Pfizer and Moderna say their vaccines are about 95% effective at preventing people from getting sick with COVID symptoms. Preliminary evidence from Moderna showed that participants in a clinical trial who received the vaccine and were tested for COVID between their first and second doses had a roughly two-thirds reduction in asymptomatic infections. "That means there’s a substantial, substantial reduction in overall infections just from that first dose," said Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Naomi Bishop, an associate librarian, at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix, is one of this year’s I Love My Librarian Award winners, presented by the American Library Association and sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York. Each honoree receives $7,500, and a $750 donation to their library. The winners are nominated by library patrons for "expertise, dedication and profound impact" on their communities. Bishop was one of 10 winners for being "a champion for social justice."

Experts say getting infected with COVID-19 a second time is rare, but it can happen. "Currently, only a small number of cases have been shown convincingly to be reinfection," said Dr. Elizabeth Connick, chief of the infectious diseases division at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. "I suspect that we're going to learn that reinfection occurs a lot more frequently."

In hard-hit Arizona, the crisis will get worse, said Dr. Joe K. Gerald, associate professor of public health policy and management at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. "We should expect to set new records for cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over the coming weeks. Policy action is urgently needed to mitigate the worst possible outcome," Gerald wrote.

In hard-hit Arizona, the disaster will worsen, according to Joe Gerald, associate professor at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. “We should expect to set new records for cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over the coming weeks. Policy action is urgently needed to mitigate the worst possible outcome,” Gerald wrote.

Scarring of lungs, shortness of breath, lack of smell and inflammation of the heart, are but some of the ailments COVID-19 leaves in patients long after the acute illness has passed. “We’ve also seen these long-term COVID symptoms with people who have been very mildly symptomatic and young and otherwise healthy. So, we don’t completely understand it,” said Dr. Shad Marvasti, from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

California had the worst coronavirus infection rate in the nation last week. Now, Arizona has claimed that grim distinction, with one university health expert calling it “the hot spot of the world.” Joe Gerald, a professor of public health policy and management at the University of Arizona, said the state pushed down the curve over the summer with restrictions on businesses including restaurants, bars, gyms, movie theaters and water parks.

Doctors from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Department of Psychiatry said they are seeing an increasing number of patients battling mental health issues. "Initially there might have been a bit of honeymoon period," Dr. Jordan Karp, Department of Psychiatry professor and chair. That period is long over. It has been almost one year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Karp said recent events are taking a toll on many.

The antibody test developed at the UArizona Health Sciences can be used to confirm a positive antibody response after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

Family members of a Peoria woman who died this week say they cannot fulfill one of her final wishes. Dr. Shad Marvasti with the College of Medicine – Phoenix says most medical schools and organizations across the country aren't taking bodies of people who died from COVID-19. "There's real concern with the risks that the body then poses for transmitting the virus to those students or researchers or anyone who comes into contact with it," said Marvasti.