COVID-19 vaccination programs are slowly gaining momentum as people line up for their shots. University of Arizona immunologist Elizabeth Connick, MD, at the College of Medicine – Tucson answers some of the questions people still are asking about the vaccine, like how and when we'll know if it's helping turn the tide in the pandemic fight.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, along with partners, Cox Communications and the Arizona SciTech Institute, present Connect2STEM 2021 — a series of live virtual events on January 30 at 10 AM MST showcasing the wonders of science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEM). The wildly popular event has been reimagined as an online interactive pavilion with activities led by physicians, performers and STEM professionals. For more information to access the full schedule of live programs or to register, visit phoenixmed.arizona.edu/C2S.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has reported that three cases of the so-called U.K. COVID-19 variant, B.1.1.7, has been confirmed in three test samples from the state. Dr. Elizabeth Connick, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson said some data suggests that the UK strain may be even more virulent, which means it can make people sicker and cause more death. This has not been fully proven, but Dr. Connick said it should still act as a warning to Arizonans.

Researchers at the University of Arizona are developing a COVID-19 testing method that uses a smartphone microscope to analyze saliva samples and deliver results in about 10 minutes. The team's latest research using water samples—done in collaboration with Kelly A. Reynolds, chair of the Department of Community, Environment and Policy at the UArizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health—is published today in Nature Protocols.

Fixing sleep problems can also end up helping with mental health, said Michael Grandner, a psychiatry professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson and director of its Sleep and Health Research Program. “Sometimes stress is hard to manage, but sleep is actually something that could be potentially fixable.”

The United States is in a race against time to vaccinate as many people as possible before other potentially more worrisome variants of the coronavirus emerge, according to experts. "The reason we're doing this phased approach is because there is limited supply," said Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson. "By and large, if you can fix the supply issues, you can vaccinate as many people as fast as possible."

Arizona Online rose to No. 7 overall and No. 6 among public universities in the 2021 Best Online Bachelor's Programs rankings by U.S. News & World Report. The UArizona College of Nursing ranked No. 7 for its online master's program for veterans. The graduate nursing program ranked No. 32 overall.

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