Michael Grandner, PhD, the director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the College of Medicine – Tucson, shares his expertise to help people get healthy sleep.

Two members of the Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center are studying biological mechanisms of opioids in hopes of reducing negative side effects.

The Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center will oversee the first peer support experiential learning and apprenticeship program in rural Arizona.

Concerns about waning immunity from the Covid-19 vaccines have led to calls for booster shots. But a decrease in antibodies over time is normal and protection against severe disease and death remains strong even as protection against infection decreases. "The quality of antibodies in the body improves over time. It takes way fewer of them to protect you," said Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, an immunologist at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

Last year's influenza season turned out to be the mildest on record, but health experts have renewed warnings that a ‘twindemic’ – in which flu and COVID-19 cases simultaneously rise and overwhelm hospitals – may be possible this year. “Last year, we didn’t have a very big flu season because people were using masks and that decreased the flu season activity. If we do the same thing this year and we wear masks as much as we can, then the flu season will not hit us as hard as years prior," said Ricardo Correa, MD, endocrinologist and associate professor of medicine at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Arizona is already starting to see cases of the flu. "I think this is something that tells us in terms of the flu numbers that we could have an earlier flu season this year. So if people were thinking about when to get their flu shot, sooner rather than later, especially if they're in more higher-risk populations," said Farshad Fani Marvasti, MD, an associate professor and director of the public health, prevention and health promotion curriculum at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Part two of a two-part series on how the pandemic intensified a sense of purpose and prompted lasting changes in all aspects of the Health Sciences mission.

The latest COVID-19 surge appears to be slowing — especially in the highly vaccinated portions of Apache and Navajo county. However, public health experts worry that the new, far-more infectious delta strain has spread rapidly among children — unlike the strains responsible for the last big peak in January. Dr. Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, associate professor of public health policy and management at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, has reported a “profound” change in the number of kids getting infected by the Delta variant.