Health Sciences In The Media

Despite warnings, millions traveled and gathered for Thanksgiving. As officials brace for the surge ahead, they say a new approach is needed. "Testing itself isn't a bad thing, but people started using it to justify doing whatever they wanted," said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. "And people who really needed tests couldn't get them because sites were overwhelmed."

University of Arizona professors Bonnie LaFleur from the BIO5 Institute and Katherine Ellingson in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health discuss the availability and accuracy of rapid COVID-19 tests and how effective they are at slowing the spread of the virus in communities.

The health officials in charge of making models, or predictions, as to where the virus is spreading are painting a dire warning about the holidays. “If something is not done quickly, we worry that this outbreak will overwhelm our hospital system by the end of December,” said Joe Gerald, PhD, an Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of Arizona. “We’re very worried that his is a very vulnerable period.”

With more than 1 million travelers dispersing across the country in one day, health experts are asking those who gathered with people outside their households over Thanksgiving week to get tested for Covid-19. Arizona's test positivity on Monday was almost 20%. If officials there don't address the rise in cases in the next few weeks, the state will suffer hundreds of preventable deaths, the University of Arizona's Zuckerman College of Public Health said in a report Friday.

A researcher at the University of Arizona cautioned Monday that the state will be faced with a dire coronavirus situation within four weeks if no further action is taken to slow the spread of the virus. Dr. Joe Gerald, a member of the university’s COVID Modeling Team, told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad a “storm is coming” without additional guidance and mitigation strategies.

U.S. Sen.-elect Mark Kelly writes that the lack of a national strategy is hurting our coronavirus response and recovery. "Dr. Joe Gerald, a member of my transition team and a researcher at the University of Arizona who has been analyzing COVID-19 data, described how cases are rising quickly and that our health-care system could soon be struggling to keep up, just like it did last summer," Kelly writes.

A team of university researchers says a statewide shelter-in-place order could help avert a "catastrophe" in Arizona hospitals. "It has now reached a point to where we are truly in a crisis here in Arizona. The sooner we intervene the better off we will be. Every day of delay will result in needless hospital admissions and ultimately, what we also care about — deaths," Joe Gerald, UA public health researcher and COVID-19 modeling team leader.

University of Arizona Heath Sciences researchers developed one of the most accurate COVID-19 antibody tests available and now have shown antibodies persist for months after infection, providing long-term immunity.

Frank Porreca, a professor of pharmacology and anesthesiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, talks about green-light exposure therapy as a low-cost, non-invasive treatment option for individuals with migraines.

A Glendale ICU nurse is making a garden to honor his patients who died of COVID-19. "We're not going to have as much healthcare capacity to take care of people. Then you add the flu on top of that, and the fact that the whole country is a hotspot, so the numbers will keep on going up," said Dr. Shad Marvasti, director of public health, prevention and health promotion with the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.