Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 604 new positive cases and 0 new deaths on April 5.
Washington: The state reported 345,904 cases and 5,285 deaths as of April 4.
United States: The CDC reports 30,532,965 cases and 554,064 deaths as of April 5.
Global: WHO reports 131,309,792 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,854,276 deaths as of April 5.
Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Update
Total Vaccine Doses Administered: 185,858
- Total first dose: 104,259
- Total second dose: 81,599
As of April 4, 2021.
UW Medicine in the News
The Seattle Times: We’re in a critical stage in the race to end deadly COVID-19 pandemic
Featuring: Paul Ramsey, MD, CEO, UW Medicine
“Spring has arrived, and this year with perhaps more promise than usual. Not just for warmer temperatures and more daylight, but for the potential end to the isolation, physical distancing and despair that marked 2020. Even as we begin our 14th month of living with COVID-19, every day brings us closer to the public health goal of herd immunity, the point at which enough of the world’s population has acquired resistance to the novel coronavirus so that we can declare an end to the global pandemic. We are in a life-threatening race to achieve this goal. As our friends and neighbors receive vaccinations, the finish line seems tantalizingly close, inviting us to relax and enlarge our social circles. But this is not the time to relax and try to cruise to the finish line.”
The Seattle Times: Allen Foundation grant boosts COVID-19 vaccination in vulnerable Seattle-area communities
Featuring: Lisa Chew, MD, MPH, Adult Medicine Clinic and Ambulatory Care Quality Improvement at Harborview
“On Monday, a mobile vaccine clinic from Harborview Medical Center was in Federal Way, delivering COVID-19 shots at the Pacific Islander Community Association headquarters. Last week, a clinic rolled into El Centro de la Raza in Seattle. Next up: Casa Latina in the Central District, where day workers gather each morning before fanning out to job sites across the region. The roving clinics are a new addition to the lineup of vaccine options in King County, made possible by a $1 million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The grant will allow the medical teams to administer about 20,000 shots to people in vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities, said Dr. Lisa Chew, a leader of the Harborview and UW Medicine project. ‘This has allowed us to jump-start and develop the infrastructure for our mobile vaccine program and to serve, in a meaningful way, communities disproportionately impacted by the virus,’ she said.”
Journal of Medical Ethics: What money can’t buy: Why we shouldn’t pay people to get vaccinated
Featuring: Nancy Jecker, PhD, Bioethics & Humanities
“A utilitarian thinks ethics is a lot like math. We want to produce the greatest good. If a disease will create a lot of harm and a vaccine will create a lot of good, we should do what it takes to get shots in arms. If it takes paying people, then pay, up to the point where benefits outweigh costs. In the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, this logic seems to show payment is the way to go. The problem with this approach is that ethics is not much like math. The ends do not always justify the means. What if getting everyone vaccinated required false advertising? Obviously, considerations other than maximizing benefits factor in. We value honest relationships, treating people as equals, and respecting others’ reasons and choices. We also value health equity. Payment has unequal effects on different segments of society, exerting more force and coercion on the most disadvantaged.”
Today: What to know about ‘double mutant’ COVID-19 variant
Video Featuring: Vin Gupta, MD, MPA, MSc, IHME
“NBC News medical contributor Dr. Vin Gupta joins TODAY to talk about a dangerous new variant of COVID-19, even as a third of Americans become fully vaccinated. He also talks about the CDC’s new guidelines that say that fully vaccinated people can travel without the need to quarantine.”
COVID-19 Literature Report
COVID-19 Literature Situation Report is a daily (M-F) newsletter put together by the Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness that provides a succinct summary of the latest scientific literature related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key Takeaways: COVID-19 Literature Situation Report April 1, 2021
- 45% of 5,110 residents from three prisons and 13 jails across four states (all three prisons and 10 jails in Washington State) said they would refuse to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The most common reason for vaccination refusal was distrust of health care, correctional, or government personnel or institutions. Willingness to be vaccinated was lowest among Black participants, participants aged 18–29 years, and those who lived in jails vs prisons. More.
- 378,048 US death certificates containing ICD-10 codes for COVID-19 from 2020 were consistent with the approximately 375,000 deaths in 2020 attributable to COVID-19 reported to the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System. Most death certificates had a co-occurring diagnosis that was a plausible chain-of-event condition, a significant contributing condition, or both. 64% of death certificates were reported from inpatient settings. More.
- Compared to the SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in surrounding communities, the infection rate among healthcare workers from Boston Medical Center was 27% and 82% lower at 1-14 days and >14 days, respectively, from receiving the first dose of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. Infections >14 days from the first dose were more frequently asymptomatic, among older HCWs, and HCWs of Latinx ethnicity. Analysis of 48 viral genomes sequenced from first-dose infections did not suggest selection pressure towards antibody-escaping mutations in the spike protein. More.
COVID-19 Literature Surveillance Team, is an affiliated group of medical students, PhDs and physicians keeping up with the latest research on SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 by finding the newest articles, reading them, grading their level of evidence and bringing you the bottom line.
Read the latest report: April 5 | Daily COVID-19 LST Report.
Tweet of the Week
At least three studies have found that women who received Pfizer, BioNTech or Moderna vaccine during pregnancy passed antibodies to their babies. Dr. Linda Eckert @UWashOBGYN says this is one way of protecting newborns. @sarahtoy17 @UWMedicine https://t.co/hK1PUV8qls
— UW Medicine Newsroom (@uwmnewsroom) April 5, 2021
