The Daily

The Coronavirus Outbreak in Washington State

Mar 5, 2020

Mike Baker, the Pacific Northwest correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the initial coronavirus outbreak in Washington State and the failures of containment strategies. He shares insights on the rapid spread of the virus and the emotional chaos families faced, including a heartrending story from Bridget Parkhill about her mother in a locked-down nursing facility. The conversation highlights the struggle for information, the challenges of testing, and the broader political implications stemming from the crisis.

28:22

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Episode guests

Mike Baker

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Episode notes

Intro

2min

Rising Panic in a Pandemic

11min

The Challenges of COVID-19 Testing in Washington State

3min

Navigating Isolation and Uncertainty

9min

Emotional Turmoil and Political Impacts Amid the Pandemic

4min

A strategy of containment was supposed to protect Washington State from the coronavirus. It didn’t. So what led to the first major outbreak of the pathogen in the United States?

Guests: Mike Baker, a Pacific Northwest correspondent for The New York Times and Bridget Parkhill, a woman whose 77-year-old mother is on lockdown inside a coronavirus-affected nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

A cruise ship off San Francisco has 21 sick passengers on board and is linked to California’s first death from the virus. In the Seattle area, schools have closed, tech workers have been told to work from home and a nursing facility is on lockdown. Here are the latest updates.
Officials in California, Oregon and Washington State have said that some patients tested positive for the coronavirus without a known explanation for how they became ill, raising concerns that the virus may be spreading faster than previously thought.
We spoke to six Americans with coronavirus. Here’s what they said about their experience while sick.

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