There is widespread scientific consensus that fully vaccinated people have an excellent chance of being protected from severe illness or death from any coronavirus strain, including delta. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, an immunobiologist at the College of Medicine – Tucson, wrote in a tweet: “Please, no more cries of wolf on variants/vaccine efficacy. The vaccines still work fine in the real world."

The COVID-19 pandemic brought mRNA vaccines into the limelight. But the technology may also prove to be a powerful weapon against hard-to-treat cancers. A head and neck cancer patient who was treated in a personalized cancer vaccine clinical trial offered at the University of Arizona Cancer Center is featured.

A UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson study aims to reduce relapse rates of recently quit smokers by training them to help others quit smoking.

Basic scientists and clinical researchers working together leads to center’s many achievements.

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.

Health experts are concerned that Arizona’s recently approved budget, which bans public schools and universities from enforcing mask mandates and COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated students, is endangering public health across the state. “Banning schools from adopting a simple, cost-effective and scientifically proven safety measure like mask wearing while we are still in the midst of a pandemic makes absolutely no scientific or public health sense," said Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD, a professor and epidemiologist at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

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.