Arizona is in another surge of COVID-19, a leading Arizona State University disease expert said Wednesday. The ongoing major wave of COVID-19 cases in Arizona most likely will look different from the previous surges that the state experienced, said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the Biodesign Institute at ASU. "We are in a surge," he said. "We can't say that this surge will behave like all the other surges because there's just so much different about this one. ... All the previous surges that we observed were in a population that was largely unvaccinated." Most significantly, there probably will be fewer hospitalizations and fewer deaths than the first two waves of COVID-19 in Arizona because so many people have been vaccinated, he told reporters during a virtual briefing.