More than half of all Michiganians live in counties where they should mask up indoors following a spike in COVID-19 cases, according to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Across the state, 16 counties – including Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb and many others near heavily-populated Metro Detroit – are now in “high” community levels, a CDC classification to show where COVID cases and hospitalizations have risen to the point that people are recommended to wear masks indoors. The city of Detroit is also at a high risk level. Dr. Matthew Sims, director of infectious disease research for Beaumont Health and a faculty member in the Wayne State University School of Medicine, said that upticks tend to follow a particular pattern. First, community levels rise, followed by a rise in hospitalizations, and then, a few weeks later, a rise in deaths. “We’re certainly not at a crisis point,” said Sims, acknowledging the number of COVID patients he has seen in recent days has risen. “But we could be there in a few weeks if things don’t go well. We’re going to keep watching this and doing everything we can.”  

A novel technique to measure the age of male sperm has the potential to predict the success and time it takes to become pregnant, according to a newly published study by researchers at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. “Sperm epigenetic clock associates with pregnancy outcomes in the general population,” published in the journal Human Reproduction, found that sperm epigenetic aging clocks may act as a novel biomarker to predict couples’ time to pregnancy. The findings also underscore the importance of the male partner in reproductive success. “Chronological age is a significant determinant of reproductive capacity and success among couples attempting pregnancy, but chronological age does not encapsulate the cumulative genetic and external – environmental conditions – factors, and thus it serves as a proxy measure of the ‘true’ biological age of cells,” said J. Richard Pilsner, Ph.D., lead author of the study. Dr. Pilsner is the Robert J. Sokol, M.D., Endowed Chair of Molecular Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of Molecular Genetics and Infertility at WSU’s C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development. “Semen quality outcomes utilizing World Health Organization guidelines have been used to assess male infertility for decades, but they remain poor predictors of reproductive outcomes. Thus, the ability to capture the biological age of sperm may provide a novel platform to better assess the male contribution to reproductive success, especially among infertile couples.”

A southwest Michigan factory just a few miles from the Indiana border is at the center of an infant formula recall that’s helped fuel shortages across the U.S. and raised concerns about federal oversight of contamination in food production. Abbott Nutrition, a division of Abbott Laboratories that employs an estimated 420 people in its factory and R&D facility in Sturgis, voluntarily recalled various brands and lot codes of powdered formula – including Similac, the most sold brand in the U.S. – in February. The recall came five months after an initial complaint that an infant in Minnesota hospitalized with a bacterial infection had consumed Similac from the Sturgis factory. The Food and Drug Administration first inspected the plant last September, when it found contamination risks. By the end of February, the FDA had identified five infants who became seriously ill with bacterial infections after they consumed the formula. Four had been infected with Cronobacter sakazakii – an infrequent infection that can be deadly for babies – and one had been infected with salmonella. Two of the infected infants died. The FDA continues to investigate. “It’s super serious – one of the worst” infant infections, said Dr. Eric McGrath, director of Wayne Pediatrics. He said he had treated a child with a cronobacter infection years ago – the only one in his 12 years as a pediatric infectious disease specialist. “The reason that this germ is devastating is that can cause blood infections and meningitis, and complications that include brain abscesses,” McGrath said. At minimum, a baby with cronobacter infection is hospitalized for three weeks and likely subjected to a spinal tap and other trauma.  

The president and CEO of TechTown Detroit and vice president for economic development at Wayne State University, Ned Staebler, talks with host Jeff Sloan about the group’s pursuit of equitable growth, funding and access to opportunity for entrepreneurs. He shares success stories, but also explains the significant challenges to communities that have to occur to draw a talented workforce to Michigan.  

By Chanel Stitt  Every time Sarah Brown-Derbah takes a stride down the Barbie aisle of a store, she sees a lot of professions that the doll is portraying — certified nursing assistant, doctor, nurse, teacher, social worker and politician. But she has never been able to find her profession — funeral home director. So she started a petition, which she plans to send to Mattel, the parent company of Barbie, in an effort to get the company to make a funeral director doll. She's collected 415 so far and plans to draft the letter to the toymaker once she feels she has gathered enough signatures.  “I've been looking for a funeral director Barbie for probably about 10 years, Brown-Derbah, of Southfield, said, "and I noticed the Barbie line has expanded.” The National Funeral Directors Association's membership reports that 81.1% of funeral home directors are men. But there is a shift happening within mortuary schools. In 2019, the organization reported that women made up 71.9% of mortuary school attendees. While Brown-Derbah was in mortuary school at Wayne State University, there were only seven men in her class.  

At Wayne State University, on-campus police have recently launched a National De-escalation Training Center. Here, the finest from various jurisdictions are trained in how to take down situations without the use of excessive force, something Officer Andrew Sheppard says should never be an option. "Instead of getting into a fight with you, I rather say, 'Hey man, let's talk this out. Whatever you did is not that bad,'" Sheppard said. Sheppard believes that when police use excessive force during confrontations, officers are "letting personal issues get above the job." According to data collected by the Washington Post, last year, at least 1,055 people were shot and killed by police nationwide. That’s more than the 1,021 shootings in 2020 and the 999 in 2019. "We as officers go through a divorce, we also go through ... PTSD. Again, we are human. We don’t know what's in the background of some of these police officers. We don’t know what's in the background in some of these citizens," Sheppard said. 

By Joe Guillen and Annalise Frank  Black women in Michigan already dealing with across-the-board health care inequities would especially suffer if Roe v. Wade is struck down, health care experts say. It's a matter of life and death. Restricted abortion access in Michigan would endanger Black women's lives because they are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. It's not just about access to health care. Even when Black women have access, structural racism within the medical community affects the care they receive. "We're not believed, we are rendered invisible and people don't believe our pain," Ijeoma Nnodim Opara, an assistant professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at Wayne State University, tells Axios. 

Theatre and Dance at Wayne, the producing arm of the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University, has announced its 2022-2023 production season. Theatre and Dance at Wayne has curated a season of theatre and dance productions that will delight and inspire you with four plays, two musicals, two dance concerts, and four student-run productions. The season opens in September 2022 with Rent, the iconic musical about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., opening in October 2022, is a wildly experimental and inventive new play that does not behave, is about the conundrums of being a woman in the 21st century. Fans of Shakespeare will be thrilled to attend his comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor in November 2022. 

My wife and I have a big decision to make. Roughly 7 1/2 years ago, we entered our eighth and last cycle in our attempts at in vitro fertilization, the result of which were two healthy, and mischievous, twin boys. They're almost 7.  But the process left a half-dozen unused embryos that remain frozen in cryogenic storage. We've continued to pay the IVF clinic to keep those potential children safe, but after careful consideration we're ready to keep our family to four. That leaves three options: donate those embryos to another couple struggling with fertility, donate them to science or destroy them. But fears that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling have added uncertainty for would-be parents and the providers trying to help them conceive. Christopher Lund, professor of law at Wayne State University, (says) that the 1931 law isn't necessarily applicable to IVF procedures. But, he said, the law is vague in defining what is considered a miscarriage or abortion. Section 14 of the law forbids "administering to any pregnant women any medicine, drug, [or] substance ... to procure [a] miscarriage." Section 15 forbids the providing or selling "any pills, powder, drugs or combination of drugs, designed expressly for the use of females for the purpose of procuring an abortion." 

Over the last decade, more than half of young adults with depression reported not receiving treatment in a survey, and important reasons were related to cost and stigma. Cos of care was the most common problem for young patients with major depressive episodes, with the frequency of cost being cited as a barrier to mental health care going from 51.1% to 54.7% in 2019. Other barriers to care included people not knowing where to go for treatment, worrying about confidentiality, not wanting to take medication, and not having the time, researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open. Community-based education is vital to combat some of those beliefs, said Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine. He said the study’s results suggest the medical community is “behind in educating the public not only about mental illness but also [about] how to navigate the healthcare system, get evaluated, and receive needed care.” “Many patients think medications are addictive, zombify them, or change the way of their thinking,” said Javanbakht. “This also closely ties with the stigma of having mental illness [and] its personal, cultural, and media aspects…There is a need for more realistic education about the prevalence of mental illness, its biological nature, variety of treatment options, and similarities with other illnesses of the body. The government should definitely be more active in this area of public education via media and social media.”

A Starbucks store in Grand Rapids is poised to be the first in Michigan to count votes for unionization, while more than half a dozen others in the state have set election dates. Staff at Workers United are confident the vote will be in favor of unionizing. On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board authorized four stores in Ann Arbor and one each in Grand Blanc, East Lansing and Flint to hold elections. Workers United was notified that a total of 10 stores in Michigan have been approved for election dates in early June. Seattle-based Starbucks has more than 15,000 locations throughout the U.S. Since the recent wave to unionize began in December in New York, more than 50 stores have voted to unionize, while hundreds more are poised to vote soon. Employees have demanded higher wages, better working conditions, and a platform to voice worker interests. On the other side, CEO Howard Schultz has taken a strong stance against unions and said the company could not have grown into a globally famous coffee behemoth with the restraints of organized labor. The Starbucks unionization effort has the potential to rekindle the labor movement in the U.S., and organizing in Michigan, once a union stronghold, has symbolic significance, said Marick Masters, former director of Wayne State University’s labor relations department and current interim chair of the department of finance and business. “If you combine it with some recent successes that unions have had at Amazon, I think that they have the potential to be transformative in the sense of really rekindling the labor movement, but we are a long way form that type of rejuvenation.” Unionization is only half the battle, Masters said. Winning better benefits for employees will be a tough go. “There are serious challenges that the union will face in trying to represent workers at Starbucks sites,” he said. “Their management team is going to become more aggressive and sophisticated in resisting in these campaigns. They’ll resort to a whole bag of tricks to discourage workers at other sites from unionizing.”

Motown legend Stevie Wonder received an honorary doctorate from Wayne State University on Saturday. Wonder was among several people who had honorary degrees bestowed at the university's graduation ceremonies. Others include Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, the senior pastor of Fellowship Chapel, actor Timothy Meadows and others.

By Malachi Barrett  Detroit is looking at policy changes to ease the “unsustainable” tax burden it places on residents and to deter land speculators from snapping up and sitting on vacant property. Varying tax rates – higher for open land and lower for structures and improvements – could reduce tax bills for homeowners and accelerate the development of long-vacant properties, according to a study cited by the city as it investigates how to bring down residential property taxes. The “split-rate” system has attracted interest from city leaders for years, dating back to when Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, and is getting a renewed push. Matthew Roling, an adjunct professor at Wayne State University with past experience at the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. and Rock Ventures, said he’s encouraged city officials are looking at innovative ways to prevent tax delinquency and foreclosure that is “burning out” neighborhoods. “I don’t know if it’s going to be a silver bullet,” Roling said. “The devil is in the details. There is a huge problem here and it’s that the property tax regime in the city of Detroit has failed the city. Let’s start with that.” 

Donning a green cap and gown and treating a crowd of graduates to a pair of off-the-cuff song performances, Stevie Wonder accepted an honorary degree Saturday from Wayne State University. Two miles south of Motown’s Hitsville, U.S.A., where Wonder recorded many of his iconic hits, the 71-year-old star took the stage at the Wayne State Fieldhouse to be presented his doctor of humane letters by the WSU Board of Governors.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, Spotlight on the News hosted a discussion about what’s being done in Michigan to increase the number of sorely needed behavioral health professionals, which included insights from Dr. Sheryl Kubiak, dean of the Wayne State University School of Social Work. “As many know, the behavioral health issues that have arisen because of the pandemic have accelerated the need for people with professional degrees in mental health and substance abuse disorders. Unfortunately, prior to the pandemic, we had a shortage of professionals in those fields, particularly in public sector mental health and community mental health. It’s so accelerated now that many of organizations and community providers have up to 30% vacancy rates, and that’s resulted in closing programs and waitlists. It really is not the time to be doing that,” Kubiak said. “From an academic setting, I’m trying to encourage people to come into this profession, but we’ve got some hurdles: high cost of tuition and low wages. It’s not the greatest environment, but it is very worthwhile and we’re working on some of those issues.”  

With the possibility that an abortion ban will soon take hold in Michigan, both women and policymakers are focusing more attention on mail-order abortion pills, which are broadly available and present a stern challenge to enforcing future restrictions. Of the nearly 30,000 Michigan abortions in 2020, more than half involved pills taken at home to end a pregnancy, rather than a surgical procedure at a clinic or hospital, echoing national trends. The pills became even easier to obtain during COVID, when the Biden administration lifted a requirement that women visit their doctor to pick up a prescription. Abortion law and politics were jolted by the publication of a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a right to abortion under the U.S. Constitution. Should that draft represent the court’s final decision, Michigan would again be governed by a 1931 state law that outlaws abortions in most instances along with the sale of pills or drugs to induce it. It is unclear if abortion pills will remain legal in Michigan. The presents “really complicated questions with uncertain answers,” said Lance Gable, a Wayne State University law professor with expertise in public health law and bioethics.  

There’s an undertone of panic beneath the stirring sounds of “Pomp and Circumstance” at your average college graduation ceremony – the knowledge that after the well-earned joy of the occasion, there’s that tricky business of finding a job. Zeeshan Tariq graduates Saturday from Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business, and his concerns are a bit different: How’s the work crew doing on those new porches at the apartment complex in Troy? And has anyone dealt with the bathroom door in unit 17 that won’t all the way shut? In 2020, Tariq sold off the last of his 10 residential properties in Detroit, and is concentrating on the apartments he co-owns in Troy and Linden while he crunches numbers to see what might be worth acquiring next. Tariq, now 21, bought his first house at 17, when he was a senior at Farmington Hills Harrison High. Bussing tables at a Middle Eastern restaurant while slinging boxes at a grocery store during summer breaks, he amassed $6,500 and paid all but $500 of it for a bungalow on the west side of Detroit. He sold the home a year later for almost $30,000. Tariq estimates that his real estate company Tariq Development Co., LLC has bought, sold or consulted on more than $10 million worth of property. Tariq says his unofficial charge to the rest of the class of 2022 is “Do the right thing. And do what’s in front of you.”  

Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson believes many people make assumptions about his background because of his success. The Harvard-trained ophthalmologist is nearing a decade at the helm of the Detroit college after a distinguished career in key higher education and medical leadership roles. But in his memoir published Wednesday, Wilson, 68, shatters any preconceived notions of a privileged upbringing. The book includes intimate details about his childhood, years of which were spent in Japan. The son of a Japanese mother and African American father, he explains that his father was an alcoholic who served in the Navy and Air Force and was often away from home; his mother, he wrote, was a compulsive gambler who left he and his sister, Dianna, on their own sometimes months at a time. “It was a lot, growing up by ourselves,” Wilson told The Detroit News. “Some of the things are so unbelievable, that people are going to say, ‘No, that really didn’t happen.” The book chronicles how Wilson faced other setbacks, racist incidents and health issues, yet prevailed. He said he wrote the book to send a message that even when things are dark, there is a way. “I wanted to target students who have challenges in their life, to persevere, find a way, graduate, to get through it, whatever it is,” said Wilson. “That is really the theme of the book that even in the darkest of times, something good can come out of it.” That is how the book got its name, “The Plum Trees Blossom Even in Winter.”  

Mark Satta, assistant professor of philosophy at Wayne State University, wrote an article explaining and analyzing the Supreme Court’s Shurtleff v. Boston case ruling, in which the court unanimously held that the City of Boston violated the First Amendment’s free speech rights of a group that promotes the appreciation of “God, home, and country” by denying its request to raise a Christian flag at the site, given that the city had previously allowed secular groups to temporarily use the flagpole. Satta writes that “the key question, which determined the outcome in the case, was whether raising a flag on City Hall’s third flagpole was an act of government speech or private expression: categories covered by two different free speech doctrines…” 

St. Clair County Community College (SC4) and Wayne State University are partners in a program to make it easier to launch a STEM career with an engineering degree. Students will be able to earn most of their general education credits at SC4 and then transfer seamlessly to Wayne State University for a bachelor’s degree. They will be able to earn their associate of science degree while working toward the WSU transfer.