Shad Marvasti, MD, director of public health, prevention and health promotion at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, says it would be a good idea to bring back mask mandates. "We don’t want to wait until after the fact and get caught with this thing already ahead of us when we know that masks work," Marvasti said.

Some nursing students and faculty are back to in-person training at ASTEC.

Dr. Scott Salomone is spreading awareness about scams to equip people with the information they need to recognize fraud and protect themselves.

Kissing can help you lose weight: According to a 2013 report on philematology, Joseph S. Alpert, MD, a professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson, writes that a simple kiss can burn 2 to 3 calories per minute, whereas a passionate kiss can burn up to 5 to 26 calories per minute.

Lisa Shubitz, DVM, a research scientist at the University of Arizona Valley Fever Center for Excellence, and her research team found a mutated gene of valley fever in a pathogen of corn. That became the first component of a potential canine vaccine for valley fever.

Shad Marvasti, MD, director of public health, prevention and health promotion at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, recommends parents get their children who are 12 or older vaccinated to protect them from COVID-19. “They can get sick and I think that not being able to have kids wear masks regardless of vaccination status, I think is ethically questionable and puts our children and teachers at unnecessary risk," Marvasti said.

Over the last 10 days in Arizona, COVID-19 cases have slowly started to increase after plateauing for a while. “Cases may continue to inch up just a little bit, but I don’t expect hospitalizations to change much,” said Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, an associate professor and director of the public health policy and management program at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Tech Launch Arizona has awarded funding to five teams of students, faculty and community members to develop software or mobile apps and bring them to the public as impactful solutions to benefit society. The winners include College of Medicine – Phoenix students Jahnavi Shriram and Benjamin Conner, and faculty member M. Sriram Iyengar, PhD.

Ivo Abraham, PhD, RN, a professor at the College of Pharmacy, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to impact oncology biosimilar utilization.