When COVID-19 vaccines first became available, efforts included significant investments in making vaccines accessible to Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native populations - but boosters are a different story, and divides in mortality have once again emerged. Read more»

Texas’ abortion ban will disproportionately affect women of color, particularly Black women, who already face higher risks of health complications or death related to pregnancy or childbirth and will likely lead to an even higher risks. Read more»

Arizonans have died from COVID-19 at one of the highest rates in the country, and a new report found that nearly one in every three of those deaths could have been avoided if all adults in the Grand Canyon State were fully vaccinated. Read more»

Though the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office has enough forensic pathologists on staff to keep pace with the office’s caseload, they are one of the lucky ones as Arizona medical examiners say they are struggling to keep up with rising caseloads. Read more»

Six Arizona counties ended up as part of a report that showcased the top 300 counties nationwide with high poverty and COVID-19 death rates, with Apache County landing at No. 17. Read more»

COVID-19 was the leading cause of law enforcement deaths in 2021, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, with some 301 deaths directly attributable to the pandemic as of December 31, 2021, and a final number that was likely to be higher. Read more»

Raw numbers of hospitalizations or deaths among the vaccinated are not a good indicator of whether vaccines are effective - if the large majority of a population is vaccinated, it’s not surprising if most deaths are among the vaccinated - but social media posts suggest otherwise. Read more»

A nurse with Indian Health Service, Nicolle Gonzales noticed gaps that left many Native American women with insufficient pregnancy and birthing care - prompting her to launch the nonprofit Changing Woman Initiative to address maternal health disparities in Indigenous women. Read more»

A new report by the Arizona Public Health Association found that COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in Arizona during the pandemic, unlike in other similar states that had more aggressive mitigation measures. Read more» 1

In states that have declined to expand Medicaid to all adults with lower incomes, women of childbearing age are more than twice as likely to be without health insurance as those living in expansion states - a disparity that helps explain the United States’ dismal maternal mortality rate. Read more»

The Arizona Department of Health Services is planning to expand a pilot program to get more vaccines for those living in ZIP codes with high numbers of COVID-19 cases but low vaccination rates, but inequities still exist. Read more»

Total deaths in Arizona rose 25% in 2020 over the previous year, with some counties seeing increases approaching 50% for the year in which COVID-19 became a leading killer in the state. Read more»

COVID-19 is on the verge of becoming the leading cause of death in Arizona, surpassing cancer and closing in on heart disease, according to the latest data from the Arizona Department of Health Services. Read more»

Doug Ducey's speech read like a governor utterly out of touch with his state groaning under the weight of COVID-19. Perhaps he was more in touch with his own political ambitions. Read more»

Between Jan. 3 and 9, 1,080 Arizonans died from the virus, the most in a single week, according to data from John Hopkins University. The previous record was in December, when 614 Arizonans lost their lives from Dec. 13-19. Read more»