Just over two in five Arizona adults got a flu shot last year, a number state officials are desperate to improve on before the onset of both influenza and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this fall. "It's difficult to tell what the response will be each year" to the call for people to get vaccinated, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the University of Arizona Center for Rural Health. "You want to protect those vulnerable populations."

Efforts to keep patients safe in the time of COVID-19 led to significant savings and innovation in chemotherapy delivery and earned University of Arizona Health Sciences center national recognition.

Joining the University of Arizona Health Sciences in October, Dr. Geoffrey Rubin holds six U.S. patents for medical image analysis and is past chairman of radiology at Duke University School of Medicine.

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins said the university expected to see an increase in COVID-19 cases, but it has become too much, necessitating a shelter-in-place recommendation similar to what the state faced in the spring.

A University of Arizona Health Sciences research team reviewed nearly 300 published studies on the hygienic benefits of hand-drying methods, comparing paper towels to electric hand dryers. "Neither one's better. The most important thing is that you just dry your hands," said Kelly Reynolds, director of the Environment, Exposure Science and Risk Assessment Center at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Colleges across the U.S. are reporting outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, leaving experts and residents concerned about the pandemic worsening in certain areas. Dr. Farshad Marvasti, director of public health and prevention curriculum at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, said that "as we get into flu season, where health care resources will be strained further and people with other acute exacerbations of chronic diseases like heart attacks or strokes or other emergencies will not be able to get the care we need," surges of transmissions on college campuses are "a telltale sign that could be the starting point of a second wave."

Dr. James Galligan and his University of Arizona College of Pharmacy research team found inhibiting glyoxalase-II enzyme results in slower cell growth, which may help limit disease progression.

New research is shining a light on an unusual treatment for migraine headaches: green light therapy. In a small study involving 29 migraine patients, University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers found that exposure to green light for one to two hours daily reduced headache pain by 60% and significantly reduced the frequency of migraines.

Amy Jang, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, writes that amid the current pandemic, there is currently no official approved drug indicated to treat patients with coronavirus disease 2019. However, the FDA has temporarily approved certain antiviral medications and anti-inflammatory drugs to use for the emergency treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 to potentially reduce hospitalization rates for infected patients.

AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford have put their combined Phase 2 and 3 trial on standby after one United Kingdom participant reportedly developed severe neurological symptoms. The volunteer's condition and what brought it on remain unclear. University of Arizona immunologist Deepta Bhattacharya at the College of Medicine – Tucson, said such questions are the point of large human trials. "As we start to expand out the numbers into tens of thousands of people, will we start to see some rare events, and what is the risk-reward proposition once you start to see that data?"