Author: Mary Rupert

KU Medical Center to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trial in August

The University of Kansas Medical Center will participate in a COVID-19 vaccine trial in August, according to officials.

Dr. Mario Castro, vice chair for clinical and translational research and a pulmonologist at the KU School of Medicine, said Monday morning at a news conference that KU would participate in the trial of a COVID-19 vaccine originally developed by Oxford University.

KU Med Center will be part of a nationwide trial for one of the vaccines, and there will be 30,000 participants in America, according to Dr. Castro. This particular vaccine is being developed by Astra Zeneca, he said. Antibodies will be measured 15 days after the two injections that will be given, he said. Participants will be studied for two years.

Dr. Castro said they are hoping to enroll more than 1,260 persons in the vaccine trial at KU Medical Center over 60 days, starting in August.

There has already been a smaller trial of this vaccine, he added, and among 1,000 patients tested, there were no major adverse effects reported, although participants may experience symptoms such as headaches, low grade fevers and malaise.

Dr. Castro said one out of three persons participating in the trial will get a placebo, while two out of three will get the vaccine. After the trial is over, those who participated in it will be eligible to get the vaccine when it becomes available, he said.

Dr. Castro said one-fourth of the 30,000 people nationwide in the trial should be over 65. He also said he hopes health care workers participate in it, and others whose work may bring them into contact with people, including teachers, as well as people in minority groups.

Although the trials are being expedited, they are doing them in the safest way possible, according to Dr. Castro.

Those who would like to volunteer for the vaccine trial at KU Medical Center may register their names at the website https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/, and enter “KUMC” when prompted for the name of the institution.

Another way to register for the vaccine trial is to call 913-574-3006, he said. Participants should live within a 100-mile range, and there will be trips back and forth to KU Medical Center from time to time. The vaccine trial also will be held in Wichita.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson reported that KU Health System had 33 patients on Monday morning, including 11 in the intensive care unit and four on ventilators. The case numbers were down slightly from Friday.

To see more about the vaccine trials and other topics discussed at the KU Health System news conference Monday morning, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/1141631086203192.

Residents may visit the UG COVID-19 website at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information or call 311 for more information.

COVID-19 data for the metro area is on the KC Region COVID-19 Resource Hub at http://marc-gis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/1c93961075454558b3bf0dfad014feae


The value of social distancing and wearing a mask was demonstrated by the KU doctors, who went into a walk-in freezer to show how far the virus and breath can spread. Masks stopped the breath and particles from spreading. To see the video, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/2378490412455079.


For information on how to make an easy no-sew mask, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/how-to-make-a-no-sew-cloth-mask/.

The state’s COVID-19 test page is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/280/COVID-19-Testing.


Wyandotte County is currently under Phase 3. See covid.ks.gov.

The CDC’s COVID-19 web page is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.

Plea deals a topic at candidate forum for district attorney

Incumbent District Attorney Mark Dupree, left, faces a challenge from Kristiane Bryant, right, in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary election. (Submitted photos)

by Mary Rupert

Candidates for Wyandotte County District Attorney discussed their views of plea deals at a virtual candidate forum held Thursday afternoon, July 23.

Challenger Kristiane Bryant said plea deals should not be made in lieu of going to trial on a difficult case.

Incumbent District Attorney Mark Dupree said plea deals are not leading to an increase in crime, but are helping people focus on the underlying issues why defendants may keep committing crimes, and arranging behavioral treatment for some.

Bryant said there is a substantial surge in violent crime in this community, victims need to be treated with respect, and everyone deserves to be treated fairly and consistently by the district attorney’s office. She said the community should be engaged in discussions to help reduce crime.

Dupree said he created the first conviction integrity unit in the history of the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s office. That unit examines selected old cases to determine if there were wrongful convictions. He also is in the process of starting a community integrity unit to examine law enforcement misconduct in Wyandotte County. He also said he had changed the culture of the office, created a youth mentoring program and a community liaison board. He has sought to make the office’s processes more just, and that has resulted in political attacks, he said.

On the topic of plea deals, Dupree said over 85 percent of all criminal cases in any jurisdiction, including Wyandotte County, are pled out. None of the jurisdictions are taking everything to court, he said.

Yes, there has been an increase in plea deals in the district attorney’s office, he said. He said a behavior health court for people who have behavioral health problems helps look at underlying issues of defendants. In order to reduce crime, they have to look at recidivism, and the reasons for crime occurring again, he added. Plea deals also are being made in veterans’ court, he said. Some of these courts point defendants in the direction of behavioral treatment.

“Some people need to go to prison,” he said. “Not all people need to go to prison.”

He disagreed that plea deals are leading to an increase in crime. Unless people are focusing on underlying issues, they cannot focus on how to reduce the crime here, which is why they have focused on community trust and community transparency, he said.

“We have to continue to focus on being smart on crime, take each case with the facts and evidence you have on each case,” he said. “One shoe does not fit all.”

While there is a place in the judicial system for plea agreements, they need to be made mindfully, Bryant said.

The district attorney’s office needs to take into consideration the victims’ perspective and what their input is; the level of danger someone poses to the community; and what is a fair and just outcome, she said.

“They absolutely should have a place, but it shouldn’t be in lieu of going to trial on a difficult case,” Bryant said.

“If we routinely plead down violent crime cases and let people walk free that are causing damage to our community, we are much less likely to have witnesses and victims that come forward and report crimes, and ultimately participate in the process in the criminal justice system,” she said.

She said the office needs to communicate with victims about what the district attorney’s office does, being consistent with respectful communication.

Other topics discussed at the forum included reaching out to minority communities and criminal justice reform.

Dupree said he has implemented policies for criminal justice reform, including the conviction integrity unit in the district attorney’s office.

Dupree was elected district attorney in 2016. He had prior experience as a criminal defense attorney and as an assistant prosecuting attorney. He serves as a member of the Kansas Sentencing Commission and the Kansas Commission on Racial Equity and Justice.

Bryant was an assistant district attorney in the Wyandotte County district attorney’s office for seven years, until 2016. She also worked in the Kansas attorney general’s office for more than three years, including section leader, coordinating prosecutors of sexually violent predator cases. She is currently the trial team leader of the violent crimes unit in the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, managing attorneys and prosecuting homicide, robbery and assault cases.

Dupree’s last available campaign finance statement from the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission online, which is more than six months old, showed a loan from himself to his campaign.

Bryant’s last available campaign finance statement from the ethics commission online, which is more than six months old, showed contributions from Martin Cervantes; Don Gray; Jennifer Tatum, an attorney; and from Bryan Underwood, bail bondsman, as well as a contribution from the candidate.

The primary election is Tuesday, Aug. 4. Early voting has started and mail ballots also are available.

The July 23 forum was sponsored by Business West and Kansas City Kansas Community College.

The program was moderated by Murrel Bland, executive director of Business West and former editor of the Wyandotte West newspaper. Panelists at the program were Elnora Tellis Jefferson, with the Historic Midtown Neighborhood Association; Edgar Galicia, Central Avenue Betterment Association; and Mary Rupert, editor, Wyandotte Daily.

The candidate forum for DA contest is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3QuXngQMMY/

The forum also will be shown on KCKCC’s cable television station. To see a schedule of times, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/candidate-forums-to-be-shown-on-cable-tv-and-online/.

To see questionnaires from the two candidates, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/candidates-for-district-attorney-tell-qualifications/.

Stories about Election 2020 are found under the category tab “Election 2020” or at https://wyandotteonline.com/tag/election-2020/.

For more election information, visit the Wyandotte County Election Office website at https://wycovotes.org/.

Should Washington High School change its name to Michelle Obama High School?

The Kansas City, Kansas, school board recently heard a request from a resident to change Washington High School’s name to Michelle Obama High School.

A letter was read at the July 21 board meeting’s community comments section from Amiel Green II. He and his father graduated from Washington Rural High School, and he is presently attending Rockhurst University, taking pre-med classes, along with physics and bioethics.

The school was named in 1932, and at that time the area was rural., Green stated.

“George Washington owned slaves for 59 years and the only people that were free in his lifetime were white land-owning males,” Green’s letter stated. Washington’s name does not reflect the students in today’s Washington High School hallways, he wrote.

Green didn’t think it would cost very much to change the school’s name. New signs, new sports and activities uniforms, and new shirts were among the items that might need to be changed if the school’s name is changed, according to his letter.

Green pointed out that the only drawback from naming a school after a person currently living is that the person could in the future do something stupid, but he didn’t think that was likely in this case, according to his letter.

No word yet on whether the school board will discuss the idea at a later date.

School board member Val Winn, a history professor who attended Washington, said today that the board hasn’t discussed the issue yet. Although there may be limited support at this time for that letter, there are also other schools that other district patrons have suggested should be renamed.

Dr. Winn said she has heard from residents who want to change the names of Charles Lindbergh and Frances Willard schools.

Willard, a suffragist in the 1890s, did not always support the right of African-Americans to vote, and Lindbergh in the 1920s was somewhat of a sympathizer of Nazi Germany, she said.

“The concept is something we seriously need to consider,” Dr. Winn said. “Particularly with Washington, it’s part of a larger discussion, as far as I’m concerned.”