Data Snapshot
UW Medicine Hospitals:
King County: The county reported 378 new positive cases and 1 new death on Nov. 9.
Washington: The state reported 118,570 cases and 2,460 deaths as of Nov. 8.
United States: The CDC reports 9,913,553 cases and 237,037 deaths as of Nov. 9.
Global: WHO reports 50,676,072 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,261,075 deaths as of Nov. 10.
*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 Nov. 6, 2020
- Intermittent excretion of low levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA after hospital discharge was not associated with either secondary transmission or worsening clinical disease. More.
- COVID-19 mitigation measures in Delaware likely contributed to an 82% reduction in COVID-19 incidence, an 88% reduction in hospitalizations, and a 100% reduction in mortality in the state during late April–June. More.
- A study of children and adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection found differences in antibody responses between adult and pediatric populations. There were no difference in the antibody response between children with multisystem inflammatory disease compared to children with uncomplicated COVID. More.
- In opposite sex couples where both partners work and have young children, an “alternating day” strategy for childcare was associated with higher rates of individual well-being and job performance whereas a model termed “remote wife does it all” had the lowest rates of well-being and job performance among women. More.
- Testing all college students upon arrival to campus and retesting them seven days later would detect the greatest number of cases of SARS-CoV-2, according to a modeling study. More.
UW Medicine in the News
MSNBC: Vin Gupta explains what you can do now to protect against Covid-19
Video Featuring: Vin Gupta, IHME
“What kind of mask is best? What should you avoid during the holidays? Dr. Vin Gupta lays out what you need to know right not to protect yourself against the coronavirus.”
The Seattle Times: Roll up your sleeve to fight COVID-19: 3 new vaccine trials will start soon in the Seattle area
Featuring: Anna Wald, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“Vaccines will be key to bringing the virus under control, and the hope is that several of those now in Phase 3 trials will prove effective, said UW Medicine virologist Dr. Anna Wald, who’s leading a trial at Harborview Medical Center. Worldwide, 50 experimental vaccines are in human trials, and nearly 90 are being tested in animals. ‘We need all kinds of vaccines,’ Wald said. ‘We can’t just rely on one.’ The vaccines being tested in Seattle reflect a range of approaches to inducing a robust, lasting immune response against the virus. The common denominator among them is safely exposing people’s immune systems to the spike proteins that stud the surface of the virus and allow it to bind to and infect human cells. McElrath’s group at The Hutch hopes to enroll 500 volunteers to test pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca’s two-dose vaccine. It uses an inactivated form of a chimpanzee cold virus as a vector, or transport vehicle, to slip the genetic code for the spike protein into human cells. The cells are tricked into producing the spike protein, which is harmless on its own but sufficiently foreign and alarming that the body mounts an immune response to attack it. At Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, Dr. Lisa Jackson is launching a 200-person experiment with a similar vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. Instead of a chimp virus, its vector is a rare type of human cold virus, modified so it can’t cause sickness. The J&J vaccine is also the only leading candidate that seems to work with just a single shot.”
Business Insider: A coronavirus-fighting nasal spray protects ferrets from infection, early research shows. But it has a ways to go before reaching people.
Featuring: Wes Van Voorhis, Allergy & Infectious Diseases
“A nasal spray that blocks the coronavirus from invading cells appears to protect ferrets from contracting the virus, according to a preliminary study. The research, uploaded to the archive BioRxiv last week, was funded by the National Institutes of Health but has not yet been peer-reviewed. Microbiology experts think it could be a promising first step toward a coronavirus-prevention treatment. ‘I thought it was really compelling, what they did,’ Wes Van Voorhis, a researcher in infectious diseases at University of Washington School of Medicine, told Business Insider. ‘It looks like it was perfect protection.’ Van Voorhis was not involved in the study, and he noted that no matter how promising, it’s just a first step because the research involved only ferrets. And it was a small number of ferrets at that: just six got the spray. It’s not yet known what the spray’s effects will be on humans, especially because its active ingredient — lipopeptides — could trigger immune responses in people that make them feel sick.”
Tweet of the Week
At current infection rates, there is only a short time left to prevent overwhelming the nation’s hospital system. — @AliHMokdad with @IHME_UW. @washingtonpost @uwmedicinehttps://t.co/s2p5ewA25r
— UW Medicine Newsroom (@uwmnewsroom) November 10, 2020
