Population health researchers say that they still expect the national death rate to return to more normal-looking levels as Covid-19 deaths recede. But that doesn’t mean the pandemic’s impact will disappear. “What the challenge will be is being able to quantify those lingering effects. They won’t be as dramatic, but that doesn’t make them any less real,” said Dr. Heidi Brown, an associate professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Mobile health unit vaccination efforts are expanding through the Mobile Outreach Vaccination and Education for Underserved Populations (MOVE UP) program.

A new mobile health unit initiative is getting more vaccines in the arms of rural, Hispanic and other hard-to-reach populations in southern Arizona.

Next-generation education at the Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy aims to fill care gaps as the U.S. physician shortage worsens.

A new study found that vaccination rates in rural America lagged urban counties during the first four months of the nation's concerted immunization push. "The counties that have lower uptake in the vaccines are also the ones who have been disproportionately hit by all those negative outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the Center for Rural Health.

Tamoxifen and steroidal aromatase inhibitor use among women with breast cancer was associated with a significantly lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a retrospective cohort study showed. “Our lab has helped to develop a link between the decrease in estrogen status seen in women during menopause to the increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease in women overall in this age group,” said Gregory L. Branigan, an MD‐PhD at the UArizona Center for Innovation in Brain Science.

Dr. John Galgiani, a professor and director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the College of Medicine – Tucson, and a group of researchers are working on a new valley fever vaccine formula for dogs that uses a live version of the fungus. Testing is not complete, but it could reach the market for use in dogs as early as next year.

Because of two concerning mutations, the B.1.617 variant discovered in India has been given a scary nickname “double mutant,” an incorrect term that is “completely unhelpful,” said Dr. Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

"We're at the beginning of the end," said Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor of public health policy and management in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Dr. Leila Barraza, an associate professor at the College of Public Health, added, "There's still individuals out there that are vulnerable to COVID-19, and we still need to be considerate of that."