New emails obtained by KIRO 7 show Seattle Children's Hospital had a strategy of keeping information about the deadly mold in its operating rooms under wraps, dating back to 2018.
Emails that go back and forth between Dr. Danielle Zerr, King County Public Health, and the CDC during the hospital's 2018 aspergillus cases—which led to the death of one patient-- show a "reactive media strategy." It instructs people to reveal important information about cases, including whether the hospital "had any patients with a confirmed aspergillus surgical site infection," only if asked about it.
Indeed, the strategy worked for 2018; the media only found out about new aspergillosis cases in May 2019.
See the email from Seattle Children's Hospital here.
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