This week, more than 4,000 middle school students will engage in learning and experimentation in areas of science, technology, engineering and math through Wayne State’s new WSU to You: Explore STEM program. The program, which runs from March 14–18, is an adaptation of Wayne State’s popular STEM Day event, designed to accommodate the flexible needs of local teachers while still providing interactive, hands-on lessons for students. Julie Hasse, who coordinates the event and is associate director of experiential marketing in the Office of Marketing and Communications, spoke with All Talk with Tom Jordan and Kevin Dietz about the weeklong initiative.

As COVID-19 cases are falling quickly after a fourth surge earlier this year, the hope is that we are moving beyond the pandemic. But, as metro Detroiters get back to normal life, there are group of people at risk of being left behind: Those who are suffering the long-term effects of the virus. Dr. Teena Chopra, an infectious disease specialist at Wayne State University, said that long COVID remains one of the biggest mysteries of the pandemic. It’s believed to be related to the inflammation of the immune system. Dr. Chopra said that more than 80% of hospitalized COVID patients suffer from long COVID symptoms. Women are twice as likely as men to have long COVID, and those with obesity, asthma, COPD and over the age of 65 are also at greater risk. Those with long COVID tend to have symptoms that fall into three categories: fatigue, cardio-respiratory, and neuropsychiatric symptoms. “There is a ton of research going on at Wayne State University. Our researchers are working night and day, and they are learning more and more…It is going to be a long process, and it is going to require a lot of patience, both on the part of the patient and on the provider.”   

The Wayne State women's basketball team watched a 15-point halftime lead slip away in an eventual loss to Ferris State in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament semifinal. And the Warriors suspected that might just be it for the 2021-22 season. That is until they learned there was more work to do, as Wayne State (18-9) earned an at-large bid into the Division II NCAA Tournament. It's Wayne State's fifth-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament, first since 2015. "It was just a waiting game," said Carrie Lohr, who's in her 11th season as head coach and is heading to her fourth NCAA Tournament. "We're certainly very excited. We feel very fortunate. Wayne State, which is the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Region, will open against Grand Valley State (27-2) at 2:30 Friday.

This week, the Biden administration is launching a test to treat COVID program. High-risk patients with COVID symptoms will be able to walk into hundreds of pharmacies for a free COVID test and walk out with a free course of pills. The program, according to some experts, is limited in scope. COVID pills are new, and they come with prescribing challenges. Pfizer’s Paxlovid can interfere with many commonly prescribed drugs and cause health problems. Merck’s molnupiravir comes with precautions due to reproductive risks. Independent pharmacies say they can help. “Pharmacists are medication experts. We have been managing drug interactions and dose adjustments routinely for decades. We could handle this,” said Susan Davis, a pharmacy professor at Wayne State University’s Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.  

Wayne State University Law School will conduct its 2022 Ambulance Chase 5K on Saturday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to noon. Sponsored by the Wayne Law Student Bar Association Board of Governors, the Ambulance Chase 5K pokes fun at the stereotype of the ambulance-chasing lawyer and helps support a good cause. The event will support the Wayne Law Public Interest Law Fund, which provides scholarships to students to pursue positions in public interest fields. 

By Katherine Lee  Sleep apnea is a common and potentially serious sleep disorder. It causes you to stop breathing temporarily and occurs repeatedly during sleep. These pauses in breathing can happen as many as hundreds of times in one night. Your brain registers what’s going on and wakes you up, though sometimes only partially or for such short moments you may not even realize the arousals. Because the primary symptoms of sleep apnea occur during sleep, many people with sleep apnea may not even realize it’s happening. Sleep apnea can take a toll on the body and lead to a number of negative physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects, including inflammation throughout the body caused by chronic cycles of accelerated heart rate and increased blood pressure. “There’s good evidence that having obstructive sleep apnea puts you at increased risk for high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and death,” said James Rowley, professor of medicine and division chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine.  

By Arash Javanbakht  Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic at Wayne State University, authored an article about the psychological wounds caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that could linger for generations. Javanbakht outlines research findings that human-caused catastrophes have a higher likelihood than natural disasters of causing severe consequences including PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Children are specifically vulnerable, and trauma can be transferred from parents to their current and future children. “Putting human suffering into numbers as I’ve done here is not in any way meant to convert a human tragedy into a cold statistical concept,” Javanbakht wrote. “The purpose is to show the enormous impact of such calamity. Each life or livelihood lost is a tragedy in and of itself.”  

By Lauren Wethington  Law students at Wayne State University have a message for aspiring legal professionals from diverse backgrounds: lawyers come in every race, gender identity and religion. That message is the inspiration behind Wayne State University Law School’s new Lawyers Look Like Me initiative, which launches formally on March 4. Created by third year law student Aleanna Siacon, who also serves as the president of the school’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, the campaign brings together law students from an array of ethnic and cultural backgrounds to highlight the importance of diverse voices within the legal profession. “Lawyers and judges carry people’s livelihoods and liberties in their hands,” said Siacon. “It’s so important for the profession to welcome practitioners from all walks of life.” The student-led campaign has garnered the support of Wayne State University Law School Dean Richard Bierschbach, who says that stereotypes surrounding what lawyers look like have caused real harm. “I’m proud of our students for conceiving a campaign to challenges those stereotypes head-on,” Bierschbach said. “This campaign palpably and visibly conveys that the law careers in it belong to everyone. We hope that, by seeing and wearing these shirts, current and future law students from all backgrounds and identities inspire and further the change we need to see in our profession.”  

By Mark Hicks  As the Russian invasion of Ukraine sparks more bloodshed and alarms people around the world, Wayne State University at a rally Thursday heard messages about the global implications of war. Wayne State University professor Alisa Moldavanova teaches a course on ethics, and she said the conflict helped underscore the concepts for her students in real time. “Ethical leadership is about doing the right thing,” she told a crowd gathered on campus. “And I think the world should be doing the right thing. All of us here should be doing the right thing. Much like my family and other people in Ukraine are doing the right thing.” The importance of speaking up, helping and taking action anchored the peace vigil Moldavanova helped lead to support Ukrainians. The event came as Russian forces battled for control of a crucial energy-producing city in Ukraine’s south on Thursday and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea, as Ukrainian leaders called on citizens to rise up and wage guerrilla war against the invaders. The fighting came as another round of talks between the two sides yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors inside Ukraine to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid. “We pray for peace and an immediate end to the violence,” said Ahmad Ezzeddine, Wayne State’s vice president for academic student affairs and global engagement. Viktor Burlaka, who teaches in the WSU School of Social Work and has ties to Ukraine, described the situation as pivotal and galvanizing. “Ukraine did not cease to exist and we are still alive,” he said. “Ukraine is magnified, and today it’s in the heart of the people around the world. We are united and organized as never before.” 

By Steve Tengler  The point of sale (POS) of any business is critically important. If you imagine the register at any retail outlet or fast-food franchise, the operator must know the menu, those items presently sold-out, and the semi-scripted-yet-extemporaneous process of reacting to unforeseen incidents as to salvage the customer relationship. So is the standard life of an auto dealership. Only this year presents multiple challenges that far exceed the norm, and as the annual conference approaches where manufacturers and dealerships meet to coordinate the upcoming year – the 2022 National Automotive Dealers Association Show. The question hangs in the air about whether this year is the most critical for dealerships, specifically the looming areas requiring fantastic communication between manufacturer and dealer are how to presently manage the integrated circuit chip shortage and how to prepare for the anticipated, step-function change in electric vehicle sales. Depending upon the strategies of the manufacturer, supply chain issues have played out either by reducing manufacturing, offering fewer vehicle options, or stockpiling semi-built vehicles with plans to retrofit the shells later. Ford, for example, has stockpiled unfinished vehicles in various sites expressly to maintain manufacturing staffing, to be ready to quickly meet the pent-up demand of new vehicles, and per the words of Wayne State Univesity’s Tim Butler, associate professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business, to avoid “…suffering the long-term effects of not keeping [suppliers] sustained with business…” 

By Nidhi Prakash  As the world enters a third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden said the U.S. is “moving forward safely” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, painting a picture of cautious optimism about dealing with the virus in the coming months. In previous addresses to the nation on the pandemic, Biden took the opportunity to speak directly to those Americans who have resisted getting vaccinated against the virus. On Tuesday, he seemed to hit the message less directly. Matthew Seeger, a health and risk communication scholar and dean of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, said that reaching those Americans is going to take more than a message from Biden or the CDC, given the lack of trust in official sources and scientific authorities among unvaccinated Americans. “I think that this is a much longer-term problem,” Seeger said.  

By Kim Russell   The invasion of Ukraine is causing concerns for people around the globe. The human toll of war is heartbreaking. It has also caused a worldwide economic impact. “It’s really destabilized the Russian economy. You will see the ruble continue to collapse and prices in Russia continue to rise,” said Aaron B. Retish, a Russian history professor at Wayne State University. “It affects the economy obviously most drastically in Ukraine and Russia. It will affect the economy in Europe, especially those that border Russia and are most dependent on Russian goods such as the Netherlands, and then us least of all.” 

Uniquely qualified experts share what can be done to stop accidental shootings involving children. In 2021, nine children were shot with unsecured guns in the Detroit area. So far this year, at least six children have been shot. Firearms are the second leading cause of death among kids in Michigan. And those deaths are entirely preventable. There are 29 states, and Washington D.C., that have laws that penalize parents of a child for allowing access to their guns, known as child access prevention laws. Michigan does have a law that penalizes a parent who knows their child brought a gun to school, but there is no penalty if that gun is fired. Rebeccah Sokol is an assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University. Sokol said in Michigan there are no laws about access prevention, negligent storage, about children having a gun, giving children a gun, and no laws about criminal liability when it comes to a shooting by a child. “These types of laws have been associated with a relative decrease in firearm suicides and unintentional shootings and shooting deaths by an estimated 8% to 19%,” Sokol said. “We do know that the single biggest risk factor for adolescent firearm injury is access to an unsecured firearm. And so, to put this another way: The presence of a firearm in a child or teen’s homes substantially increases the risk of intentional or unintentional firearm death.” 

The Math Corps summer camp at Wayne State University is looking to recruit Detroit students and help them improve their math skills for free. A Math Corps board member said the camp is especially important in the wake of COVID learning loss. In just six weeks at the camp, students can improve their math scores from 30 to 90%. The camp has been helping students for 30 years.

Ukrainian-Americans say they want harsher actions from the United States and NATO countries in order to prevent Russia from overtaking Ukraine. Sanctions have been issued against Russia in hopes that its government will be encouraged to back down; however, Russian and Belarusian forces continue. Aaron Retish is a history professor at Wayne State University with a specialization in Soviet and Russian history. Retish said many scholars did not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was being serious when he threatened to invade Ukraine. “We thought this was all kind of smoke and mirrors or a big bluff,” Retish said. “Clearly, that was not the case.”

On Friday, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman nominated to the U. S. Supreme Court. Members of the Detroit legal community, including Jamila Jefferson-Jones, professor at Wayne State University Law School and associate director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, praised the historic nomination. “Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a judicial heavyweight,” said Jefferson-Jones. “She was on the Harvard Law Review, which is reserved for the best students in a given class. She has all the tools, including of course her years of judicial experience, her judicial clerkships…Those that I’ve spoken to, of all sorts of backgrounds, are very excited about this nomination. They see her as a gifted jurist and as someone who will do well in the court.” 

Eastpointe High School if one of 25 schools to offer the C2 Pipeline through Wayne State University. The program gives students a look at different careers and hobbies that students don’t always learn about during a normal school day.  

Hannah L. Schacter, assistant professor of psychology at Wayne State University, authored an article about the reduction in bullying that occurred when schooling was online. She says that online school during the pandemic was hard on many teens, but new research has found that students were bullied less during online instruction than while attending classes in person. Bullied teens reported heightened anxiety when they were attending in-person school, but not when they were attending online school. The higher proportion of the year a teen spent in online school, the less likely they were to report being bullied.  

As Michigan continues to recover from the latest COVID-19 surge, state health departments are beginning to ease mask recommendations for indoor public settings. The new guidance now allows individual businesses and schools to decide whether or not their establishment requires masks. According to the state, no immediate resurgence of the virus is predicted so they’re calling this phase of the pandemic “recovery.” Dr. Teena Chopra, professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University, says these relaxed rules mean individuals need to be flexible and more aware of their own risks. “People who are at higher risk…if they’re going to be in a setting where it’s going to be crowded, they should continue masking,” she said.  

For the first time in nearly a week, border officials reported “no delay” Monday as trucks and cars cruised 1.4 miles across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada. Reopening the bridge after a seven-day Canadian trucker protest in Windsor was “a win” for Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said. But economic experts warn the weeklong trade disruption could reverberate in the short- and long-term. Auto industry losses neared $300 million from Monday, Feb. 7 through Tuesday, Feb. 15, the Anderson Economic Group estimates, including $144.9 million in lost wages and $155 million in losses to automakers. This was mostly felt in the Detroit-Windsor region but stretched as far as Huntsville, Alabama. Beyond the immediate blow, the lingering effects of the trade disruption could erode confidence in cross-border trade, said John Taylor, professor of global supply chain management at Wayne State University. For years, Taylor says it could impact long-term decisions on where companies build plants and who to pick as suppliers. “Anything that reduces the confidence in that system and makes us want to use local suppliers, that has a negative impact on the quality of goods, the variety of goods, the price of goods, and so on,” Taylor said.