News & Events
University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine
• KTVN Channel 2 News
"This is one of the safest things ever created in pharmacology or in medical science," Dr. Mark Pandori, Director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory said. "You're probably at hundreds of times more risk to drive the car to the mall than you are to get harmed by a vaccine."
• Telemundo Las Vegas
El jefe de respuesta de Nevada, Caleb Cage, y el investigador médico Dr. Mark Riddle, de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Nevada Reno, dijeron que las tres vacunas que se ofrecen en Nevada son seguras y efectivas.
• KVVU Fox 5 Las Vegas
Nevada response chief Caleb Cage and medical researcher Dr. Mark Riddle of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine said all three vaccines being offered in Nevada are safe and effective.
• Las Vegas Sun
Nevada response chief Caleb Cage and medical researcher Dr. Mark Riddle of the UNR School of Medicine said all three vaccines being offered in Nevada are safe and effective.
• Nevada Appeal
Dr. Mark Riddle of the UNR School of Medicine said Monday there is growing evidence that not only do vaccines reduce infections and serious illness from the virus, but that they reduce transmission of the illness. He said that evidence is coming through studies in the U.S., the U.K., Israel and Denmark.
• USA Today
When Bailey Cannon Dean started a new job two months ago, she was still nursing her baby boy, River. “My work is super supportive,’’ says Cannon Dean, 39, who is an OB-GYN in Reno Nevada. She’s able to pump milk in her office, and her employer has given her a refrigerator where she can store it and offered her an exam room where she can have some privacy. “But it’s still hard, just logistically.’’
• Las Vegas Review Journal
The first case in the state of the variant known as P.1 was detected in Clark County late last month, said Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Lab at University of Nevada, Reno. Two more cases were identified on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in positive COVID-19 tests performed by private labs. Additional details on the other cases were not immediately available.
• KSNV 3 News Las Vegas
Joining us to explain how the vaccines work is Dr. Mark Riddle, the associate dean of clinical research and professor of internal medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.
• Las Vegas Review Journal
While they aren’t perfect, the vaccines offer the best protection we have against COVID-19, said Dr. Mark Riddle, a professor of internal medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno. They should also be paired with other preventative measures, like washing your hands and wearing a face mask, while COVID-19 is still circulating in our communities. “We can’t predict that you’re going to have a bad outcome or a not-bad outcome,” Riddle said. “Given that unpredictability right now, you need to err on the side of caution.”
• Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
“PANDORA-seq has opened Pandora’s box of small RNAs,” said Tong Zhou, PhD, a bioinformatician at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine and a co-corresponding author of the study. “We can now dance with these once invisible partners in the RNA ballroom.”
• Las Vegas Review Journal
Nevada State Public Health Laboratory director Mark Pandori said he was concerned that the state’s campaign did not address the public’s concerns about the vaccines’ efficacy and safety.“A large part of the issue here is there’s a lot of people who don’t believe it will work, that it will harm them, or that the variants are rendering it useless,” he said. “If that’s the root problem, then I’m concerned the rest of this doesn’t function well as a solution.”
• FOX5 News Las Vegas
“I think people should realize that vaccinated people do get infected. It's a rare event," said Dr. Mark Pandori of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory.
• Las Vegas Review Journal
In late February, the director of Nevada’s public health lab, Mark Pandori, said he wasn’t too worried about a new pair of coronavirus variants first detected in California. Not only are the strains already in both Northern and Southern Nevada, but they have been for several months and accounted for about one-quarter of positive cases genetically sequenced by the lab, Pandori said. He is director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.
• Nevada Appeal
Carson City Health and Human Services is reporting the second case of the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant in the Quad-County Region on Tuesday. The Nevada State Public Health Lab confirmed the detection of the variant in a Douglas County resident.
• ABC News
Now, a new service call Physician Support Line seeks "to offer free and confidential peer support to American physicians and medical students by creating a safe space to discuss immediate life stressors with volunteer psychiatrist colleagues who are uniquely trained in mental wellness and also have similar shared experiences of the profession." The support line was founded by Dr. Mona Masood one year ago today -- at the height of the first wave in the U.S. pandemic. Masood and Dr. Allison Cotton, one of the first doctors to join Masood, both want their service to be part of the legacy of physician wellness.
• Carson Now
U.S. News & World Report has released the 2022 edition of Best Graduate Schools today, featuring new rankings of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. UNR Med’s rankings in U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools 2022 reflect improvement in several areas, as well as strong performances in new categories.
• FOX 5 News Las Vegas
More Nevadans are willing or likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but the statistics may not be enough for the state to achieve the "herd immunity" for protection. According to a survey from the University of Nevada, Reno, 73% of people are willing and more likely to get the vaccine, an increase of 9% from the latest results in January. The study is still ongoing, and participants across the state can weigh in by clicking here."So 73%. It's good, it's in the right direction. But it's not that 90% that we may need, up to 90% vaccinated population, to create that herd protection," said Professor Mark Riddle, who has been conducting the study.
• FOX5 News Las Vegas
Dr. Mark Pandori is director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory. He is part of the COVID-19 Task Force and is monitoring cases and variants across Nevada. He talked about the possibility of a spring break surge. He said he is cautiously optimistic of the situation we are in, and if there is an uptick it will be an environment where more people have immunity, either by illness or by vaccination, so the virus has fewer places to go.
• Las Vegas Sun
Nevada hasn’t achieved herd immunity against COVID-19, but it’s close enough to be characterized by one leading state public health official as “herd dulling.” Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in Reno, estimated that about 30-40% of Nevadans are immune because they have naturally acquired antibodies, which become present by catching the virus. As vaccinations continue, that could bring the state to the ideal level of protection of about 70% within a couple of months, he said.
• KXNT NewsRadio 840 Las Vegas
We've seen plenty of miscommunication and misunderstanding about the coronavirus since the start of the COVID pandemic. KXNT is committed to bringing you the facts and the truth about the coronavirus. We know you have questions we want to help. So each morning, Vegas at 8 will take one of your questions and bring you an answer. This morning we're talking with Dr. Mark Riddle, professor of internal medicine, associate dean for clinical research at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.
• Las Vegas Review Journal
Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in Reno, has said he thinks wastewater testing could be a “surrogate” for testing of humans, but it remains unclear how many people in a community need to be infected to register a positive test result from the sewage. “We believe the importance of wastewater testing will increase as people tend to stop seeking testing, because it might be our only canary in a coal mine that we’ll be able to use to know if this thing creeps back into our communities after we’ve beaten it down,” Pandori said this month. Pandori said the infrastructure for sewage testing exists, but officials need to apply for money from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to expand wastwater testing efforts.
• KSNV 3 News Las Vegas
Every vaccine administered brings Nevada’s target of herd immunity a little closer. However, there are several other factors at play in helping achieve that goal. One good indicator, according to Dr. Mark Pandori, the Director of the Nevada State Public Health Lab, more Nevadans are also becoming positive for antibodies.
• Las Vegas Review Journal
“It does appear that we are on a trajectory to achieve some of the low end of herd immunity in the next couple of months,” Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory, said during a COVID-19 briefing by state officials.
• Nevada Current
John Packham, Ph.D., the co-director of the Nevada Health Workforce Research Center at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, told lawmakers the specific focus on workforce is needed. “You can have an insurance card in your back pocket,” he said. “We can have reimbursement parity. We can see a reduction in the stigma of mental illness and getting that mental illness treated. But if we don’t have a workforce ready and able to provide those services, all of those efforts are moot.”
• Carson Now
Fourth-year medical students from the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine were among the approximately 18,000 medical student nationwide who learned where they will spend their residencies today as part of Match Day — including in northern Nevada, throughout the state and across the nation.
