University of Arizona in the News

While the B.1.617 variant may be more transmissible, research shows that current COVID-19 vaccines will provide strong protection. Because of two concerning mutations, the variant from India has been given a scary nickname "double mutant," an incorrect term that is "completely unhelpful," said Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

Vaccination rates in rural America lagged urban counties during the first four months of the nation's concerted immunization push as challenges such as lack of access and vaccine hesitancy persisted, a new study found. "The counties that have lower uptake in the vaccines are also the ones who have been disproportionately hit by all those negative outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Daniel Derksen, director of the Arizona Center for Rural Health at the University of Arizona.

Tyina Steptoe, an associate professor of history at the University of Arizona, writes about the legacy of Marvin Gaye's album, "What's Going On."

New observations reveal that Mars could still be volcanically active, raising the possibility for habitable conditions below the surface of Mars in recent history.

Two weeks before summer training begins and less than two months before fall camp opens, dozens of college football teams are struggling to vaccinate their athletes. The University of Arizona football team has one of the highest vaccination rates of any college football program in the country. The Wildcats are nearing the 90% mark. President Robert C. Robbins and head coach Jedd Fisch are interviewed.

If you want to know what your boss really thought of your idea or whether your employees respect you, experts say it is key to pay less attention to their words and listen to their voices. "They're leaky," said Allison Gabriel, an associate professor of management at the University of Arizona. "Underlying emotion leaks out, even when outward displays may be pleasant or smiling. Voice is a hard channel to regulate in terms of emotion."

Leonard Hammer, director of outreach and development in the Human Rights Practice Graduate Programs at the University of Arizona, writes that countries offering safe harbor to refugees should have a legal option to sue the sending country for environmental damages.

Maha Nassar, an associate professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona, writes that the size and scope of recent demonstrations have surprised many political analysts who usually discuss these Palestinians as part of the Israeli social and political fabric, separate from Palestinians elsewhere.

A group of 18 scientists stated Thursday in a letter published in the journal Science that there is not enough evidence to decide whether a natural origin or an accidental laboratory leak caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael Worobey, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, said he signed the new letter because "the recent W.H.O. report on the origins of the virus, and its discussion, spurred several of us to get in touch with each other and talk about our shared desire for dispassionate investigation of the origins of the virus."

Photographer David Hume Kennerly spent the past couple of days with U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney. "I've known Liz since she was 8 years old," Kennerly said. "She called me and asked if I wanted to come back, and I said yeah because I think this is such a big story and there was nobody even near getting close to her," said Kennerly. The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography acquired the archive of the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer in 2019.