The Arizona Republic looks back on 15 pivotal moments during the last two years of Arizona's COVID-19 pandemic. Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, says health experts advocated for Arizona to do more to contain the spread of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.

A new omicron variant is being closely watched here and abroad after causing a spike in cases in several European countries including Germany, Switzerland and the UK. But the question is, how much worry should there be over the new variant. Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, associate professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, is quoted.

Experts in sleep and comfort share helpful tips and tricks so you can rest easier every night. Michael Grandner, PhD, director of the Sleep and Heath Research Program at the College of Medicine – Tucson, is quoted.

A new paraprofessional program trains people to become family support specialists and help address the needs of loved ones with substance use disorders.

A new CDC study of COVID-19 vaccination rates shows the nationwide gap between urban and rural areas more than doubled in the past year, with urban counties beating rural ones everywhere — except in Arizona. Daniel Derksen, MD, a public health professor and director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health at the University of Arizona, was not surprised Arizona's rural counties did well, despite the state's failure to curtail preventable deaths.

Paleontologists have discovered a fossil belonging to an ancient saber-toothed creature thought to be the first cat-like predator to exist in the U.S. Shawn Zack, PhD, assistant professor of basic medical sciences at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, is quoted.

Data from an ongoing study at the University of Arizona Health Sciences, in combination with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's PROTECT study,show the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been a moderately effective tool for preventing COVID-19 spread and reducing the severity of infection among children and adolescents.

Gabe Martinez, a program aide at the Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities at the College of Medicine – Tucson, will advise President Joe Biden as a member of the Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities, the White House announced Friday.

Dongkyun Kang, PhD, assistant professor of optical sciences and biomedical engineering, received a $1 million National Eye Institute grant to support his work to develop a portable device that could be used to detect corneal ulcers. Dr. Kang, a research member at the UArizona Cancer Center, previously worked on a smartphone confocal microscope to diagnose cancer in rural settings.