COVID-19 in the News

Epidemiologists say they want to see the U.S. vaccination rate to get a little bit higher before resuming eating indoors at restaurants. "It's not just that indoor dining checks one box, it's that it checks many of them," said Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona. "All of those things make it higher risk."

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."

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins writes about the university's plan to hold an in-person commencement ceremony and how the university used innovative methods of testing and tracing to stop the spread of COVID-19 on campus last year.

Scientists know that the intense stress of grieving can affect the body in various ways, but much remains a mystery. Mary-Frances O'Connor, a psychologist who researches grief at the University of Arizona, studies both the psychology of grief and its biological changes in the laboratory and is one of the few researchers who straddles both fields. "Humans are predisposed to form loving bonds, and as soon as you do, your body is loaded and cocked for what happens when that person is gone. So all systems that functioned well now must accommodate the person's absence," O'Connor said.

The Global Vaccine Poem, a collaboration between the University of Arizona Poetry Center the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, aims to create meaning from hardship, spread vaccine awareness and build on Wick's Traveling Stanzas project that fuses poetry with everyday life.

Experts say there has been a growing number of people participating in citizen or community science during the COVID-19 pandemic. Katy Prudic, assistant professor of citizen and data science at the University of Arizona, is interviewed.

As more Americans are vaccinated against COVID-19, reunions among loved ones are becoming increasingly frequent and, for many, hugging is the main event. Most humans crave physical touch from friends and family and feel they need it to maintain their close relationships, experts say. Hugs are a way of saying hello, offering support, asking for love, sharing joy and communicating emotions that may not be neatly translated into words. "There's a lot more going on than, 'Let me just put my arms around you for a second or two,'" said Kory Floyd, a University of Arizona professor who studies how affection is communicated in close relationships. "In times like this, that message can be, 'I really missed you.'"

When the pandemic hit, many Americans turned to vitamins and supplements in hopes of boosting their immune systems. Scientists also raced to study them. Vitamin D, perhaps more than any other, captured the attention of researchers. There are now quite a few observational studies and large reviews of the available evidence that show low vitamin D levels are associated with higher risks of contracting COVID-19 or with becoming seriously ill. "What is clear from a number of studies is that there's a strong relationship in terms of your levels prior to infection," says Dr. Shad Marvasti, director of public health, prevention and health promotion at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

COVID-19 vaccines will likely provide at least some degree of protection for a long time because there are so many layers of immunity, said Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona. The first shots of the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines provide reasonable protection. Then the second shot bumps up the level of antibodies and T cells produced by the body, he said. T cells are white blood cells that destroy cells infected by viruses. There's "a lot of room to decline and still be protected," he said.