![]() SCAN also conducted crucial outreach and education to the public and provided testing to underserved populations. This supplied critical data to public and state health officials about how the pandemic was spreading. ![]() Using a lab-developed test for SARS-CoV-2 developed by the Seattle Flu Study team, SCAN provided a quarter of all COVID-19 testing in King County in the early months of the pandemic. ![]() By providing at-home delivery and pick up of the nasal kits, individuals were able to perform the test from their homes, thus reducing exposure to the general public. ![]() The SCAN study collected at-home self-administered nasal swabs from people across Seattle and King County who were feeling sick (symptomatic), as well as a small number of people with no symptoms (asymptomatic). SCAN, funded by Gates Ventures, was the first community surveillance program for COVID-19 in the United States. In response, the Greater Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) was created to scale up detection and sequencing of SARS-CoV-2. The COVID-19 pandemic created an extraordinary need for rapid, reliable, and high-volume testing in the Seattle area. Response to COVID-19: the Greater Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network The Seattle Flu Study team analyzed approximately 9,420 SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) genomes from March 2020 to July 2022, and trained staff from the Public Health Laboratories of the Washington Department of Health in genomic sequencing of the virus. The Seattle Flu Study became one of the first research groups to conduct genome sequencing of the virus, which informed understanding of how COVID-19 was changing and spreading in the King County area. Prior to COVID-19, the Seattle Flu Study collected and processed more than 19,000 nasal swab samples, sequenced more than 2,300 influenza genomes, and developed and distributed 3,200 self-administered rapid-diagnostic tests to quantify transmission of influenza to the Seattle area.Īs the COVID-19 pandemic began in early January 2020, the Seattle Flu Study team pivoted to detect and understand the spread of SARS-CoV-2 throughout the Seattle area. It also included the collection of community swabs via kiosks placed around the city, hospital residual samples, as well as provided test kits to families, and offered testing in homeless shelters, among other activities. In its second year, the Seattle Flu Study prototyped rapid, early interventions to address types of influenza outside of clinical settings. In its first year, the Seattle Flu Study created the infrastructure to sample acute respiratory infections in the Seattle region through enhanced clinical and community surveillance, public recruitment programs, and rapid diagnostic tests. A mission to detect and interrupt pandemics: The Seattle Flu Studyįunded by Gates Ventures, the Seattle Flu Study was launched in the fall of 2018, with a mission of transforming how epidemic and pandemic outbreaks are detected, monitored, and controlled. The Seattle Flu Study was a collaborative effort in the Seattle and King County region led by The Brotman Baty Institute, UW Medicine, The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and Seattle Children’s. The Seattle Flu Study expanded our understanding of the transmission of upper respiratory viruses that can cause epidemics.
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