Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the spread of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), SARS-CoV-2 (the COVID-19 coronavirus), and other respiratory viruses in communities.
The scientists will also investigate how the viruses are transmitted and will examine virus genetic variants in light of demographic data and clinical findings, such as disease severity.
The information gleaned would be used to guide public health readiness and responses to respiratory virus outbreaks.
The effort, titled the Seattle Pandemic Preparedness Cohort (SeaPrep) study, will be led by Helen Chu, professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine, and of epidemiology at the UW School of Public Health.