Tag: Health

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We’re ‘on the cusp’ in coronavirus outbreak

Downtown Seattle
A plaza in front of one of Amazon’s newest towers in downtown Seattle is empty, due to restrictions on mobility that have been put in place to counter the COVID-19 epidemic. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

An updated analysis of COVID-19 case data and Facebook mobility data suggests that Seattle and King County are “on the cusp” between wider spread of the epidemic and a gradual fade-out of new cases.

Researchers from the Bellevue, Wash.-based Institute for Disease Modeling said the decline in the rate of growth in new cases is a testament to the efficacy of Washington state’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” restrictions. But they also said it’s still too early to relax those restrictions.

“If distancing measures are relaxed without other mitigation strategies in place, we can expect a quick rebound in the case count and the burden on the hospitals, and the deaths,” Mike Famulare, principal research scientist at the institute, said today during a teleconference with journalists.

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Scientists hint at two years of social distancing

Coronavirus particles
A transmission electron microscope image shows the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIH)

Based on simulations of the coronavirus outbreak’s future course, Harvard scientists say prolonged or intermittent social distancing may be necessary into 2022 — but they stress that research into how long immunity to the virus lasts will be urgently needed to refine their projections.

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Agencies set aside billions for virus research

Coronavirus structure
3-D printed models show a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle (at left, background) and the “spike” protein (at right, foreground) that makes it possible for the virus to enter and infect human cells. On the color-coded virus model, the blue surface of the virus is covered with red spike proteins. (NIH Photo)

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is playing a leading role in focusing the power of artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and other high-tech tools on the fight against coronavirus. Now it’s laying out an array of funding opportunities worth billions of dollars to researchers and innovators.

“America’s vibrant innovation ecosystem has always brought outside-the-box ideas and technologies to the forefront to address great challenges. This time of crisis is no different,” Michael Kratsios, the White House’s chief technology officer, said in a statement. “Through a range of funding, grant and award opportunities, the Trump administration is committed to leveraging our country’s brilliant startups, entrepreneurs and technologists in the fight against COVID-19.”

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Study focuses on tips for coping with COVID-19

An artist’s conception shows microscopic coronavirus particles. (CDC Illustration)

Can a daily dose of tips sent to your smartphone help you stay sane during a pandemic? That’s what a study planned by the University of Washington’s Center for the Science of Social Connection and SurveySignal aims to find out.

The UW center’s director, psychologist Jonathan Kanter, said the call for volunteers went out last week. As of today, nearly 1,000 people have enrolled — but there’s still a chance to get involved.

“We are hoping for 2,000,” Kanter told GeekWire in an email. “We will continue to enroll until we are full, which probably will be in a week or so.”

Study participants will be asked to take a short survey on their smartphone, every evening for four weeks. The survey will serve as a quick self-check of each person’s mood, social well-being and health.

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UW Medicine to test all patients for coronavirus

UW Medicine hospital room
UW Medicine says it’s taking measures to ensure that health care workers can safely care for hospital patients amid the coronavirus pandemic. (UW Medicine via YouTube)

The University of Washington’s medical system says it’s begun testing all patients admitted to its hospitals for coronavirus.

The change in policy recognizes the fact that some patients may carry the virus that causes COVID-19 even if they don’t have the best-known symptoms of the disease, such as fever or a dry cough.

“We are finding people who are asymptomatic who have COVID in their nasopharynx when we swab them,” Chloe Bryson-Cahn, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said in a video about the policy change.

UW Medicine spokeswoman Susan Gregg said the previous policy was to test only patients who were being admitted with COVID-19 symptoms. “Now we will be testing all patients admitted to the hospitals even if they do not have symptoms,” she told GeekWire in an email. “This is similar to some of our surveillance activities to see who may be colonized with a particular resistant bacteria.”

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Scientists chart weak spots in coronavirus protein

Coronavirus protein structure
A cryo-EM map of a portion of the novel coronavirus’ protein structure shows several substructures, including a hairpin-shaped protein that hadn’t been identified previously. (Gao et al. / Science / AAAS)

Chinese researchers say they’ve mapped out a key protein structure in the virus that causes COVID-19, including the likeliest target for the antiviral drug remdesivir.

What’s more, they say that same atomic-scale target, known as nsp12, could be attacked by other types of antiviral drugs.

“This target … could support the development of a cocktail of anti-coronavirus treatments that potentially can be used for the discovery of broad-spectrum antivirals,” the researchers write in a paper published today by the journal Science.

The report boost confidence that remdesivir, which is currently going through accelerated clinical trials at the University of Washington and other research centers across the country, will prove effective for treating COVID-19 patients. It also illustrates how a detailed picture of the coronavirus’ inner workings — provided through a technology known as cryogenic electron microscopy, or cryo-EM — can point to additional strategies for beating the virus.

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Health officials to distribute 20,000 virus test kits

Drive-through testing
A nurse takes samples during a drive-through coronavirus test. (UW Medicine Photo)

Update: These test kits were recalled due to quality control concerns.

To address a worrisome gap in testing for coronavirus, Seattle-King County public health officials say they’ll be distributing more than 20,000 test kits, prioritized for first responders, health care workers and people in high-risk settings such as long-term care facilities and homeless shelters.

The University of Washington School of Medicine is donating 20,000 kits, Public Health – Seattle & King County said today in a blog post.

The Seattle Flu Study, which is partnering with public health officials to track the spread of the outbreak, will make 2,000 of its self-swab kits available to long-term care facilities as part of a study focusing on the virus’ prevalence among health care workers. Seattle Flu Study’s team will also be providing tests to about 100 residents at homeless shelters each week as part of a separate study.

Another 1,000 kits will be made available locally by the Washington State Department of Health for testing emergency medical service providers.

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Microsoft gives a boost to COVID-19 data analysis

Coronavirus data chart
Microsoft’s Power BI data visualization tool tracks statistics relating to the coronavirus epidemic. Click on the graphic for an interactive version. (Microsoft Graphic)

Microsoft says it’s immediately putting $20 million from its AI for Health program toward analytical tools that can help researchers and public health officials get a handle on the coronavirus pandemic.

John Kahan, Microsoft’s chief data analytics officer, said AI for Health “will collaborate with nonprofits, governments, and academic researchers on solutions, and bring our experience to the table, providing access to Microsoft AI, technical experts, data scientists and other resources.”

“We’re focusing our efforts in five specific areas where we think data, analysis and the skills of our data scientists can have the biggest impact,” Kahan wrote today in a blog post about the effort.

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Blue Origin turns from spaceships to face shields

3-D printing face shield visors
A worker at Blue Origin’s production facility in Kent, Wash., gets 3-D printed face shield visors ready for shipping. (Blue Origin via Twitter)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture isn’t just turning out parts for rocket ships nowadays: It’s also using 25 of its additive manufacturing machines to turn out 3-D printed visors for hospital face shields.

“Our machines are running 24 hours a day, seven days per week,” Blue Origin said in a posting about the project.

The visors serve as frames for the clear sheets of plastic that serve to protect the faces of health care workers as they treat COVID-19 patients.

About 100 of the plastic visors are produced each day at Blue Origin’s factory in Kent, Wash. They’re shipped off to Stratasys, one of the company’s supply partners, for distribution to hospitals in need around the country.

Stratasys says 40,000 face shields are needed over the course of a week during the coronavirus pandemic.

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UW seeks 25,000 volunteers to try outbreak app

Coronavirus app
Smartphone app
All that’s needed to participate in the HIPPOCRATIC experiment is an Android or Apple smartphone with an internet connection. (UW Medicine via YouTube)

Can a smartphone app generate an early warning for an outbreak of coronavirus, flu, colds or other infections? A project funded by the Pentagon with an assist from the University of Washington aims to find out.

UW Medicine is recruiting 25,000 people nationwide for an app-based experiment called HIPPOCRATIC (which stands for Health and Injury Prediction and Prevention Using Complex Reasoning and Analytic Techniques Integrated on a Cellphone App … with a bit of poetic license.).

The app is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which serves as the Pentagon’s technological think tank.

If the app does what researchers hope, it could provide data for quicker medical diagnoses, and keep people who are ill from returning to school, work or military duty too soon.

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