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis, finds that in breast milk-fed babies given the probiotic B. infantis, the probiotic will persist in the baby’s gut for up to one year and play a valuable role in a healthy digestive system.

COVID-19 Isolation Linked to Increased Domestic Violence, Researchers Suggest

Financial Stress Contributes

While COVID-19-related lockdowns may have decreased the spread of a deadly virus, they appear to have created an ideal environment for increased domestic violence. Extra stress in the COVID-19 pandemic caused by income loss, and lack of ability to pay for housing and food has exacerbated the often silent epidemic of intimate partner violence, suggests a new University of California, Davis, study.

Poor Swelter as Urban Areas of U.S. Southwest Get Hotter

Unequal Burden Also for Latino Communities

Acres of asphalt parking lots, unshaded roads, dense apartment complexes and neighborhoods with few parks have taken their toll on the poor. As climate change accelerates, low-income districts in the Southwestern United States are 4 to 7 degrees hotter in Fahrenheit — on average — than wealthy neighborhoods in the same metro regions, University of California, Davis, researchers have found in a new analysis. 

UC Davis Launches $3 Million Project to Improve Farmworker COVID Safety

Team is Working With Agricultural Industry and Community Groups

California’s 800,000 farmworkers have been hit hard by COVID-19, the disease that has infected more than 25 million people and killed more than 420,000 in the United States. Farmworkers are especially vulnerable to the airborne virus that causes COVID-19 because they often live, work and carpool in close quarters with other people. As essential employees, farmworkers have stayed on the job during the pandemic to plant, process and harvest the nation’s food.

How Can Young Adults Transition out of Poverty?

When young adults move out of the family home, they often find themselves in neighborhoods that differ considerably from where they grew up. And that transition provides a unique opportunity to address wealth inequality in America, according to a new paper released by the UC Davis Center for Poverty & Inequality Research.

Latina Mothers, Often Essential Workers, Report COVID-19 Took Financial, Psychological Toll

UC Davis Researchers Found Stimulus Didn’t Relieve Burdens

More than half of Latina mothers surveyed in Yolo and Sacramento counties reported making economic cutbacks in response to the pandemic shutdown last spring — saying they bought less food and missed rent payments. Even for mothers who reported receiving the federal stimulus payment during this time, these hardships were not reduced, University of California, Davis, researchers found in a recent study.

Warning Labels Reduce Sugary Drink Consumption in University Setting, Researchers Found

As municipalities have taxed sugar-sweetened beverages and schools and worksites have banned their sales, university researchers have found that simple warning labels on such beverages in a college cafeteria helped students reduce their reported consumption of drinks by 14.5 percent. The results signal that such labels could reduce sugar consumption in larger settings.