PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 746 Seattle, WA
VOL 40 NO 42 OCTOBER 16 – OCTOBER 22, 2021
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Another record-breaking year
Northwest Asian Weekly receives 27 journalism awards
Krav maga self-defense class coming to CID
NWAW winners connected on a Zoom call before the WNPA awards ceremony
“It was exciting to watch the entire evening. There were so many awards that we received, I wasn’t able to keep track of the total number,” said NWAW Publisher Assunta Ng. The first place winners were Janice Nesamani in the Education
story category; Andrew Hamlin in the Art reviews and General feature (long) categories; Nina Huang in the Personality profile (short) category; and Assunta Ng for a Business feature story. see WNPA on 11
Family courage drives UW researcher in COVID research By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY Helen Chu is known as the UW Medicine researcher who stood up to the federal government to identify the first COVID-19 victims in the United States. But what is less known about her is that, almost simultaneously, she started a study of the first patients hospitalized with the disease. This soon provided data crucial to the development of the mRNA vaccines, and other important treatments. “We enrolled the first individual in the U.S. with COVID-19, as well as many of the early cases in February and March 2020,” she told Northwest Asian Weekly. “These samples were then shared with a lot of groups in the
U.S., including the National Institutes of Health, that used them to help develop the Moderna mRNA vaccine and also to develop some of the first monoclonal antibody therapies, including the Eli Lilly antibody.” Her study involved identifying ways to collect blood samples from the early survivors. It comprised adults hospitalized with respiratory viral infections (HAARVI). By sending samples of the coronavirus taken from their blood to the government and Moderna, the production of a vaccine was able to get a jump start and ultimately be completed in less than a year. It was unrelated to the Seattle Flu Study she was involved in earlier
ON THE SHELF Leong’s boyhood in Seattle inspires latest children’s book 7
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AT THE MOVIES In “No Time to Die,” James Bond is loveable, because he loves, but it’s not the first time 8
see CHU on 13
Photo by Becky Chan
Northwest Asian Weekly (NWAW) reporters and staff members won 27 awards at the annual Washington Newspaper Publishers Association (WNPA) 2021 Better Newspaper Contest. The winners were announced in a virtual awards ceremony on Oct. 8.
Tanya Woo demonstrates her Krav Maga skills on Jesse Robbins in front of Mother Yoga where Robbins will be teaching the self-defense class beginning Oct. 24.
By Becky Chan NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Dr. Helen Chu
THE LAYUP DRILL Pacquiao retires, announces run for president 9
PUBLISHER’S BLOG HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BETTIE 10
“Krav maga saved me from a potentially fatal situation,” said Jesse Robbins as he recalled being surrounded and beaten by six people, three with flagpoles, last October. Robbins was counter protesting at a political rally in South Seattle and credited his krav maga (KM) training, enabling him to escape in one piece. He’ll share his knowledge of this Israeli self-defense and fighting system with students of all ages at Mother Yoga in the ChinatownInternational District (CID) on Oct. 24, from 2–4 p.m. Krav maga means “contact combat” in Hebrew. The combat training was developed by Hungarian-Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld for the Israel Defense Forces in the 1940s. Lichtenfeld combined techniques from several styles of martial arts and street fighting to form a new style of self-defense. It was later modified for civilian needs in the U.S. by students who attended Lichtenfeld’s instructor courses in the 1980s. Robbins, already a black belt in Taekwondo, took a class with his wife, Thuy D. Do, at Krav Maga Renton in 2012. They were hooked and signed see KRAV MAGA on 12
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