State Superintendent Kathy Hoffman delivered her annual State of Education Address Tuesday, focusing on COVID-19's impact on schools and calling for more funding. "Thinking about COVID in schools is a difficult problem because we really lacked the high-quality data that we need to make good decisions," said Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

New variants of the COVID-19 virus could mean we'll need an annual shot to fight the coronavirus, just like with the flu. Health experts are concerned that new versions of the virus could spread more easily and vaccines might be less effective against it. University of Arizona molecular scientist Donata Vercelli studies cellular mutations at the BIO5 Institute. She believes an annual booster shot may be necessary to keep COVID in check.

A new survey of U.S. doctors finds that more than 80% believe people with a significant disability have a worse quality of life than those who are not disabled, underscoring how physicians’ perceptions across specialties could negatively influence the care of the more than 61 million Americans with disabilities. Britt Gratreak, a second-year medical student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, is interviewed.

The University of Arizona wanted to make mental health resources easily accessible, so they found a way to provide them through your phone. "We decided we had all the relevant expertise to come together and develop this really interesting and novel app," said University of Arizona College of Nursing Professor and Associate Dean for Research Dr. Judith Gordon.

James Knitter, MD, a research assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, is co-author of an article that states high-efficiency masks, which include the N95 respirators used by healthcare workers, could reduce the chances of contracting the coronavirus — thus help saving lives and helping speed the return of our economy.

Researchers at the University of Arizona are working to develop a smartphone COVID-19 test, with test results within minutes. “It’s extremely sensitive. It takes less than ten minutes,” said Dr. Kelly Reynolds, professor and chair of the Department of Community, Environmental and Policy in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Dr. Joe Gerald, associate professor and director of the public health policy and management program at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, and Dr. Christian Bime, professor of medicine at UArizona College of Medicine – Tucson and ICU medical director at Banner – University Medical Center, are interviewed.

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.