UArizona Health Sciences immunobiologist Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, says the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, and he will take it when it becomes available.

Los Angeles County has been so overwhelmed it is running out of oxygen, with ambulance crews instructed to use oxygen only for their worst-case patients. Arizona, once heralded for turning the corner after a summer surge, now has 69 of every 100,000 residents hospitalized with the virus — the highest rate in the country. "The virus is just basically transmitting almost uninhibited through our population,” said Dr. Joe Gerald, who has been tracking the spread of the virus and was among those urging a shelter-in-place order.

Scott Sherman, MD, PhD, and Torsten Falk, PhD, both associate professors in the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, have developed a method of using ketamine in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The university has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Pharmather Inc., a subsidiary of Newscope Capital Corporation, for the development and commercialization of the method.

Mind controlling microchips and permanently altered DNA are two widely shared conspiracy theories about what the COVID-19 vaccine might do to anyone who takes it. Dr. Elizabeth Connick, an infectious disease expert at the University of Arizona says neither one of those things are true. She's so confident, in fact, that she already took the first dose of Pfizer's vaccine.

As each month passes amid this ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the daily number of infections has continued to march in one direction only—steadily upward. Dr. Joe K. Gerald, associate professor of Public Health Policy and Management at the University of Arizona, said, “For most states, (the data indicate) that viral transmission is broadly increasing. Reporting national estimates only has limited utility because each state is fighting its own COVID-19 battle. The U.S. figures then reflect in a rough sense the average win/loss ratio among the fifty states weighted by population."

Interactive program promotes healthy aging by improving physical and mental well-being.

Anyone making a New Year’s resolution can set themselves up for success by understanding how people can effectively make changes in their lives.

Arizona has the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the United States, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Arizona's rate of positive new coronavirus cases over the past seven days was 121.8 cases per 100,000 people, which was higher than any other state in the country. "We have now all but locked in a major humanitarian crisis during the Christmas–New Year holiday with hundreds of preventable deaths per week," Dr. Joe Gerald, of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, wrote in a Dec. 18 report.

Health experts say the number of COVID-19 cases is just going to rise as the weeks progress, due to holiday gatherings and travel. Beth Smith, senior director of marketing and communications at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, says in order to save lives, they need to change the perception that COVID-19 isn't that deadly. Other health officials in the Valley agree.

Continuing coverage: Ask anyone in medicine and they'll tell you, the COVID-19 pandemic was the answer to their calling. "It's reminding us why we got into this field in the first place, said Aaron Cedric Llanes, UArizona medical student. So many have heard the call in fact, 7000 applied to the University of Arizona's College of Medicine in 2020, the most ever. "Less than 2% will get an offer," said Dr. Glen Fogerty.