To figure out how holiday gatherings can be adapted so that possible transmission of COVID-19 is less likely, the Arizona Republic spoke with Dr. Kelly Reynolds, an expert on disease transmission and professor at UA’s Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

As coronavirus cases grow in Arizona, the state could reach a “crisis point” after Thanksgiving, one expert recently warned. “I don’t see us reaching any particular crisis point before Thanksgiving,” Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health, told the Arizona Daily Star.

Joe Gerald, an associate professor at the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and an epidemiologist working on modeling the COVID-19 pandemic, has been named to Arizona Sen.-elect Mark Kelly's 13-person bipartisan transition team.

The trial for the vaccine still needs to be completed. The No. 1 priority is making sure the vaccine is safe, because even a rare side effect could hurt thousands. Dr. Jun Wang, an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy said, “We should be excited, but there is way more work to do."

Health experts said President-elect Joe Biden's plan is a stark contrast to the current administration's handling of the pandemic. "This administration hasn't had any comprehensive plan as far as I can tell, in terms of a comprehensive testing strategy," said Dr. Shad Marvasti, director of public health, prevention and health promotion with the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. "I am just really excited and hopeful."

Even many public health experts who celebrated President-elect Joe Biden's win this week turned their immediate focus to the crisis it might create: A 10-week transition period during which COVID-19 cases and deaths skyrocket, and the outgoing Trump administration doesn't take additional action to stop the surge. "So many of us are worried that now that Biden has won, the Trump administration is going to take a scorched-earth approach," said Saskia Popescu, a University of Arizona epidemiology professor at the University of Arizona and biodefense expert.

Coronavirus cases continue to rise in Pima County and Arizona, causing public-health experts to worry that conditions could grow dire over the holiday season. "I don't see us reaching any particular crisis point before Thanksgiving," said Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. "But once we hit Thanksgiving and move toward Christmas and New Year's, I think we will eventually reach a crisis point."

Donna D. Zhang, of University of Arizona Health Sciences, has received an eight-year, $7.3 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to determine how a family of proteins can be harnessed to prevent or treat arsenic-induced lung cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

Children infected with the coronavirus produce weaker antibodies and fewer types of them than adults do, suggesting they clear their infection much faster, according to a new study. "Having a ton of antibody isn't necessarily a marker of a good thing," said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona. "It usually means that something went wrong early in the response."

Last week, the Arizona Department of Health Services announced it had updated its guidance on when schools should transition to virtual learning. The agency recommended the move be made if a county's COVID-19 benchmarks are in the red. But one of those indicators could be flawed. Saskia Popescu, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, is interviewed.