Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 111 new positive cases and 0 new deaths on August 31.
Washington: The state reported 74,635 cases and 1,915 deaths as of August 30.
United States: The CDC reports 5,972,356 cases and 182,622 deaths as of August 31.
Global: WHO reports 25,327,098 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 848,255 deaths as of September 1.
*Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine in the News
Reuters: COVID-19 deaths to cross 317,000 in U.S. by December 1
Featuring: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
“The University of Washington on Thursday expanded the forecast of its widely cited model, projecting 317,697 deaths in the United States by Dec. 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as cases climb in many states. The new forecast, by the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) reflects an increase of about 8,000 deaths from its previous forecast. However, the report also suggests that if 95% of Americans wore a mask, the death toll could be reduced by about 67,000 lives.”
Featuring: Ruanne Barnabas, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“Months ago, trials like this one were flooded with volunteers eager for hydroxychloroquine. Just as quickly, its moment faded. At least four prevention trials have struggled to find enough people willing to take it, so far falling short of their collective goal of recruiting tens of thousands of participants, BuzzFeed News has found. Their uncertain fate shows how science has become more politicized than ever. But it also makes clear that drug research is a chaotic mess. White, a tropical medicine professor at Mahidol University in Bangkok, never dreamed that President Donald Trump would baselessly call hydroxychloroquine a ‘game changer,’ or that a fraudulent study would cast a pall over the field. But he also didn’t anticipate that, when confronted with one of the pandemic’s most urgent priorities — finding safe, effective treatments — the scientific community’s response would be so disorganized that it would squander time, funding, and, perhaps most crucially, willing participants. The result is paradoxical: Hydroxychloroquine was one of the most heavily studied drugs this spring, and study after study has shown that it’s not an effective treatment for sick patients. But scientists still don’t, and may never, know if it works as a prophylaxis that prevents infections.”
The Seattle Times: FAQ Friday: How can you reduce risk hosting overnight house guests or taking road trips amid COVID-19?
Featuring: Paul Pottinger, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“The first and most important thing to do is to have a conversation with everyone living in the host home to make sure they are comfortable bringing people into their circle, said Dr. Paul Pottinger, professor of infectious disease at the University of Washington School of Medicine. ‘By far the most important step that a family could take if they were going to bring guests in from outside their household is to have an explicit, organized conversation,’ he said. ‘It’s about communication.”’
Tweet of the Week
For sports teams hitting the field in the coming weeks, we suggest taking extra precautions. #COVID19 @Q13FOX https://t.co/0nTmZI7lY1
— UW Medicine (@UWMedicine) August 28, 2020