COVID-19

Seattle city officials are vowing to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines among people of color, immigrants and other groups disproportionately left out of vaccination efforts.

For many farmworkers across Washington state, the risks of working on the front lines during the pandemic have been compounded by an “infodemic.”

A simple, inexpensive method to capture the new coronavirus in wastewater could speed up detection of COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes, dorms and low-resource settings, according to new research by UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) Professor and Associate Chair Scott Meschke and coll

In a year like no other, DEOHS faculty, students and staff quickly pivoted to tackle new threats posed by the pandemic. We contributed to Washington state's COVID-19 response, showed the effectiveness of self-sampling for the virus and assessed impacts on essential workers—not to mention our furry friends.

DEOHS Teaching Professor Martin Cohen How do you lead 20 students on a field trip during a pandemic?

About 30% of households in Washington state experienced food insecurity last summer, according to a survey by researchers at the University of Washington and their partners at Washington State University and Tacoma Community College.

Elizabeth Torres with El Proyecto Bienestar. Even before COVID-19 showed up on Pacific Northwest farms last spring, some farmers and farmworker advocates were rushing to get ready for it.

Read the full story, including interactive graphics on the research findings. Learn more

This summer, I interned at the Department of Occupational Safety & Health in the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. I learned about ensuring the health and safety of employees exposed to different hazards, especially the COVID-19 pandemic.

After stay-at-home orders were issued in Washington state in response to the pandemic, some of the most harmful traffic-related air pollutants dropped significantly in Seattle, according to a research team led by the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS).

Editor's note: Natalie Peterson is a UW senior completing her BS in Environmental Health. Her JRCOSTEP internship was recently featured by the Indian Health Service on its website.  

The University of Washington Population Health Initiative has awarded COVID-19 population health equity research grants to three projects involving partnerships between UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and community leaders.

“When I explain my thesis project to people, they are always excited to hear about me working with marine animals,” Alexandria Vingino said. “And then I explain to them that I'm not really working with marine animals, I'm working with what’s in their poop.”

“How can we make our operating room safer during the pandemic?” When Dr. James Hecker, an anesthesiologist at UW Medical Center, heard this question from a fellow physician, he thought about the problem not just as a doctor but also as an engineer.

Can you reuse nonsurgical N95 respirators and KN95 and KF94 masks? Yes! Tips from DEOHS Assistant Professor Marissa Baker:  

Editor's note: In January 2022, Anna Humphreys and colleagues, including DEOHS Assistant Professor Nicole Errett, published a paper in BMC Public Health on the impacts of rural wildfire smoke on mental health and well-being, and opportunities for adaptation.

 

Kaitlyn Kelly MPH, Environmental and Occupational Health Hometown Carmel, CA Future plans Continue her work as a policy specialist for the Washington State Department of Health.

The University of Washington switched to 100% online learning just days after state public health officials announced the nation’s first death attributed to COVID-19 on February 29.

  Read the green cleaning fact sheet En Español

Business owners who have weathered pandemic closures face a new challenge as they prepare to reopen—protecting their workers in a landscape altered by the novel coronavirus. Now researchers in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) are teaming up to help them.

The University of Washington Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) was recently awarded funding for four new projects to address the health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Each spring, seasonal farmworkers arrive in the Pacific Northwest for the planting season. This year, they’ve been met with a public health emergency.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to adapt—whether that means throwing together dinner from pantry staples or tackling an urgent public health concern with some ingenuity and left-over materials in your lab.