Arizona Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs has picked Dr. Theresa Cullen, Pima County health director, to lead the state Department of Health Services. Cullen has spent 35 years working in public health and took the helm in Pima County in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more»

The development of the first COVID vaccines may have seemed to occur at a dizzying pace. After all, scientists identified a new virus and created vaccines to protect against its most severe effects within a year. But the research underpinning these vaccines isn’t that new at all, vaccine experts say. Some of it is decades old. This foundation, combined with technical expertise, urgency and financial resources, enabled scientists to pull off the medical marvel. Read more»

HHS Protect, at the center of clashes between the CDC and HHS over how to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, was created after the CDC’s long struggle to modernize. Basic data about the COVID-19 outbreak remains secret and obscured even from local public health officials, despite them being told to rely on it to make decisions. Read more»

Trump made his announcement on funding at the White House coronavirus task force daily briefing on April 14, accusing the WHO of “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.” There is no evidence that the WHO has covered up the spread of the novel coronavirus. There has, however, been evidence that China was slow to report the outbreak. Read more»

Blood donation centers across the U.S. are ramping up efforts to collect plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 in hopes it could be used to save the lives of others infected with the pandemic disease. Read more»

A doctor-scholar who studied the 1976 mishandling of swine flu says the president is wrongly choosing between saving lives and saving the economy. Read more»

Microbiologist Charles Gerba and his colleagues at the University of Arizona scientists are turning their attention to the use of disinfectants to battle COVID-19, the deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Read more»

Arizona health officials have the go-ahead to test at the state level for coronavirus cases and are awaiting test results for a second potential case of COVID-19, a novel disease that has sickened nearly 89,000 worldwide and killed six in the U.S., public health officials said Monday. Read more»

Small start-ups and multinational corporations alike are getting the chance to do groundbreaking research in Low Earth Orbit. Read more»

The UA Health Network's hospital on the South Side will be home to a biocontainment unit, ready for the treatment of Ebola and other infectious diseases. The UA system was named by the CDC as one of 55 Ebola treatment centers in the country. Read more»

An event Saturday will feature the former U.S. surgeon general and other heath-care experts discussing community preparedness for an outbreak of Ebola or other contagious disease. The "Ebola and All-Hazards Forum" is being held by the Medical Reserve Corps of Southern Arizona. Read more»

Take a break from worrying about Ebola and get a flu shot this fall. While the Ebola virus has so far affected just four people in the United States, tens of millions are expected to get influenza this season. More than 200,000 of them will be hospitalized and up to 49,000 will likely die from it, according to the CDC. Read more»

Texas leaders are pointing fingers at the Obama administration for botching the Ebola response. But the state did not use its own power to restrict travel and limit possible spread of the deadly virus. Read more»

The agency has been heavily criticized for its response to a threat that requires team action by federal, state and local agencies. Read more» 2

A representative of the Dallas hospital under scrutiny for its handling of the first Ebola case in the United States apologized on Thursday for mistakes he said the facility made when it initially misdiagnosed the patient. Read more»