University of Arizona in the News

Millions of Americans are in danger of losing their homes when federal and local limits on evictions expire at the end of the year. A new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the University of Arizona estimates that 6.7 million people could be evicted in the coming months. That would approach the number of people who lost their homes to foreclosure during the 2008 financial crisis and ensuing recession.

Cities and universities across the world are looking into using wastewater-based epidemiology to track the spread of COVID-19. Ian Pepper, director of the WEST Center and a BIO5 Institute member, is leading a study that uses municipal wastewater to monitor the incidence of the virus in communities across the United States. In August, the University of Arizona used this process to identify and successfully quarantine two asymptomatic students during the first week of classes.

Public health officials have been pleading with Americans to stay home this year for Thanksgiving. And, despite busy airports this past weekend, most people plan to follow their advice, according to a huge survey asking Americans about their holiday plans. Early in the pandemic, there was a minimal partisan split on public health advice, said Samara Klar, an associate professor of political science at the University of Arizona. But she noted that diverging messages from political leaders have been mirrored by splits in support for public health measures and self-reported mask wearing.

A growing number of scientists believe that the cure for disease can be found in our DNA. But that poses a unique problem for some Native Americans. Led by the National Institutes of Health, the All of Us Research Program aims to collect medical and genetic data from 1 million Americans by around 2025. To ensure that the benefits of this research go to every American, All of Us has been actively recruiting participants from racial and ethnic minorities.

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advising Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving, experts say the holiday is also creating new conflict between family members with different ideas about how to celebrate safely. "The truth is conflict happens every year for families, and that can make holidays so stress-inducing because people know that potential is there," said Kory Floyd, an author and professor of interpersonal communication at the University of Arizona.

University of Arizona professors Shefali Milczarek-Desai and Tara Sklar write that in order to understand how nursing homes became the source of more than one-third of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, you have to look beyond just the vulnerability of the residents and examine how nursing homes pay and manage their employees.

In a new analysis, a team of researchers provided some of the first hard evidence of how the political divide drove behavior amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The research team, led by James Druckman, a political scientist at Northwestern University, found that the average Democrat "is more worried, is more likely to have changed behaviors and is more supportive of policies to stop the spread of infections than the average Republican," although there were substantial overlaps in attitudes.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control advised Americans against traveling for Thanksgiving, though it stopped short of issuing a mandate to that effect, and the warning may have come late enough that many won’t change their plans. "The airport is where all the bad behavior happens," said Saskia Popescu, an epidemiology professor at the University of Arizona, based on her own experiences flying during the pandemic.

Continuing coverage: After two support cables broke at Arecibo Observatory, the facility is in danger of a catastrophic collapse, prompting the National Science Foundation to decommission the telescope. Michael Nolan, a former director of the observatory who is now a research professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, is interviewed.

According to an informal survey of 635 epidemiologists by The New York Times, the large majority of public health experts are not celebrating with people outside their household. "I live alone with my 5-year-old," said Alicia Allen, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona. "We're going to skip the normal Thanksgiving plans, which for us means a road trip, and go on a hike and picnic locally instead, just the two of us."