Seattle beat New York by heeding scientists’ – not politicians’ – advice
It was Feb 22 and a tropical-themed party was in full swing at a onebedroom apartment in Seattle. Dozens of guests wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis packed into the living room as the cocktails flowed.
Three days later, Elizabeth Schneider, one of the guests, started to feel sick. Her temperature soared. But it was the very early days of the coronavirus outbreak, so she just went to bed. “I just thought I had flu,” said Miss Schneider, 37, a bioengineer.
“Then I discovered on Facebook a number of people at the party had got sick, about 15. Some went to the doctor but got told they had flu. Doctors weren’t testing for coronavirus. They didn’t realise it was spreading.”
At the time Miss Schneider became ill with what turned out to be coronavirus, the omens for Seattle were not good. It had recorded the first US case on Jan 21, a man recently returned from Wuhan, China. There was a shortage of testing kits, confusion about symptoms and a widespread view among politicians that the virus would simply “go away”.
But despite being the epicentre in the US, Seattle has since experienced nothing like the tsunami of deaths and desperation that later befell New York City. To date, less than 500 people have died in Seattle and its suburbs. In New York City, the figure is over 13,000. Roughly one in every 5,000 people in Seattle has died. One in every 650 New Yorkers has perished. Seattle is now so far down the road to recovery it has sent 400 ventilators, which it never needed, to New York.
There are significant differences between the two cities. New York is larger, with a more dense population, and more travellers passing through. But Seattle had the distinct disadvantage of being first to face the crisis.
What is clear is that the Seattle authorities – unlike the White House and New York – never second-guessed public health officials. Miss Schneider was diagnosed after doctors at the University of Washington state, conducting the Seattle Flu Study, ignored a federal government order to stick to looking for flu. They have since been hailed “heroes” within the medical community for discovering the extent of the problem early.
By Feb 29, Seattle had confirmed the first coronavirus death in the US. That day, Seattle held its first coronavirus press conference. It took a very
‘It’s extremely important for survivors to donate blood plasma. For some people, this could be the difference between life and death’
different course to New York, and the White House, in the way it communicated with the public.
The news was delivered, not by a politician, but by Dr Jeffrey Duchin MD, Seattle’s chief health officer, an epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert. Peering over brown reading glasses, perched on the end of his nose, his words were calm and measured. Dr Duchin remembers wondering if people would accept the unvarnished truth – that it was time to move very rapidly to social distancing, cancelling sports events, and closing schools and businesses. It hadn’t been done in living memory. The actions saved many lives. Microsoft, at the request of the city, told its 42,000 employees to work from home. Amazon followed suit. A week later, large events were ordered closed. Schools were shut two days later, then bars and restaurants. Many Seattleites were already staying home anyway.
Even more extreme measures followed. A ban on using park benches was enforced by fitting them with knobbly planks of wood to make sitting uncomfortable. Picnic tables were wrapped in tape.
By contrast, early in the crisis, both Donald Trump and Bill de Blasio, the New York City mayor, encouraged people to continue as normal, suggesting the problem would soon be over. They fronted press conferences which sometimes left citizens unsure what to do. In New York City the first coronavirus case was recorded on March 1, only a day after Dr Duchin announced the first death in Seattle. But Mr de Blasio publicly called Seattle’s decision to close schools a “mistake”. As late as March 15, Mr de Blasio hosted a press conference, telling New Yorkers: “If you love your neighbourhood bar, go there now.” On March 20, Andrew Cuomo, the New York state governor, who initially predicted the virus would not be “as bad as in other countries”, closed non-essential businesses, and instituted social distancing. New York became the new US epicentre, desperately seeking ventilators as its hospital system struggled to cope. A US navy ship was brought in, mass graves were dug and bodies dumped in trucks.
As New York continues to suffer, the peak of cases has long passed in Seattle, and thoughts are turning to reopening. But Dr Duchin now worries that states like Georgia, Texas and Florida, hurrying to get back to normal, could “reseed” Seattle, causing a second wave “two to three times” worse than the initial outbreak. “That’s like having a peeing section in the swimming pool,” he said. “It doesn’t stay where it started.”
Miss Schneider, meanwhile, has become the first coronavirus survivor to donate blood plasma in a new trial at the University of Washington. Her antibodies may help many who are sick. “It’s extremely important for survivors to do this,” she said.
“For some people, this could be the difference between life and death.”