University of Arizona in the News

Experts say the protection that vaccines offer is more like a coat of flame retardant than an impenetrable firewall. SARS-CoV-2 can, very rarely, still set up shop in people who are more than two weeks out from their last COVID-19 shot. Chasing constant reassurance about infections after vaccination could send the wrong message, according to Saskia Popescu, an infection-prevention expert at the University of Arizona. "If we're telling people they can be unmasked and we’re still (frequently) testing them, what's the signal we're sending?"

Experts say COVID deaths are leaving millions bereaved. For some, the intense grief never recedes, making daily life almost impossible. Mary-Frances O'Connor, a clinical psychologist at the University of Arizona specializing in grief and its physiological impacts, likens this process to healing a broken leg: For the majority of people, rest and a cast will allow it to return to normal. Yet for a subset, a complication will arise – an infection or secondary trauma to the area – that prevents it from healing properly without more intensive intervention.