Summary

The King County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation that directs King County to partner with the University of Washington to analyze the effectiveness of the COVID-19 response in King County.

Story

The King County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation sponsored by Councilmember Reagan Dunn that directs King County to partner with the University of Washington to analyze the effectiveness of the COVID-19 response in King County. The report would look at key aspects of the pandemic and how the actions taken by King County leaders and Public Health – Seattle and King County (PHSKC) affected the spread of the virus.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is among the most significant viral outbreaks this generation has experienced,” Dunn said. “Given that this is new territory for all of us, we must arm ourselves with empirical information on what is effective in battling a pandemic. We never know when we will face another crisis-level outbreak.”

The independent analysis will be spearheaded by graduate students at UW’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. They will use publicly available data to examine the health, economic, and social impacts of COVID-19 and the effectiveness of various methods of fighting the pandemic. The study will look back to the outbreak of COVID-19 in King County and may examine such things as the timeline of King County’s outbreak, subsequent decision points for King County leaders and PHSKC, and potential equity impact of the disease response on underserved or more vulnerable communities.

The report is due to the King County Council by July 31, 2021.