Amid efforts to reduce backlogs of evidence submitted to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab for processing, turnaround times in some categories continue to grow, particularly when it comes to DNA evidence.
Coronavirus antibody tests are one potential tool to measure whether people may have immunity to the disease, and the State Lab of Hygiene is now seeking data on those tests from clinical labs.
A federal government study, which will include roughly 300 families from Wisconsin, hopes to answer questions about how many children get infected, whether they develop symptoms and how it affects those with asthma.
Wisconsin reported 460 new cases of COVID-19 on May 1 — a record number since the state started tracking the disease. WisContext associate editor Will Cushman discusses how case and test data are used by state officials as they consder relaxinng public health guidelines.
The Evers administration is pushing for more Wisconsinites to receive COVID-19 tests in an effort to open the state quickly. The governor set goals to provide free testing at long-term care facilities like nursing homes and to deploy state resources to track outbreaks at workplaces.
Smartphone data shows Wisconsinites limited their movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that may be changing with "quarantine fatigue." WisContext associate editor Will Cushman discusses data showing to what degree people around the state are staying at home.
Shortages of swabs and other testing supplies are still hampering efforts to increase Wisconsin's COVID-19 testing to 12,000 per day. The goal is part of Gov. Tony Evers' "Badger Bounce Back" plan for easing social distancing restrictions and reopening the state's economy.
After Wisconsin's "Safer at Home" order took effect, how much did the movement of people drop off around the state? WisContext associate editor Will Cushman discusses what smartphones reveal about how much people are staying at home and privacy concerns related to this data.
The Saha Lab at UW-Madison is at the forefront of engineering cell and gene therapies using CRISPR — a powerful tool for editing genomes, it lets researchers alter stretches of DNA and modify gene function.
Human waste continues to be a prominent source of contamination in private wells located in Grant, Iowa and Lafayette counties, with the Southwestern Wisconsin Groundwater and Geology study finding microbes in human feces in 12 of 34 wells sampled in November 2019.
