Health Sciences In The Media

Joe Gerald, MD, PhD, an associate professor of public health policy at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and team leader for the UArizona COVID-19 modeling group joined The Show to talk more about Biden's vaccine mandate and the virus’ track in Arizona.

The Arizona Bioindustry Association announced that Celebrating Life & Science, a one-hour broadcast event highlighting inspiring stories of Arizonans working together and using science to make life better for people everywhere will premiere on ABC15 on Sunday, Oct. 3. Janko Nikolich-Zugich, MD, PhD, department head of immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, will be featured as the Arizona Bioscience Researcher of the Year.

Some experts differ in their conclusions of whether a third shot is needed for recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, an immunologist at the College of Medicine – Tucson said it’s normal for antibody levels to fall over the course of several months. Vaccination triggers a “blood-thirsty competition” among antibodies, he explained, and only the best ones survive ― “the antibodies that stick most tightly to the virus.”

Michael Grandner, PhD, the director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the College of Medicine – Tucson, shares his expertise to help people get healthy sleep.

Concerns about waning immunity from the Covid-19 vaccines have led to calls for booster shots. But a decrease in antibodies over time is normal and protection against severe disease and death remains strong even as protection against infection decreases. "The quality of antibodies in the body improves over time. It takes way fewer of them to protect you," said Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, an immunologist at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

Last year's influenza season turned out to be the mildest on record, but health experts have renewed warnings that a ‘twindemic’ – in which flu and COVID-19 cases simultaneously rise and overwhelm hospitals – may be possible this year. “Last year, we didn’t have a very big flu season because people were using masks and that decreased the flu season activity. If we do the same thing this year and we wear masks as much as we can, then the flu season will not hit us as hard as years prior," said Ricardo Correa, MD, endocrinologist and associate professor of medicine at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Arizona is already starting to see cases of the flu. "I think this is something that tells us in terms of the flu numbers that we could have an earlier flu season this year. So if people were thinking about when to get their flu shot, sooner rather than later, especially if they're in more higher-risk populations," said Farshad Fani Marvasti, MD, an associate professor and director of the public health, prevention and health promotion curriculum at the College of Medicine – Phoenix.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.67 million to researchers at five institutions to study potential links between coronavirus vaccinations and menstruation. A study at the University of Arizona that began this past May is already specifically tracking self-reported menstrual experience in a subset of participants in a larger, longer-running study of the effects of the pandemic on health. "The coronavirus vaccines are not the first vaccines to lead menstruators to report changes to their cycles, according to," according to Leslie Farland, ScD, MSc, an assistant professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.

Navajo County continues its effort to understand the plague of drug overdose deaths. “Substance abuse is a symptom of mental illness, not a lifestyle that people choose. Our community lacks critical mental health care, so many people with mental health issues self-medicate with alcohol and other substances. This pattern, which leads to substance abuse, is preventable with medical treatment,” according to a report on trends by the University of Arizona Health Sciences.

Daniel Derksen, MD, director of the UArizona Center for Rural Health, shares the state's current rural health outlook.