University of Arizona in the News

There is no government data yet on whether health authorities' 10-day halt in administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine soured people on the product, and the company declined to discuss the matter. But in spot checks across the country, people seeking vaccines and officials dispensing them appear eager to resume using the vaccine, which is also easier to store and transport. At the University of Arizona, the vaccination campaign has relied heavily on the Pfizer shots because the school has the substantial special freezer capacity required to store those doses. But President Robert C. Robbins said he expects the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will continue to be a useful tool for many colleges and universities.

Following updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, federal health officials announced that fully vaccinated Americans can forgo masks while outside, except in crowded settings. Kacey Ernst, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Arizona College of Public Health, acknowledges that breakthrough transmission risks outdoors are much lower than indoors, but "not all outdoor spaces are the same."

Prior to the start of the University of Arizona's annual spring football game, Rob Gronkowski set a Guinness World Record for highest altitude catch of an American football. A helicopter hovering 600 feet in the air dropped a football down to the ground for Gronkowski to catch.

Bacteria are helping corals in lab tests, but experts say risks rise as treatments are applied in the wild. To help ease some minds, including her own, Raquel Peixoto – who published the first probiotics experiments in 2015 – is planning contained experiments this year at the 700-square-meter artificial ocean in the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2. The tests will give a clearer look at how probiotic treatments might affect other ocean life.