Efforts are underway to bring to market a vaccine for a fungal infection that occurs in the deserts of the Southwest. With recent studies showing promise, there is a renewed push. Dr. John Galgiani, director of the University of Arizona's Valley Fever Center for Excellence, is heading up vaccine research there and believes the vaccine shown to prevent valley fever in mice should be available for dogs, which also get infected in large numbers, as soon as next year. A veterinary vaccine company, Anivive, is developing it. "It's very promising," said Galgiani.

Dr. Fayez K. Ghishan, director of the Steele Children’s Research Center, will hold the Fayez K. Ghishan, MD, PANDA Endowed Directorship.

"We don't have anywhere near the population exposed, infected or recovered or somehow immunized to COVID-19 yet. We're not going to get to herd immunity until many more people are exposed to the virus or if we have a vaccine which will enable more people to get immunity," said Dr. Shad Marvasti, director of public health for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

"We don't have anywhere near the population exposed, infected or recovered or somehow immunized to COVID-19 yet. We're not going to get to herd immunity until many more people are exposed to the virus or if we have a vaccine which will enable more people to get immunity," said Dr. Shad Marvasti, director of public health for the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

There are now more than 25 million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe. "We basically have 50 laboratory experiments going on right now, and every state has a slightly different policy approach," said Joe Gerald, an associate professor at the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, in an Aug. 24 story in The New York Times. "If we get complacent, this thing could get out of control again. And we'll have even less safety margin to manage it because we're starting from a higher place."

In honor of Dr. Fayez K. Ghishan's 25th anniversary as director of the Steele Children's Research Center at the University of Arizona, members of the Phoenix Women's Board of the Steele Children's Research Center have contributed $5 million to establish an endowment in his name.

Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona health officials held a press conference at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix at 3 p.m. regarding influenza and flu shots.

Dr. Funda Bachini, assistant program director of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at Phoenix Children's Hospital, discusses mental health strategies for children who are going back to school during the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts say there could be some serious unintended consequences to kids' health due to excessive screen time. "It's something we call accommodation spasm, where the lenses of the eye are so accustomed to focusing at a certain distance, that when they change that up, they get really blurry vision. Other kids will get things like headaches," said Gary Kirkilas, a pediatrician with the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.