Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 130 new positive cases and 0 new deaths on May 17.
Washington: The state reported 390,630 cases and 5,640 deaths as of May 16.
United States: The CDC reports 32,771,733 cases and 583,074 deaths as of May 17.
Global: WHO reports 163,312,429 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,386,825 deaths as of May 18.
Numbers update frequently, please follow links for most up-to-date numbers.
UW Medicine COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Update
Total Vaccine Doses Administered: 292,126
- Total first dose: 153,886
- Total second dose: 138,240
As of May 16, 2021.
UW Medicine in the News
KOMO News: To wear or not to wear? New CDC mask guidance causing confusion
Featuring: John Lynch, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“Dr. John Lynch, medical director of the Covid-19 Clinic Response Unit for UW Medicine, says we should all consider holding out just a little bit longer. ‘Here in our area, in Western Washington and in many communities in Washington state, it’s too soon to make this switch looking at our numbers,’ he said about the new mask guidance. Lynch says state case counts and hospitalizations are going in the right direction but that we need more guidance when it comes to taking our masks off. ‘The science is right, the recs are right, being vaccinated keeps you safe, being outdoors is safe, but we don’t have the pieces from either the CDC and arguably from our local governments around how do we do this in commercial spaces, in academic spaces, schools spaces and similar,’ said Lynch. He added he’d like to see Washington state mask up until our June 30 reopening.”
KING 5: A universal vaccine for COVID-19 and some common colds? Seattle scientists are working on it
Featuring: Neil King, IPD
“It’s the other big news that came out of the White House COVID-19 briefing on Thursday that few people heard about. The news that there is major progress on the development of a universal coronavirus vaccine, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert. It’s based on incredibly small proteins that help the body recognize disease called “nano-particles.” While that may sound like basic vaccine science, this goes beyond that to prevent illness from an entire class of viruses. ‘And there’s a whole host of SARS Co-viruses circulating in bats, that look poised to make the jump to humans. Nobody wants that to happen,’ said Dr. Neil King, who is an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington (UW) and works in the school’s Institute for Protein Design. Under UW Medicine, King is leading what’s officially known as the Design of Broadly Protective Coronavirus Vaccines program. King said there are four classes of coronaviruses, but one, the beta class, is dangerous and has led to the worst pandemic in a century. It’s out of this beta group that comes SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Nearly two decades ago it was SARS CoV-1, which triggered the SARS threat back in 2002, then the MERS infections a few years later. Neither became a pandemic like SARS CoV-2, but they’re all related and others could well follow, according to King.”
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 May 14, 2021
- An in vitro study of serum neutralization after two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine found that variants B.1.526, B.1.429, and B.1.1.7+E484K remained susceptible to vaccine-elicited neutralizing antibodies, indicating that the E484K mutation, also found in the B.1.351 and B.1.526 lineages, may not compromise the neutralization of vaccine-induced antibodies. More.
- A retrospective review of a large US commercial medical claims database found that pediatric primary care visits were 60% lower between March 25 and April 21, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. Problem focused visits (in contrast to routine preventative visits), primarily for respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, were 63% lower. While rates of preventive and vaccination visits in October 2020 exceeded those in 2019, a cumulative deficit of vaccination visits remained, indicating lower vaccination rates among children and potentially higher risk for vaccine-preventable diseases. More.
- A randomized trial conducted among adults in the UK found that providing vaccine information focused on personal benefits reduced COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among those who were strongly hesitative to a greater degree than providing information about collective benefit. 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: May 14 | Weekly COVID-19 LST Report.
Tweet of the Week
“We quickly had to pivot and pretty much put all our energy into collecting information on athletes with COVID as our first step in this national registry, and so that’s where we are now.” – @UWMedicine's Dr. Jonathan Drezner said.https://t.co/QRgPjy5UJw @UWSportsCardio
— UW Medicine Newsroom (@uwmnewsroom) May 14, 2021
