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Data Snapshot

UW Medicine Hospitals:

COVID-19 Positive Inpatients July 7

King County: The county reported 126 new positive cases and 1 new death on July 6.

Washington: The state reported 36,985 cases and 1,370 deaths as of July 5. A total of 629,256 people have been tested and 5.9% of those tests have been positive.

United States: The CDC reports 2,932,596 cases and 130,133 deaths as of July 7.

Global: WHO reports 11,500,302 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 535,759 deaths as of July 7.

*Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.

Research News

Medical Xpress: Designing anew: Radical COVID-19 drug development approach shows promise

Featuring: David Baker, UW Institute of Protein Design

“Starting in January, researchers in the Baker Lab have been using their methodology to design a drug or vaccine to treat COVID-19. Their studies involve calculating the three-dimensional shape of millions of possible proteins, and then computationally testing how such proteins would fit into, and dock with, parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”

 

The Washington Post: Elegant but unproven, RNA experiments leap to the front in coronavirus vaccine race. Will they work?

Featuring: Deborah Fuller, Microbiology

“‘No one thinks there’s going to be a single silver bullet,’ said Deborah Fuller, a microbiologist at the UW School of Medicine. That’s because multiple treatments might be needed to meet the number of doses required around the world — and it’s likely that vaccines will have different profiles.

The fastest to be developed might not be the most effective. One might work better in older people than in the young, or vice versa. ‘As a collective team, they’re going to be able to battle this pandemic together,’ Fuller said.”

UW Medicine in the News

CNN: Dozens of students living in fraternity houses near the University of Washington test positive for coronavirus

Featuring: Geoffrey Gottlieb, Allergy & Infectious Diseases

“The university reported the new cluster of cases on Tuesday, saying that even though the fraternity houses took measures to reduce their resident capacity by up to 50% this summer, that wasn’t enough to prevent the outbreak. ‘What is occurring north of campus provides lessons for students as they consider their return to campus this fall,’ Dr. Geoffrey Gottlieb, chair of the school’s Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases, said in a statement. ‘If everyone does their part to keep each other safe, we can continue to engage with one another and with our studies in the University environment by wearing face coverings and remaining physically distant.’”

 

Newsmax: Summertime Activities and the Coronavirus: How to Be Safe

Featuring: Gretchen Snoeyenbos Newman, Fellow, Allergy & Infectious Diseases

“According to The Washington Post, while summer temperatures have not caused a drop in the prevalence of the coronavirus as many predicted, the warm weather does offer lots of opportunity for outdoor activities which experts say is a whole lot safer than being indoors. ‘We have very little evidence of outdoor transmission. It’s not zero—there are definitely cases reported—but it’s much, much lower than inside,’ Said Gretchen Snoeyenbos Newman, an infectious disease physician at UW Medicine.’”

 

The Denver Channel: Nation’s medical leaders working to address structural racism in health care

Featuring: Ali Mokdad, IHME

“Earlier this month, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation declared racism a public health crisis. ‘Racism is a public health issue,’ said Dr. Ali Mokdad with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. ‘I’ve been on record saying it’s more dangerous than COVID-19, simply because we’re going to find a vaccine for COVID-19.’ IHME currently working with the National Institutes of Health on providing data down to the county level of the burden of disease by race.’”

 

ACP Internist: 10 tips for well-being amid COVID-19

Featuring: Elisabeth Poorman, General Internal Medicine

“‘I know that I personally have struggled with a lot of frustration, and anger, and fear, and grief,’ said ACP Member Elisabeth Poorman, MD, MPH, a clinical instructor and primary care physician at the UW Medicine in Seattle. ‘And those feelings are totally valid.’ Especially in medical education, physicians may believe they need to know everything in order to be competent, said Poorman. ‘But it’s not possible to know everything in medicine, and it’s certainly not possible right now in a pandemic. Information is rapidly changing.’”

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