COVID-19

About KC3S The King County COVID-19 Community Study is collecting information and stories about how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting individuals, families and communities within King County. We are also interested in learning more about how King County residents, families and communities are adapting to and coping with these impacts. 

The COVID-19 pandemic had differential impacts on vulnerable populations, including US individuals of Hispanic descent and certain working populations. Despite this, there are gaps in scientific knowledge regarding risk factors for infection in such vulnerable populations.

University of Washington Abstract Military Population Health Outcomes Associated with Hospitalization for COVID-19 infection between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2022 Karla Vega Colon Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Luke Mease Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences BACKGROUND: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been shown to increase certain health outcomes includ

In October of 2020, Seattle City Council raised a Council Budget Action (CBA), proposing the allocation of $100,000 General Fund dollars to Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to develop and implement a publicly accessible sink program.

Wastewater surveillance has long been used to aid the global public health effort to eradicate poliovirus. More recently, wastewater surveillance has been implemented to help understand the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Shortly after it was discovered to be shed in stools, the virus was detected in sewage around the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic was declared an international public health emergency on 30 January 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). To slow the spread of the virus, governments across the United States implemented physical distancing interventions in the form of stay-at-home orders.

Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 provides an approach for assessing theinfection burden across a sewer service area. For these data to be useful for public health, measurement variability in relation to normalization methods need to be established.

Introduction: Infection control is important in the veterinary care setting due to the risk of zoonotic illness1–4, however research has consistently shown that veterinary workers tend to underestimate their risk and have lower rates of proper personal protective equipment (PPE) use5–9.

Workers who come into contact with tuberculosis (TB) patients are at elevated risk of TB infection and disease. Tongue swabbing is an alternative diagnostic sample collection approach that was designed to mitigate this risk. This study assessed risk perceptions among healthcare workers (HCWs) using tongue swabs for TB diagnosis in South Africa during a respiratory virus pandemic.

Objectives: To characterize grocery store health and safety controls implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic across stores in different cities, areas of differing levels of income, and types of stores.Methods: This longitudinal, observational study of 16 stores between Seattle, WA (n=9) and Portland, OR (n=7) was conducted from May 2020 to January 2021.

Environmental contamination of pathogenic viruses is a common occurrence and leading to a number of skin, enteric, and respiratory infections in occupational, nosocomial, and community settings. Viruses with environmental transmission routes have varied abilities to survive and persist in environmental mediums to aiding in their transmission to susceptible hosts.

Introduction: Gentrification is a public health crisis and significant environmental injustice. Rapid gentrification of Seattle unequally burdens and displaces families of color further south in King County. Gentrification changes the environment, forcing readjustments that can compromise the continuity of education, healthcare, housing and employment.