A Seattle lab uncovered Washington's coronavirus outbreak only after defying federal regulators

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A lack of test kits for the new COVID-19 coronavirus is still obscuring the extent of the outbreak in the U.S., but for a critical period in February, there were no functional federal tests and "local officials across the country were left to work blindly as the crisis grew undetected and exponentially," The New York Times reports. The coronavirus has now infected more than 1,000 people in 36 states and Washington, D.C., according to Johns Hopkins University's count.

The first U.S. outbreak was in Washington state, where authorities confirmed the first patient — suffering from respiratory problems after visiting Wuhan, China — only after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made an exception to strict testing criteria. In Seattle, Dr. Helen Chu, an infectious disease expert who was part of an ongoing flu-monitoring effort, the Seattle Flu Study, asked permission to test their trove of collected flu swabs for coronavirus.

State health officials joined Chu in asking the CDC and Food and Drug Administration to waive privacy rules and allow clinical tests in a research lab, citing the threat of significant loss of life. The CDC and FDA said no. "We felt like we were sitting, waiting for the pandemic to emerge," Chu told the Times. "We could help. We couldn't do anything."

They held off for a couple of weeks, but on Feb. 25, Chu and her colleagues "began performing coronavirus tests, without government approval," the Times reports. They found a positive case pretty quickly, and after discussing the ethics, they told state health officials, who confirmed the next day that a teenager who hadn't traveled abroad had COVID-19 — and the virus had likely been spreading undetected throughout the Seattle area for weeks. Later that day, the CDC and FDA told Chu and her colleagues to stop testing, then partially relented, and the lab found several more cases. On Monday night, they were ordered to stop testing again.

https://news.yahoo.com/seattle-lab-uncovered-washingtons-coronavirus-053628224.html

Coronavirus sleuths say they still see a ‘path forward’ after regulatory snag

Regulators have blocked the Seattle Flu Study’s guerrilla effort to trace the spread of novel coronavirus, citing ethical concerns, but leaders of the effort say they’re working out an alternate path to continue their investigation.

The Seattle Flu Study was set up last year by leaders in the biomedical community — including the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine, the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital — to use genetic tools to study how influenza spreads.

When the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus started spreading like wildfire through China and other countries, the team began analyzing the samples they were receiving for evidence of the virus’ genetic fingerprint. And when evidence was found, the results were sent onward to public health authorities for follow-up. At least one patient in Snohomish County was identified as a coronavirus case thanks to the team’s work.

By comparing the evolutionary changes in the virus’ RNA code, as reflected in Seattle Flu Study samples, epidemiologists determined that the virus had been spreading for six weeks in the United States without being detected — and that by that time, hundreds of people in the Seattle area were probably carrying the COVID-19 infection without knowing it.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-sleuths-see-path-forward-160456956.html

The Trump kakistocracy

[gibraltar72]

1. "They" aren't the traitors here.

[elleng]

2. 'They found a positive case pretty quickly, and after discussing the ethics, they told state health

officials, who confirmed the next day that a teenager who hadn't traveled abroad had COVID-19 — and the virus had likely been spreading undetected throughout the Seattle area for weeks. Later that day, the CDC and FDA told Chu and her colleagues to stop testing, then partially relented, and the lab found several more cases. On Monday night, they were ordered to stop testing again.'

[LonePirate]

3. It is time to start arresting those who ordered the stoppages. Charge with public endangerment.

[0rganism]

4. intentional mishandling

goal: stopping the November elections. Trump will gladly sacrifice thousands of lives to extend his powers.

[pat_k]

5. I would like an explanation of the "ethical concerns"

Of course, I don't expect they will actually give a valid reason, but maybe they can.

Seems to me that people who joined the flu study clearly wanted to know what was causing their symptoms. I suppose it is possible, but it is hard to imagine anyone in the study objecting to having their sample to also be tested for COVID-19. If there is a real ethical concern here, I hope they recruit an army of volunteers to contact participants and get explicit permission (or objection). Testing as many of these samples as possible is vital.

[Dem2theMax]

6. This is the story that the MSM needs to be covering.

They just love to scream about 'breaking news.' Well, if there were ever a 'breaking news' story, this is it.

Then follow it with the reports about how Trump won't let test kits from other countries be used in the United States.

Follow that with all of the videos of him saying how it's nothing, we won't have any cases in a few days, blah blah blah.

The MSM could sink his personal Titanic in 10 minutes if they would just tell the truth.

[Chainfire]

7. It is too damn late

To handle this on a Federal level anyway. The disease is so widespread as to be impossible to contain. Most of that is because Trump was so worried about the "numbers."

About the best thing we can do going forward is to use our best personal judgement to prevent being part of the spread. The main job of the government is to protect the people, Trump's government failed miserably.

This is what you get when put idiots in the front office.