When we asked you to submit questions for three Seattle-area leaders about the COVID-19 pandemic, you responded in droves.

In less than 24 hours, Seattle Times readers submitted more than 400 questions for our video interview Thursday with our three panelists:

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• Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who has been overseeing the city’s response to the crisis.
• Hilary Godwin, the dean of the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.
• Seth Cohen, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine who specializes in infectious diseases.

Many readers asked why Seattle and Washington state have yet to adopt, like some other jurisdictions have, a “shelter in place” order directing people to stay home except for essential needs.

“People are using inconsistent nomenclature,” Durkan argued. She pointed to Gov. Jay Inslee’s ban on gatherings of more than 50 people and on smaller gatherings that don’t observe distancing guidelines. “We have done almost the exact equivalent of those cities.”

Godwin explained that COVID-19, the illness caused by the new type of coronavirus known officially as SARS-C0V-2, is different from a regular flu because “it is new, which means members of our community haven’t been exposed to it before” and because “there’s also a higher case fatality rate.”

Watch the entire Q&A session at The Seattle Times.