 This program is brought to you by Cable Franchise Vs and generous donations from viewers like you. You're watching the Amherst Weekly Report from Amherst Media on Friday, April 16th, 2021. I'm Claire Healey. And I'm Rebecca Duffy. And these are the stories from this past week. The UMass men's hockey team have taken the title of national champions. They defeated St. Cloud State University in a 5-0 shutout last Saturday. UMass freshman and hockey superfan Eli Slovan attended the championship game and told me all about it. I went with my mom. I drove out with my mom and my dad and my uncle were able to come on Saturday. They weren't able to be there on Thursday. And, you know, Thursday night, I like, you know, I think I tweeted out my heart rate. I was up in the 160s in the first period freaking out. And then once they got that done, like I would have never said it out loud. But like it, we knew they were winning on Saturday, right? So I mean, I would say where I was sitting, it everyone was dialed in, but it was more like trying to not accept, but like realize that UMass is about to win a national championship. And I knew they could do it. Like I knew they were going to do it. I knew they could do it, but never in my wildest dreams was UMass ever going to win a national championship. I'm not a big crier. I don't cry. I was very emotional. I was like, I was sitting there balling for like 15 minutes. That was a pinnacle for me. And, you know, to be the guy that's been rooting for my entire life and been trying to just get people as excited as I've been and to finally have it happen was like, it was unbelievable. The fact that I chose to come here and in my first year they won a national. I went to hockey's championship. Let's not even forget about that. That's like, that was unbelievable. That's huge. That, you know, to me, I've been taking this hat off. Like that's talk about pride in the region. Like that's the coolest thing is running the hockey's tournament and then to win a national championship. I mean, I feel cliche saying it means everything, but it means a lot to me and it will for a long time. And there's no reason they can't do it again. I mean, you get that first one and I mean, it was, yeah, it means a lot to me. So Red Gendron, coach Red, he passed away on Friday and he was an assistant coach at UMass. I don't know like how well known that is. I had coach at Maine. He's a guy that met a lot to me. You know, growing up around here, I played hockey, right? My whole life and I played for AHA when I was really little, which is like the hockey team. And a few people knew what it meant to like connect with the community better than coach Red. And I went to his camp every summer and he'd come, he'd bring guys out to our practices. And he's one of the big reasons I fell in love with UMass at such a young age and Friday was a tough day. And that, you know, it's really, really incredibly sad and shocking that he passed away. But I know he would be, you know, incredibly proud and very happy and, you know, he was an assistant here, but he was the man. And same with Coach Q who ran those camps with him. I mean, those guys are legends. And just for UMass to win it, like I talked to some alums, you know, over the weekend and let guys that played hockey. And this means a whole lot to a lot of people. And I know it would mean a lot to Coach Red. You got to follow Coach Carval on Twitter. Sandals at Coach Carval UM. Great guy. But, you know, I knew they could do it. But never in my wildest dreams was it going to happen. As vaccines are rolled out across the state, many people are discussing what the summer may look like and what to expect as more people are vaccinated. We spoke with Alvaro Castro-Riva-Dunera, a PhD candidate in epidemiology at UMass Amherst, and a former professor in infectious diseases about the vaccine rollout. He is also working in the right lab, a team led by UMass Amherst Professor Nicholas Wright that works in infectious disease forecasting efforts. Riva-Dunera explained the impact vaccine efforts have had on the spread of COVID-19 so far. I think there are different levels in which we can analyze this. Since we forecast what we expect to happen, we largely rely on the models that build on this, but all models are using the vaccines in their calculations about how they expect the disease to spread and so forth. And so the main results that you see are on age groups. And so, for instance, older age groups, people in nursing homes who are some of the first people to be vaccinated, you saw things like hospitalizations fall very much. On the other hand, right now we're actually seeing a little bit of an uptick nationally in terms of cases and even hospitalizations, but it's much less severe than previously we think in part because of the way that vaccination has been targeted, at least initially to the most vulnerable groups. We asked him a number of questions around the vaccine rollout and when he thinks that daily life could begin to return to normal. He said, quote, only time will tell. I think even in a practical sense, I was talking to some people today and they were, they're fully vaccinated so they can return to a sort of normal life, but even so they were saying that they're not willing to return to normal meeting people. They still feel this sort of apprehension of getting together in large groups. So I guess time will tell. I really can't say much more than that. When asked about the FDA, a recent decision to pause the rollout of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, he said that he trusts, quote, that these government agencies are currently doing what they know best in order to protect both welfare and how people respond to this. There's a lot of second guessing with what is done or what is not done, whether it was the right decision. And these are more complicated than just the number of people who have a certain event. So in the case of the Johnson Johnson incident, there's an issue that it was especially specifically women of a certain age range. And so you can say that it's more frequent. It's also only the reported cases. So there can be a lot more that's under the table. And ultimately the reason we have these large agencies like the FDA or the CDC is for them to evaluate this evidence for them to be able to objectively see and see whether it makes sense. And I just want to correct one thing, the J&J vaccine hasn't been pulled, it's been paused. And so it's sort of like a cautious pause. Let's see what happens. Let's see what we find out, whether it really is a risk that makes us stop this or not. Moving forward, he advised the public to continue to adhere to CDC guidelines and public safety guidelines as they get vaccinated for public safety and for the comfort and respect of others. I think it's always important to give the general public health message that people still have to be cautious and still have to be respectful. And I think it's a little bit of both. There's an emphasis on caution, because you know, even if you're vaccinated, maybe you can still be contagious. But I think it's also just a matter of respect. So recently I was in a closed rental place and some people were without masks and they were saying, oh, I'm vaccinated. But still other people felt very uncomfortable and felt uneasy in there. So it's a matter of respect of your peers and just being kind to other people who may be more concerned than you are about being infected. So I think we still have to maintain some of these principles of social distancing, of wearing masks and so forth until I think the public agencies which we put our trust in will tell us that no, you know, we have reached the point where it seems safe to relax a lot of these guidelines. UMass released its plans for the fall 2021 semester to be as back to normal as possible, which is a dramatic shift from the last two semesters. In-person classes, full residence halls, student activities and extracurriculars will resume. There will also be campus tours available for incoming students starting April 20 in groups no larger than 15 people. New student orientations and transition programs will take place this summer for new students and students who enrolled at UMass during the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. Enrollment begins in May. The Amherstown Council announced that April will be recognized as Child Abuse Awareness and Protection Month. Counselors Alyssa Brewer, Lynn Griesmer and Mandy Jo Hanneke sponsored the proclamation on March 22. Member of the Board of Children's Advocacy Center, Marlene Musante, served as the resident sponsor. April has been recognized as Child Abuse Prevention Month nationally since 1983 in efforts to encourage public awareness of child abuse and neglect. The month helps to promote widespread community involvement on local and national levels and to recommit resources to the cause. In Amherst, the Child Abuse Prevention Flag will be raised from April 6 to April 30 in order to further awareness among residents of the town. For resources and more information, you can visit childwelfare.gov. That's all for this week. Thank you for watching the Amherst Weekly Report from Amherst Media. Once again, I'm Rebecca Duffy. And I'm Claire Healy. We'll see you at the same time next week. Have a good night.