Two weeks ago, Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, director of the UW MetaCenter for Pandemic Disease Preparedness, rated his concern level for coronavirus at seven or eight out of ten. On Friday, Rabinowitz said he’s now rating his concern at an eight or nine.
By John Lynch (MPH '11) and Karin Huster (MPH '13)
As we swiftly surpass 100,000 cases and 4,000 deaths globally, every one of us is understandably rattled and may be asking, will I be next? Will I get infected with COVID-19? Will I end up in the hospital? Will it kill me, my family or friends?
Watch the webcast of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) Special Session on COVID-19, held March 10, 2020.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee issued on Wednesday, March 11, an emergency proclamation that limits large events to minimize risks to public health during the COVID-19 outbreak.
A viral illness spreads across Washington state, causing respiratory illness. Most cases are mild, but some are severe and even fatal. At the same time it causes many fewer illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths than the seasonal flu. So why are we obsessed with this COVID-19? Why is it that pharmacies have run out of surgical masks and hand sanitizer, and people no longer feel shy about wearing a mask in public? Why are conferences and classes getting canceled and governors declaring states of emergency when we don’t do that with seasonal flu?
HONG KONG — It’s been hard to be far away from home, watching a pandemic of panic over the new coronavirus ripple across the world.
A month ago I left Seattle for Hong Kong — a city of 7.3 million bordering mainland China and one of the planet’s most densely populated — as part of a Doctors Without Borders effort to rein in the widespread fear gripping the city as it began to wrestle with a virus the world knew little about.
That fear has now reached home.
The first U.S. case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was diagnosed here in Washington State – bringing home, quite literally, the fact that pathogens know no borders, and highlighting the importance of local public health expertise and coordinated response.