infectious disease expert Dr. Helen Y. Chu faced when she tried to start coronavirus testing in Seattle
As luck would have it, Dr. Chu had a way to monitor the region. For months, as part of a research project into the flu, she and a team of researchers had been collecting nasal swabs from residents experiencing symptoms throughout the Puget Sound region,” The Times reported Tuesday.
Chu’s team finally began testing on its own without government approval, according to The Times, and found that a teenager without a recent travel history had contracted COVID-19 — proof that the virus wasn’t contained.
When cases were first confirmed in January, Chu had the ability to test for the disease. And the government had the ability to stop her.
https://www.westernjournal.com/regulations-suspended-treat-covid-first-place/
The Chu Lab:
Seattle Flu Study- a new city-wide surveillance initiative to study the transmission of influenza and other respiratory viruses through molecular diagnostics and genome sequencing.
The Seattle Flu Study has been mentioned a few times in the media since the outbreak, including this New York Times article and this press release from the Gates Foundation.
Funded by Bill Gates:
Originally designed to create a community-wide network to detect infectious disease outbreaks, the Seattle Flu Study explores innovative ways to track the spread of viruses across a large urban area using methods including rapid virus genetic sequencing and mapping chains of transmission.
The study is led by the Brotman Baty Institute, in collaboration with UW Medicine, The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Seattle Children’s. It was launched in 2018 and has received more than $20 million in funding support from Gates Ventures (the private office of Bill Gates). It operates with technical guidance from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and local and national public health authorities.
Honors:
Infectious Disease Society of America Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development
She studies the virologic and immunologic correlates of protection from respiratory viral infections in mothers and infants in rural Nepal and performs clinical trials of vaccine candidates in both domestic and international sites.
https://www.uwmedicine.org/bios/helen-chu
https://aid.uw.edu/faculty/helen-y-chu-md-mph
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2020/03/Gates-Foundation-Commits-5-Million-to-Help-Public-Health-Agencies-in-Greater-Seattle-Region
