A COVID-19 vaccine made by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, following a 17–4 vote of confidence from an advisory panel of independent experts. "Overall, there is not much to argue with here in terms of efficacy," said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson. "It just looks great no matter how you look at it."

Paloma Beamer, associate professor at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and president of the International Society of Exposure Science, says increasing ventilation in your home is one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself during a pandemic. She suggests using filters with higher MERV ratings, which is the strength rating of the filter.

The Phoenix VA Health Care System Research Space will advance medical discoveries, new technologies and clinical care on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

For a health condition that can be so challenging to live with, fibromyalgia is often maddeningly hard to diagnose. “Some people might assume that if they have joint pain, they must have fibromyalgia,” says Mohab Ibrahim, MD, PhD, an associate professor in the department of anesthesiology and pharmacology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and director of the chronic pain clinic at Banner-University Medical Center. “But don’t just assume this. You need tests to rule out other disorders since the treatment for fibromyalgia is different from the treatment for various autoimmune disorders.

The University of Arizona Health Sciences is developing a lung ultrasound education program for rural emergency medicine providers to better diagnose COVID-19.

Paul Stamets, an advocate for the medical benefits of mushrooms, has donated $50,000 to the University of Arizona Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, to fund medical scholarships to promote the integration of different medical traditions in modern medicine.

A research collaboration will examine why women are twice as likely as men to experience depression and heart disease simultaneously.

Health experts say that hospitals are expecting to reach capacity in the next couple of weeks and, at this point, nothing can be done to prevent it. Dr. Monica Kraft, a pulmonary physician at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and Banner – University Medical Center Tucson, paints a dire picture of what's going on in southern Arizona, where the Pima County Office of Emergency Management issued a public health advisory on Dec. 9 that hospitals have reached capacity.

As COVID-19 continues to spread in Arizona and elsewhere, applications to medical school are at an all-time high. The wave of new doctors and nurses isn’t stopping at a time when they’re needed most. Applications at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix are way up for a limited number of spots.

Victoria Maizes, MD, executive director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, is a guest on the Buckmaster Show to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine.