Uncertainty about how many vaccinated people previously were infected with COVID-19 makes it hard to gauge the population’s total immunity and predict the potential duration and severity of the recent “brisk acceleration” in new cases, said Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, an associate professor of public health policy at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Given that uncertainty, policymakers and individuals “should take immediate steps to adopt evidence-based mitigation practices to reduce transmission,” Gerald wrote Friday in an assessment of COVID-19 conditions in Arizona.

“We built the @PrimaryCareChat handle to create a sense of belonging, mutual support for growth and celebration of the work primary care physicians do to combat these negative work factors and help to build a stronger primary care workforce,” said Indu Partha, MD, an internist at the College of Medicine – Tucson. She co-founded Primary Care Chat and detailed how it has helped its physician participants during a session at the International Conference on Physician Health.

Arizona health officials say there is, "definitely an uptick" in COVID-19 cases across the state, likely due to the highly contagious delta variant. In a mid-summer update on COVID-19 across the state, Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, an associate professor in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, wrote that cases in Arizona as of the week ending July 4 had increased for four consecutive weeks.

Legislators in more than a dozen states passed laws in recent months dismantling the ability of city and county governments to mandate masks, shutter businesses, and require vaccines. "Our hands are tied and I think that's a mistake," said Shad Marvasti, MD, director of public health, prevention and health promotion at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

New coronavirus infections have doubled in the U.S. as the pace of vaccinations gets cut in half. The Surgeon General warns misinformation may be playing a part. Interview with Shad Marvasti, MD, a family medicine physician and the director of public health, prevention and health promotion at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Continuing coverage: The Arizona Legislature approved the budget for next fiscal year on June 30. It bans public schools throughout the state from requiring masks or COVID-19 testing. "As a public health expert, I continue to recommend mask use in schools. Recent research shows COVID spreads less in schools where teachers and staff wear masks … It is no longer a matter of debate: Masks work," said Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD, a professor of epidemiology at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

The Mobile Health Program in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the College of Medicine – Tucson, offers free family and prenatal health care to anyone.

Researchers in the Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center have found that terpenes mimic cannabinoids and produce similar pain-relieving effects.

Continuing coverage: When it comes to the medicinal and therapeutic properties of Cannabis sativa, an unsolved mystery is whether there exists an “entourage effect,” whereby the pain-relieving effects of the plant as a whole are greater than any of its individual parts. “A lot of people are taking cannabis and cannabinoids for pain,” said lead researcher John Streicher, PhD, a member of the UArizona Health Sciences Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center and associate professor of pharmacology at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

During Monsoon Season, Arizonans can expect to see more scorpions this summer. "Typically, scorpion season is going to range from about May all the way through October, with the peak being in June," said Laura Morehouse, MPH, CHES, a health education specialist at the UArizona Poison and Drug Information Center. The Center has already received over 300 sting reports as of mid-June, Morehouse added.