Denise Whitaker
KOMO News
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Past articles by Denise:
Record-setting RV manufacturing putting more people behind the wheel
SEATTLE - The pandemic has prompted a lot of pivots, many people making monumental, life-work balance choices. The Seattle RV Show has rolled into town, providing more options for people to turn their dreams of working remotely, into a much larger adventure. "To me, if you’re not living this lifestyle, you’re missing something," said Dan Hunt, one of the seminar presenters at the show. → Read More
Seattle Public Schools starts offering vaccines to children five to 11
SEATTLE – The vaccine now available to children ages five to 11 is being given at some schools in Seattle. Seattle Public Schools started offering vaccination clinics at 40 of its schools. Caption: KOMO. Arbor Heights Elementary school in West Seattle is among the first to start offering this new service. Nina Kuzmycz talked with KOMO News while standing in line with her mom, to get her first… → Read More
Seattle company developing app to help businesses determine mask compliance
SEATTLE (KOMO) — Seattle-based RealNetworks is developing a new app to help businesses determine mask compliance. Right now, mask compliance is typically figured out by surveying people or by random observations. RealNetworks says this type of data is typically biased, inaccurate and quickly obsolete, so it worked to develop MaskCheck. → Read More
Wash. families give $5 billion worth of dementia care
There are 353,000 unpaid family caregivers in Washington state providing support to a loved one with dementia, according the Washington State Alzheimer’s Association. This year alone, they are expected to provide 402 million hours of care, valued at more than $5 billion. Caring for someone with dementia or another cognitive disease, like Alzheimer’s, is a full-time, sometimes difficult job. And… → Read More
Seattle woman thankful for COVID plasma that saved her 81-year-old mom's life
SEATTLE - Hearing about an 80-year-old hospitalized with COVID-19 brings fear and worry - especially when it's your own mother. Loys Baudin tested positive for COVID-19 just a month before her 81st birthday. Doctors admitted her to the hospital on a Sunday morning, where she lives in Louisiana, and decided she was a candidate for convalescent plasma. Her daughter Angie Keller grabbed a flight… → Read More
Pierce County nurse's COVID horror: 'I wouldn't wish this on anybody'
SEATTLE - A growing body of research shows that many thousands of people suffer from long-term, lingering and sometimes, debilitating, side effects of COVID-19. Nearly one in five coronavirus victims suffers anxiety, fatigue, depression, shortness of breath, insomnia or a host of other symptoms for weeks or months, according to the University of Oxford. It’s now called "long COVID syndrome" and… → Read More
From boredom to boardroom, Seattle teen launches new clothing line
SEATTLE (KOMO) — A Seattle teen who had never even owned a needle and thread decided to take up a new hobby – and it's culminated in a new fashion line. How did the Ballard High School Senior reach this point? “One day I think I was just like extremely bored, like out of my mind,” said Ruby Pope. So, when Ruby looked for something to do, she found a few old bandanas and a pair of sweatpants and… → Read More
Timeline and logistical plans for new COVID-19 vaccine
With a COVID-19 vaccine on the horizon, the work to get it out, across the globe, really gears up. Months of developing and testing a vaccine, now moves to the next phase of mass distribution. It will likely be easier for vaccine-seekers in urban areas to get it, versus rural areas, though FedEx Regional President Richard Smith says they’re working every day on the plan to race the vaccine… → Read More
Teen leaders lobby Wash. lawmakers to toughen tobacco laws
SEATTLE - A new study sheds an alarming light on the access young people have to tobacco. The data also pulls back the curtain on a skyrocketing number of teens using tobacco products - more than 5. 3 million nationwide. And in Washington state, 21% of all high schoolers use e-cigarettes, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “We know that it's a deadly habit,” said Clark County high… → Read More
Operation Warp Speed: Investing billions in manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine
The rush to reach a viable coronavirus vaccine is a global effort. In America, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services is investing in researchers and drug manufacturers, working to get a vaccine out to the American people. So far, it’s invested billions of dollars. It’s all part of Operation Warp Speed, the federal government's plan to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective… → Read More
Kirkland locks up parks, piers amid coronavirus spreading
KIRKLAND, Wash. -- New estimates on how many people may die in the state of Washington may be enough to shock more people into masking up. Medical experts say a change in behavior is needed, especially when you see the newest projections from forecasters at the University of Washington. Researchers at The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predict the number of COVID-19 deaths to more… → Read More
COVID-19: State's mandatory face mask rule now in effect
After weeks of what was believed to be progress in taming COVID-19 across the U. S. and in Washington state, much of that progress appears to be rapidly eroding with growing numbers of new confirmed cases in some Puget Sound areas and Sun Belt states. Officials in Texas, Arizona and California said their states set single-day records for new infections this week while a new data model released… → Read More
New pop-up blood drives added to boost supplies as surgeries resume
As medical centers prepare for patients coming back to the operating room, local blood banks are working on collecting enough blood for those surgeries. They've got a lot of catching up to do. Bloodworks Northwest says its blood supply has dropped by 34,000 units since March 1. That's only 60% of what's normally needed for local surgeries, cancer treatments and more. → Read More
Local sailors design & 3D-print PPE delivered across the globe
KEYPORT, Wash. -- New military-civilian partnerships are part of the innovation the U. S. Navy is leading across the Olympia Peninsula. While not abandoning their mission of supporting shipyard maintenance, crews at the U. S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center are taking on a new one; producing personal protective equipment as part of operation VA Stopgap. The Navy is 3D-printing all kinds of masks… → Read More
'We don't get paid unless (patients) come in': Family clinics at risk of closing
You hear someone works in medicine and you think, "Oh that's an essential job, they're still working. " But that's not always the case. Sound Family Medicine in Puyallup had to temporarily lay off one quarter of its staff because patients just weren’t coming in; people either too scared to go through routine visits or bypassing the clinic. “We don't get paid unless they come in,” said Therese… → Read More
New COVID-19 side effect surfacing in people under 50
Doctors in New York say a growing number of their coronavirus patients in their 30s and 40s are suffering sudden strokes. This new side effect comes from the staff at Mt Sinai Health, after seeing blood clot in unusual ways in these younger patients who were not even severely sick. Doctors say they're used to seeing stroke patients over age 50, but these younger patients are coming in at a… → Read More
'I was crying': IRS sends stimulus payments to wrong accounts
SEATTLE - Millions of Americans are out of work and checking their bank accounts daily, looking for that stimulus money to be there, to pay the rent, make the car payment, cover insurance and other bills still coming due, even though there's no paycheck coming in. The government says 80 million Americans got paid, but now it turns out that some of those payments were sent to the wrong accounts… → Read More
3d printer hobbyists team up with the U.S. Navy to produce PPE
POULSBORO, Wash. -- Steven Ward shows off the guest room in his Poulsbo house that he has now converted into a mini-manufacturing site for making much needed face shields for medical staff and first responders. He's just one of more than two dozen hobbyists in Kitsap County putting their 3D printers into service in the effort to respond and contain the coronavirus, which has been linked to over… → Read More
E-commerce expert to struggling businesses: 'Don't wait, you can evolve'
SEATTLE - Gov. Jay Inslee's statewide stay-at-home order is forcing a lot of small business owners into troubling times. Experts say now is the time for those businesses to create a new normal, with an altered business model. Many local restaurants are already doing this - creating special quarantine menus for take-out or delivery. E-commerce expert Megan Higgins, with sales tax automation site… → Read More
Rainbows of hope spread through a Mill Creek neighborhood
MILL CREEK, Wash - The creativity coming out of Mill Creek is just soaring. Kids who live in the Spring Tree neighborhood are using some of their free time away from school, during this coronavirus crisis, coloring. Not just any type of coloring. They’re creating bright rainbows to brighten others’ days. Eight-year-old Molly Sewell and her mom Kerry got this idea after she learned the symbolism… → Read More