University of Arizona in the News

Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona, said that at-home testing can be beneficial but noted that there are some concerns, including how easy the test is to use, whether people use it correctly, how accurate it is and how long it takes to get results back.

Experts discuss what the U.S. must do in order to try and slow down this spread. "That's tough and a tie between state-wide masking mandates and efforts to ensure adequate testing is available," said Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona.

Humans as far back as ad 600 carried variola, an international research team reported this week after years of fishing for viral DNA in ancient human remains. "This new paper is showing that there were lineages that we were completely ignorant about," said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona.

"An eviction judgment stays on a tenant’s credit report for seven years, is grounds for wage garnishment and makes it more difficult for a tenant to find future housing," said Stacy Butler, director of the Innovation for Justice Program at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law. She has been tracking violations of the CARES Act.

Chris Impey, a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, writes that massive open online classes, or MOOCs, have seen a surge in enrollments since March.

The University of Arizona and state of Arizona are expanding their free COVID-19 antibody testing program for 250,000 people across the state to include 15 new categories of essential workers considered at high risk for exposure.

The University of Arizona is testing the Covid Watch smartphone app, which would let campus community members notify each other anonymously if they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Covid Watch Executive Director Tina White, an alumna of the University of Arizona, is interviewed.

A Tucson startup company is working on vaccine technology that could aid in the fight against COVID-19 and pathogens that may hit human populations in the future. Reparvi, founded in Tucson last year, recently won the University of Arizona Center for Innovation's Sponsored Launch Fueled by Perkins Coie competition, receiving a sponsored yearlong admission into the UACI's incubation program.

"Contact tracing is ... largely ineffective in changing the course of an outbreak in a setting where cases are increasing at the rate we're seeing in Arizona," said Purnima Madhivanan.

When it comes to COVID-19, "the best treatment is prevention, and there are very good data to show how effective masks are," said Dr. Murtaza Akhter.