Speaker: Dr Helen Chu [University of Washington, Seattle]

Host: Dr Anna Happel [Div of Immunology]

Dr. Chu is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the
University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA. She studies respiratory viruses and vaccines. In 2018, along with a team of scientists, she created the Seattle Flu Study. This was a prototype early detection system that could be broadly leveraged for pandemic response to influenza and other pathogens. Utilizing the infrastructure and the research methods developed as part of this study, in February 2020 this team first identified community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. Subsequently, Dr. Chu has been actively engaged in working with public health departments, policy makers, and community partners to develop strategies for testing in multiple populations, to sequence viral variants and map their spread in a community, and to develop ways to measure the immune response to the virus to help develop the vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19. Dr. Chu will describe strategies from studies with local school districts for safe in-person return to school, in testing programs to contain outbreaks at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA for 40,000 faculty, staff, and students, and with the sheltered homeless to understand vaccine hesitancy in vulnerable populations. Finally, she will map the path forward for better preparedness for the next global pandemic.