April 29, 2020

Event Recap: Responding to COVID-19 A Ground-Zero Perspective from Washington’s Life Science Community

Life Science Washington and the University of Washington through the WE-REACH Biomedical Entrepreneurship Center teamed up to share stories and perspectives from scientists, researchers, and policymakers about the COVID-19 response.

If you missed the webinar held April 23 with experts in Seattle talking about where we are with COVID-19 you can watch the video here.  

Recaps and follow-ups from Seattle Times,  Geekwire, and MyNorthwest

Jeff Duchin, MD,Seattle and King Co Public Health, noted we should work on getting to know each other’s groups better and understand where core teams with expertise are, especially in our academic institutions, so they can help in these emergency situations.

“Open for testing!” was the message we heard from Keith Jerome, MD, PhD, director of the UW Virology Lab. The lab can handle up to 7000 tests a day now but are only receiving about 1000 per day. Why? Word needs to get out that the capacity is now online, but we also may be short on sample collection kits including swabs.

Should we be opening things up again soon? Not according to Elizabeth Holloran, MD, DSc from the Fred Hutch. If we do, we will see a rebound. First, we need to have in place the ability to test, isolate, and contact trace. Once we can do that we should be able to manage the situation such that only 7% or so of the population is in isolation at a time and the economy can get humming.

It was a great event, moderated deftly by Luke Timmerman of the Timmerman Report.