Washington

In this month’s final COVID-19 Health Equity review, we discuss recent literature on the impact of COVID-19 among people who have certain chronic conditions, including psychiatric disorders, obesity, and HIV. Psychiatric Disorders Individuals who have major psychiatric disorders tend to Read More

Multiple reports have documented events involving superspreading of COVID-19; however, few have documented a community-based point-source exposure. This CDC report details a cluster of 52 secondary cases of COVID-19 following a 2.5 hour choir practice attended by 61 people, where Read More

Public use of face masks for limiting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is controversial, though increasingly recommended. The impact of this intervention on morbidity and mortality is not well understood. This study developed a compartmental model for assessing the Read More

This study found that than half of skilled nursing facility residents with positive COVID-19 tests were asymptomatic at the time of testing and most likely contributed to transmission. Researchers assessed the transmission and adequacy of symptom-based screening to identify infections Read More

This report describes COVID-19 morbidity among residents of senior independent and assisted living communities in Seattle, WA. Findings suggest that symptom-based screening might not identify SARS-CoV-2 infections in independent and assisted living facility residents, underscoring the importance of adhering to Read More

This paper outlines that COVID-19 circulated cryptically and was undetected 4-6 weeks before the first community transmission case was detected at Seattle. Mass testing will enable public health officials to detect and track these under-detected community cases. Following its emergence Read More

This draft legal analysis addresses whether existing protocols for rationing scarce resources comply with moral principles and with anti-discrimination laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and concludes that existing approaches adopting a utilitarian approach will have the effect Read More

This forthcoming article argues that basing resource allocation or triage decisions on a person’s pre-existing disability violates provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act, and the Affordable Care Act.   These federal laws prohibit discrimination against Read More

This case series from early in the Seattle outbreak showed that the most common reasons for admission to the ICU were hypoxemic respiratory failure leading to mechanical ventilation, hypotension requiring vasopressor treatment, or both, and half of these patients died Read More

This study explains why long-term care facilities are at high risk for Covid-19 outbreaks and must identify and exclude potentially infected staff and visitors, actively monitor for potentially infected patients, and implement appropriate infection prevention and control measures. On February Read More