Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 148 new positive cases and 2 new deaths on August 10.
Washington: The state reported 63,647 cases and 1,697 deaths as of August 9.
United States: The CDC reports 5,023,649 cases and 161,842 deaths as of August 10.
Global: WHO reports 19,718,030 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 728,013 deaths as of August 10.
*Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine in the News
The Seattle Times: Mask myths busted: Yes, they work. No, you won’t suffocate. Here’s what you should know.
Featuring: UW Medicine Newsroom Video with Dr. Vicki Fang on antibody testing
“FACT: If you had COVID-19 previously, or had a positive antibody test, you should still wear a mask. Scientists don’t know enough yet about how much protection antibodies provide, and for how long, in people who’ve had COVID-19. So, a positive antibody test doesn’t indicate whether you could get infected again and pass the virus to others. It’s best to err on the safe side and continue to wear a mask and practice other virus-prevention measures.”
Kiro 7: Free walk-up coronavirus testing site opens Friday at Rainier Beach High School
Featuring: Geoffrey Baird, Laboratory Medicine
“A walk-up coronavirus testing site in Seattle will open Friday morning at Rainier Beach High School.
The city has been testing about 2,000 people per day at two drive-up locations in north and south Seattle. The new testing site at Rainier Beach High School is expected to have the ability to test 800 more patients per day and is walk-up only. Parking is available in the school’s parking lot. A testing drive-thru was previously set up at Rainier Beach High School in April.”
King 5 News: Puget Sound metro counties hope downward trend continues after recent rise of coronavirus
Featuring: John Lynch, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
‘“The numbers you’re seeing now are a reflection of what was happening two or three weeks ago,’ says Dr. John Lynch, who is the Medical Director for Infection Prevention Control at Harborview Medical Center and saw some of the earliest COVID 19 patients. He is also an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington. That delay is due in part to the incubation period. It can take up to 14 days for an infected person to show signs of COVID-19. Lynch says the apparent increasing mask use appears to be helping in many places, including Yakima County which had been one of the state’s biggest hotspots. ‘It takes time for people to adapt, and I think we’re making great strides. And I think people are just used to it,’ Lynch said.
Associated Press: Bacteria in masks not causing Legionnaires’ disease
Featuring: Seth Cohen, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“Posts making the false claim were shared thousands of times on Facebook. A comment on one post said that mask wearers were making themselves sick. The post implies that because COVID-19 and Legionnaires’ disease have similar symptoms they are being confused. While they do have similar symptoms, they are two completely different diseases. Unlike coronavirus, Legionnaires’ disease can be treated with antibiotics. The bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease does not live on our bodies or on masks, said Dr. Seth Cohen, who heads the infectious disease clinic at University of Washington Medical Center Northwest. ‘The science clearly shows that masks both prevent the acquisition of COVID and prevent transmission of COVID to other people,’ he said.”
TODAY: What are ‘super spreader’ events? Dr. Vin Gupta discusses
Featuring: Vin Gupta, IHME, UW Medicine
“NBC News medical contributor Dr. Vin Gupta tells TODAY’s Craig Melvin that data suggests large crowded environments known as “super spreader” events are causing a large percentage of coronavirus infections. He also talks about the dangers of opening schools in areas where coronavirus infections are prevalent but adds that he doesn’t think ‘any school district in the country is truly ready.”’
The Seattle Times: A COVID ‘silver lining’: You can start drug treatment over the phone — and more people are starting to
Featuring: Jim Vollendroff, Behavioral Health Institute, Harborview
“To Jim Vollendroff, director of the Behavioral Health Institute at Harborview Medical Center, who has been training providers around the state in the telemedicine expansion, it’s one bright spot in the darkness that is COVID-19. ‘During this time, which is a devastating time, the silver lining for healthcare in particular, is we’ve been sitting on the sidelines; we’ve been wringing our hands’ when it comes to expanding telemedicine, Vollendroff said, because of complicated medical privacy regulations. But since COVID-19, ‘I have seen at least five years worth of progress happen in four months,’ Vollendroff said.”
GEN: COVID-19 Patients Exhibit Early Antibody Signatures Potentially Predictive of Death or Recovery Featuring: Helen Chu, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“Researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, and the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, have identified five immune response markers that, collectively, were able to distinguish between those COVID-19 patients who convalesced from the infection, and those who didn’t survive the disease. The researchers used a systems serology technique to generate a detailed profile of SARS-Co-2-specific humoral—antibody generating—responses in hospitalized patients, which they validated in a second patient cohort. The findings indicated that individuals who survived COVID-19 infection and those who died exhibited antibody responses that were primarily directed against different SARS-CoV-2 proteins.”
Tweet of the Week
Tailored vaccines developed at UW Medicine enable a more targeted immune response against different viruses such as #COVID19 and #HIV. https://t.co/8P3S1RWIYY
— UW Medicine (@UWMedicine) August 7, 2020
