PANDEMIC UPDATES: Weekly check-in #13, 10/3/2021

| Coronavirus | West Seattle news

Here’s our weekly collection of local pandemic updates, starting with the newest numbers.

KING COUNTY CUMULATIVE NUMBERS AS OF FRIDAY:

*152,282 people have tested positive – 3,329 more than a week ago (5,414 in West Seattle, up 114)
*8,049 people have been hospitalized – 107 more than a week ago (242 from West Seattle, up 2)
*1,895 people have died – 41 more than a week ago (72 in West Seattle, up 2)

VACCINATION RATE

80.4% of King County residents 12+ have completed their vaccine series (up .5% in the past week)

By West Seattle zip code:
98106 – 81.8%
98116 – 86.2%
98126 – 77.9%
98136 – 87.7%
98146 – 77.5%

(More COVID-related King County stats here)

THE WEEK’S PANDEMIC HEADLINES

Encouraging trends – This week’s briefing by state health officials included the news that infections and hospitalizations statewide are trending downward, while remaining high. Watch the full briefing here:

West Seattle to get a city vax site again – Four months after the city closed its West Seattle vaccination site, it announced plans to open a new one for boosters – no word yet on where.

Seattle Public Schools cases – This week, the dashboard added fewer new cases districtwide than the previous week.

NEED TO GET TESTED IN WEST SEATTLE?

The UW Medicine testing service at the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex parking lot (2801 SW Thistle) continues to operate; you can make an appointment here, though readers report walk-ups have been accepted. Meantime, the Curative testing kiosk at Don Armeni Boat Ramp (1222 Harbor SW) is also still operating. In addition, both West Seattle Walgreens stores are offering drive-up testing (35th/Morgan and 16th/Roxbury) – more info here.

NOT VACCINATED YET?

Go here to see where you can change that.

Felix October 4, 2021 (1:26 pm)

How many with a positive test wer vaccinated versus unvaccinated? Same for hospitalizations?

heartless October 4, 2021 (1:44 pm)

Percentages are going to be misleading, because as we approach 100% vaccination rate 100% of people getting sick, and 100% of those need hospitalization, will obviously be among those vaccinated. (Note: that does not mean the vaccines are not an incredibly effective and amazing achievement–it’s just how statistics (sometimes) warp things when misunderstood.)

That said, it appears that of current cases (i.e., past 30 days) 68% of those people were not vaccinated, and of those who have been hospitalized, 81% were not vaccinated.

https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/vaccination-outcomes.aspx
- Pessoa October 5, 2021 (3:08 pm)
  
  No problem with your analysis, but I have to admit that I am surprised that vaccinated account for such a sizable percentage of the 12 and up who are infected. As someone who, like you, has generally argued for the safety and efficacy of vaccines (mandates are a whole different subject), in all honesty I feel less and less sure about making any recommendations either way.
  - heartless October 5, 2021 (4:14 pm)
    
    Yeah, Pessoa, I was surprised as well; I normally just look at national trends, and these data from King County do seem rather different.
    
    I think part of it is explained by the “Past 30 Days” snapshot–when you switch to “Since 1/17/2021” the numbers look more consistent with the national dataset (e.g., Past 30 Days shows 19% of hospitalizations were of fully vaccinated whereas Since 1/17 shows only 9%).
    
    But even that 9% is far from the 2% average that national outlets (e.g., NY Times in their “Breakthrough Infections” section) are reporting…
    
    Maybe the discrepancy is buried somewhere in the technical details of what’s being counted, but honestly there’s no way I’m going to delve that much deeper right now.
    
    If I had to wager, I’d say the more accurate numbers are those national averages (a big enough set of data can cover a multitude of statistical sins), but who the hell knows these days.

Mj October 4, 2021 (10:16 pm)

Heartless – the % data is of those people who are 12 and older.

heartless October 5, 2021 (4:00 pm)

That is correct.

Pessoa October 5, 2021 (12:23 pm)

For those who are interested, and perhaps had a significant vaccine-related adverse reaction (such as reported in the Seattle Times today) you can document it in VAERS, a function of the CDC.