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And there are many other examples of the scientists and researchers working to battle the pandemic
throughout the state.
Drs. Larry Corey, Julie McElrath and others from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle are at
the center of the effort to test vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Their efforts are funded by the National Institute of
Health.
Professor Santanu Bose from Washington State University has made a discovery that could prevent deadly
complications associated with the virus, and biochemist Garry Buchko from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
is studying the virus’ protein structure. And researchers Anirban Basu from the University of Washington and
Michael Jackson of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute are working to better track and
understand COVID-19.
“When effective vaccines for COVID-19 come along, we can start going back to normalcy,” Basu told Washington
Business. “But I hope that it would not really be the same normalcy as before, where we have been reluctant to
fully value the contributions and need for public health investments in our communities. I hope the new normal
would appreciate and invest in monitoring, preventing, and educating about the perils of infectious diseases.”
Basu is a professor of health economics and director of the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics
Institute at the University of Washington.
He led a study published in May that estimates the COVID-19 infection fatality rate is 1.3%, or 13 times higher
than influenza. The study looks at fatality rates among cases where patients show symptoms.
Basu’s research also points to a sobering possibility: Twenty percent of the U.S. population could become infected
by the end of 2020, and that could lead to 350,000 to 1.2 million deaths.
“It depends on how late and how strategically we can open up the economy,” he told Washington Business in
June. “Right now, after five months of the epidemic
in the U.S., the infection has spread to about 2-6%
of the community…There is a large fraction of the
community that remains susceptible. There is a
good chance that we could see infection spread
to 20% of the community by the end of the year,
especially in the absence of a vaccine.”
The only way to mitigate the spread of the virus is
to follow good public health practices, Basu said —
washing hands regularly, wearing masks in all public
spaces, and not congregating in large numbers.
“There may be some questioning of the effectiveness
of these measures,” he said. “What’s important to
realize is that these measures have been shown in
the past to be effective against similar infectious
diseases and that the costs of implementing these
measures are quite small compared to the potential
benefits that they could generate.”
A scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Washington
“Our goal now at WSU, is to immediately study the
A9 antibody with the COVID-19 virus to ensure that
neutralizing the A9 protein is effective in decreasing
the inflammatory response and severity of the
pneumonia, which should translate to increased overall
patient survival.”
— Santanu Bose, viral infection researcher in Washington State
University’s Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology.
Health Research Institute is working to better
understand the impact of COVID-19 on the general
population.
Epidemiologist Michael Jackson is studying
the burden of the virus among those that seek
out medical care, but are not sick enough to be
hospitalized.
“There’s a lot of work across the country on
understanding severe illness, and lots of people
looking at COVID patients that wind up in the
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