A Self-Inflicted Crisis

A Self-Inflicted Crisis
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the coronavirus may have spread undetected for weeks in Washington State, where the first two virus-related deaths in the U.S. occurred. According to the Post, genetic-sequencing studies of samples from two Seattle-area patients—one from a person who had traveled to China in mid-January, the other from a high school student in the same county, with no known exposure to the virus—suggested a close relationship between the infections. These data led investigators to hypothesize that the coronavirus had been circulating in the state for six weeks.

In King County, a long-term care facility experienced a COVID-19 outbreak that has already been confirmed as the cause of coronavirus-related illnesses in ten residents—six of whom have died—and may have infected more than 50 residents and staff. An additional nine coronavirus cases and two deaths—one of whom was an elderly woman with medical problems—have been reported in King County. Nearby Snohomish County has confirmed six cases and one death. Meantime, Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara Health Department has reported 11 cases, two of which are under investigation. But as of March 3, the Centers for Disease Control’s website listed only 11 known cases of person-to-person infection.

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