Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 126 new positive cases and 2 new death on Oct. 5.
Washington: The state reported 90,276 cases and 2,158 deaths as of Oct. 5.
United States: The CDC reports 7,396,730 cases and 209,199 deaths as of Oct. 5.
Global: WHO reports 35,347,404 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,039,406 deaths as of Oct. 6.
*Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
COVID-19 Literature Situation 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 Oct. 2, 2020
- A study of viral genomes from Washington State indicated that the timing of mitigation strategies and repeated introductions of viral lineages into the state likely shaped the relative distribution of different lineages of SARS-CoV-2, rather than differences in transmissibility between variants of the virus. More.
- Multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS), a complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection best described in children and adolescents, was also summarized in a case series of 27 adults. More.
- The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with changes in primary care delivery during the second quarter of 2020, with visits decreasing overall and evaluations of blood pressure and cholesterol becoming less frequent. More.
UW Medicine in the News
The Seattle Times: Children’s vaccinations in Washington dropped sharply after coronavirus hit
Featuring: Beth Ebel, Pediatrics
“Childhood vaccines are highly effective and safe, and parents need to keep their children on track with the immunizations, said Dr. Beth Ebel, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. ‘Missing those doses, unless you make them up, your child has not gotten the training for her immune system that you need to be able to fight infection,’ Ebel said. Vaccination rates for Washington’s children 2 and younger have declined, but not as much as compared to 18 and younger. Vaccines administered to children 2 years and younger were down more than 9% in August compared to the August average between 2015 to 2019. The biggest miss for 2-year-olds and younger was March, when immunizations were down nearly 26% compared to the same month’s average between 2015 and 2019.”
KIRO 7: Experimental drug given to president has roots in Washington state
Featuring: Paul Pottinger, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“Before President Donald Trump left the White House for Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday, his doctor confirmed he was given an eight-gram injection of an experimental cocktail of monoclonal antibodies created by the Regeneron company. The company had received half a billion tax dollars to develop it. Antibodies are the molecules our bodies make to fight infections. Regeneron is one of three labs that designed and built antibodies in a laboratory specifically geared to attack the coronavirus.
The antibody Regeneron copied came from a patient right here in Washington State. Early clinical trials show promising results, helping some patients get better faster, and local trials will soon be underway, but UW Medical’s infectious disease specialist Dr. Paul Pottinger says it still leaves a lot of questions.”
The Seattle Times: The Pac-12 pinned its football hopes on rapid coronavirus antigen tests. Here’s why the tests are promising – and where they fall short
Featuring: Kim Harmon, Sports Medicine; Geoff Baird, Laboratory Medicine
“As the Pac-12 begins its shortened football season, University of Washington athletes will be among the first to give the emerging technology an extended spin. The conference believes more, if less accurate, testing could help drive down transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 because ‘you’ll get people before they’re infectious and pull them out of the pool,’ said Dr. Kim Harmon, a UW team physician and a member of the Pac-12’s COVID-19 Medical Advisory Committee. ‘By aggressively searching for people who are asymptomatic, you won’t get spread.” But this testing theory is, itself, untested. ‘We’re building the airplane as we’re flying it,’ Harmon said. And while many experts view the Pac-12’s plan as a sensible way to return athletes to the field, questions remain over how effectively these tests will catch the virus in patients without symptoms. ‘There’s no data that shows this works,’ said Dr. Geoff Baird, the acting chair of the UW’s Department of Laboratory Medicine. Baird views implementing an unproven strategy on students as too risky.”
