SMART Alabama LLC, a majority-owned unit of Hyundai, supplies parts for the Elantra and Sonata sedans and Santa Fe SUV
The metal stamping plant in Luverne, Alabama, has a history of OSHA workplace safety violations
Current and former employees spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity and reported working with obvious minors
A set of siblings aged 12, 13, and 15 are verified to have worked in the manufacturing plant where a minimum age of 18 is required for employment by federal law
The local police do not have jurisdiction to investigate labor-law violations and have reported their findings to the Alabama attorney general’s office
The Hyundai subsidiary released a statement saying it did not knowingly violate any laws and relies on temporary work agencies to fill jobs
[LUVERNE, Al,] — A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker’s assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory.
Underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at a metal stamping plant operated by SMART Alabama LLC, these people said. SMART, listed by Hyundai in corporate filings as a majority-owned unit, supplies parts for some of the most popular cars and SUVs built by the automaker in Montgomery, its flagship U.S. assembly plant…
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) After a relatively quiet week for COVID news, things exploded over the last 24 hours, creating a super-sized update for today.
New COVID cases in Washington state were declining but now appear to be on a new unsustainable plateau. The gap between the highest and lowest vaccinated Hospital Region grows to the broadest level to date. One county’s new case rate has increased so high a new category had to be created.
Washington hospitalizations also plateaued, and ventilator use remains at near-record levels. In Olympia, St Peter’s Hospital reported 10 COVID-related deaths in 24 hours. We spent a lot of time examining reports that Eastern Washington hospitals are overrun with Idaho residents seeking treatment. We did not find any credible reports to support these rumors. We share our opinion on what Washington state should do to prevent our hospital system from joining our Pacific Northwest neighbors.
New cases and hospitalizations are up for children and adolescents statewide, and new COVID cases were reported in all three school districts we track. Snohomish County reported a 433% increase in active COVID cases at childcare centers and schools. In Yakima County, officials report 25% to 35% of new COVID cases among children. Parents in West Seattle and Olympia think COVID quarantine rules for unvaccinated adolescents are unfair.
Hundreds gathered in Olympia, and smaller pockets of protesters were across Washington, defying outdoor masking guidelines to protest against vaccine mandates. Some have adopted a view that harkens back to a dark time in world history.
Officials reported more than 20 people who have attended the Washington State Fair were COVID positive when they were there.
Most applications for religious exemption by Washington State Patrol employees have been rejected. In contrast, unions leaders representing 71,000 healthcare workers in Washington state say that the state is in an “unprecedented crisis.”
The University of Washington is seeking volunteers for a study of a new COVID vaccine booster. Phase 2 testing will include individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
We expanded our travel advisory again to include the state of Montana and Lincoln County in Washington.
In vaccination news, the FDA votes on booster shots for people who received the Pfizer vaccine. An editorial in the British Medical Journal about the potential connection between COVID vaccinations and menstruation was misrepresented as a study in numerous headlines. The update is very late tonight, in part because we pored through reports and data to give you a lot more insight.
In regional news, the stories coming out of hospitals in Alaska, Idaho, and Montana are gut-wrenching. It is not hyperbole to state the ability to deliver medical care in all three states is collapsing.
Finally, in the misinformation section, we address an oldie but a goodie – do masks cause carbon dioxide poisoning? (no)
The last week of data indicates Washington has stepped down to a slightly lower plateau versus seeing a continued decline. In the South Central Hospital Region, which includes Benton, Franklin, Klickitat, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties, new cases are 888.5 per 100K, a significant increase. In the Central Hospital Region, which represents King County, the rate is 290.0. This is the widest gap in new cases between the two hospital districts.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Average 14-Day New Case Rate (unadjusted)
50.00% or above (12 counties)
488.8
40.00% to 49.99% (18 counties)
750.8 (up)
27.30% to 39.99% (9 counties)
768.0
14-Day New COVID Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate, Not Adjusted for Population
Through September 17, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 489.2 COVID cases per 100K, which is statistically unchanged. Lincoln County reported 1,438.9 new cases per 100K, one of the highest rates recorded in any Washington county since new COVID cases have been tracked. Counties in the 1,000.0 to 1,399.9 range include Franklin (1,254.7) and Stevens (1,138.9). Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Douglas, Grant, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, and Walla Walla. It is worth noting that Benton County is at 989.8, just under the 1,000 threshold, and Yakima County moved up to 791.2, just under the 800 threshold. We are concerned when we get to the middle of next week, and the test data from the Labor Day weekend is out of the 14-day rolling average, we will see another jump in the numbers.
The USA Today COVID Tracker also indicates a flattening over the previous week (when you adjust for the dip in weekend reporting and the bump when the data from over the weekend is reported). If you think we’re alarmists, we’re not the only journalists seeing this trend.
One other piece of discouraging news comes out of the United Kingdom. Healthcare experts highlighted how Delta peaked in the U.K. (and Israel) after 45 to 60 days before rapidly declining as a predictive model for the United States. The U.K. reported a record 26,911 new cases and a record-high number of hospitalizations – 8,339 patients. Even more worrying, 81.6% of all U.K. residents are fully vaccinated compared to 51.4% of the United States.
The Johns Hopkins Washington State Overview is reporting alarming positivity rates. Positivity for the last 30-day rolling average is reported at 15.23% and the 7-day rolling average 24.16%. We do not believe these numbers accurately represent the test positivity rate and are a statistical anomaly.
Today is the third day of updated data from the WSDOH, and we are feeling more confident about tracking trends now. Pediatric and adolescent cases increased. This isn’t surprising now that in-person school is back across all of Washington state. Hospitalizations for ages birth to 11 increased about 30%. However, the total number of children hospitalized is small, so don’t read too much into that bump.
New cases among all other age groups were flat or down slightly. With total new cases appearing to be settling on a plateau, this may be an early warning sign that new pediatric cases are increasing the overall number. This could have significant implications for states outside of Washington, particularly Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming (read our national round up).
Hospitalizations also increased for ages 35 to 49 and people 80-years old and above. Both jumps were large enough to be notable but not alarming.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
208.4 (up)
1.0 (up)
Ages 12-19
248.6 (up)
2.4
Ages 20-34
232.2
6.5 (down)
Ages 35-49
220.0
13.2 (up)
Ages 50-64
160.3
19.8
Ages 65-79
114.2 (down)
24.8
Ages 80+
126.8
39.1 (up)
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 56 deaths on Thursday and an additional 56 deaths on Friday.
Snohomish County reports active COVID cases among childcare centers and schools increased 433%
A new Snohomish Health District report shows the rapid increase in cases associated with childcare facilities, K-12 schools, higher education, and youth sports and camps over the last month. For the two weeks ending September 16, there were nearly five times as many investigations in K-12 settings (202) than the previous period ending September 2 (42 investigations). There were 367 confirmed and probable cases and more than 2,100 close contacts involving childcare, schools, and youth sports during that timeframe.
The number of investigated cases in Snohomish County among child care centers, public and private K-12 schools, higher education, and athletic and youth camps increased from 950 to 2,160 – a 433% increase in two weeks.
“When cases occur among students or staff, and they will, we work with the schools to optimize the number of individuals being quarantined and try to prevent transmission in the school,” said Dr. Chris Spitters, Health Officer for the Snohomish Health District. “From time to time, there may be a classroom or two in a school that may need to be temporarily closed depending on the number of cases, but those episodes won’t necessarily call for any change in school-wide, district-wide, or county-wide operations. We need students, families, and teachers to work with us to get cases down and keep the impacts small.”
Hundreds gather to protest vaccine mandates in Olympia while others do flag waves across the state
Only a handful of people there were wearing masks while standing on the side of the road, waving signs and hearing from the cars which support their cause. At least one protester held a sign with the hashtag, “pureblood.” Anti-vaccination adherents claim the reference is from the Harry Potter books. The term originated in Nazi Germany, where people were required to have a “Blood Certificate” to get married and have children. The idea was to have purebloods to ensure the survival of the Aryan race.
Olympia officials had begged people to stay away from the city due to a planned Proud Boys rally on the same day. On the Internet, several anti-vaccination groups along with counter-protesters advised their followers to stay away.
Today, the group Waking UP Washington organized several flag waves across Washington state with small groups dotted along I-5.
More than 20 people who worked at or attended the Washington State Fair were COVID positive
So far, 435,000 people have attended the fair, scheduled to end on September 26. At a vaccination clinic within the fairgrounds, 235 people have received vaccinations. On Friday, 50% of all residents in Pierce County were vaccinated.
Because Washington state is highly vaccinated, the current R0 is R1.1 (forecasted range R0.7 to R1.5) for all residents. If this is accurate, the impact shouldn’t be significant unless an infected person has an unusually high viral load, a super spreader, or moves around through highly unvaccinated groups.
25% to 35% of new COVID cases in Yakima County are children and adolescents
“Certainly, the schools have seen a lot of activity that they’re navigating. You probably saw that the Tribal School in Toppenish basically canceled school for the next two weeks after going quarantine, essentially hit the reset button,” Brueggemann said.
Washington state job growth slowed in August
State-level unemployment data was released yesterday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and individual states. In Washington, job growth slowed, with just under 17,000 new jobs created. The job market through Washington could best be described as white-hot overall, with tens of thousands of unfilled positions at every skill level.
Most applications for a relegious exemption by Washington State Patrol have been rejected
The Washington State Patrol (WSP) reported that of 364 religious exemptions applications received, 284 had been reviewed, and all were rejected. Initially, 373 applications were submitted, but nine employees rescinded their requests.
“As to your inquiry regarding relative exposure probabilities, I would suggest you direct it to qualified epidemiologists, but from my laymen’s perspective, it presupposes that lower or varied risks is [sic] somehow unworthy of attention. As we have all seen, the pandemic, it’s [sic] impacts, and response strategies have evolved over time as more has become known.”
When pressed on why the bar was so high for a religious exemption and all requests rejected to date, Loftis wrote, “…the search for accommodation can be difficult as by its very nature, working for WSP often has a significant public engagement component.”
Moving to our opinion, if we read between the lines, it appears state officials are concerned about long-term liability. Suppose an asymptomatic unvaccinated trooper were to pass COVID to a member of the public while on duty, and that person became hospitalized or died. In that case, it seems this would be a significant legal exposure.
Additionally, an asymptomatic or symptomatic officer with COVID couldn’t work for 14 days and could force others to quarantine.
West Seattle and Olympia families claim school guidelines for quarantining students are unfair
Jeremy Gollyhorn is upset with decisions about his child who had a COVID exposure at Denny International Middle School in Seattle. The 12-year old student is unvaccinated, and following state and national guidelines, is required to quarantine for 14 days. If they were vaccinated, they would have been permitted to return to class with a strong recommendation to get tested 3 to 5 days after the exposure.
Gollyhorn said it makes no sense.
“Vaccinated people can still spread COVID too, so what’s the difference there?” he said.
“It’s not fair,” said Willis, who reported her daughter chose not to get the vaccine because she did not think she needed it.
On September 8, we analyzed the new case, hospitalization, and death statistics in King County for the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated. It is correct that vaccinated people can still become infected with COVID. Still, the number is extremely low, and most breakthrough cases are among the immunocompromised and people over 70 years old.
University of Washington seeking volunteers for COVID booster shot study
Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine are enrolling volunteers for a COVID-19 booster vaccine trial. Volunteers will participate in the second stage of a phase 1 vaccine trial. Phase 1 vaccine trials are designed to test the safety and tolerability of and immune response to a new vaccine.
In the first stage of the trial, the experimental vaccines were given to unvaccinated volunteers. In this second stage, the vaccines will be given as a booster shot to volunteers who have already been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.
Unlike current vaccines, the trial vaccines seek to elicit an immune response to multiple SARS-CoV-2 proteins in addition to the spike protein that is targeted by currently available vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson.
The hope is that by targeting a number of coronavirus proteins, the vaccine will provide protection against a wide variety of SARS-CoV-2 strains and variants. The vaccine candidates were developed by Gritstone bio, headquartered in Emeryville, CA.
“With the emergence of the Delta and other COVID-19 variants, we need to stay ahead of the virus by developing effective vaccines that will aid in the prevention of all strains of COVID,” said Dr. Anna Wald, director of the UW Medicine Virology Research Clinic and head the UW School of Medicine’s allergies and infectious diseases division. She is the trial site principal investigator.
“We hope that these investigational vaccines enhance and broaden the immune response elicited by vaccines currently available in the U.S.,” said Dr. Tia Babu, acting assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a trial investigator.
To enroll, participants must be age 18 or older, healthy, without significant allergies, without a history of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, and have been vaccinated against COVID-19 at least four months prior to enrollment. Persons over age 60 are encouraged to participate.
Participants will be asked to:
Make nine to 14 or more in-person clinic visits and also will receive one to two telephone check-ins with study staff over 12 to 14 months.
Receive one or two injections of investigational vaccine.
Have blood drawn several times to monitor safety and to see whether the vaccine results in an immune response.
Keep track of how they’re feeling after the injection.
Interested participants should contact the UW Medicine Virology Research Clinic: gritstone@uw.edu or 206-520-4340
Washington state nurse unions urge immediate action to prop up hospitals
Washington unions that represent 71,000 healthcare workers are appealing for immediate action, saying that the state is on the brink of an “unprecedented crisis.” The Washington State Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW, and the UFCW 21 made a joint statement warning that the combination of work conditions, pay, chronic staffing shortages, and the ongoing “fifth wave” of COVID cases is decimating healthcare workers.
“Amid the fifth wave of COVID, spurred on by the Delta variant, and hospitals overflowing with patients who need critical care, our state health care workers continue to heroically perform their jobs a year-and-a-half into this pandemic,” said Julia Barcott, chair of the WSNA Cabinet and an ICU nurse at Astria Toppenish Hospital. “But nurses and other frontline workers are people, too. We’re losing overworked nurses to overwhelming burnout, the distress of working short-staffed, better-paying traveler nurse jobs, and even for signing bonuses of up to $20,000 to move to a different hospital. We’re worried for our patients and the impact of the staffing crisis on the care they receive.”
This isn’t just a crisis for frontline workers, it’s also a public health crisis. Because hospitals were already understaffed well before the coronavirus pandemic hit, we are now seeing a new story every day about a regional hospital at maximum capacity. Without immediately addressing the shortage of staff and untenable workloads for frontline workers, there could be dire consequences to Washington’s health care infrastructure.
“Chronic understaffing is a disaster for patient care. Health care workers don’t want to see patients stuck in overflowing ICUs or being treated in ER hallways, or be forced to turn away ambulances at the door, but that’s the reality of health care right now,” said Faye Guenther, UFCW 21 president. “Hospitals need to immediately respond to this patient care crisis. That means focusing on meaningful, sustainable solutions that will recruit and retain qualified caregivers in every department.”
As many anti-vaccination activists falsely conflate the staffing crisis with looming vaccine deadlines for health care workers, it’s important to understand that health care staffing shortages predate the coronavirus pandemic. As a result of years of staffing and management decisions, many hospitals already didn’t meet adequate staffing for average patient levels. COVID exacerbated this already strained infrastructure, and hospitals’ response to the pandemic has only worsened this preexisting crisis.
“What’s really driving this crisis is that hospitals have spent the last two decades balancing their budgets on the backs of health care workers and patients,” said Jane Hopkins, RN, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW. “COVID has been a stress test on our health care system, and we are seeing the system fail that test due to management’s choice to understaff. Retention bonuses for frontline workers who have stayed on the job, adequate pay for extra hours worked, and aggressive hiring to staff at full capacity would go a long way right now.”
Opinion: To save Washington hospitals it’s time to close the borders
Military leaders, analysts, and planners evaluate the capabilities of a force using combat effectiveness. Combat effectiveness takes more into account than the number of well-trained soldiers and the quality and quantity of available equipment. It considers leadership, psychological stress, the level of support on the battlefield and the home front, and the clarity of mission. If enough of these factors deteriorate, a military unit or even an entire army can become “combat ineffective.” Our medical community has been combat ineffective for months, and no one is doing anything about it. It is time for a strategic retreat and for officials in Washington state to close the doors to out-of-state COVID patients.
We are expanding our travel advisories today. We recommend avoiding all travel to Spokane, Lincoln, Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla counties, along with Alaska, Idaho, and Montana. Hospital resources in these regions, except Lincoln County, are so constrained that you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
We recommend avoiding travel to Lincoln County because the number of new cases per 100K residents exceeds 1,400.
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Vaccination
FDA panel votes against COVID booster shots for all, but recommends expanding the existing booster shot guidelines
The booster shot program the Biden Administration wanted to start on Monday for people who received the Pfizer vaccine will, at the minimum, be delayed. On Friday, an FDA panel voted 16-2 against booster shots for all. The vote was widely reported in news sources as breaking news.
FDA officials took a break and had a second vote to recommend booster shots for those over 65, at high risk for severe COVID-19, or who work in jobs with significant exposure to COVID patients. The panel voted 18-0 in support of the guidelines.
If the recommendation is authorized, this will expand the current booster shoot guidelines released in August. A third dose was approved for immunocompromised individuals who received the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
Medical conditions that warrant a second dose include receiving active treatment for cancer, organ transplant recipients, recipients of a stem cell transplant in the last 24 months, moderate to severe primary immunodeficiency, advanced or untreated HIV infection, people under treatment with high-dose corticosteroids such as prednisone, and those being treated with immunosuppressive drugs.
Vaccination impact on menstruation is being researched
When COVID first erupted across the globe, many infected women of childbearing age reported changes in their periods. Anecdotally, there are reports from women that periods became heavier after receiving the COVID vaccine, and others reported a change in their cycle.
The BMJ, the journal of the British Medical Association, published an editorial recommending an investigation into the possible link between the COVID vaccine and changes in menstruation. This story was widely run and in some publications misrepresented as the results of a study in the headlines. The editorial included this quote.
“Most people who report a change to their period after vaccination find that it returns to normal the following cycle and, importantly, there is no evidence that covid-19 vaccination adversely affects fertility. In clinical trials, unintended pregnancies occurred at similar rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.”
“Anecdotally, some women seem to be reporting heavier periods after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, and we would support more data collection in this area to understand why this might be the case.”
“If you do notice any bleeding that is unusual for you, then we would recommend you contact your doctor. You can also report any concerns or possible side effects of the COVID-19.”
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency in the United Kingdom has a website similar to VAERS in the United States called Yellow Card. People can report suspected side effects of “medicines, vaccines, medical devices, and test kits.” Weekly reports are available at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency website. Just like VAERS, anyone can submit a Yellow Card report. Unreviewed data should not be considered indicative of any trend.
A study on the Potential Effects of COVID-19 Vaccination on Menstruation received $1.67 million in funding from the United States National Institute of Health on August 30. The study is a joint project conducted by Boston University, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University – East Lansing, and Oregon Health and Sciences University – Portland.
Information on how to participate in the study is not available yet.
An article by Randy S. Morris, M.D., Board Certified in Infertility and Reproductive Endocrinology, and the Medical Director of IVF1 found neither COVID nor the COVID vaccine impacted fertility. The report, SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Seropositvity from Vaccination or Infection does not Cause Infertility, studied 143 women who underwent Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) from January 1to May 7, 2021.
All the participants gave serum samples and were tested for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG. Testing revealed 55 women who had COVID antibodies in their bloodstream. Participants were notified of the presence of antibodies, 35 were vaccinated, and 20 had experienced a COVID infection. None of the women who had COVID were hospitalized.
Dr. Morris wrote in the discussion section of his article, “In vitro fertilization with FET is an excellent method to study the impact of various factors on implantation since it bypasses many of the variables that normally impact a woman’s ability to conceive, such as ovulation, fertilization, and preimplantation embryo development. The current study failed to identify the difference in the implantation or pregnancy rates between women with documented seropositivity to the spike protein and women without seropositivity.”
They found no significant difference in a successful transplant rate among women who had no COVID antibodies (73.9%), those who were vaccinated (80.0%), and those who had natural immunity (73.7%).
Dr. Morris is a respected subject matter expert in this field. Before being part of the research group, women seeking IVF treatment to become pregnant received an extensive and detailed baseline study of their physiology and reproductive potential.
A connection to seeking fertility treatment in the first place due to the COVID vaccine cannot be made. The study was conducted from January 1 to May 7, 2021, and the first public COVID vaccine was received on December 14, 2020. It takes months of testing and preparation to perform a FET. The Mayo Clinic has an excellent article written in laypersons terms explaining the process of InVitro Fertilization.
The report does have limitations. The sample group of 143 participants is small and limited to women with a history of reproductive issues. The sample size of women who have antibodies due to a COVID exposure was limited to 20 people, which is very small. Reports typically aren’t peer-reviewed but do receive scrutiny from reputable journals before publication.
King County, Washington is reporting over 85% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 22.4% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 91.5% of capacity statewide, with 36.2% of ICU patients fighting COVID. All of these numbers are unchanged.
While ICU utilization has remained close to 90%, the number of patients in the ICU with COVID continues to increase. This is due to three factors. Hospitals are operating under “contingency care” protocols statewide and have canceled most elective surgeries that would require post-surgical ICU resources. Additionally, the surge of new cases that started in August is running its course. The timeline from infection to symptoms, hospitalization, ICU, and death can be 4 to 6 weeks, particularly among otherwise healthy individuals. Finally, Washington state hospitals are caring for dozens of out-of-state COVID patients, many of them critically ill.
The 7-day rolling average hospital admission rate for new COVID patients is 183 a day. This is down from a peak of 193 and above the winter surge, where daily admissions peaked at 115 a day. The Department of Health reported there were 1,649 COVID patients statewide on September 16 and 274 on ventilators. Hospitalizations declining 9% from September 9 to September 14 but appear to have plateaued.
Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, which said they were approaching the need to move to crisis standards of care last week, reported the situation has improved, but the facility remains exceptionally stressed. The hospital is at 103% capacity, with 45 patients treated for COVID, 95% unvaccinated. On Thursday, 75 employees of the hospital had to stay home.
– Alcott Elementary (1*) – Carson Elementary (2*) – Dickinson Elementary (1*) – Eastlake High (1*) – Einstein Elementary (1*) – Ella Baker Elementary (1*) – Robert Frost Elementary (9) – Juanita Elementary (2*) – Juanita High School (37) – Kirkland Middle School (37) – Peter Kirk Elementary (1*) – Redmond Elementary (2*) – Redmond Middle School (1*) – Rose Hill Elementary (1*) – Rose Hill/Stella Schola Middle School (1*) – Thoreau Elementary (4)
– Kamiakin Middle School (140) – Mark Twain Elementary (3*)
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (12) – Bothell High School (48**) – Canyon Creek Elementary (19) – Canyon Park Middle School (5) – Cottage Lake Elementary (12) – Crystal Springs Elementary (28) – East Ridge Elementary (17) – Fernwood Elementary (10**) – Frank Love Elementary (14) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (10) – Inglemoor High School (5) – Innovation Lab High School (4) – Kenmore Elementary (15) – Kenmore Middle School (38**) – Kokanee Elementary (24) – Leota Middle School (2) – Maywood Hills Elementary (11) – North Creek High School (16**) – Northshore Middle School (9**) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (6) – Secondary Academy for Success (7) – Shelton View Elementary (18**) – Skyview Middle School (78) – Sunrise Elementary (21) – Timbercrest Middle School (23) – Westhill Elementary (6) – Wellington Elementary (48) – Westhill Elementary (6) – Woodin Elementary (5) – Woodinville High School (21) – Woodmoor Elementary (19**)
Under Investigation
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
The Lake Washington School District data hasn’t been updated since Friday of last week. We have a confirmed report from the Lake Washington School District of one COVID case at Kirkland Middle School and 36 exposures.
Three more schools in the Bellevue School District have reported cases and quarantines.
Northshore School District now has 7 schools reporting 5 or more confirmed COVID cases. The district has 313 students and faculty in quarantine and 23 new positive cases in the last week – 22 students and one staff member.
We will continue to recommend that parents in the Bellevue and Lake Washington School Districts request better transparency on their publicly facing COVID dashboards.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
No update
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulative Case Tracker is reporting 207,886 new cases and 2,635 deaths nationwide. Most states do not provide daily updates, so the number released on Friday tends to be inflated and represents multiple days of data. Tracking the moving average is a better way to understand national trends.
The COVID crisis in Alaska is deepening, with Providence Alaska Medical Center still operating under “crisis standards of care.” The inability to transfer patients to the largest and best-equipped hospital in the state is having a ripple effect on other hospitals.
Alaska has no state standard for “crisis standards of care,” forcing hospitals to make independent decisions. Government officials started forming a committee this week. Meanwhile, the state legislature considered more pressing matters.
Some anti-vaccination advocates believe that the distribution of COVID vaccines is a violation of the code, established after the full measure of Nazi atrocities in human medical experimentation was discovered. State Rep. Sara Hannan (Juneau-D) was in a race to the bottom, declaring Nazi experimentation on prisoners “produced results.”
“I did not mean to imply any support for NAZIs nor their experimentation in any way. My remarks were incorrect, insensitive, and hurtful. I am sorry and will strive to do better,” said Hannan.
Dr. Gina Wilson-Ramirez, an ER physician in Anchorage, described the situation at Providence. ER wait times for people with severe chest pain, and people are dying waiting to be treated. The waiting room for the emergency department is so full, portapotties were placed in the parking lot, and people were asked to stay in their cars. In the waiting room itself, doctors are now treating patients. Two COVID patients waited more than 8 hours before being seen and required oxygen.
Dr. Ben Westley, who also works at Providence, discussed a situation with two patients who needed dialysis to stay alive, but there was only one machine. Both were critically ill, one in their 30’s and the other older. Doctors decided to ration care between patients, putting one on dialysis during the day and the other at night.
The next day, the older patient was still declining, and there was still only one machine. The younger patient became prioritized for treatment.
Another patient who had COVID needed ECMO, which isn’t available in Alaska. After searching within the Providence network and five other facilities, no location could be found, and the man died.
“The way we’re getting equipment freed up is mainly when we’re discontinuing care on people. And it’s not always because they’re living,” said Dr. Wilson-Ramirez.
At Mat-Su Regional Medical Center near Wasilla, emergency department director Dr. Tom Quimby said he’s seen emergency patients wait as long as five hours. The 125-bed hospital has 42 COVID patients, and the ICU is at 100% capacity – every patient with COVID and on ventilators. Over 50% of the patients arriving in the emergency department have COVID.
“We’ve all seen COVID-19 cases continue to spread rapidly across our nation, the state of Alaska, and in our local community,” U.S. Air Force Col. Kirsten Aguilar, 673d Air Base Wing and JBER commander, said in a statement Friday. “After close consultation with JBER mission commanders, I have decided to declare a Public Health Emergency.”
Commanders advised personnel to avoid places that do not require masks or social distancing, and the base has moved to Health Protection Condition Bravo.
There were 64,714 deaths and 57,641 births in 2020. Harris, holding his weekly update on the state’s efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic, said data going back more than a century showed it was the first year in which the births and deaths data was flipped. He added it could happen again in 2021 if the state continues with its current trend.
“The numbers of deaths have, unfortunately, not declined at this point,” Harris stated of Alabama’s death rate, which includes at least seven pregnant women.
Popular YouTube vintage resellers Dusty and Tristan Graham, who espoused anti-vaccination views and conspiracy theories on their channel, both died of COVID. Tristan Graham, who had previously survived bone cancer, died at home on August 25. Dusty Graham died on Thursday.
Little did she know, she would become a rare statistic.
“I started to go into anaphylaxis shock – my mom was there with me – I had my EpiPen ready. We were prepared if something happened, hoping it wouldn’t because it wasn’t supposed to compare to statistics and ingredients – everything we thought,” said Case.
Per the CDC, two to five people per million vaccinated in the U.S. experience anaphylaxis after a COVID-19 vaccine.
Eva Baisey, known as one of the longest living heart transplant recipients in medical history, has died from COVID-19 at age 55. She passed away on September 12, 2021 — more than 34 years after receiving a heart.
While she was vaccinated, her husband had refused to take it. “There was so much information floating around. He didn’t have all the facts,” she said about why her husband wasn’t vaccinated.
“My purpose is to make sure no one goes through what he went through. There wasn’t one day, one hour, one moment that he didn’t suffer,” she said. “This did not have to happen.”
Florida has had 63 law enforcement officers die of COVID.
GOP leaders in Hillsborough County are scrambling after Gregg Prentice died of COVID and took how to access the financial information of the Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee to the grave with him. Prentice, who was 61, died one day after being diagnosed with COVID and was staunchly against wearing masks.
Friend Jason Kimball blames Tampa General Hospital for the 61-year-old’s death, alleging staff “illegally intubated” Prentice the day before he died. During a Sept. 13 Tampa City Council meeting, Kimball requested an investigation be launched. However, members of the City Council denied any wrongdoing or mistreatment from the hospital.
“My public comments are really going to be about Tampa General Hospital,” Kimball said at the council meeting. “There’s a dire situation going on right now…that I don’t think anyone is aware of, and I have firsthand knowledge of it. They’re intubating everyone entering Tampa General Hospital as a first line of action. They’re using fatality-treatment protocol, and I think that the city council really needs to do an investigation…They’re intubating people illegally. …When you call 911, and you go to that hospital, you’re going into a bad situation.”
Councilman John Dingfelder quickly shut down Kimball’s comment, blasting it as “dangerous.”
Hawaii
Approximately two weeks ago, Honolulu started requiring so-called vaccine passports to enter certain businesses. Yesterday state officials reported hospitalizations had dropped 25%.
Idaho
The crisis in the Gem State is deepening, with doctors and nurses now working in impossible conditions and forced to make unthinkable choices. In Idaho’s St. Luke’s Health System, patients are being ventilated by hand — with a nurse or doctor squeezing a bag — for up to hours at a time while hospital officials work to find a bed with a mechanical ventilator, said chief medical officer Dr. Jim Souza.
Over the past seven days, 1/2 of 1% of every person in Idaho tested positive for COVID.
Chris Roth, president, and CEO at St. Luke’s Health System in Boise said the overwhelming patient volumes result from COVID-19 patients and historic levels of traditional patient care, with the latter primarily brought on by pent-up demand from patients delaying care last year because of COVID-19.
“I’ve never seen any volumes even close to what we’re seeing in my history at St. Luke’s of 14 years,” Roth said.
St. Luke’s had a record 173 COVID-positive admissions to its hospital at the end of August, breaking the 172-admissions record back in the December surge. It recently broke the record again with 281 COVID-19 admissions.
“If we continue on this course over the next several weeks, St. Luke’s Health System will become a COVID health system,” said Roth, noting it will consume every resource and bed it has with coronavirus patients. The vast majority of St. Luke’s ICU patients are COVID positive, with 98% of them unvaccinated.
Although state officials reported a steady number of 170 ICU patients across the state, the number isn’t increasing because there is no more ICU capacity.
To free up space, hospitals are discharging patients that still require critical care, such as high flow oxygen delivery. Norco Medical President Elias Margonis said the company had seen an increase in customers seeking specialty oxygen equipment that flows at a rate of 8, 12, or 20 liters per minute rather than the standard 4 or 5 liters per minute, he said.
Primary Health Medical Group, Idaho’s largest independent primary care and urgent care system, is so swamped with patients they have been forced to close early, with wait times stretching for hours.
There is rampant misinformation that Idaho is operating under a universal do not resuscitate order. This is not true. The false claims are coming from a section within the state’s crisis standards of care plan. In situations where a hospital can no longer support mechanical ventilation of ICU patients, the guidance recommends that no attempt at resuscitation be made if the patient goes into cardiac arrest.
“Adult patients hospitalized during a public health emergency, when crisis standards of care have been declared (and a hospital is using the mechanical ventilation allocation framework due to demand for ventilators exceeding supply), should receive aggressive interventions; however, they should receive NO attempts at resuscitation (compressions, shocks or intubation if not yet intubated) in the event of cardiac arrest. The likelihood of survival after a cardiac arrest is extremely low for adult patients. As well, resuscitation poses significant risk to healthcare workers due to aerosolization of body fluids and uses large quantities of scarce resources such as staff time, personal protective equipment, and lifesaving medications, with minimal opportunity for benefit. This universal DNR order does not apply to pediatric patients; however, pediatric patients requiring a ventilator after resuscitation would enter the ventilator triage protocol after resuscitation, just like other patients needing ventilator access.”
In Ammon, protesters gathered against vaccine mandates. “There is a huge pushback against vaccine mandates,” protest organizer and association spokeswoman Halli Stone said. “You can see there is a great deal of sentiment. People care. If they have a point to rally, they come out. They hate being told they have to take an experimental vaccine that has been proven to be dangerous.”
Many protestors at the event were adamant they were not anti-vaccine. Still, multiple people shared they are not getting vaccinated and have concerns about its safety, despite the FDA saying vaccines are safe.
IU Health said that employees who didn’t comply with the September 1 deadline were placed on a two-week unpaid suspension period ending September 14, with the 125 employees resigning afterward, according to the spokesperson.
“A total of 125 employees, the equivalent of 61 full-time employees, chose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and have left the organization,” a spokesperson said.
“Most of the employees who chose not to be vaccinated worked part-time, less than part-time or have not worked for a number of months.”
Mississippi’s death rate from COVID-19 is 308 per 100,000 people, as of Sept. 17. New Jersey’s is 306. Louisiana and New York, respectively, have the next-highest rates, with 288 and 281 per 100,000 people.
Mississippi’s top health official said Thursday that the numbers of new virus cases are still “far more than we’d like to see” and warned that more deaths would follow.
“We’re recording well over 2,500 (cases) a day, in recent days, far more than we’d like to see,” said State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. “A lot of that’s going to translate into the tragedy.”
“It is really dire,” said Dr. James McKay, chief physician executive for Providence Montana, who oversees St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula and St. Joseph Medical Center in Polson. “It has never been this bad.”
Officials at Billings Clinic said the transition into crisis care could occur “rapidly” and that it would also impact patients with conditions unrelated to COVID-19. The number of COVID patients at the hospital in Missoula has increased dramatically in recent weeks, and that many are younger, some in their 20s and 30s. The hospital has turned an ambulance garage into a makeshift triage area for COVID patients to handle the increase.
The temporary emergency rule waives regulations to make it easier for hospitals to transfer certain patients to other healthcare facilities, freeing up needed hospital beds.
Gianforte said in a news release: “As our hospitals and health care workers continue to work around-the-clock to deliver life-saving care to Montanans, this new tool will help reduce the burdens our providers face. We will continue to work with hospitals and providers to support their ongoing response.”
Additionally, the Montana Department of Labor and Industry has started reaching out to nurses, nurse practitioners, and other medical workers whose licenses may have expired or retired to ask for help.
“The Department hears regularly from employers, including health care providers, who have been impacted by the ongoing workforce shortage. With COVID-related hospitalizations increasing statewide, at the Governor’s direction, the Department is looking at ways to mitigate the health care worker shortage and ensure there are no unnecessary delays in the licensure process for individuals qualified to provide medical services,” wrote Jessica Nelson, public information officer for the department.
Total COVID cases have jump 55% in the last two weeks, outstripping COVID ravaged Idaho.
The three women repeatedly punched the host at Carmine’s on the Upper West Side and broke her necklace Thursday afternoon after she asked for proof of vaccination, which is required to dine inside at a restaurant in New York City, police said in a news release.
All three women are from the Houston area and have been ordered to appear in a New York court on October 5 after receiving citations for misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief. The 24-year old victim was treated at a New York hospital and released. She is expected to recover fully.
Jeffrey Bank, the CEO of Carmine’s, said the restaurant was forced to hire security. “It’s ridiculous that she’s sitting here saying, ‘Please don’t assault me.’ It’s just surreal,” Bank said, adding the restaurant was hiring security. “We want everyone to feel safe. Is it necessary? I don’t know, but after last night for sure, we’re going to have it.”
“We will push back against widespread propaganda by producing our own media, and advancing our own narrative, instead of succumbing to the one being pushed on us. We will not accept the rampant politicization of science and medicine, and we will return these institutions to being neutral sources of information for the benefit of society, over government and corporate interests,” a press release about Saturday’s event reed on the organizers’ website.
State officials reported that five people had been hospitalized for ivermectin poisoning, including two that required critical care.
Between August 1 and September 14, the Oregon Poison Center at OHSU saw a total of 25 cases of “Oregonians intentionally misusing ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.” Of those cases, five had to be hospitalized–two people became so severely ill that they had to be admitted into the ICU.
The poison center reported that recent cases displayed various symptoms, including mental confusion, balance issues, low blood pressure, and seizure. Patients sickened by the drug ranged in ages from the 20s to 80s. OHSU said there was an even split between men and women who took the drug and between people who were attempting to treat COVID-19 and trying to prevent getting the virus.
In Salem, Oregon, 500 people gathered to protest vaccine mandates. Luke Yamaguchi, an Albany nutritionist who serves on the board of the protest sponsor, Oregonians for Medical Freedom, slammed Gov. Kate Brown’s mask mandate for school children and in outdoor public spaces — drawing jeers and laughs from the unmasked assembly.
“Mandated medicine has no place in a free country,” said Yamaguchi. “Who is to say that you will necessarily agree with the next vaccine that is mandated?”
Officials reported 1,002 people with coronavirus in hospitals across the state, which is 25 fewer than Thursday. There are 287 people with coronavirus in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, one more than Thursday.
The OHA said 58 available adult ICU beds out of 658 total (9% availability) and 369 adult non-ICU beds out of 4,246 (9% availability).
“We’re in September, and our cases, our hospitalizations, our deaths are actually higher than they were last year. So I don’t think we should lower our guard. We should actually apply the tools that we have that we know work,” he said.
Peter Graven, analytics director of OSHU, said all cases are tipping downwards in Oregon, and breakthrough cases are just a small fraction of the total number for the state.
Texas
Parents in a conservative corner of Texas are turning one of Governor Greg Abbott’s “pro-life” mantras on its head, arguing in a federal lawsuit that his school mask policy is threatening the lives of their children.
The school district said in a statement that it couldn’t address specific claims while the case proceeds but that it “strongly disagrees that the students’ constitutional rights have been violated by leaving masks as an option for students and staff.”
The district “continues to work proactively and professionally with parents who have questions or concerns about Covid-related issues,” it said. “The vast majority of these concerns have been resolved without the need for litigation.”
On Wednesday, there were 45 COVID-19 patients at the Wyoming Medical Center and 43 at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. Four hospitals had no available intensive care unit beds on Wednesday. Three had only one ICU bed open. While ICU beds are not exclusively used to treat COVID-19 patients, when hospitals deal with surges in these patients, that can put a strain on their ability to care for other types of critical-needs patients.
More alarming is the growing number of pediatric patients. Wyoming has 37 hospitals and no dedicated children’s hospitals. Pediatric resources are already stretched to the limit in the state. Officials are concerned that the state will run out of resources and have limited options to transfer patients to other regions.
LaTulippe was recorded dismissing the importance of masks in a speech at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Salem on November 7, 2020.
“I hate to tell you this, I might scare you, but I and my staff, none of us, once wore a mask in my clinic,” he told the crowd, reported The Huffington Post. “And how many problems did we have in our clinic from that? Zero.”
The Oregon Medical Board issued an emergency revocation of his medical license in December 2020. On September 2, the board made a final order permanently revoking his license for “dishonorable or unprofessional conduct; repeated negligence in the practice of medicine; and gross negligence in the practice of medicine.” He was also fined $10,000.
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) Hospitalizations have dropped 9% in Washington state from the record high set on September 9, but resources remained stretched to the limit with hospitals struggling with a crush of patients.
The number of schools in the Lake Washington and Northshore School Districts with COVID cases continues to grown.
The Washington State Department of Health has requested 1,200 medical professionals to reinforce hospitals. Health officials in Spokane express outrage that the Spokane County Fair is ongoing, with reports of only 25% of people wearing masks indoors.
Skagit County is restricting COVID testing, and Washingtonians are complaining about a lack of access to get tested for COVID in Eastern and Southwest Washington.
The planned protest at Skyview High School in Vancouver was a bust today.
There remains confusion and disagreement between the FDA, CDC, and the Biden Administration about the start of general booster shots for people who received the Pfizer vaccine.
In the misinformation section, we explain HEK-293 and the use of fetal stem cells in the development, testing, and production of medications and vaccines. If you’re trying to get a religious exemption because of HEK-293, you should read up on the other medications that have used the cells.
Today’s data shows a continued downward trend in new cases. However, there are concerns that new cases are being under-reported in Eastern and Southwest Washington. In the South Central Hospital Region, which includes Benton, Franklin, Klickitat, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties, new cases are 854.8 per 100K people while the Central Hospital Region, which represents King County, had a rate of 295.5.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Average 14-Day New Case Rate (unadjusted)
50.00% or above (12 counties)
496.3
40.00% to 49.99% (18 counties)
736.8 (down)
27.30% to 39.99% (9 counties)
764.6 (down)
14-Day New COVID Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate, Not Adjusted for Population
Through September 14, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 493.1 COVID cases per 100K, which is the first time since August 24 the state average has been below 500. Lincoln (1,303.2 per 100K), Franklin (1,192.6 per 100K), and Stevens (1,145.5 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Cowlitz, Douglas, Grant, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Okanagan, and Pend Oreille.
Last week Yakima County reported the closures of outdoor testing centers due to severe wildfire smoke creating low air quality. Additionally, there was the Labor Day holiday week in the last 14 days, and most testing centers were closed on Sunday and Monday. Questions were raised about the limited availability of testing centers in Eastern and Southwest Washington today by several reporters during the Washington State Department of Health press conference held today.
Washington State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said there were “no imminent plans” to reopen mass testing sites, but indicated they were working with local and federal partners.
“We have added community-based testing sites but not huge testing sites,” Dr. Shah said.
The Washington State Department of Health reports a data backlog for test positivity, with the published number 14 days old. According to Johns Hopkins University Medicine, the positivity rate for the last 30 days is 13.33%, and over the previous 7 days, 14.36%. These numbers indicate the state is under testing, and the jump of the previous 7 days rolling average to over 14% is a sign there is an increase in under testing.
The Department of Health changed how they are reporting Cases, Hospitalizations, and Testing by Age, so we can’t provide an indication on if these numbers are an increase or decrease from previous days. If you are comparing it to previous days you should not interpret this data as indicating a massive jump in numbers.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
212.0
0.7
Ages 12-19
249.6
2.1
Ages 20-34
257.6
7.9
Ages 35-49
233.7
13.1
Ages 50-64
173.3
19.6
Ages 65-79
127.5
26.9
Ages 80+
129.7
44.6
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
Skagit County announces restrictions on COVID testing
Citing an increasing number of people who live outside of Skagit county, and people seeking testing for work or school, officials announced new restrictions on who can access the Skagit County Public Health test site.
Officials reported they were performing 400 tests a day, and half of the people being tested didn’t live in Skagit County. On Monday, several people were turned away because they weren’t a resident of the county or did not have any COVID symptoms.
Spokane hospital Chief Medical Officer slams officials for having Spokane County Fair
Providence Health Care, which announced yesterday they were stopping all non-emergency surgeries held a press conference to discuss the current state of Spokane hospitals. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dan Getz expressed outrage about the Spokane County Fair being held.
Spokane County Commissioner Josh Kerns released a statement about the decision to keep the fair going.
“Our community has had so many events taken from them over the last eighteen months. The fair staff has worked closely with the Washington State Department of Health and the Spokane Regional Health District to make the Spokane County Interstate Fair as safe as possible. Large events have been happening across the State of Washington including the Washington State Fair, College Football games, and professional sporting events.”
Providence and Sacred Heart have a combined 150 COVID patients under their care – including 29 from Idaho. Of the 18 COVID patients on ventilators, none of them are vaccinated.
Anti-vaccine protest planned at Skyview High School in Vancouver is a bust
The Seattle Truth Network, in coordination with Wake Up Washington, is planning an anti-vaccination event on September 25 at Rooster’s Bakery and Cafe in Woodinville.
Washington state requests 1,200 additional medically trained people to come to the state
“Washington state has requested 1,200 personnel to help our system,” Dr. Scott Lindquist, State Epidemiologist for Communicable Disease for the Washington Department of Health said. Nineteen months of relentless demand drove many skilled medical workers to walk away from being hospitalists through early retirement, moving to private practice, or taking more lucrative jobs as a traveling healthcare provider.
“Our healthcare workers are truly stressed now.”
The question of looming vaccination mandates for healthcare workers at both a state and federal level was raised. “Last year before we even had vaccines in our state, all of us said if we just had a tool to fight this pandemic. As a country, we did everything we can to develop a vaccine,” Washington state Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said.
“Vaccines are free they are safe they are effective.”
“When we go through all these efforts – when you hear certain people saying I’m OK with losing my job, we hope you will reconsider this.”
Travel Advisories
We recommend avoiding all travel to Spokane, Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla counties, along with the states of Alaska and Idaho. Hospital resources in these regions are so constrained that you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
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Vaccination
September 20 is just 5 days away, and there is still no final decision or guidance on what a vaccine booster shot program for the general public would look like. Today the staff of the Food and Drug Administration deferred on providing their recommendation until September 17. The agency released a 23-page document, Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting, September 17, 2021.
“Factors supporting licensure of a booster dose should consider the effectiveness of primary vaccination with COMIRNATY over time and against circulating variants, the effectiveness (and its duration) of booster vaccination in preventing important COVID-19-related outcomes in individuals who have already received a primary vaccination series, the dynamics of the pandemic in the United States, and the risks of booster vaccination in the general population or in certain subpopulations.”
“Some observational studies have suggested declining efficacy of COMIRNATY over time against symptomatic infection or against the Delta variant, while others have not. However, overall, data indicate that currently US-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States. There are many potentially relevant studies, but FDA has not independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or their conclusions. Some of these studies, including data from the vaccination program in Israel, will be summarized during the September 17, 2021 VRBPAC meeting.”
Booster shot approval would only apply to recipients of the Pfizer vaccine if the program moves forward on September 20.
“This is only one estimate, but we do believe this means as you look toward the fall and winter, at minimum we expect the estimated impact of waning immunity would be 600,000 additional cases of COVID-19,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge told investors.
The research showed that people who received the vaccination in 2020, had a statistically higher infection rate than those who received their shots in 2021. Data from multiple studies and the CDC indicates that Moderna is highly effective against the Delta variant.
“The first six months are great, but you can’t count on that being stable out to a year and beyond,” Mr Hoge said.
Finally, the Nicki Minaj kerfuffle over the cousin’s friend with the swollen testicles allegedly from the COVID vaccine (no, it doesn’t do that) reached such a fevered pitch, an exasperated Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh, the Health Minister of Trinidad & Tobago made a statement during the nation’s COVID update.
#BREAKING – Trinidad & Tobago Health Minister Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh responds to swollen testicle claim made by Trinidad-born entertainer @NICKIMINAJ; says there is no such reported case in Trinidad & Tobago (TTT) pic.twitter.com/NNsc9EUTKP
King County, Washington is reporting over 85% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 23.0% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 91.9% of capacity statewide, with 35.9% of ICU patients fighting COVID. This is a new record for patients in ICU and the percentage of patients with COVID.
The hospital admission rate Epidemiologic Curve dashboard is not working for the second day in a row. The Department of Health reported there were 1,636 COVID patients statewide on September 14 and 266 on ventilators. This is the third day of decline, and total hospitalized patients are down 9% from the September 9 peak.
Dr. Scott Lindquist, State Epidemiologist for Communicable Disease for the Washington Department of Health talked about the trend in the state numbers. “We are starting to see a downward trend, but I would be cautious about this,” he said, adding “It is encouraging to see this stalling out.”
Despite the improvement, the hospital system in Washington state remains on a razor’s edge. “All of our resource hospitals are over capacity, every one of them,” said Dr. Steve Mitchell, Medical Director, WMCC, and Emergency Department at Harborview Medical Center.
“All of them are going through incredible lengths to care for patients. They are also taking staff that don’t normally work in ICUs and extending the staff into critical care units.”
“When our ICUs and our alternative ICUs are full…they back up into our emergency departments. The trickle-down from that is patients wait for a long period time waiting for a bed and ambulances keep coming. Those same ambulances can’t unload into our emergency department so they then become unavailable for other emergency calls.”
“I want you to hear this, this is not just my hospital, it is every resource hospital throughout our state.”
Dr. Mitchell also discussed patient transfers and the growing challenges to balance resources across Washington. “Over 1,000 requests since July 1 from hospitals who have been unable to place their patients from small rural critical access hospitals to a location where they can intervene and fix those patients.”
“Just yesterday there were 2 patients that both had severe COVID in far North Central Washington. After many hours of searching…we found that they could accept them in King County.”
“So sad to see the younger age of the people in our critical care unit,” Dr. Michell said as he talked about 4 critical patients in their 20’s under treatment for COVID at Harborview Medical Center.
Of the four, one had very recently died, another was on ECMO, and the last two were being proned to help them breathe. Three of the four were unvaccinated. The vaccinated patient is severely immunocompromised.
– Alcott Elementary (1*) – Carson Elementary (2*) – Dickinson Elementary (1*) – Eastlake High (1*) – Einstein Elementary (1*) – Ella Baker Elementary (1*) – Robert Frost Elementary (9) – Juanita Elementary (2*) – Juanita High School (37) – Peter Kirk Elementary (1*) – Redmond Elementary (2*) – Redmond Middle School (1*) – Rose Hill Elementary (1*) – Rose Hill/Stella Schola Middle School (1*) – Thoreau Elementary (4)
– Robert Frost (?) – Kamiakin Middle School (140) – Mark Twain Elementary (3*)
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (10) – Bothell High School (35**) – Canyon Creek Elementary (16) – Canyon Park Middle School (5) – Cottage Lake Elementary (12) – Crystal Springs Elementary (14) – East Ridge Elementary (12) – Fernwood Elementary (7) – Frank Love Elementary (20) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (3) – Inglemoor High School (5) – Innovation Lab High School (3) – Kenmore Elementary (5) – Kenmore Middle School (37**) – Kokanee Elementary (20) – Maywood Hills Elementary (10) – North Creek High School (13**) – Northshore Middle School (7) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (4) – Secondary Academy for Success (1) – Shelton View Elementary (18**) – Skyview Middle School (71) – Sunrise Elementary (19) – Timbercrest Middle School (23) – Westhill Elementary (6) – Woodin Elementary (4) – Woodinville High School (18) – Woodmore Elementary (18**)
Under Investigation
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
The Lake Washington School District data hasn’t been updated since Friday, but we do have a parent report that a classroom has been quarantined at Robert Frost Elementary.
Northshore School District now has 5 schools reporting 5 or more confirmed COVID cases with an expanding number of students in quarantine across the district.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
No update
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulitaive Case Tracker is reporting 143,895 new cases and 1,823 deaths nationwide.
To put that into perspective consider this. Lumen Field where the Seahawks and Sounders FC play can seat 72,000 people. If the stadium was full for a game, 144 random fans would not leave the stadium alive.
Although the national rate is 1 in 500, for King County, it is 1 in 1,221. The significant improvement over the national average is due to several factors including early action at the start of the outbreak, lockdowns, social distancing, mask wear, a gradual return to normalcy in the spring of 2021, and a high vaccination rate.
Alaska
Alaska shattered every previous COVID record today reporting 1,095 new cases along with a record number of hospitalizations, ICU patients, and patients on ventilators. Yesterday the largest hospital in the state had to move to crisis standards of care. The impact of the decision is starting to ripple across the vast and remote state.
Nearly all hospitals are struggling, and each is grappling with how best to respond to unsustainable patient levels, Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, said Wednesday.
“They’re almost all at a crisis level right now,” she said. For smaller facilities, enacting crisis standards of care may not always make the most sense based on the types of resources and protocols already in place.
“We’ve had increasing challenges accessing particularly things like (kidney) dialysis” and other similarly specialized care that is only available at a few hospitals in Anchorage, Zink said.
Alabama
The good news is the number of patients hospitalized with COVID continues to decline, but within those numbers, there is a dark reality. Dr. Don Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association, said Monday that he’s “hopeful but not confident yet that things are beginning to improve,” and noted that “one of the reasons our hospitalization numbers appear to be stable to declining is because we’ve had a pretty substantial daily death count. We’re reporting more than 40 deaths a day now for almost three weeks.”
As of today, 84% of the 2,355 hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated, including 761 in the ICU. The state has 558 patients on ventilators, with a national survival rate of just 20% to 30%.
Arkansas
COVID hospitalizations have declined for more than a week, but the state is seeing a similar trend to Alabama. ICU cases have increased by 18 within the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 450. According to the ADH data, this is the first time ICU cases have increased in five days.
Arizona
Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a 14-page complaint in federal court that seeks to invalidate President Biden’s vaccine requirements for federal workers and large companies. In the complaint, Brnovich makes a false claim on the process of undocumented immigrants as part of his legal argument.
“In a nutshell: unauthorized aliens will not be subject to any vaccination requirements even when released directly into the United States (where most will remain), while roughly a hundred million U.S. citizens will be subject to unprecedented vaccination requirements,” the state told the court. “This reflects an unmistakable — and unconstitutional — brand of favoritism in favor of unauthorized aliens.”
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have contracted agencies to FEMA to provide health inspection to undocumented immigrants who will be held or released into the United States, this includes COVID testing and vaccinations. So far in 2021, almost 1.3 million people have been processed along the U.S. border.
After months of complaints from local, county, and federal officials, Florida is providing COVID death data at a county level again. People on both sides of the mask and vaccination argument have lamented not having access to the data to serve as proof points for the need, or lack of need for masks in schools, as one example.
Florida new cases continue to decline and are now 45% of peak levels, hovering between 11,000 and 12,000 reported a day. Hospitalizations are down from a peak of over 17,000 to 10,979 reported today. 2,673 are in the ICU. The state of Florida does not report how many patients are on ventilators.
Lisa Wilson of Belle Glade, Florida is a tireless advocate of vaccination who even went door to door to fight misinformation and talk to people about getting vaccinated. She persuaded pastors in church to advocate getting vaccinated, along with friends, neighbors, and family. Despite all her efforts, COVID took a terrible toll.
In the last three weeks, Wilson lost 6 relatives, all of them unvaccinated. Wilson remains baffled about why her family members so steadfastly refused to get vaccinated.
“In my grandmother’s case, I think some of her children advised her not to do it,” Wilson said. “They said she was too old, that it wasn’t safe, that she never left the house, anyway.”
The last time she talked to her uncle during a Facetime chat from his hospital bed, he told her he wished he’d followed her advice.
“Tell all of our family to get vaccinated. It’s horrible. It hurts,” she said he cried, as he gasped for air.
She said she couldn’t bring herself to talk to her grandmother on Facetime. When she took her grandmother to the hospital, doctors said her prognosis was grim.
“I didn’t want to see her with tubes running everywhere and watch her struggling to breathe,” Wilson said. “Other grandkids did it and they regretted it.”
“Which is about a seven-fold increase than it had been even in previous waves in this pandemic,” state epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek said during a Board of Public Health meeting.
With a 240% increase of COVID-19 cases among children since July, Georgia’s students are at the center of the current surge.
“The magnitude of this, of the number of cases here in this age group among school children, is very significant,” Drenzek said.
Drenzek said the current surge has caused more than 100 recent outbreaks in schools statewide since July 4.
Hawaii
After standing at the edge of an angry COVID volcano, Hawaii appears to have reached a peak.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green said there were 448 people hospitalized with COVID on Sept. 3. The state is now down to 346.
But he added Hawaii health officials won’t know for sure until at least Friday. That’s when they’ll get a complete picture of how much the virus spread over Labor Day weekend.
“I suspect our cases have plateaued. And our hospitalizations should drop in the next two weeks. Unless we get a surprise,” Green said.
And while cases are going down, some facilities are still struggling to meet patient needs.
Idaho
The northern half of Idaho continues to operate in crisis standards of care and officials seem pessimistic that the southern half of the state can avoid reaching the same situation.
“Our cases continue to increase,” said Elke Shaw-Tulloch, public health administrator for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. “The flow of sick people into hospitals continues to increase. It’s incredibly high and the stress on the hospitals is very real.”
The IDHW says a record number of people are being hospitalized with Covid right now. If that doesn’t change soon, hospitals in southern Idaho could have to implement crisis standards of care.
“The number of children 12 to 18 that are positive, is greater this week than last week it is growing at an accelerated rate and our internal data shows a positivity rate of 20%, which is incredibly high,” said pediatrician and CEO of Primary Health Medical Group, Doctor David Peterman.
“I’m incredibly disappointed and to a certain degree disheartened because we know that something as simple as having our children wear masks in school, and teachers and staff, we can slow the spread of covid,” he said.
That’s unlikely as Dr. Ryan Cole, who called the COVID vaccination “needle rape,” works with the American Frontline Doctors, and considers masks useless, is one off the leading health officials in the Gem State.
The CDH is Idaho’s biggest health authority, covering Ada, Boise, Elmore, and Valley counties. Its board is elected by 12 commissioners, three from each county.
Cole made it onto the board thanks to a backlash against CDH restrictions which propelled coronavirus skeptics into positions of power.
In Louisana, the number of COVID patients has plummeted in the last four weeks, while morgues and funeral homes struggle to keep up with the recently deceased. Just like in Alabama, the good news of declining hospitalizations is masking a grim reality.
He said morgues have become so crowded, hospitals will sometimes call his home even before a patient dies to make sure someone can come pick up the body quickly and make space for the next.
On any given day, Cobb and Lawson host up to 10 funerals, back-to-back, with practically no time in between. Often they’re so busy attending to grieving families, they forget to eat.
“Given Labor Day activities, I think that all health care providers probably have their fingers crossed and are hoping for the best but not assuming that will hold once we get at the requisite days past Labor Day,” Patti Davis, President of the Oklahoma State Hospital Association said.
Dr. Woody Jenkins, in Stillwater, said their hospital capacity is maxed out. “Overall, our patients are younger and sicker than the last surge,” Jenkins said. “The length of stays are longer, to past 20 days, and some have been on the ventilators for over 10 days.”
Another major concern, according to Jenkins, is losing nursing staff to mental health strain and fatigue.
“We must find a way out of this darkness and navigate toward brighter skies,” he said.
“Our battle really isn’t with the district and the teachers or even our superintendent. We really want our school district to come in compliance with the law and keep healthy kids in school,” said Brian Shellem, who filed the lawsuit with five other parents.
Kaiser Permanente is offering a 1% raise across the board, and a 1% lump sum raise for each year of the contract. That rate of pay increase doesn’t even keep up with inflation going as far back as 2010.
Kaiser says to address future costs and affordability, it is, “proposing a market-based compensation structure for those hired in 2023 and beyond.”
The union sees that as unacceptable.
“The current proposal on the table is that they want to put in a two-tier wage system where new hires will be paid less than what we are paid, meaning that our work that we perform–it’s not worth what we’re currently being paid to do,” said Holt.
Misinformation
A growing strategy among those seeking an exemption from receiving the COVID vaccine on religious grounds is a firmly held religious belief against abortion and a belief that life starts at conception. The argument then becomes because fetal stem cells were used in the testing or development of the COVID vaccines, it is against one’s belief to accept the vaccine.
Of eight COVID vaccines evaluated, two used fetal stem cells in the development, with one of those distributed in the United States. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines were tested on fetal stem cells, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was used during the production of the vaccine.
Ha! I got you! Not so fast.
The cells used come from a genome known as HEK-293. The original 293 cells were derived in 1973 from the kidney of an aborted human embryo of unknown parenthood by transformation with sheared Adenovirus 5 DNA. After many attempts, cell growth took off only several months after the isolation of a single transformed clone. The cells used today are thousands of generations old and are clones of the original cells gathered in 1973.
They’re still aborted cells! Test tube or not!
This is where the argument falls apart. HEK-293 cells have been used in either the development, testing, or production of a long list of medications.
If you’ve “done your research” and have been using “alternative treatments” as preventatives or treatment for COVID, you better sit down. Zithromax, Hydroxychloroquine, and Ivermectin have all been tested as part of their production and development using HEK-293 cells. Other common vaccinations include Rubella, part of the MMR, and the chickenpox and shingles vaccines. If you used the monoclonal antibody treatment Regeneron, you’ve also used a drug developed with HEK-293 cells.
Additionally, as far back as 2003, the Catholic Church released a statement specifically addressing the use of HEK-293 cells for the development of medications. The Jewish and Islamic faiths have made similar statements and years before the development of the COVID vaccine.
If you’ve ever taken any of these drugs or vaccines, especially the prescription drugs, or your social media is covered with claims praising the use of Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin, your religious exemption is probably in jeopardy.
Tylenol / Acetaminophen
Advil / Motrin / Ibuprofen
Aleve / Naproxen
Pseudoephedrine / Sudafed / SudoGest / Suphedrine (and we can add Meth to that list)
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) Although Washington reached a grim milestone of 7,000 COVID-related deaths today, data on new cases indicated that the Evergreen State is reaching a peak. The divide between the most and least vaccinated counties continues to widen, and the number of patients in the ICU reached a critical level statewide.
The Lake Washington School District expands how much COVID data they are sharing and in the Northshore School District, a concerning trend has emerged at three schools.
Hospitals in Spokane are suspending all non-emergency surgeries as they struggle to support the lower vaccinated counties in Eastern Washington and the surge in Idaho. In Bellingham, officials report they are inching closer to crisis standards.
Edmonds canceled Oktoberfest for the second year in a row.
Almost 4,800 state employees have requested a vaccination exemption, about 8% of the 60,000 person workforce. Protesters are coming to Vancouver, Washington’s Skyview High School on Wednesday despite a court order, and they are bringing infamous Seattle street preacher Matthew with them.
The mayor of Puyallup is started a fundraiser to show appreciation to hospital workers.
We have expanded our travel advisory to include Spokane County and the state of Alaska, with the latter having the largest hospital move to “crisis standards of care.”
In the misinformation section, we discuss swollen testicles and Betadine.
Today’s data provided a strong indication that Washington state has hit a peak while demonstrating the effectiveness of vaccines. In the South Central Hospital Region, which includes Benton, Franklin, Klickitat, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties, new cases are 883.3 per 100K people, essentially unchanged from yesterday. In comparison, the Central Hospital Region, which represents King County, had a rate of 295.4. In addition, for counties that are 50% fully vaccinated or higher, the 14-day rolling average of new cases dropped below 500 for the first time since we started tracking.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Average 14-Day New Case Rate (unadjusted)
50.00% or above (12 counties)
494.0 (down)
40.00% to 49.99% (18 counties)
747.0 (down)
27.30% to 39.99% (9 counties)
781.4 (down)
14-Day New COVID Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate, Not Adjusted for Population
Through September 13, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 500.8 COVID cases per 100K, which is within the 500 to 535 range the state has bounced between. Lincoln (1,294.1 per 100K), Franklin (1,170.9 per 100K), and Stevens (1,121.5 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Cowlitz, Douglas, Grant, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Okanagan, and Pend Oreille. Although Yakima County fell off of the report, its case rate is 799.4 per 100K.
The Washington State Department of Health reports a data backlog for test positivity, with the published number 14 days old. According to Johns Hopkins University Medicine, the positivity rate for the last 30 days is 13.40%, and over the previous 7 days, 13.67%. These numbers indicate the state is under testing. Further, there has been little change in the positivity rate for almost a month.
The 7-day case rate was up for birth to 34 years old, and down for 80 and over. Hospitalizations were mostly flat, with a slight increase for adolescents from 12 to 19 years old.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
34.0 (up)
0.1
Ages 12-19
26.3 (up)
0.2 (up)
Ages 20-34
59.1 (up)
1.5
Ages 35-49
50.2
2.5
Ages 50-64
37.4
3.9
Ages 65-79
18.7
3.7
Ages 80+
5.0 (down)
1.8
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 63 deaths on Tuesday and Washington state crossed a grim milestone of 7,000 COVID-related deaths since February 29, 2020.
Edmonds Oktoberfest canceled due to concerns about COVID
This change was made as a safety precaution given the current COVID-19 environment. The rate of new COVID cases reached an all-time high last week at 464 per 100,000 people, according to data released Tuesday, Sept. 7, by the Snohomish Health District.
“This decision was not made lightly,” said Maggie Peterson, Edmonds Rotary President. “We very much want Edmonds Oktoberfest to be a family-friendly traditional event but the current rise in COVID-19 cases, combined with the start of the school year, creates a situation where there would be many vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals co-mingling. We are looking forward to bringing back Oktoberfest (or similar event) including the Kids Korner and all corresponding fun activities in 2022!”
Edmonds Oktoberfest Founder and Committee Co-Chair David Kaufer added, “We are dependent on volunteers to run this event, with more than 170 volunteer slots identified. We do not feel comfortable placing them, as well as attendees and other participants, in a situation where they may be at a higher risk of catching or transmitting this highly contagious variant.”
Those who have purchased tickets for Edmonds Oktoberfest may request a refund by emailing david@edmondsrotary.com.
Almost 4,800 state employees ask to be exempt from vaccine mandate
State employees not represented by the WFSE have until October 4 to receive the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be in compliance with the October 18 deadline if they have not received their first dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. Certain employees with the WFSE could go past that date if they meet certain requirements set in the compromise ratified last week.
Anti-vaccine protest planned at Skyview High School in Vancouver – again
The group Waking Up Washington is planning a protest at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Washington on Wednesday, and they are bringing infamous Seattle street preacher Matthew with them. If you have ever been to a protest, rally, concert, march, parade, or large sporting event in Seattle, you have likely heard Matthew.
This action is being driven by 14-year old Melanie Gabriel, a student at the school who was attempting to get a 504 exemption to not have to wear a mask. The anti-vaccination activity in Oregon and Washington is largely run by a handful of people. Michelle Morales-Walker is the most prominent voice and face of the movement. She is supported by Joey Gibson of Patriot Prayer, Ammon Bundy, Washougal Women, and Palmer Davis of La Center.
The group was withdrawn from a planned protest in Olympia on Saturday, due to a Proud Boys rally planned for the same day.
The Seattle Truth Network, in coordination with Wake Up Washington, is planning an anti-vaccination event on September 25 at Rooster’s Bakery and Cafe in Woodinville.
Puyallup Mayor organizing fund raiser for employees at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital
Door created the GoFundMe page on Sept. 2 and had $6,050 as of Sept. 10. She thought she could show support for the employees by raising funds to give each of them a $5 Starbucks gift card.
Editor’s Opinion: Not directed at Mayor Door, however, most medical workers would prefer for everyone to wear a mask and get vaccinated so they don’t show up in the emergency department sick due to COVID. It isn’t a lack of gratitude. They’re exhausted and see this current wave as preventable.
Travel Advisories
We recommend avoiding all travel to Spokane, Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla counties, along with the states of Alaska and Idaho. Hospital resources in these regions are so constrained that you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
Thank you
Thank you to our new subscribers and those of you who have made one-time contributions. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for helping us keep the lights on!
No promotional consideration has been given, or requested from the n95 project or any manufacturer of masks
Vaccination
No update beyond please get vaccinated.
King County, Washington is reporting over 85% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 23.1% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 91.4% of capacity statewide, with 35.6% of ICU patients fighting COVID. This is the highest level of occupancy within Washington state ICUs and the highest percentage of COVID patients under care.
The hospital admission rate Epidemiologic Curve dashboard wasn’t working today. It appears the daily hospitalization rate is in the 160s, which would be close to yesterday. This is another encouraging sign that the state may be hitting a peak. The Department of Health reported there were 1,683 COVID patients statewide on September 13 and 269 on ventilators. Both numbers indicate a decline although we have no way of knowing if the decline was due to fatalities or releases.
We got a response from the Washington State Department of Health on getting data on NICU, PICU, and pediatric COVID cases. The state is working on tracking that data and providing it as either a report or a dashboard. The date of availability was not provided.
News that Washington was still taking transfer patients from out state has created outrage on social media. The Washington State Hospital Association indicated they were taking patients but emphasized it was far fewer than in the past. Additionally, there are some hospital networks that have facilities between Washington and Oregon or Washington and Idaho, and patient transfers within those systems would be normal. In the same press conference, the WHSA indicated that a patient from Spokane was transferred to Idaho.
Everett Providence reported today that they are accepting “two to three” transfer patients a day, mostly from the North Puget Sound region. However, they currently have patients from Alaska, Idaho, and Montana. Officials also pointed out that Snohomish County is sending patients to King County.
– Alcott Elementary (1*) – Carson Elementary (2*) – Dickinson Elementary (1*) – Eastlake High (1*) – Einstein Elementary (1*) – Ella Baker Elementary (1*) – Robert Frost Elementary (9) – Juanita Elementary (2*) – Juanita High School (37) – Peter Kirk Elementary (1*) – Redmond Elementary (2*) – Redmond Middle School (1*) – Rose Hill Elementary (1*) – Rose Hill/Stella Schola Middle School (1*) – Thoreau Elementary (4*)
– Kamiakin Middle School (140) – Mark Twain Elementary (3*)
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (7) – Bothell High School (28**) – Canyon Creek Elementary (12) – Canyon Park Middle School (4) – Cottage Lake Elementary (13) – Crystal Springs Elementary (13) – East Ridge Elementary (3) – Fernwood Elementary (7) – Frank Love Elementary (12) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (3) – Inglemoor High School (3) – Innovation Lab High School (2) – Kenmore Elementary (3) – Kenmore Middle School (31) – Maywood Hills Elementary (6) – North Creek High School (15**) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (4) – Shelton View Elementary (14**) – Skyview Middle School (67) – Sunrise Elementary (18) – Timbercrest Middle School (21) – Westhill Elementary (6) – Woodin Elementary (4) – Woodinville High School (18)
Under Investigation
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
The Lake Washington School District updated its tracking dashboard providing a better degree of insight on the number of confirmed COVID cases among students and faculty, mirroring the information provided by the Bellevue School District.
Although there are a significant number of impacted schools in the LWSD, there have not been any community transmission outbreaks within the district. The number of impacted schools in BSD declined overnight, and we were able to get more data on quarantines.
The more concerning trend is in the Northshore School District where 3 schools now have 5 or more reported confirmed COVID cases. Bothell High School has 7 confirmed cases between students and faculty, and another 21 in quarantine. Shelton View Elementary has 5 confirmed cases among students and another 9 in quarantine. North Creek High School has 7 confirmed cases among students, and 8 more in quarantine.
Three states have exited the CDC ‘high’ COVID transmission category – Vermont, the most vaccinated state, Connect, the second most vaccinated state, and California, the 16th most vaccinated state.
The Pentagon announced guidance on the vaccination mandate that was established in August for active-duty military. Service members have three months to become fully vaccinated for face discharge from the force. The Marines released a soldier last week for refusing to wear a mask, issuing a general discharge under honorable conditions.
In what could be called ironic, Russian President Vladamir Putin is self-isolating after he was exposed to COVID. Putin who is vaccinated has faced accusations from European and North American nations of backing the spread of COVID misinformation to undermine trust in democratic governments.
Alaska
Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage Alaska, the largest hospital in the state, was forced to move to crisis standards of care on Tuesday. The hospital published a two-page letter explaining why they had to restrict care and start making black tag triage decisions.
“At this time, we feel we have an ethical obligation to be transparent with our community and share with the public the distressing reality of what is happening inside the walls of our hospital. The state’s COVID-19 Dashboard isn’t equipped or designed to demonstrate the intricacies of providing medical care during this unprecedented time. More than 30% of the adult patients hospitalized at Providence have tested positive for COVID-19.
Our caregivers are doing their best, just as they have been for the past 18 months of this pandemic. We believe that the Providence administration has acted in good faith throughout the pandemic, following the guidance of local and national experts to create policies and procedures that protect patients and caregivers.
While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help. The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists. We have been forced within our hospital to implement crisis standards of care.
What does this mean? In short, we are faced with a situation in which we must prioritize scarce resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit most. We have been required to develop and enact policies and procedures to ration medical care and treatments, including dialysis and specialized ventilatory support.”
Doctor Kristen Solana Walkinshaw, Chief of Staff indicated that this decision could have a dramatic impact on healthcare across Alaska.
“Nurses here are not leaving because of the vaccine mandates. They’re leaving because they’re overwhelmed by the emotional toll it’s taking,” Gonsette, the Providence hospitalist, said in an interview Tuesday. “Part of it, we all feel it, is because we are not heard. The public either wants to bury their head in the sand or maybe some of them really don’t know what’s going on. Those are the ones we’re trying to reach.”
Colorado
We have avoided reporting on right-wing radio or TV personalities who have become infected or have died from COVID, but Bob Enyart was a special kind of awful. Enyart, a provocateur who gleefully mocked the deaths of AIDS victims, had encouraged his listeners not to get any of the three available COVID-19 vaccines because he claimed they had been tested on “cells of aborted babies.” (Though coronavirus vaccines do not contain fetal cells, Johnson & Johnson used a historic fetal cell line to produce and manufacture its vaccine; Pfizer and Moderna used a fetal cell line in a very early phase to confirm efficacy prior to production.) He also successfully sued the state of Colorado over COVID-related restrictions on church attendance.
Enyart’s wife is still hospitalized with COVID.
Editor’s Note: It is ironic that Mr. Enyart would die after exaggerating the danger AIDS presented to the general population while minimizing the impact of the second pandemic in his lifetime.
Idaho
The situation in Idaho is going from worse to catastrophic. In a media briefing today Idaho Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen reported “Hospitalizations in Southwest, Central and South Central health districts, which includes the Treasure Valley and the Magic Valley, are reaching a critical point,” Jeppesen said. “Without a change in direction, crisis standards of care are imminent for all three of those health districts.”
Any permitted event or activity held in a city-owned building must require masks indoors, require masks outdoors if six feet of physical distance can not be maintained, and submit a plan to the city for approval, and requiring “COVID-19 Protocol Ambassadors” on-site. In addition, the mayor said, all events over 250 people must require proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test.
Event organizers will be tasked with supplying masks to those who do not have them.
“We do believe that here in Fargo, we’re probably about two to three weeks away from peaking in terms of COVID cases. But we’re already at capacity and have been for a few weeks now due to our overall non-COVID census being very high,” said Dr. Doug Griffin, vice president and chief medical officer at Sanford Health in Fargo.
Griffin said most of their COVID patients are local or coming from western North Dakota, where vaccination rates remain low. Griffin said the hospital is turning away patients who need critical care, some from as far away as southern Minnesota.
“If I could put on a statewide mandate, if the health department could do it, we’d do it,” he said during a Tuesday press conference. “The legislature has made it very clear that if we put a mandate on for kids in schools to wear a mask, they would take it off.”
DeWine’s comments were a shift from the Republican governor’s previous position, which had been that there isn’t an “appetite” for such mandates. DeWine has instead emphasized personal responsibility and sharing information with Ohioans.
“The good news is that we did peak,” said Peter Graven with Oregon Health and Science University. “The bad news is, the model is showing that it could take until the end of October or even November until we really get down to the levels that we had prior to the surge.”
With recent testing difficulties and delays in contact tracing, parents around Utah are saying they aren’t getting notified of their kids’ classroom exposures until it’s almost too late to do anything about it. Quarantine periods generally are backdated to begin 10 days after the exposure or a student began having symptoms, but families may not know to start quarantine until days later.
Misinformation
We have a two for one tonight for misinformation. Part one – Nicki Minaj.
My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied
There is no scientific evidence, nor one single VAERS entry prior to September 13, 2021, stating that the COVID vaccine causes swelling in a man’s testicles. There is no scientific evidence to back up the claim that the COVID vaccine causes infertility in men or women (there is evidence that COVID infections cause stillbirths and premature births).
However, there is a condition that can cause swelling of the testicles, infertility, and a mate wanting to call off a wedding. That’s called gonorrhea. This type of misinformation is called a false causality fallacy where the “link between premises and conclusion depends on some imagined causal connection that probably does not exist.”
That would be correct.
First, it was hydroxychloroquine, and more than a year after former President Donald Trump stopped advocating it as a possible treatment, people are still taking it.
Then it was Chlorine dioxide, a chemical bleach that has been previously advertised as a junk science cure for autism.
Next came ivermectin – and we’ve beat that dead horse into the ground.
Then it was glyphosate, a herbicide.
Now it’s Betadine, the iodine-based antibacterial antiseptic. Yes, Betadine, and apparently people are drinking it and gargling with it, despite it being toxic when ingested. Additionally, long-term consumption of excess iodine can damage the thyroid.
“Betadine® Antiseptic First Aid products have not been approved to treat coronavirus. Betadine® Antiseptic First Aid products should only be used to help prevent infection in minor cuts, scrapes and burns.”
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) The number of hospitalized COVID patients dropped slightly over the weekend, while the number of critically ill patients on ventilators increased. New King County and statewide vaccination data show the gap between the most vaccinated and least vaccinated counties grew wider. A new IHME forecast indicates Washington may have hit the peak but forecasts a long fall ahead.
Two more schools in the Lake Washington School District reported COVID cases, while the number of quarantined students at Kamiakin Middle School rose to 140.
The Washington State Hospital Association stated hospitals were operating in “contingency care” as staffing, transportation, and some critical equipment remain in tight supply. 911 dispatchers in Seattle were diverting ambulance calls for part of the day on Saturday, as local emergency departments were flooded with a surge of patients.
A ferry was delayed by a man who refused to wear a mask, and on Friday, ferries heading to the San Juan Islands were canceled due to a sick out.
Complaints have emerged at the Spokane County Fair and the Washington State Fair due to people not wearing masks indoors and lax enforcement.
Almost 90 Washington state employees have filed a lawsuit in Walla Walla trying to block the governor’s vaccination mandate. A woman was cited for trespass in Vancouver for refusing to wear a mask and refusing to leave a private business.
The gap between the highest vaccinated counties versus the least widened more over the weekend. In the South Central Hospital Region, which includes Benton, Franklin, Klickitat, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties, new cases are 886.1 per 100K people. In comparison, the Central Hospital Region, which represents King County, had a rate of 318.6.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Average 14-Day New Case Rate (unadjusted)
50.00% or above (12 counties)
530.8 (up)
40.00% to 49.99% (18 counties)
764.5 (up)
27.30% to 39.99% (19 counties)
848.6 (up)
14-Day New COVID Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate, Not Adjusted for Population
Through September 12, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 526.1 COVID cases per 100K, which is slightly up from Friday but still within the 500 to 535 range the state has bounced between for weeks. Asotin (1,007.1 per 100K), Clallam (1,057.7 per 100K), Douglas (1,024.0 per 100K), Franklin (1,182.0 per 100K), Grant (1,036.7 per 100K) Lincoln (1194.6 per 100K), Okanogan (1,013.2 per 100K), and Stevens (1,191.2 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Adams, Benton, Chelan, Columbia, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Pend Oreille, and Yakima. Garfield County dropped to 764.0
The Washington State Department of Health reports a data backlog for test positivity, with the published number 14 days old. According to Johns Hopkins University Medicine, the positivity rate for the last 30 days is 13.40%, and over the previous 7 days, 13.81%. These numbers indicate the state is under testing. Further, there has been little change in the positivity rate for almost a month.
The 7-day case rate by age was up in every age group except 35 to 49-year-olds. Hospitalizations were flat or slightly down over the weekend, and that decrease is mirrored in the patient reports from the Washington State Hospital Association.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
31.8 (up)
0.1
Ages 12-19
25.0 (up)
0.1 (down)
Ages 20-34
57.4 (up)
1.3
Ages 35-49
49.5 (down)
2.6
Ages 50-64
37.0 (up)
3.7
Ages 65-79
18.1 (up)
3.5 (down)
Ages 80+
5.4 (up)
1.7
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 68 deaths on Friday. Numbers from over the weekend typically include multiple days of data and should not be used to read a trend.
Seattle Fire Department diverted 911 calls for ambulances on Saturday
For part of the day on Saturday, calls to Seattle 911 for ambulances were being diverted, with only the most serious calls being responded to. Critical calls were still covered, while others, which would normally get an EMS response, were told they would need to transport themselves.
Hospitals may decide to divert ambulances from going to their emergency room when they get overwhelmed with patients or are expecting a surge from incidents such as a mass casualty event. On Saturday, multiple emergency departments were beyond capacity in Seattle, which created a ripple effect impacting emergency departments both east and north of the city. On Saturday evening, one area hospital had over 80 patients in the emergency department and another 22 waiting for hospital beds.
The number of people coming into emergency departments wasn’t just due to COVID. There was an influx of medical emergencies such as cardiac arrests and several significant auto accidents. Additionally, the Washington State Hospital Association reported this morning there is a shortage of ambulances for ground transit.
Calls to 911 for EMS and fire services were above average on Saturday but nowhere near the record set on June 28, when the department responded to 555 calls for aid.
Latest IHME forecast projects Washington state has hit the peak
On Friday, the IHME updated its forecast models, which projected that Washington state has hit the peak for the current wave. The projected number of fatalities through December 1 declined slightly also, to 8,784. Part of the decline is due to the Washington vaccination mandate for state employees and the statewide order for mask wear. The model projects that if mask wear compliance was 100%, we could save 600 lives.
The model also projects that the state will only see a gradual decline in cases and will settle to half of the current volume of new cases, patients, and fatalities. The Washington State Hospital Association expressed today that slashing the number of hospitalized COVID patients from 22% to 11% as a new normal would be unsustainable for the healthcare system.
Vancouver police cite woman for trespass over refusal to wear mask
The incident apparently happened on September 8 but blew up on social media over the weekend after a story was run in the Post Millenial. A woman with her children at Chuck’s Produce and Street Market on Southeast Mill Plain Blvd. refused to wear or mask or leave the store when directed by staff. She continued to shop and was told police would be called.
When Vancouver police arrived, she continued to refuse the leave the store and went to checkout. While she continued to defy store management and the police, she was cited for trespassing.
Not 2 miles from my home in Vancouver, WA you find: Police writing tickets to citizens for grocery shopping at Chuck's on Millplain without a face mask. Someone tell me what's brought us to this (Hat tip to retired cop who sent it to me) pic.twitter.com/sS14i5Otts
Woman issued a trespass citation for refusing to leave a store in Vancouver, Washington, on September 8
Kitsap ferry delayed by man who refused to wear a mask
On Saturday, the 7:40 PM sailing of the Kitsap ferry from Fauntleroy was delayed for over an hour by a man who refused to wear a mask. According to Washington State Ferry employees, the man was asked to put a mask on during the crossing and refused. He then became “aggressive” toward the crew and appeared to be inebriated. He was issued a 60-day no-trespass order from the Washington State Ferries property. We also hope he didn’t drive off in a vehicle.
Weekend sick-out impacts ferry service to the San Juan Islands
After weeks of threats, a sickout impacted ferry service to the San Juan Islands on Friday evening. Two ferry runs out of Anacortes to Friday Harbor, the 4:45 PM and the 8:20 PM, along with the additional stops at Lopez, Shaw, and Orcas, were canceled due to a lack of Coast Guard certified personnel. Additionally, the #3 Samish was running behind schedule for the afternoon and early evening.
The Washington Federation of State Employees, which includes Washington State Ferries employees, ratified their agreement over mandated COVID vaccination with the state of Washington on Thursday. Over 80% of members voting in favor of the compromise agreement.
Spokane County Fair organizers respond after photos emerge of maskless guests and vendors
Photos emerged over the weekend of non-existent mask wear at the Spokane County Fair. According to KREM, Kevin Humphrey, a regular guest at the fair, talked to officials about the lack of masks and was told that masks were only checked at the entrance but were not being enforced.
In response to the photos, Spokane Interstate Fair Director Erin Gurtel wrote, “The Spokane Fair and Expo Center staff is communicating with all vendors in writing daily, along with verbal announcements over the Fairgrounds sound system multiple times a day. All of the vendors have been made aware of the requirement to wear masks indoors and starting tomorrow, September 13th, we will require this indoors and outdoors.”
The fair has also created numerous signs to post all over the grounds to communicate the new requirement of outdoor masks, Gurtel said. The fair’s team is also doing its best to communicate the requirement and make sure it is “being adhered to,” she added.
People complaining about lack of masks at the Washington State Fair
In Puyallup, where up to one million people are expected to visit the Washington State Fair through September 26, complaints are growing about maskless vendors and guests. Numerous pictures and videos emerged of groups of people both indoors and out.
89 state employees sue over Washington state employee vaccine mandate
A group of state employees from the Washington State Patrol, Washington State Ferries, and Washington State Department of Corrections filed a lawsuit in Walla Walla against the looming vaccine requirement.
According to a report in Northwest News, Nathan Arnold, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit, wrote, “The penalties for not taking affirmative action to comply with the Governor’s Mandate are overly severe, punitive, and unconscionable.” He also called the penalty of termination “arbitrary and capricious,” especially for employees who can work from home or have natural immunity from having previously contracted COVID-19.
The lead plaintiffs are William and Sherra Cleary. Mr. Cleary was listed as a King County firefighter and Ms. Cleary as a healthcare worker who is also pregnant. The plaintiffs are looking for the court to declare the vaccine mandate unconstitutional.
The Tri-Cities Herald reported Troopers Travis Brawdy and Brittany Crosby with the Washington State Patrol and Michele Vasquez, an employee of the Washington state Department of Revenue, were also listed as plaintiffs.
The Biden Administrator’s order for federal employees and contractors to get vaccinated also impacts 11,000 workers at Hanford.
Travel Advisories
We recommend avoiding all travel to Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla counties, along with the state of Idaho. Hospital resources in these regions are so constrained that you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
Thank you
Thank you to our new subscribers and those of you who have made one-time contributions. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for helping us keep the lights on!
The report, in which two senior Food and Drug Administration officials were contributors along with the World Health Organization, came as another study indicated the FDA approved Pfizer vaccine and the emergency authorized Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalization and death.
“The ability of vaccines that present the antigens of earlier phases of the pandemic (rather than variant-specific antigens) to elicit humoral immune responses against currently circulating variants6,7 indicates that these variants have not yet evolved to the point at which they are likely to escape the memory immune responses induced by those vaccines.”
King County, Washington is reporting over 85% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 23.2% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 90.9% of capacity statewide, with 35.0% of ICU patients fighting COVID. All of these numbers are up from over the weekend.
The new hospital admission rate for COVID patients was 162 per day on September 11. This is a decrease from last week and is an indicator that the state may be at its peak. The Department of Health reported there were 1,742 COVID patients statewide on September 12 and 275 on ventilators. That is down from the 283 reported on Saturday. Weekend numbers typically get adjusted upward on Tuesday as additional data is processed.
EvergreenHealth reported there are 39 COVID patients in Kirkland and none in Monroe.
The Washington State Hospital Association held its weekly press conference, telling reporters that hospitals are operating under “contingency care” statewide. From walk-in clinics to trauma centers, medical facilities continue to struggle with the crush of regular and COVID patients.
We are in a crisis, but we are not in crisis standards of care,” said Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) Executive Vice President Taya Briley.
Briley also reported that 95% of hospitalized COVID patients statewide are unvaccinated, saying, “We are far, far above our peak from last year.”
Dr. Christopher Baliga with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle added, “The hospitals are struggling.”
“Everyone who works in healthcare, it does feel like everybody has gone back to normal. It is scary, frustrating, and disheartening for people not to understand what is going on. We have stretched almost as far as we can go.”
“With the last surge in the fall, our hospitals were empty. That’s not true anymore. All of those patients are there…and they are sicker. This is non-COVID. YOu now have a hospital that is essentially full having to manage an influx of COVID patients.”
When asked about what additional resources would be available to improve the situation, Briley reported there were few options left. The state was already enlisting the help of unpaid volunteers. The WSHA had already reached out for National Guard resources, but the critical staff and equipment have already been deployed to other states to support their COVID surges, along with aiding in hurricane, flooding, and climate disasters. Federal resources are also stretched thin.
The press conference closed with an appeal to get vaccinated, wear a mask, and avoid risky behavior that could cause a general injury.
– Benjamin Franklin Elementary (?) – Juanita Elementary (1) – Juanita High School (37) – Peter Kirk Elementary (2) – Robert Frost Elementary (9) – Thoreau Elementary (4)
– Kamiakin Middle School (140) – Mark Twain Elementary
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (1) – Bothell High School (19) – Canyon Creek Elementary (9) – Canyon Park Middle School (4) – Cottage Lake Elementary (4) – Crystal Springs Elementary (4) – East Ridge Elementary (2) – Fernwood Elementary (2) – Frank Love Elementary (11) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (1) – Inglemoor High School (2) – Kenmore Elementary (1) – Kenmore Middle School (7) – Maywood Hills Elementary (2) – North Creek High School (6) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (1) – Secondary Academy for Success (1) – Shelton View Elementary (7) – Skyview Middle School (10) – Sunrise Elementary (4) – Timbercrest Middle School (9) – Westhill Elementary (5) – Woodin Elementary (1) – Woodinville High School (7) – Woodmore Elementary (9)
None
Local Districts Scorecard
In the Lake Washington School District, new quarantines were announced at Ben Franklin and Robert Frost, while the number of quarantined students at Kamiakin Middle School grew to 140, 24% of the student body. Several classrooms are now fully virtual, moving the school over into the closure column.
It is important to note that quarantined does not indicate widespread infection. To date, none of the area schools we are following have reported a significant outbreak of COVID cases that has been transmitted in school or at school activities.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
King County Public Health updated the vaccination rates by zip code, with the numbers improving throughout the region. The northern half of Kirkland continues to lag behind the rest of the local area.
King County COVID vaccination rates – at least one dose – by zip code as of September 13, 2021
Zip Code
Percent vaccinated, at least one dose, 12 and older
98155
92.7%
98028
89.2%
98011
88.7%
98034
86.0%
98033
92.6%
98072
91.6%
98052
>95.0%
98004
>95.0%
98039
94.3%
98005
>95.0%
98007
89.9%
Vaccination rates for those 12 and older by zip code – at least one dose
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulitaive Case Tracker does not reflect nationwide data on Monday due to the way states report their information.
Irresponsible headline of the day – 57% of hospitalized COVID patients are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms
The Atlantic is grabbing headlines with a story out this afternoon, Our Most Reliable Pandemic Number is Losing Meaning. There is a lot that is problematic with this story and the interpretation of a study released today. The study, The COVID-19 Hospitalization Metric in the Pre- and Post-vaccination Eras as a Measure of Pandemic Severity: A Retrospective, Nationwide Cohort Study, is a pre-print non-reviewed study. The study includes a list of prestigious and respected doctors from the Veteran’s Administration and Tufts University.
For those who only read headlines (and the coming misinformation memes), there are many things to consider that the story in The Atlantic did not.
COVID patients, even when asymptomatic or mildly sick, require additional safety protocols for hospital staff. This takes up time, equipment, and personal protection equipment. This would be the same protocols for patients with other infectious diseases such as a measles outbreak. The critical difference is the scale of the number of COVID positive patients coming into hospitals.
The report only analyzed patients in the Veteran’s Administration, which is heavily male, and does not include pediatric patients. The VA demographics are not representative of the United States population.
The report study period ended in June, before the surge in Delta cases.
The study did not control for patients who required oxygen therapy before being admitted to a VA hospital, a condtion that is more common among veterans than the general population.
The VA has a policy of testing all patients for COVID regardless of what they come into the hospital for. That is not reflective of all hospitals in the United States.
Not all severe cases of COVID are admitted to a VA hospital, and those cases aren’t included in the data.
The report concludes, “Consideration should be given to updating the definition of COVID-19 hospitalizations to improve differentiation between hospitalization caused by COVID-19 and those associated with detection of SARS-CoV-2 through the addition of straightforward and objective measures of disease severity.”
After reaching a peak of 2,890 COVID-19 inpatients on Sept. 1, the state’s hospitals are starting to see a steady fall in the number of coronavirus patients.
As of Monday, hospitals were down to 2,474 patients being treated for the virus, according to the latest data from the Alabama Department of Public Health. It’s not clear to what extent the drop in hospitalizations is due to deaths or discharges.
By Monday, the state health department reported 210 COVID-19 patients in Alaska hospitals — the most ever. Thirty-three of them were on ventilators.
Health care officials have also cautioned that the true number of hospitalizations is likely even higher because the state’s data doesn’t include some long-term coronavirus patients, reported the Anchorage Daily News.
Hospitals in Anchorage had no remaining ICU beds on Monday.
Police have confirmed they are investigating a report of a hate crime and battery that occurred in the city last week, but they declined to disclose further details.
The Wells Fargo employee asked the man to wear a mask, and he responded aggressively. When he offered a mask to the customer, he started rummaging through the file cabinets and drawers of the bank, forcing employees to threaten to call the police.
The man then threatened the employee, calling him a racial slur and finishing with, “I better not catch you outside.”
When the bank closed at 5:30, the man was waiting for the banker and assaulted him in the parking lot. The employee fought back, and as a coworker called the police, the attacker fled. He was chased for a block, and as police arrived, scrambled over a fence.
“It’s crazy,” he added. “The guy went home, he plotted, he laid in wait, he ambushed me. And he called me a ‘sp–.’ I’m thinking, ‘Gosh, you know, he completely escalated on his own. He didn’t like the idea of having to wear a mask.’”
Speaking in Alachua County, DeSantis said government agencies in violation could potentially face millions of dollars in penalties.
“We are gonna stand for the men and women who are serving us. We are gonna protect Florida jobs,” DeSantis said. “We are not gonna let people be fired because of a vaccine mandate.”
Cases started climbing in late June and finally topped out toward the end of August. At that point, the state averaged more than 9,200 new cases a day. The average dropped by almost a thousand a week later.
Georgia never surpassed January’s surge that topped out at an average of nearly 11,000 new cases a day, but the state did almost double the peak from July 2020 of less than 4,700.
Health experts questioned whether traveling and get-togethers over the Labor Day weekend would keep cases climbing. The holiday still falls well within the two-week preliminary data window, so the state is still counting tests from that time.
Idaho’s 2,713 new cases, which included the weekend, brought the state’s seven-day moving average for new daily cases to 1,400. Hospitalizations hit a record high on Friday, with 626 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide.
The Panhandle and North Central Health Districts in Idaho continue to operate using “crisis standards of care.” We strongly recommend not to travel to Idaho during this time of medical crisis. Any health emergency requiring hospitalization could result in you receiving inadequate care.
Illinois
We reported last week about Veronica Wolski. A well-known figure in the Chicago area for her sign waves over an expressway, last week it was widely reported that she was in the hospital with COVID.
Veronica Wolski in a Chicago area Staples refusing to wear a face mask, and on BIPAP therapy at a Chicago area hospital
Wolski died on Sunday night to the outrage of the QAnon community, disgraced lawyer Lin Wood, and former national security advisory Michael Flynn. According to her supporters, she had requested to be treated with ivermectin, and the hospital has refused.
A harassment campaign led by Wood and Flynn flooded the hospital with phone calls and e-mails.
Disgraced lawyer Lin Wood’s statement on the death of Veronica Wolski
Wolski was a passionate supporter of Bernie Sanders starting in 2014, campaigning vigorously for the Vermont Senator. When Sanders failed to get the nomination from the Democratic Party, she became despondent and starting following the QAnon conspiracy.
North Carolina
The Union County Public School Board voted Monday morning to end COVID-19 contact tracing and quarantining for non-positive students and staff.
That means students can go to school even if they have come in close contact with someone who is COVID-positive. The only people who have to stay home are those who have tested positive or have symptoms.
The School Board released a statement after the decision was made.
“At the Sept. 13 Special Called meeting, the Union County Board of Education voted effective immediately, to halt all staff responsibilities regarding contact tracing and quarantining for students and staff, except as required by law. The statutory authority of managing contact tracing and quarantining is that of Union County Public Health.
“As required by law, school nurses, administrators and school staff will continue to address positive, presumptive or confirmed cases of COVID-19. All students and staff who do not have a positive COVID-19 test or symptoms, should return to school or work immediately.
“If students or employees have the following symptoms: fever or chills, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting, headache, they should stay home, stay away from others and call their health care provider.
“Students and employees who have been isolated due to a positive case or COVID-19 symptoms, should not report to school or work until they have completed 10 days of isolation, symptoms have improved and fever free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication.
“Face coverings are still optional for students and staff in Union County Public Schools.”
“The hospital is full,” said Rex Director of Emergency Services Kim Boyder. “We are like 90% or greater capacity in the hospital. So that means we also get backed up in the ER. So that means we need additional space for not only the volume but some of the boarding.”
Although COVID-19 related hospitalizations have declined since Friday, 93% of Oregon’s hospital beds for adults are full, and there are just 62 adult intensive care unit beds available in the state.
Between Friday and Sunday, health officials say there were 32 deaths due to COVID-19. To date, the state’s death toll since the start of the pandemic is 3,446.
Oregon is in the midst of its worst COVID-19 surge since the start of the pandemic — which health officials say is fueled by unvaccinated people and the highly transmissible delta variant.
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) Hospitals in Eastern Washington continue to struggle with more officials warning they are running out of staff and resources. Counties with higher vaccination rates have fewer new COVID cases, while counties with low vaccination rates run out of options.
There were more COVID cases in all three school districts we are monitoring, including Peter Kirk Elementary and an expansion of quarantined students at Juanita High School and Kamiakin Middle School.
The Washington Federation of State Employees overwhelmingly approved a compromise agreement with Washington in support of the Governor’s vaccine mandate.
The Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer ignored a court order barring protests within one mile of Vancouver, Washington schools. The same organizers of the ongoing Vancouver protests have an event scheduled in Woodinville on September 25.
New data from the CDC shows that Moderna is the vaccine winner against the Delta variant and provides a hint on why the Johnson and Johnson vaccine has all but disappeared.
Reactions to announcements made by the Biden Administration yesterday are following partisan lines to the surprise of no one.
Finally, you probably heard about a study that indicated that 85% of men who take ivermectin become infertile. A study that we haven’t mentioned until right now. We cover that one in our misinformation section.
Although COVID cases remain on a plateau statewide, counties with lower vaccination rates have more new cases per capita.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Average 14-Day New Case Rate (unadjusted)
50.00% or above (12 counties)
517.8
40.00% to 49.99% (17 counties)
697.2
27.30% to 39.99% (10 counties)
828.5
14-Day New COVID Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate, Not Adjusted for Population
In the South Central Hospital Region, which includes Benton, Franklin, Klickitat, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties, new cases are 844.9 per 100K people.
Through September 9, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 508.0 COVID cases per 100K. Clallam (1,008.2 per 100K), Columbia (1,075.3 per 100K), Franklin (1297.0.0 per 100K), Lincoln (1049.5 per 100K, Okanogan (1,001.6 per 100K), and Stevens (1,060.5 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Cowlitz, Douglas, Grant, Lewis, Pend Oreille, and Yakima. Garfield County dropped to 764.0
King County is at 301.1 cases per 100K, statistically unchanged from yesterday.
The Washington State Department of Health reports a data backlog for test positivity, with the published number 14 days old. According to Johns Hopkins University Medicine, the positivity rate for the last 30 days is 13.73%, and over the previous 7 days, 13.84%. These numbers indicate the state is under testing, and testing locations are becoming overwhelmed in the hardest-hit counties. The rate of hospitalization was flat to down across all age groups.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
28.3 (up)
0.1
Ages 12-19
22.0
0.2
Ages 20-34
50.4 (down)
1.2 (down)
Ages 35-49
45.2
2.8
Ages 50-64
33.2
3.8 (down)
Ages 65-79
16.6
3.8 (down)
Ages 80+
5.1 (down)
1.6
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The agreement provides an additional leave day, a retirement option, vaccine access and education on work time, and a fair, equitable, and consistent process for employees seeking a medical or religious exemption.
“Our union was able to achieve what we set out for—a victory for public health and due process,” said WFSE President and Psychiatric Social Worker Mike Yestramski.
State employees have until this Sunday to get their first dose and comply with the October 18 deadline to be totally vaccinated. Although the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be received as late as October 4 to meet the deadline, the supply of the single-dose vaccine is low.
Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys, and activists ignore protest injuction in Vancouver
Multiple groups protested at Skyview High School in Vancouver in defiance of a court order restricting protests within one mile of any school in the city. Skyview High School parents received an e-mail informing them of the multiple protests planned. The school district added security and was “coordinating with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.”
E-mail message sent to Skyview High School parents warning of new protests by anti-vaccination and anti-government groups
Members of Patriot Front, the Proud Boys – including Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, and the Washougal Moms protested on school grounds and across the street. Police did not intervene to enforce the court order. The group then left to protest at the home of Clark County district judge Suzan Clark’s home. Social media posts and a website listed the judge’s address publicly, and on Telegram, there were calls to come armed to her home. Protesters arrived at the published address this afternoon to find that it wasn’t the residence of Judge Clark.
The Group Wake Up Washington calling for a protest at a District Judge’s home to protest a court order
The group that organized the planned protest at the judge’s home also organizes anti-vaccination protests across Washington state, including upcoming area protests in Seattle, Marysville, and Woodinville. The Seattle Truth Network, in coordination with Wake Up Washington, is planning an anti-vaccination event on September 25 at Rooster’s Bakery and Cafe in Woodinville.
Palmer Davis of La Center is behind the announcement to protest at the judge’s house yesterday. Davis ran for a city council seat in La Center last month, receiving 4.68% of the vote in a 4 candidate field.
The anti-vaccination and the anti-government movements are intersectional, with Open Schools USA, Wake Up Washington, and Washougal Mom’s have embraced support from right-wing organizations. In a study released on August 27, the Proud Boys were among the top three factions in the country that brandished firearms at protests, and Patriot Prayer was among the top ten. The same study found that 25% of the events that the Proud Boys showed up at descended into violence.
Travel Advisories
We recommend avoiding all travel to Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla counties, along with the state of Idaho. Hospital resources in these regions are so constrained that you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
Thank you
Thank you to our new subscribers and those of you who have made one-time contributions. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for helping us keep the lights on!
The research data was collected from 187 hospitals and 221 emergency departments and urgent care clinics. The nine states utilized were selected because the Delta variant accounted for at least 50% of the laboratory-confirmed COVID cases at the start of the study period. Researchers examined confirmed COVID cases among 32,867 adults 18 and over, and vaccination status was confirmed using electronic records and immunization registries. For the study, a person was considered fully vaccinated 14 days after they received their final dose.
The median age of an infected person was 43 years old, and the median age for an individual hospitalized was 65. The study did not take into account factors such as weight, race, community COVID restrictions or mandates, or comorbidities.
The study found that the Moderna vaccine was the most effective against the Delta variant, followed by Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. For the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, some of the data is concerning.
Vaccine
Effectiveness Against Delta Variant
Effectiveness Against Hospitalization
Johnson & Johnson
65%
60%
Moderna
92%
95%
Pfizer
77%
80%
All Vaccinated Individuals
82%
86%
CDC Study on vaccination effectiveness against the Delta variant – September 10, 2021
The study does have several limitations. Overall vaccine effectiveness and how much immunity declines over time have not been fully evaluated, and the time between being completely vaccinated before testing positive was not considered. The study did not account for partial vaccinations, with data included in the unvaccinated group. Lastly, although the study uses a significant population sample, the findings are likely too narrow to apply to the entire United States.
The federal government stopped the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in June of this year, and doses are very hard to find. This report provides some insight into why the one-dose vaccine has fallen out of favor.
King County, Washington is reporting over 84% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 22.4% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 89.6% of capacity statewide, with 34.1% of ICU patients fighting COVID, a small increase compared to yesterday.
The new hospital admission rate for COVID patients is 176 per day on September 7. The Department of Health reported there were 1,755 COVID patients statewide and 261 on ventilators.
Yesterday, we reported that at least one hospital in Yakima was having to ration care and warned they were close to crisis standards of care. In Colville, Mount Carmel Hospital is full, and more than half of the patients have COVID.
“Stevens County today has 14. When you think about only having 25 beds or less in critical access,” Peg Currie, the chief operating officer at Providence Healthcare, explained. “Imagine what the emergency rooms are like, the waiting lists are like, to try to get into a higher level of acute care.”
Officials in Spokane County held a press conference today, reporting a record number of COVID and total patients in the hospital.
As of Friday morning, 150 patients with COVID-19 are hospitalized at Sacred Heart and Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, and 95% are unvaccinated, Providence COO Peg Currie said during the press conference.
“It’s not a record that we wanted to break, but we have broken that,” Currie said. “Many of these [patients] are in our ICUs, and everybody that is in the Sacred Heart and Holy Family ICU now on a ventilator is not vaccinated.”
The age group that Providence is seeing the most in its hospitals is 40 to 50 years old, Currie said, which is much younger than previously hospitalized patients.
– Kamiakin Middle School (94) – Juanita Elementary (1) – Juanita High School (37) – Peter Kirk Elementary (2) – Thoreau Elementary (4)
– Mark Twain Elementary – 2nd-grade class (multiple confirmed cases)
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (1) – Bothell High School (18) – Canyon Creek Elementary (10) – Canyon Park Middle School (4) – Crystal Springs Elementary (5) – East Ridge Elementary (2) – Fernwood Elementary (2) – Frank Love Elementary (9) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (1) – Inglemoor High School (1) – Kenmore Elementary (1) – Kenmore Middle School (10) – Maywood Hills Elementary (2) – North Creek High School (11) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (2) – Shelton View Elementary (6) – Skyview Middle School (11) – Sunrise Elementary (1) – Timbercrest Middle School (6) – Westhill Elementary (5) – Woodin Elementary (1) – Woodinville High School (6) – Woodmore Elementary (9)
None
Local Districts Scorecard
The number of students moving to quarantine expanded at Juanita High School and Kamiakin Middle School in the Lake Washington School District. Parents were notified that 29 at Juanita High and 13 at Kamiakin had close contact with a positive COVID case. Additionally, parents at Peter Kirk Elementary were notified that 2 students had been put into quarantine due to a COVID exposure.
Multiple school districts throughout Western Washington are reporting COVID cases, including Shoreline and Edmonds.
Yesterday’s announcement by the Biden Administration’s mandating the COVID vaccine for most federal employees and contractors, and requesting OSHA to implement a program that mandates vaccination or weekly COVID screening at companies with 100 or more employees, is being met with fierce resistance along partisan lines.
The governors of Arizona, Indiana, Georgia, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas vowed to fight the looming OSHA rules in court. During a visit with first lady Jill Biden to a middle school in Washington D.C., the president was asked his message to Republicans who decry the vaccine mandates as federal overreach and plan to challenge them in court.
“Have at it,” Biden said. “We’re playing for real here. This isn’t a game.”
Nome’s hospital doesn’t even have any COVID-19 patients, but it still faces “a COVID problem,” as Dr. Tim Lemaire, a family practitioner and member of the Norton Sound Health Corp. incident command team, put it. “We don’t have COVID here, but we can’t get our regular patients … care because of COVID everywhere else.”
Trying to move patients with heart attacks, strokes, or injuries from four-wheeler accidents, Norton Sound Regional Hospital sometimes has to call three or four facilities to find an open bed, at least once moving a patient all the way to Seattle to get them into an ICU.
State officials say rural hospitals throughout the state are suddenly facing unheard-of medical situations because they’re holding patients they’ve never had to before.
Brian Ritchie, the state’s health emergency response operations manager, helped a rural hospital find oxygen supplies after COVID-positive patients on high-flow therapy ran through existing cylinders faster than expected.
The district hasn’t experienced a single outbreak during the first month of instruction. Officials define an outbreak as “three or more cases in non-related households in which the source of infection occurred at the school, and not another setting.”
The San Francisco health department also emphasized that vaccinations “are our best defense to protect children,” noting most pediatric cases of COVID-19 in the city came from unvaccinated adults in a household getting the virus and spreading it to unvaccinated children.
“The difference between this wave and all past waves is that Coloradans have returned to their normal lives,” Bookman said. “Those who have been vaccinated have been given the opportunity to go out and live their lives. What comes with that is additional cases of trauma, additional heart attacks, additional strokes – we have seen people who have delayed receiving care over the course of the pandemic because they were afraid to go to their doctor. And this is all coming together with the increase in COVID hospitalizations at this point to really stress our health care system.”
Colorado’s hospitals report that 81% of those hospitalized in the state are unvaccinated, and 85% of recent COVID deaths were unvaccinated, said Herlihy.
DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw tweeted: “(First) District Court of Appeals just granted the State of Florida’s request to reinstate the stay — meaning, the rule requiring ALL Florida school districts to protect parents’ rights to make choices about masking kids is BACK in effect!”
Yesterday, a Brevard County School Board meeting was far more subdued than the August 30 meeting that made national headlines. While things were quieter outside, a crowd of over 20 people gathered to burn masks. A counter-protestor with a megaphone, a Firehouse Subs helmet, and a fire extinguisher lectured them about fire safety and threatened to put out any fire they lit.
Megan Alexandra Blankebhiller of Jacksonville, Florida, arrived in a hospital emergency room on August 13. As she waited to be seen, she shot a short Tik Tok video, where the screams of another person could be heard in the background. The screams were coming from a person who had lost a loved one in another area of the emergency department.
Blankenbiller, who was 31 and unvaccinated, was admitted to the hospital with COVID. She made a series of videos appealing for her followers to get vaccinated from her bed as her condition declined.
“I shouldn’t have waited,” she said in the video, which has been viewed nearly 900,000 times. “If you are even 70% sure that you want the vaccine, go get it. Don’t wait. Go get it because hopefully, if you get it, you won’t end up in the hospital like me.”
By August 20, Blankenbiller was in critical condition and on a ventilator, and she died shortly thereafter. Blankenbiller’s sister, Cristina Blankenbiller, told WebMD in an interview that their family had agreed to get vaccinated, including Alexandra, shortly before she became ill.
Idaho
The Panhandle and North Central Health Districts in Idaho continue to operate using “crisis standards of care.” We strongly recommend not to travel to Idaho during this time of medical crisis. Any health emergency requiring hospitalization could result in you receiving inadequate care.
Illinois
Veronica Wolski was well known in the Chicago area for producing videos and harassing retail employees and people wearing masks. In one video, she walked through a Staples, wearing a “Lone Ranger” style mask, telling the manager who asked her to wear a mask that she has one on and has a medical condition that exempts her.
Veronica Wolski in a Chicago area Staples refusing to wear a face mask, and on BIPAP therapy at a Chicago area hospital
Wolski is hospitalized with COVID at Ressurection Medical Center in Norwood Park, Illinois. According to her supporters, she has requested to be treated with ivermectin, and the hospital has refused. Wolski was known in QAnon circles. Her situation has drawn the attention of disgraced attorney Lin Wood and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (have we mentioned lately how the anti-vaccination and the anti-government movements are intersectional).
“At AMITA Health, our first priority is the health and safety of our patients. Our physicians and clinicians follow the full guidance of the FDA and the CDC in the treatment of COVID-19. And while AMITA Health Resurrection Medical Center has received hundreds of phone calls and emails associated with one patient’s care, we have simply and respectfully noted the concerns shared.”
The largest peer-reviewed study on the effectiveness of ivermectin in treating COVID so far indicated that the anti-parasitic provided no benefit compared to a placebo. For hospitalized patients, it made them sicker.
Hospitalizations peaked at 1,178 COVID-19 cases on Sept. 1, and critical care resources remain under extreme strain, with roughly half of all intensive care units in the state filled with COVID-19 patients who are largely unvaccinated.
“It looks like we are seeing the flattening of cases that we had hoped for,” said Peter Graven, Ph.D., lead data scientist in OHSU’s Business Intelligence unit. “However, we are still projecting it will be a very long time before hospitalization levels return to more manageable levels.
Tennessee
Tennessee High schooler Grady Knox’s passionate plea for the health of himself and others was mocked earlier this week at a Rutherford County Board of Education meeting, a scene that has drawn national attention.
Knox was ridiculed, even laughed at, Tuesday evening by some in the school board meeting audience when he said his grandmother died of COVID-19 after being exposed to a person without a mask.
Knox’s grandmother lived at Adams Place retirement community in Murfreesboro before she died of COVID-19.
One of the persons who heckled Knox was quickly identified as Erika Casher, a nurse who had spoken at other school board meetings. It was reported today that Casher was terminated from her position with Cigna.
Texas
Karra Harwood of Baycliff, Texas, is mourning the death of her 4-year old daughter, Kali Cook, who died of COVID. Harwood, who is unvaccinated, had become sick and was confirmed to have on Monday. After her diagnosis, she isolated herself from her family.
Later that evening, Kali’s grandmother noticed she was sick, and at 2 a.m. found that she had a fever. At 7 a.m., she was found dead in her bed. An autopsy confirmed that Kali also had COVID.
“She was so funny and sassy,” said Karra Harwood, Kali’s mother. “She wasn’t your average little girl. She’d rather play with worms and frogs than wear bows. She was just so pretty and full of life.”
Harwood said she didn’t want people to think of her daughter as an anonymous statistic through sobs Thursday. She wanted people to know who her daughter was.
“I would rather her be a name than just a little girl,” she said. “She was beautiful.”
“I was one of the people that was anti. I was against it,” she said. “Now, I wish I never was.”
Misinformation
A lot of schadenfreude has been spilled in the news on social media after a 2011 study on the Effects of Ivermectin therapy on the sperm functions of Nigerian onchocerciasis patients reemerged. The study found that 85% of men who took ivermectin to treat onchocerciasis (river blindness) suffered from low sperm count and poor sperm quality, rendering them infertile.
The story was widely published, and tonight, many media outlets are retracting the story. We never highlighted this piece of news, and we’re labeling the claim as misinformation.
The problems with the study are numerous. First, it only involved 37 men, which is a very small sample size. Researchers wanted to include more people in the study, but many were disqualified because they already had low sperm count and/or low sperm quality.
The men took ivermectin for 11 months to treat active river blindness, which is longer than almost anyone taking human or animal formulations of ivermectin as a preventative or treatment for COVID (no, it doesn’t do either).
The study found that 85% of the men they observed over the 11 months had poor sperm quality and/or count, rendering them infertile. The study didn’t account for other potential factors, which may have been very likely given so many test subjects were rejected before the study was done because they were already functionally infertile.
Misinformation cuts both ways, and you should always consider your own personal biases when consuming information and deciding what is fact and fiction.
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) Hospitals in Eastern Washington are in a state of collapse with oxygen running low and open discussion of having to move to crisis standards of care. Our Pacific Northwest neighbors in Idaho and Alaska continue to see cases and hospitalizations rise, while Oregon is seeing numbers decline. The updated IHME forecast also paints a bleaker picture for the Evergreen State.
Northshore School District was stable for new cases, while Bellevue moved into status yellow and Thoreau Elementary in Lake Washington reported a new case, and 4 quarantined. Microsoft decides to pause the reopening of U.S. offices indefinitely as Delta continues to surge.
Governor Inslee announced a statewide mask mandate for outdoor large events and fielded questions on why the state isn’t moving to restrict capacity at restaurants, bars, and other venues.
The Clallam County health officer is receiving threats after requiring vaccination verification in restaurants in bars. School officials in Vancouver, Washington had to get an emergency court order against the Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and Open Schools USA. This wasn’t the only COVID-related violence in the United States in the last couple of days.
The Biden Administration announced a long list of measures that will require as many as 100 million to get vaccinated and enable additional safety protocols.
We explain religious exemptions and dive into misinformation about the COVID vaccine and convicted felon Robert O. Young who pretends to be a doctor.
We have good news in Mississippi in Texas tonight – so it isn’t all gloom and doom.
Through September 8, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 511.6 COVID cases per 100K. Clallam (1,029.0 per 100K), Columbia (1,123.1 per 100K), Franklin (1,328.0 per 100K), and Okanogan (1,027.1 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Clallam and Okanogan counties broke 1,000 per 100K again, and Franklin County’s 1,328.0 per 100K is one of the highest infection rates we have ever seen. Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Cowlitz, Douglas, Garfield, Grant, Lewis, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens, and Yakima.
King County is at 302.2 cases per 100K, nearly unchanged from yesterday.
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 48 deaths yesterday. There may be delayed reporting in that number from the holiday weekend. Still, the dramatic increase of Washingtonians on ventilators that started last week is probably running its course.
Governor Inslee mandates masks at large outdoor events
In a press conference today, Governor Jay Inslee announced that Washington was expanding its existing mask mandate to include large outdoor events. The new rule, which will go into effect on September 13, requires anyone 5 or older to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status, at outdoor events with more than 500 people.
The new mandate mirrors existing rules already implemented in King and Pierce counties. Additionally, everyone is encouraged to wear a mask outdoors if they are in an area where social distancing and free movement are challenging or impossible.
The governor stated, “We have no plans to do that. We are not considering doing that,” after being asked why the state was not implementing capacity restrictions for bars, restaurants, and other venues.
Dr. Umair Shah, the Washington State Secretary of Health, added, “we have that tool today. Vaccines and that is the tool we are using today.”
When asked if Washington was considering a statewide vaccine passport, Governor Inslee said, “It is not something that is going to happen in the next couple of days, but we are looking at it.”
Clallam County Health Officer receiving threats after restaurant and bar vaccination requirement
Dr. Allison Berry, the Clallam County Health Officer, expressed fear for her safety and refused to go into her office due to threats and harassment after implementing a so-called vaccine passport requirement at bars and restaurants last week.
“It’s been really scary,” said Berry. “It’s certainly affected my life, the way I take care of my child, the way I try to guarantee both of our safety, and the way I do my job,” Berry told KING5 news.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a few of the comments made toward Berry but said, at this time, none are in criminal violation of the law.
While people are trying to instill fear, Berry said she stands by her decision.
“I think for me, it’s important not to let people who would threaten public officials win,” said Berry.
After the failure of the January 6 insurrection, right-wing and white nationalist groups have been aligning themselves with the anti-vaccination movement. Matt Braynard, who is leading the Justice for J6 rally in Washington D.C. on September 18, is aligned with Del Bigtree of ICAN. Bigtree produced the movie Vaxxed and was a speaker at the Stop the Steal rally on January 6.
Violent incidents were reported in Texas, Michigan, and Missouri in the last 24 hours.
Judge issues emergency order in Vancouver, Washington to protect students
Last Friday, the Proud Boys joined other protesters in Vancouver, Washington, forcing three schools into lockdown while harassing students and faculty and attempting to enter the school building. The protest was caused by misinformation spread by an anti-vaccination and antimask advocate, who claimed a student would be arrested at Skyview High School for refusing to wear a mask. Many of the same people who protested on Friday were in Olympia Saturday at an event that devolved into multiple people being attacked and a shooting.
The same person who organized the protest last week in Vancouver posted on social media on Tuesday, calling for another protest at Skyview High School. This morning, Clark County District Judge Suzan Clark granted an injunction prohibiting protests, rallies, or other gatherings.
The injunction requires that “protests, rallies, gatherings on or near school premises that disrupt educational services, immediately cease and desist and not be allowed to convene on or within a one-mile radius of any Vancouver School District building or grounds.” The injunction is effective as long as state-issued mask mandates are in effect.
“Our district understands and supports free speech and the right for people to be involved in peaceful protests,” said Superintendent Jeff Snell. “However, our first priority is to ensure student and staff safety and an educational environment free of disruption. This responsibility prompted us to present our concerns to the court.”
Former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Angus Lee penned a warning letter to Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins and Chief James McElvain advising them not to make an”invalid arrest.” Lee’s letter is inflammatory and includes transphobic rhetoric while accusing the Clark County Sheriff of providing carte blanche to Black Live Matters protesters last year.
Gabriel made news last year as an 8th grader in Oregon, where she was involved in protests demanding the return of in-person instruction, and she is listed as a co-founder of Open Schools USA, along with Michelle Morales-Walker. The group attended an anti-vaccination mandate in McMinnville, Oregon, on September 6.
IHME forecast for Washington state gets bleaker
The IHME updated the forecast for Washington state through December 1, and the situation has gotten bleaker. The model now forecasts 8,864 COVID deaths total by December 1 if the state continues on its current trajectory. Fatalities are forecasted to peak on November 2.
Hospital resources are projected to peak next week but stay at that high state until October. More concerning, the model predicts the state may be at a peak for new cases now but shows cases increasing again in November to even higher levels than the current peak.
If everyone wore a mask, we could save 1,000 lives, according to the model.
Travel Advisories
We recommend avoiding all travel to Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla counties, along with the state of Idaho. Hospital resources in these regions are so constrained that you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
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Vaccination
With vaccination mandates growing nationwide, and the anti-vaccination movement shrinking in numbers, some people are applying for a religion-based vaccine exemption. This raises the question, Which religions shun vaccination as part of their tenets.
The short answer is none of the major religions, nor their branches have an anti-vaccination doctrine. There are a few sects, mostly aligned with Christianity, that have an established theological objection. That includes Dutch Reformed, Faith Tabernacle, Chuch of the First Born, Faith Assembly, and End Time Ministrie.
In Islam and Judaism, only the strictest adherents are against vaccines that specifically use porcine gelatine – an ingredient not found in any version of the COVID vaccine.
Additionally, the Church of Christ, Scientist, which strongly encourages members to rely on faith and prayer for healing, does not have an official doctrine against western medicine or vaccinations.
Anyone who has already applied for an exemption claiming to be a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses should expect it to be denied. It is a common misconception the religious group is against vaccination, but that hasn’t been a tenet since 1952. In an article published in 2011, the group provided a list of health recommendations, including encouraging vaccination.
King County, Washington is reporting over 84% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 22.3% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 88.8% of capacity statewide, with 34.3% of ICU patients fighting COVID, unchanged from yesterday.
The new hospital admission rate for COVID patients is 188 per day, indicating that the state has caught up on reporting over the weekend. The Department of Health adjusted the number of total COVID patients reported on September 7 slightly down to 1,740 but increased the number of people on ventilators to 268. On September 8, there were 1,767 patients and 260 on ventilators.
In today’s press briefing, Dr. Shah said that balance loading at hospitals was “challenging,” and they were asking healthcare partners “to defer elective procedures.”
“We can’t do this alone. This isn’t about me. This is about the we,” he pleaded.
The University of Washington Medicine was only performing day surgeries unless they were trauma or critical care related. In some cases, patients were waiting in the operating room for an hour before being moved to the PACU or ICU at some hospitals.
“You see these lists of people who want care from your (hospital), and you have to make them wait – that’s heartbreaking,” Currie said.
Providence has formed patient placement committees to triage patients at most risk for a higher level of care and decide what smaller hospitals can handle.
In Yakima, the situation is worse with Yakima Memorial Valley Hospital rationing care, low on oxygen, and patients leaving the waiting room without being seen. Recently the internal demand for oxygen rose so high an entire unit was push beyond capacity. The lines that deliver oxygen can freeze if the flow exceeds design, cutting off the supply to all patients.
Dr. Marty Brueggman said the hospital was moving closer to “crisis standards of care” and gave a stern warning.
“They may decide that we don’t have the resources to care for you and your chance of survival is low, so we’re not gonna ask if you want to resuscitate or not. We’re just not gonna be able to do it.”
Yesterday we shared a statement from the Washington Department of Health and information from the Washington State Hospital Association. The official plan in Washington state is not to let an individual hospital go to crisis standards of care. If all resources are exhausted statewide, either the worst impacted region or the entire state would move to so-called black tag triage.
– Kamiakin Middle School (81)) – Juanita Elementary (1) – Juanita High School (8) – Thoreau Elementary (4)
– Mark Twain Elementary – 2nd-grade class (multiple confirmed cases)
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (1) – Bothell High School (12) – Canyon Creek Elementary (4) – Canyon Park Middle School (4) – Crystal Springs Elementary (5) – East Ridge Elementary (2) – Fernwood Elementary (2) – Frank Love Elementary (2) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (1) – Kenmore Elementary (1) – Kenmore Middle School (19) – Maywood Hills Elementary (2) – North Creek High School (8) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (1) – Shelton View Elementary (6) – Skyview Middle School (12) – Sunrise Elementary (1) – Timbercrest Middle School (6) – Westhill Elementary (4) – Woodin Elementary (3) – Woodinville High School (4) – Woodmore Elementary (9)
None
Local Districts Scorecard
With Bellevue School District reporting 10 confirmed COVID cases, it moves to Yellow on the scorecard. Lake Washington reported a confirmed COVID case at Thoreau Elementary, while Northshore adds to the list of schools with quarantined students. The number of quarantined people at Skyview Middle School dropped by more than half today, in a positive sign.
Microsoft notified employees and vendors today it has indefinitely delayed their return to U.S. offices until the uncertainty around the trajectory of COVID is clearer.
“Given the uncertainty of COVID-19, we’ve decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening of our U.S. work sites, [sic]” Jared Spataro, a corporate vice president, wrote in a blog post.
Microsoft had planned to have workers return in October. Other area tech companies that have delayed a return to the office include Google and Amazon. Amazon and Microsoft have a large presence in Bellevue, and Google has a 54-acre campus in Kirkland.
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulitaive Case Tracker 176,710 new cases and 2,146 COVID-related deaths on Thursday.
“In light of the public health guidance regarding the most effective and necessary defenses against COVID-19, I have determined that to promote the health and safety of the Federal workforce and the efficiency of the civil service, it is necessary to require COVID-19 vaccination for all Federal employees, subject to such exceptions as required by law.”
The mandate would extend the existing order to the US military and healthcare workers who provide services at facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid to include 300,000 Head Start early childhood education and other federal education program employees.
The second executive order calls for Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors. The order does not specifically mandate vaccination for government contractors or their subcontractors but instead calls for the development of guidelines to assure that government contractors can fulfill their obligations.
“This order promotes economy and efficiency in Federal procurement by ensuring that the parties that contract with the Federal Government provide adequate COVID-19 safeguards to their workers performing on or in connection with a Federal Government contract or contract-like instrument.”
“These safeguards will decrease the spread of COVID-19, which will decrease worker absence, reduce labor costs, and improve the efficiency of contractors and subcontractors at sites where they are performing work for the Federal Government. Accordingly, ensuring that Federal contractors and subcontractors are adequately protected from COVID-19 will bolster economy and efficiency in Federal procurement.”
“Once again, President Biden has missed the mark. His outrageous, overreaching mandates will no doubt be challenged in the courts. Placing more burdens on both employers and employees during a pandemic with the rising inflation rates and lingering labor shortages is totally unacceptable.
“Alabamians have stepped up by rolling up their sleeves to get the covid-19 vaccine, increasing our doses administered significantly in recent weeks. We have done so without mandates from Washington D.C. or Montgomery. I’ve made it abundantly clear: I support the science and encourage folks taking the vaccine. However, I am absolutely against a government mandate on the vaccine, which is why I signed the vaccine passport ban into law here in Alabama. This is not the role of the government.
“I continue encouraging any Alabamian who can to get the covid-19 vaccine. We have a safe and effective tool at our fingertips, so let’s roll up our sleeves and get this thing beat.”
By Thursday, hospitals and ICUs around the state continued to report being at or near capacity as a surge driven by the highly contagious delta variant continues in Alaska. Facilities have reported that staffing shortages and limited bed capacity are their top concern and say they’re not sure how much longer they can continue operating under such high levels of stress.
“Emergency departments remain open for emergency, life-sustaining treatments, but they are very tight,” said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, during a call with reporters.
Critical cardiac, orthopedic, burn, and infectious disease patients normally would be transferred to Seattle once they are stable enough to travel. Yesterday, the Washington State Hospital Association told reporters that transferring patients was a major challenge within Washington and were “under no obligation” to accept out-of-state patients.
The mandate requires “COVID-19 vaccinations for all students who access in-person instructional programs operated on district facilities, who are 12 years of age and older.”
The plan requires students age 12 and older who participate in in-person extracurricular programs to have a first vaccine dose by Oct. 3 and their second no later than Oct. 31.
All other students aged 12 and up would be required to receive their first dose by Nov. 21 and their second by Dec. 19. Other students would have to receive their first dose no later than 30 days after their 12th birthday and their second dose no later than eight weeks after turning 12.
The outbreaks represent a total of 886 cases, 86% of which have been students. The number of K-12 outbreaks nearly doubled from the previous week when 42 were reported.
Georgia
Atlanta’s public safety-net hospital is the latest to temporarily cancel elective surgeries, saying it’s overrun with COVID-19 patients.
More than 5,900 people sickened by the respiratory illness are in Georgia hospitals. COVID-19 patient numbers have been hovering around a record 6,000 for more than a week.
While hospitals in Georgia teeter on crisis standards of care, Governor Brian Kemp tweeted he would fight the Biden Administration’s executive order.
“Let’s keep our fingers crossed because it looks like we are on the backend of this doggone delta wave,” said Dr. Thomas Unnasch, an infectious disease researcher at the University of South Florida who has been forecasting COVID-19 trends in our region since the beginning of the pandemic.
The seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 infections in Florida peaked in mid-August at just under 21,800 and has been slowly declining ever since, according to Dr. Unnasch’s forecast models.
Idaho
The Panhandle and North Central Health Districts in Idaho continue to operate using “crisis standards of care.” We strongly recommend not to travel to Idaho during this time of medical crisis. Any health emergency requiring hospitalization could result in you receiving inadequate care.
While the 193 total hospitalizations in Maine is still shy of last winter’s peak numbers, the 74 patients in intensive care unit beds is the most to date. Additionally, 38 of those individuals – or roughly 20 percent of all hospitalizations – required ventilators to assist breathing.
New cases in Maine are now equal to the January 2021 peak and are continuing to climb.
Michigan
On Tuesday, a crowd of unmasked high school students backed by parents forced their way into Manchester High School.
Students at a school in Manchester, MI, instigated by parents, refuse to comply with the mask mandate and enter school. This is the next phase – school boards can enact policies, but someone also has to enforce them. pic.twitter.com/KLhqgUP8or
When questioned about how the mask mandate would be enforced, a sheriff’s deputy who was overseeing the situation said: “I’m not going to force anybody. I’m not putting masks on anybody. That’s not my job. This is a county health department order.”
Similar incidents happened at other schools in the district. These incidents do have consequences.
Like other states, Michigan is facing a staffing crisis in hospitals. Vaccine mandates aren’t a large factor at this time. Burn out, poor working conditions, and better pay as traveling nurses or on contract have skilled staff abandoning hospitals. As noted in the Vaccination Section, 88% of nurses and 96% of doctors are already vaccinated nationally.
“I am fatigued, and I am heartsick, and I’m tired of watching people suffer needlessly and die of a disease that could have been prevented by a simple and safe and effective vaccine,” Dr. Nicole Linder said. “I don’t want to watch my patients’ families suffer with the grief of this, and also the guilt if they played some role in their family member’s decision not to be vaccinated.
“The issues that we’re dealing with in caring for these hospitalized COVID patients that weren’t present during the earlier waves, I think, do create a new dimension of stress and sadness and fatigue for those of us on the front lines. You’re taking care of people who are dying that didn’t need to die.”
Jim Craig, senior deputy for the Mississippi Department of Health and Director of Health Protection, said the state is seeing a small improvement in hospital bed availability, but ICU capacity continues to be “very scarce.”
“The bed capacity for ICU space is effectively zero still in the state of Mississippi,” Craig said. Craig said the Department of Health has applied to extend the support of federal partners working at the Jackson and Biloxi Veterans Affairs hospitals, the 23-person Department of Defense military team at the University of Mississippi Medical center, and a group working on monoclonal antibody administration at the university.
A total of 1,660 people were hospitalized with coronavirus in Mississippi on Aug. 18, compared with 1,285 on Tuesday. A Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker showed that, as of Tuesday, Mississippi had the ninth-highest COVID-19 rate in the U.S. The state had 79.5 new cases and 1.3 deaths per 100,000 residents.
One man was handcuffed by a sheriff’s deputy after confronting a woman who used her cell phone to video record a group of parents who had gathered outside the Pleasant Hill High School auditorium, said Maj. Kevin Tieman, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
“There was an altercation between a couple of people out front of the school with a lady saying that she’d been harassed or assaulted by somebody else,” Tieman said. “She said they took her cell phone away from her.”
In June, Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston posted on Facebook that it had just six people hospitalized with COVID-19. That number rose to 21 in July and 79 in August. The first six days of September saw 20 patients already, including six in intensive care and two on ventilators. None of the 20 patients were vaccinated, the hospital says.
The town of 16,000 residents about 145 miles sits in Scott and New Madrid counties. State tracking on Thursday showed those counties had the worst rates of new COVID-19 cases over the past seven days. Eight of the nine hardest-hit counties over the past week are in the southeastern corner of the state.
“The Delta variant seems to be causing more symptoms in children than the initial COVID variant,” said Dr. Michael Bigham, a pediatric ICU physician, and chief quality officer with Akron Children’s Hospital.
COVID-19 is not the only virus resulting in filled beds in children’s hospitals. Doctors said RSV is nearing a peak about two to three months earlier than usual.
“As soon as the masks went away, boom, there was RSV, even being in the middle of summer where RSV has no business being,” UH Rainbow Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Amy Edwards said.
She said the reduction in masking and the return to school are clear factors in the increasing spread of respiratory viruses.
“For the past several days, OHA has reported sharp increases in the daily deaths associated with COVID-19,” OHA Director Patrick Allen said in a statement. “This grim trend follows several weeks of record, or near-record, daily cases and hospitalizations. Oregonians should be prepared to see this tragic toll escalate dramatically in coming days and weeks.”
More than 1,000 people have died of COVID-19 in South Carolina over the last month. The statewide death toll is now 11,051.
DHEC also reported Thursday that 3,466 new cases came in from testing completed two days ago. That brings the state’s COVID-19 case count to nearly 780,000 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to DHEC.
As she trails behind Wolff, a masked H-E-B employee comes up to speak with her. “You’re a traitor, too,” she tells him, before turning her attention back to the judge.
“You’re going to go to jail. They’re going to hang you. Treason, crimes against humanity, Nuremberg trial. You’re going down,” the woman said. “You better enjoy your freedom while it lasts, buddy, and you got to answer to God.”
In better news, Flavia Souza, the Houston’s Museum District Child Care Center director, worked diligently and patiently to fight misinformation and vaccine hesitancy to convince the entire staff to get vaccinated. Instead of using incentives or mandates, she applied logic, education, and open dialog among her staff as more and more got vaccinated.
Today, the Fort Worth Independent School District was handed a legal victory when a judge with the Second Appellate District of Texas in Fort Worth sided with the school district – opening the door for Fort Worth ISD to bring back a mask mandate.
“At this time, there are no court orders or executive orders that are prohibiting the District from implementing a mask requirement,” Fort Worth ISD officials said.
Four hospitals in the rural and sparsely populated state have no ICU capacity left, while Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie had only one bed.
Misinformation
There appears to be a fresh take in the misinformation department about the COVID vaccine containing graphene oxide. This is a super sciency document about the characteristics of the compound. The Reader’s Digest version is as a powder, graphene oxide is brown, and when suspended in a fluid, it is yellow. The COVID vaccines are clear, so there is an immediate problem with this conspiracy theory.
The second issue is the viscosity of graphene oxide. The accusation is the vaccination is made up of 99% of the stuff, but if that were the case, the injection would be in a solid-state. Even at just an 8% solution, the fluid would have the same density of axle grease or peanut butter.
The biggest issue with this conspiracy theory is its origin. The disinformation campaign comes from Dr. Robert O. Young, who double-downed on his claims as recently as August 27. There is a major problem. Dr. Robert O. Young isn’t a doctor. He doesn’t hold a master’s degree, an undergraduate, an associate, or even a vocational certificate. He has never had any education beyond graduating high school.
In 2018, as part of a settlement in a $105 million lawsuit, he agreed never to use the title of doctor again or make any claims of having any medical expertise. As a matter of fact, Mr. Young has been charged 21 times for practicing medicine without a license in Arizona, Utah, and California from 1995 to 2014.
In 2014 when he pleaded guilty, he had to state that he has no post-high school educational degrees from any accredited schools as part of the deal. Additionally, He stated he was none of the following: a microbiologist, a medical doctor, a hematologist, a naturopathic doctor, or a trained scientist.
Mr. Young offered a “pH Miracle Retreat” before he was shut down, which cost attendees $1,295 to $2,495 per night.
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) The somewhat positive news that new COVID cases continue to try and hold a peak was dampened by a stark warning issued by the Washington State Department of Health over dwindling resources. While new cases plateau, the number of hospitalized patients, ICU patients, and patients on ventilators continues to climb.
There were no new cases or quarantines reported in the Lake Washington School District today, where officials are working on a remote learning solution for students who can’t attend class. Northshore saw more cases, including a significant jump at two middle schools.
Yes, Sounders FC will also require vaccination or a negative PCR test to attend games, and a potential sickout at Seattle City Light didn’t materialize. Washington state poison control is getting a lot of calls about ivermectin, and Cowlitz County requested a mobile morgue.
Amazon gets called out for surfacing books and materials that provide COVID misinformation.
In the south, the Gulf States appear to have reached a peak (we don’t know about Louisiana) while the Pacific Northwest, including Alaska, and Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana deal with regional surges.
The data today is still a bit hazy, but hospitalization data has caught up with more health systems reporting after the long weekend. Through September 7, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 506.4 COVID cases per 100K, which is down slightly from the last update. Washington state continues to bounce between 500.0 and 535.0. Columbia (1,147.0 per 100K) and Franklin (1,208.1 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Cowlitz, Douglas, Garfield, Grant, Lewis, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Stevens, and Yakima.
King County is at 300.4 cases per 100K, another decline from yesterday. The data is encouraging that the state is holding at a plateau for new cases, after some alarming trends last week.
The Washington State Department of Health reports a data backlog for test positivity, with the published number 14 days old. According to Johns Hopkins University Medicine, the positivity rate for the last 30 days is 13.11%, and over the previous 7 days, 13.83%. The rate of hospitalization was unchanged for ages birth to 49, and up for ages 50 and above.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
26.3 (down)
0.2
Ages 12-19
21.2 (down)
0.2
Ages 20-34
53.1 (down)
1.3
Ages 35-49
45.1 (down)
2.8
Ages 50-64
31.5 (down)
4.1 (up)
Ages 65-79
17.0 (down)
4.0 (up)
Ages 80+
5.0
1.7 (up)
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 52 deaths yesterday, but that almost certainly includes more than one day of data due to the holiday weekend.
The Sounders FC too
Yesterday we covered how the Cougars, Huskies, Mariners, Kraken, Seahawks, and Storm would require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to attend games – you can add the Sounders FC to that list too.
“Sounders FC is proud to work with our friends at the Seahawks to take steps forward together in supporting public health,” said Sounders FC Owner & President of Business Operations Peter Tomozawa. “As excited as we have been to welcome fans back to Lumen Field this season, we recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over and we want to do everything in our power to continue to provide a safe and comfortable matchday experience to everyone who comes out to the stadium. Part of that means executing King County’s expanded mask mandate effectively immediately, and a larger part is working with the Seahawks and Lumen Field to institute vaccination verification for all of our events. The Seahawks are beginning that process on September 19, and Sounders FC is prepared to follow suit starting with our first home match after that point, on October 3.”
Calls to Washington Poison Control about ivermectin triples
According to Phillips, most calls were inquiring about the safety of the drug, which is used to treat parasites and certain skin conditions in animals and less often in humans. However, the center has also received calls from individuals who were recently hospitalized or were experiencing symptoms of poisoning, Phillips said.
Ivermectin was developed in the 1970s and was first approved for use in animals in 1981. Developed from an organism found in the soil of Japan, it is highly effective against a wide range of internal and external nematodes and arthropods. In 1988 it was approved to be used in humans. The drug is credited for the near eradication of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. Both diseases were common in Africa and are caused by parasites. River blindness is spread by flies and lymphatic filariasis by mosquitoes.
In the United States, particularly in rural communities and through disinformation from anti-vaccination groups, people have been self-medicating using animal formulations as a preventive or treatment. The improper use has led to hospitalizations, blindness, and liver damage in extreme overdoses. Where many online recommendations include daily dosing followed by a wider interval, in impoverished areas where ivermectin use is ubiquitous to prevent parasites, dosing can be a single pill a year.
Ivermectin as a treatment for COVID rose in popularity due to a preprint study earlier this year. The study was pulled after failing peer review, which indicated that data was manipulated and falsified. Media outlets NewsMax, OAN, and InfoWars continue to advocate its use, despite numerous warnings and the single discredited study. Contrary to the accusation from people such as U.S. Senator Rand Paul (KY-R), tests for ivermectin for combating COVID, and a long list of other diseases are not being blocked by any government agency or Merck. Quite the contrary, there are countless studies going on for a wide range of potential applications, almost all of them for the treatment of parasites.
The largest study to date for the effectiveness of ivermectin against COVID, which has received multiple peer reviews, indicated that ivermectin had no meaningful impact, and for sicker patients created worse outcomes. The study done in Argentina was randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled – the gold standard. The report concluded the only statistical difference was subjects taking ivermectin who became moderately to severely ill, required mechanical ventilation much sooner than the placebo group.
If you take away one thing from this let it be this. For humans, ivermectin is a Class C Pregnancy Drug that should not be taken by children under 33 pounds, pregnant women, or women who are nursing. In studies during its development, it was shown to cause birth defects in animals. There is no clinical or scientific evidence it has any impact on the prevention or treatment of COVID, and the best available data indicates that for the sickest patients, it produces worse outcomes.
Another threat of a sickout that didn’t happen
Seattle City Light braced for a sickout yesterday over a looming vaccine mandate, which never materialized. Online groups called for the sickout, involving the city’s 250 linemen. Yesterday only 2 called in sick.
Senator Warren (MA-D) urges Amazon to tackle COVID misinformation
Last week we wrote about how Amazon, Google, and Microsoft were amplifying COVID misinformation around ivermectin due to their algorithms. It appears other people are noticing also. In a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Senator Warren outlines her staff’s findings when searching the Amazon website for various COVID-related terms, and asks the company to take action.
The senator’s staff found that searches for terms including “COVID-19,” “COVID,” “vaccine,” “COVID-19 vaccine” and “pandemic” led to results such as books offering “falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and cures,” including at least one that Amazon tagged as a best seller. We were able to duplicate some of the findings in her letter.
“As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, Amazon is feeding misinformation loops through its search and ‘Best Seller’ algorithms, potentially leading countless Americans to risk their health and the health of their neighbors based on misleading and inaccurate information that they discover on Amazon’s website,” Warren wrote.
Editor’s Note: Irresponsible headlines like the one used by the New York Times (Elizabeth Warren Accuses Amazon of Peddling COVID Misinformation) for this story do not benefit the general public or support an environment of open dialog.
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Vaccination
King County Health updated its COVID-19 outcomes by Vaccination Status dashboard today. The unvaccinated are sevenfold more likely to test positive for COVID, 50 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 30 times more likely to die from the data compiled over the previous 30 days.
King County Public Health COVID-19 Outcomes Vaccination Status Dashboard for September 8, 2021
So if vaccines are so effective, why is the number of vaccinated people with breakthrough cases increasing? Those numbers of people who were vaccinated testing positive are alarming!
For positive COVID tests during the last 30 days, 6,010 vaccinated people, out of 1,527,760 total had a breakthrough case. That’s 0.39% of all vaccinated King County residents. During the same time period, 12,972 partially vaccinated and unvaccinated residents out of 732,240 tested positive for COVID – that’s 1.79%. Looking only at the 32% versus 68% can lead to a data fallacy if you don’t consider the total population of the two groups.
Study from Yale University and published in The Lancet indicate average age for hospitalized breakthrough cases is 80-1/2 years old
These patients tended to be older — between 65 and 95 years old with a median age of 80.5 — and had preexisting comorbidities, such as cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. A subset of patients was also on immunosuppressive drugs that may affect vaccine efficacy.
“The majority of fully vaccinated patients experience mild or no symptoms if infected with SARS-CoV-2,” Chun said. “This research identifies those who suffered more severe disease, and we need a better understanding of how to best manage these patients.”
Chun noted that many of the patients with severe breakthrough infections in the study were hospitalized before the Delta variant became the predominant variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. Additional research will be needed to determine the impact of the Delta variant on the rate of breakthrough COVID-19, he said.
Researchers noted the study was done before Delta became the dominant variant, and they are continuing to gather data.
King County, Washington is reporting over 84% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
Hospital capacity is currently stressed across the state of Washington. The surge in hospitalizations is one that the Washington Department of Health (DOH), with its healthcare partners, has been monitoring closely. At this time, partners across Washington have undertaken a number of strategies to stretch resources and mitigate current challenges.
DOH has adopted and plans to use the ethical framework developed by the National Academy of Medicine, which stresses the importance of an ethically grounded system to guide decision-making in a crisis standard of care situation. It also defines surges capacity within the healthcare systems, during normal operations and disaster operations, as a continuum: from conventional to contingency and finally crisis. The goal is to prevent ever having to utilize crisis standards of care anywhere in Washington.
DOH is working with state, federal, and private partners to mitigate Washington’s health care surge by accessing additional volunteer and contracted resources, coordinating information sharing, and supporting efforts to shift patients to healthcare facilities that can best support their care. DOH encourages Washingtonians to help by doing their part such as getting vaccinated, wearing masks in crowded or indoor public places, and taking other preventive steps.
Hospital status update
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 22.2% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID, unchanged from yesterday. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 88.7% of capacity statewide, with 34.3% of ICU patients fighting COVID.
The new hospital admission rate for COVID patients is 188 per day, indicating that the state has caught up on reporting from over the weekend. The Department of Health adjusted the number of total COVID patients reported on September 6 to 1,775, a new record. On September 7, the number dropped slightly to 1,743 with 265 on ventilators.
Cowlitz County commissioners declared an emergency and formally requested a mobile morgue for the county. Coroner Tim Davidson said the morgue and the county’s funeral homes are maxed out on capacity and are “being creative” to maintain cold storage. All together, the facilities can typically hold 45 bodies and right now have about 65, he said.
PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview ended COVID testing at the hospital on August 19 because they were overwhelmed with patients. Yesterday hospital officials reported 30% of all patients are fighting COVID, and 80% are unvaccinated.
PeaceHealth St John COVID patients in Longview, Washington, September 7, 2021
Data for pediatric patients receiving acute care or in a PICU due to COVID is not available.
– Kamiakin Middle School (81)) – Juanita Elementary (1) – Juanita High School (8)
– Mark Twain Elementary – 2nd-grade class (multiple confirmed cases)
Northshore
YELLOW
– Bothell High School (17) – Canyon Creek Elementary – Canyon Park Middle School (3) – Crystal Springs Elementary (5) – Fernwood Elementary (2) – Frank Love Elementary (2) – Kenmore Elementary (1) – Kenmore Middle School (19) – Kokanee Elementary (1) – North Creek High School (3) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (1) – Shelton View Elementary (6) – Skyview Middle School (28) – Sunrise Elementary (1) – Timbercrest Middle School (3) – Westhill Elementary (4) – Woodin Elementary (3)
None
Local Districts Scorecard
The biggest change overnight was in the Northshore School District, where 19 students at Kenmore Middle School and another 27 students at Skyview Middle School were put into quarantine. Cases slightly increased in the Bellevue School District, while no new cases or additional closures were reported for Lake Washington. LWSD is setting up virtual learning for the 81 students in quarantine at Kamiakin Middle School.
Johns Hopkins University Cumulitaive Case Tracker 261,683 new cases and 1,513 COVID-related deaths on Wednesday. The new case number would include a backlog of data from the holiday weekend, while the COVID-related death number is likely incomplete.
Alabama
Alabama may be reaching a plateau in cases, as officials hold their breath to see the impact of the Labor Day weekend. According to Dr. Don Williamson with the Alabama Hospital Association, when looking at the numbers of hospitalizations during the last couple of weeks, the state of Alabama might have hit a plateau. He said only the coming weeks will tell.
“We had 27 hundred and 76 patients in the hospital, and that is about 300 below our historic highs but we are running that number now for over a week,” Williamson said.
Like other hospital officials and researchers, models are being based on the Delta variant and its spread in the United Kingdom, where cases reached a peak about 60 days after it first arrived.
Alabama is ramping up test capacity statewide and has partnered with CVS to provide 13 additional testing locations.
Alaska
Alaska is the forgotten member of the Pacific Northwest states and is in a state of crisis that mirrors Washington state. According to the state’s data, almost all of Southcentral and Interior intensive care units are full or near capacity. Doctors in the state have repeatedly warned that the system is at its limit. Hospitalizations have roughly doubled since state hospital officials sounded the alarm about a month ago.
The state also reported more than 840 new cases of COVID-19 for Tuesday — among the highest single-day counts since the pandemic began. Alaska is dependent on Washington state to take their critical patients that need orthopedic, cardiac, and burn care.
Last week reported on an alarming incident at Mesquite Elementary School in Tuscon, Arizona where three men confronted the principal and threatened to citizen arrest her. All three men have been identified and all three have been criminally charged. Frank Tainatongo, 48, was charged on Tuesday, Kelly Walker, the owner of a Viva Coffee Shop was charged Monday and Rishi Rambaran was charged last week.
In another high-profile incident of Arizona’s acting badly, Janene Hoskovec, 55, went viral after harassing people in a Nebraska grocery store for wearing masks. In the video, she coughed on people intentionally, while mocking their mask wear and calling them, “sheep.”
Lincoln, Nebraska, where Hoskovec was visiting family, currently has an indoor mask mandate. The video went viral after being posted on Tik Tok, and internet sleuths quickly tracked down her identity. The father of the 13-year old girl who shot the video, and was the target of Hoskovec said, “She instigated the whole thing. Picked a mother/child to harass. Think they just wanted to getaway. Lady kept following them. Some other folks stepped in.”
Cooper said the overwhelming evidence before him in a lawsuit by parents challenging the DeSantis ban was that wearing masks does provide some protection for children in crowded school settings, particularly those under 12 for whom no vaccine yet exists.
“We’re not in normal times,” Cooper said, in a hearing held remotely. “We are in a pandemic. We have a variant that is more infectious and dangerous to children than the one we had last year.”
Idaho
Yesterday the Panhandle and the North Central Health Districts in Idaho had to move to “crisis standards of care.” Today there was a report of a non-COVID-related cardiac patient who died in the northern part of the state because there was no oxygen available for their care.
Now, other parts of the state are sounding the alarm, as the hospital system is collapsing despite all efforts to prevent it.
Editor’s Note: We strongly recommend not to travel to Idaho during this time of medical crisis. Any health emergency requiring hospitalization could result in you receiving inadequate care.
Kentucky
A house bill in the Kentucky legislature that would end the student mask mandate failed to pass in a special session called on Tuesday. The bill, House Bill 1, would give schools more flexibility to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It would give schools 20 flexible remote learning days and create a “test-to-stay” program, so they can test out of quarantine. Students who are exposed to COVID-19 can stay in school as long as they continue to test negative each day. The mask mandate survived by one vote.
Mississippi
Mississippi COVID cases appear to have peaked (along with Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida) but pediatric cases in particular, and deaths continue to rise. Currently, more than 15,000 students in Alabama are in quarantine and over 18,825 tested positive for COVID in the last 28 days.
“Twelve to 15 kids hospitalized per day in the ICU and on ECMO,” said Grace Wakulchik, president and CEO of Akron Children’s Hospital, during the press conference.
“We currently have 26 children in the hospital, nine of which are in the ICU and five on ventilators,” said Tim Robinson, CEO at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
“We have been very full, and we anticipate being very full again this week,” said Patty Manning-Courtney, MD, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
The models that predicted Oregon would hit its peak this week appear to be coming true with hospitalization numbers starting to trend down. But like in other states where cases are tailing off, the final phase where fatalities increase has now begun.
The city attorney’s office advised city staff on Tuesday that the order issued last week that all employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs could not be extended to the city’s police force. That was due to new guidance from the Oregon Health Authority, which said the Governor’s order mandating vaccines for health care workers likely did not apply to police.
The issue in question was whether police officers were medical first responders, similar to firefighters. The city attorney determined that this was not the case.
South Carolina
If South Carolina was a country, it would have the third-highest rate of COVID cases on the planet behind only Mongolia and Grenada. When asked who bears responsibility for South Carolina’s latest surge, Dr. Brannon Traxler, director of public health at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, on Wednesday said, “I don’t think that this is a matter of who to blame.
“From a public health standpoint, we know that the answers to stopping the spread of this virus are vaccines, wearing masks, washing hands, and practicing physical distancing,” Traxler said.
“DHEC is not interested, myself included, in pointing fingers or blaming one person or a group of people because this pandemic, which really is unprecedented, as we’ve all heard so many times, is just so complex. … We all have individual choices to make.”
Active cases of COVID in South Dakota are now at levels not seen since January 7. Active cases are now at 6,182, up from Friday (5,970) while hospitalizations ticked down slightly.
Texas
The state of Texas is seeing a trend similar to Alabama. Hospitalizations appear to have peaked for adults, while pediatric hospitalizations continue to increase. The state has been hit with COVID and RSV cases, stretching pediatric ICU resources to the limit.
He says Texas Children’s is at a high plateau right now, which hopefully means their numbers will start to go back down at some point.
“We’ve had a census exceeding 50 children and adolescents per day most of the past two weeks,” Dr. Versalovic said about Texas Children’s. “We continued to have numbers above 40 just in the past 24 hours. We set a new record in the past week in terms of the number of children testing positive at Texas Children’s, well over 380 positive tests in a 24 hour period.”
Over the holiday weekend, Texas had more than 300 children hospitalized for confirmed COVID cases.
West Virginia
Governor Jim Justice announced Wednesday “West Virginia leads the nation in the acceleration rate of new cases.”
He also outlined that 10 schools have closed due to an increase in cases and one entire county, Clay County, has closed schools in the district due to COVID-19 cases and exposure. 29 districts have issued masked mandates for students K-12.
As of Wednesday, 813 West Virginians are in the hospital battling COVID-19 complications. According to DHHR data, 252 have been admitted to the ICU and 132 are currently on ventilators. Gov. Justice said the number of patients in the ICU and on ventilators is at an all-time high for the state.
Governor Justice is a bit of a minor star on social media due to his mannerism and delivery of his COVID updates to his state. You can watch for yourself in this clip that went viral today.
“For God’s sakes a livin’, how difficult is this to understand?"
— Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) is losing it over anti-vaxxers and vaccine conspiracy theorists pic.twitter.com/EzsiEz8W95
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) The number of students in quarantine at Kamiakin Middle School almost tripled today, and a second-grade classroom at Mark Twain Elementary was closed due to “multiple confirmed COVID cases.” All three school districts we are following are reporting students and faculty in quarantine.
If you want to watch live professional sports in Washington, you’re going to need a COVID vaccination or a PCR test, with every team along with the Huskies and Cougars announcing requirements today.
Washington state COVID numbers are incomplete due to the long holiday weekend, but they aren’t good as hospitalizations, and ICU patients set new records. In a press conference today with the Washington State Hospital Association, the alarm was sounded about the impact COVID is having on pregnant women and shrinking available medical resources.
Vaccination rates at a local, county, state, and national level grew as fewer people are vaccine-hesitant. It was reported up to 200 Seattle Police Officers will resist or quit over the City of Seattle vaccine mandate, and someone has set up a website calling for officers to resist.
There was a lot of irresponsible hype about the Mu variant this weekend after several news sources ran with a story about the variant being identified in 49 states. No, you don’t need to lose sleep over Mu. A pre-print report that was recently released and is well researched indicates the number of COVID mutations is declining at a country and global level as more people get vaccinated.
Nationally, Idaho had to move to “crisis standards of care” today in two districts, imperiling the health of Idahodians that require medical resources. Hawaii got an emergency shipment of oxygen from the mainland over the weekend, averting a crisis. Remember the ivermectin story out of Oklahoma last week? We go over what went sideways with that and what is truth and reality as more information has come out. The short version – almost everyone got it wrong except the doctor interviewed in the first place.
Finally, my day started at 7 AM, and I haven’t had lunch or dinner. There are probably a lot of typos – your patience is appreciated. (OK, just did a ton of edits)
Today is the first update from Washington state since Friday. Data isn’t complete from all agencies, making the fidelity of data cloudy for the next couple of days. Through September 6, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average was 517.7 COVID cases per 100K, which is statistically unchanged from the last update. Clallam (1,042.1 per 100K), Columbia (1,147.0 per 100K) Franklin (1,217.4 per 100K), and Okanogan (1,015.5 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Asotin, which dropped below 1,000.0 over the weekend, and Benton, Chelan, Cowlitz, Douglas, Garfield, Grant, Lewis, Pend Oreille, Stevens, and Yakima. Lincoln county fell off the list, dropping to 760.2
King County is at 311.8 cases per 100K, a slight decline.
The Washington State Department of Health reports a data backlog for test positivity, with the published number 14 days old. According to Johns Hopkins University Medicine, the positivity rate for the last 30 days is 13.29%, and over the previous 7 days, 15.31%. Hospitalizations were down for the 20 to 34 and the 50 to 64 age groups. The data released today should be considered incomplete due to the 3-day holiday weekend.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
27.4 (down)
0.2
Ages 12-19
22.4
0.2
Ages 20-34
58.5 (down)
1.3 (down)
Ages 35-49
47.3 (down)
2.8
Ages 50-64
33.2 (down)
3.7 (down)
Ages 65-79
17.8 (down)
3.8
Ages 80+
4.9
1.5
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
Huskies, Cougars, Mariners, Seahawks, Storm and Kraken requiring vaccinations for home games
In an avalanche of announcements today, almost every major college and professional sports franchise announced that proof of vaccination would be required to attend home games in Washington state.
The Seattle Seahawks announced that the team and Lumen Field will require proof of COVID-19 vaccination. All guests age 12 and older will be required to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours before kickoff to attend Seahawks games at Lumen Field. The Seahawks will begin enforcing the new policy starting with the team’s home opener on September 19 vs. the Tennessee Titans. In accordance with current Washington state and King County mask mandates, fans and staff will also be required to wear masks at all times except while actively eating or drinking, regardless of vaccination status.
The Seattle Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena made an identical announcement almost at the same time. In compliance with the mandate from Washington state, Climate Pledge Arena and the Seattle Kraken have announced that all guests, ages 12 and over, attending Kraken games, concerts, and events at Climate Pledge Arena will be required to provide proof of vaccination upon entry. In the near term, all guests will also be required to wear a mask while attending events until further guidance from Washington state.
The Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena will introduce a seamless and convenient process to allow guests to show proof of full vaccination via their smartphones. Additionally, Climate Pledge Arena will require proof of vaccination for all events.
Husky fans over the age of 12 will need to provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the event.
The Washington State Cougars will require proof of vaccination for fans age 12 and older, beginning with home games at Gesa Field in October.
Cougar fans that are not vaccinated will need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 within 72 hours of the event.
Shortly after the college announcements, the Seattle Storm and the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett made their announcement. According to a team spokesperson, the team will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of game time during playoffs, which begins on Sept. 23.
Until then, the team plans to provide vaccinated and unvaccinated sections for its remaining two home games on Tuesday, Sept. 7, and Friday, Sept. 17.
An hour later, the Mariners and T-Mobile park made a similar statement. However, any proof of vaccination requirement won’t happen unless the Mariners make the postseason. For now, the Public Health order for masks applies to fans ages 5 and older in all locations of T-Mobile Park, including seats and concourses, but masks are not required while fans are actively eating and drinking. The proof of vaccination policy won’t be installed until potential postseason games at the earliest.
4 ejected and 6 arrested on Seattle to Anchorage Alaska Airlines flight forced to make an emergency landing over mask wear
Four passengers were ejected from Alaska Airlines flight 109 before it even departed Seattle for Anchorage, Alaska, and another 6 were arrested when the flight had to divert to Juneau. Officials in Seattle had to escort 4 people off the aircraft on Saturday before it even left the gate for being disruptive and refusing to wear masks.
After the plane took off, 6 additional passengers from the same group became combative. They refused to follow directions, and things escalated to threats directed at passengers and the flight crew, with one stating, “we are locked and loaded.” The cabin crew became so nervous about the threats they approached several passengers, asking if they could assist if the group got more violent.
The pilot announced the aircraft had a mechanical problem and needed to make an emergency landing in Juneau. When the plane landed, local and state police were waiting, boarded the aircraft, and escorted the six men off the plane in handcuffs.
Alaska Airlines stated the six men removed did not continue to Anchorage on Alaska Airlines flight. There was no information at press time on whether any of the six men were booked or are facing criminal charges.
Seattle Police Officers Guild “unofficially” sets up anti-vaccination website
Someone within the Seattle Police Department has set up a website encouraging officers not to report their vaccination status to the City of Seattle, with the vaccination looming. The introduction of the website reads, “Welcome fellow SPD family members who have made it here. As you are aware by now, the city is demanding that all SPD officers provide the City with proof of vaccination or submit a request for vaccination exemption by September 22, 2021. This mission is one of human rights, constitutional rights, civil liberties, and freedom of choice. We all must band together in our stance for freewill, personal choice, medical freedoms and consent without coercion, retaliation, harassment, disciplinary action, or termination.”
The legality of local and state government-mandated vaccinations was addressed by the Supreme Court in 1905, in the case Jacobson vs. Massachusetts. As reported on Saturday, the WFSE reached an agreement with the State of Washington on modifications to the vaccination mandate that provides more equity. This agreement doesn’t impact SPOG or the Seattle Police Department. It is also clear the union, for that matter, any union would have pursued a Constitutional legal avenue if a valid one existed.
The site states it is not affiliated with the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild but uses the SPOG rallying cry of “hold the line.” Interestingly, the site does not state if it is affiliated with the Seattle Police Department.
The about section states, “My name does not matter. I took an oath, just the same as so many of you. I am someone who refuses to sit back and watch the futures of so many great men and women be placed at risk of being ripped away by a government entity who has no right forcing us all to to [sic] submit to a vaccine and disclose private medical information regarding the same.”
Jason Rantz reported that up to 200 Seattle Police Officers refuse to get vaccinated or hand over their information for verification. This would represent about 19% of the current force but does not align with other municipalities, states, schools, and private businesses that have had vaccine mandate deadlines pass. The state of Hawaii mandated 14,000 workers to get vaccinated, and so far, 92.6% have gotten at least the first dose. Vaccine mandates at hospital systems and colleges have yielded 95% to 99.6% compliance.
Reports King County and Seattle are working on a vaccine verification program to access non-essential businesses
The program would not be implemented until at least October, and according to Constantine, would have at least a five-week lead time to give people time to get vaccinated.
First deadline to get first vaccination to meet October 18 state work vaccination requirement has come and gone
For employees planning to get vaccinated by the October 18 stated deadline, the date for the first dose of the Moderna vaccine was yesterday. The interval between the first and second shot is 4 weeks, followed by two weeks to reach maximum effectiveness. Guidelines still under consideration by the federal government would call for a booster shot 8 months after the second dose.
The Pfizer vaccine, which is fully FDA approved for people 16 years old and over, has a deadline of September 13. The first vaccine to reach full approval has a 21 day period between the first and second shot.
The Johnson & Johnson shot is a one-and-done shot, requiring 14 days to reach maximum effectiveness. On paper, state employees could wait until October 4. However, federal distribution of the vaccine has ground to a halt, making doses difficult to find.
King and Pierce counties outdoor mask mandate begins
Washington’s two most populous counties, including the cities of Bellevue, Seattle, and Tacoma, had their outdoor mask mandates go into effect today. People who attend outdoor events with 500 or more people will be required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Mask wear is highly recommended in crowded outdoor areas where social distancing is impossible, and movement is restricted. Mask wear is required outdoors if you’re unvaccinated in almost all situations.
Did you go to the Ellensburg Rodeo or Dave Matthews Band shows at The Gorge?
County officials in Kittitas County are appealing to anyone who went to the Ellensburg Rodeo or Dave Matthews at the Gorge to get a COVID test over the next few days. Officials in Kittitas County are going to be adding testing capacity. The public health community is concerned that the combination of these two events and public schools starting this week will break the back of the local hospital.
Kittitas Valley Hospital is a small acute care facility with 25 beds. They are currently full, and 24% of their patients have COVID. According to a spokesperson with the facility. Officials warned in a Washington State Hospital Association press conference today that the ability to move patients between Washington hospitals is starting to gridlock.
Pediatric death
The Washington State Hospital Association reported a pediatric COVID patient died in Spokane at Sacred Heart last week. No additional information on age, hospital or city of residence was given. This is the 13th COVID-related death of a juvenile patient in Washington state.
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The UK’s four chief medical officers have now been asked to have the final say and consider the wider impact on schools and society.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said a decision would be made shortly.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation did advise widening the existing vaccine program to include an extra 200,000 teenagers with specific underlying conditions such as children with chronic heart, lung, and liver conditions.
University of Washington Medicine appeals for pregnant women to get vaccinated
A spokesperson from UWMC outlined data on the increasing number of pregnant women hospitalized in Washington state today in a press conference with the Washington State Hospital Association. In a recent study evaluating 800,000 pregnant women at more than 500 medical facilities, researchers found that being unvaccinated increased the risk of early delivery (before 37 weeks) 22 fold. Unvaccinated pregnant women had a 14 times greater risk of needing a ventilator and a 15 times greater risk of death.
When the blood oxygen level in a pregnant woman drops to a dangerous level, early delivery may happen spontaneously. In other cases, it may need to be induced to try and save the mother and child. UWMC reported turning away patient transfer requests for pregnant women who needed ICU-level care and not just due to COVID. The hospital has no capacity for interstate transfers.
King County, Washington is reporting over 84% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 22.2% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have COVID, another new record. A hospital system caring for this many COVID-positive patients in acute care is considered to be under “severe stress.” ICUs are at 88.8% of capacity statewide, with 34.9% of ICU patients fighting COVID, virtually unchanged from last week.
The new hospital admission rate for COVID patients is 173 per day, down significantly from last week – however, the Washington State Hospital Association note in a press conference this morning that hospital occupancy information was incomplete due to the holiday weekend. On September 6, there were 1,585 patients hospitalized with COVID and 246 on ventilators, according to the Department of Health. This was a new record.
The WSHA reported 1,674 COVID patients hospitalized, up 7% from last week, a new record. The number of ICU patients on ventilators was up 34% from last week.
The Washington Department of Health has not responded to our request to explain the difference between the state and WSHA numbers.
EvergreenHealth Kirkland hospitalized COVID patients for September 7, 2021
During the WSHA press conference today, red flags were raised on several issues within Washington state, as hospitalized patient numbers and ICU use continues to grow. It was explained that staff and equipment for kidney dialysis are in critically short supply in Washington, impacting more than COVID patients.
Additionally, the organization reported that Washington state is already “triaging care.” Currently, the Washington Medical Coordination Center, operated out of Harborview Medical Center, assists hospitals in Washington state to “find beds for patients where beds can’t be found…beyond the normal system.”
Routinely, hospitals work within their networks and with agreed partnerships to move patients. A year ago, the state agreed to share resources so that if moving patients within networks wasn’t possible, coordination could happen across the state. Larger hospitals are on a “guaranteed acceptance” if a patient has nowhere to go, but that is not a long-term commitment, and the WMCC has no commitment to coordinate with or accept out-of-state patients.
“If you come in with a stroke or a cardiac event, there is no bed for you,” said Dr. Linda Eckert of Kittitas Valley Hospital. “This isn’t just a COVID emergency. This is an emergency for rural residents.”
When questioned about what going to “crisis standards of care” would look like, WSHA president Cassie Sauer explained that Washington has an agreement not to let a single hospital going into crisis care. If resources were to become exhausted, a hospital region or the entire state would move to crisis care standards.
“Healthcare is not an unlimited resource,” Dr. Sauer concluded.
Data for pediatric patients receiving acute care or in a PICU due to COVID is not available.
– Kamiakin Middle School (81)) – Juanita Elementary (1) – Juanita High School (8)
– Mark Twain Elementary – 2nd-grade class (multiple confirmed cases)
Northshore
YELLOW
– Bothell High School (12) – Canyon Park Middle School (1) – Crystal Springs Elementary (5) – Fernwood Elementary (3) – Frank Love Elementary (1) – Hollywood Hill Elementary (1) – Inglemoor High School (1) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (1) – Kokanee Elementary (1) – Maywood Hills Elementary (3) – North Creek High School (1) – Northshore Middle School (2) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (15) – Shelton View Elementary (5) – Skyview Middle School (2) – Timbercrest Middle School (2) – Westhill Elementary (1) – Woodin Elementary (3) – Woodmoor Elementary (6)
None
Local Districts Scorecard
All three area school districts are now reporting COVID cases and quarantines. The Lake Washington School District moved into red status less than one week after school started.
Bellevue School District is reporting exposures and confirmed cases at 7 different schools. However, they currently have less than 10 confirmed cases.
The Lake Washington School District has hit growing quarantines and exposures at two schools, while infections spread to four facilities. Kamiakin Middle School now has 81 students, with 53 more exposed to a COVID positive student.
Additionally, in a message sent to parents this morning, school officials indicated an entire classroom at Mark Twain Elementary was put into quarantine.
“We are writing to inform you that there have been positive cases of COVID-19 reported that involves our school. The individuals and the families who tested positive, along with close contacts, have already been notified by the school. This letter is intended to keep our community informed to what is happening at Mark Twain. Currently, we are following the direction of the Department of Health and shutting down a classroom in an abundance of caution because of multiple positive cases.”
There was an additional single case at Juanita Elementary reported over the weekend.
The Northshore School District is reporting 19 facilities with students or faculty in quarantine. Currently, none of the 19 schools impacted have reported widespread exposure.
Johns Hopkins University Cumulitaive Case Tracker 73,331 new cases and 530 COVID-related deaths on Tuesday. These numbers are missing many reports nationally due to the Labor Day holiday.
Mu, also known as B.1.621, is considered a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization, had blaring headlines that the variant represents 39% of all COVID cases sequenced in Columbia, is worse than Delta, and breaks through vaccines more effectively. The variant gained the “variant of interest” distinction because of the number of genetic mutations, its increased resistance to current COVID vaccines and people infected do become sicker.
Scary headline-grabbing stuff!
Mu only represents 0.2% of cases globally, and that 39% number of Columbia is under 1,000 total cases. Additionally, there are signs that the number of Mu cases globally is in decline.
When a virus mutates, it becomes concerning if it is more transmissible, more deadly, and can escape vaccine immunity. Data from Belgium indicates that Mu is more deadly, and data from multiple countries shows that it is better at causing breakthrough cases than Delta. An official R0 is not available for Mu, but nothing indicates it is equally or more transmissible than Delta. Because Mu can’t outspread Delta, it can only establish itself in small pockets of unvaccinated communities.
For another variant to become the next globally dominant strain, it will have not only to be more vaccine-resistant than Delta, but it is going to have to out replicate it. That’s a tall task for the next mutation.
The end of the pandemic and moving to an endemic is in sight
A critical disclaimer, the article has not been peer-reviewed, and several of the researchers have connections to various firms and agencies. However, the researchers include doctors from the Mayo Clinic and Harvard and analyzed genomic sequencing information globally. In a discussion, Dr. Katelyn Jetelina referenced the study today, along with a couple of our researchers.
The study examined 1.8 million genomes from 183 countries and territories between December 2019 and May 2021 and identified 1,296 unique lineages for COVID mutations. The study reached three critical conclusions:
The diversity of COVID mutations is declining globally
The diversity of COVID mutations is declining at a country level
Areas with more vaccinated people are seeing less total mutations
Study indicating that the number of COVID mutations is declining as vaccinations become more widespread globally
The study also indicated that vaccinated patients with breakthrough cases produce significantly fewer mutations than unvaccinated patients.
The good news is as more people get vaccinated, the number of variants is in decline, and as of early this summer, globally, we are starting to win the war. The Delta variant waves in India and the United Kingdom ran for 40 to 60 days before sharply declining. This happened because Delta is so infectious, it spreads easily among the unvaccinated and runs out of uninfected hosts.
There are signs that the United States is reaching a national peak, but there will be hotspots for weeks to come. The more vaccinated people, the harder it will be for COVID to produce a variant that can out replicate Delta and can breakthrough vaccinated and natural immunity.
We will never eliminate COVID, but if we can slow down the mutation of the existing strains, it becomes increasingly unlikely we will get something worse than Delta, that can also out replicate it.
Biden Administration to announce a new national COVID strategy on Thursday
The announcement from White House press secretary Jen Psaki comes as the U.S. reached more than 40 million recorded cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and as health officials race to contain the highly contagious delta variant.
We can tell you this much. It will not include a national mask or vaccine mandate.
Today, the United States reached a grim milestone of 650,000 COVID deaths and is currently adding more than one million COVID cases a week.
Alabama
Alabama continued to struggle with COVID and reported having negative 92 ICU beds over the weekend, meaning 92 more patients needed ICU bed care than the state’s hospitals had formal ICU beds. While some hospitals had available ICU beds to care for the critically ill, others had patients awaiting that care. More than half of the state’s 1,618 ICU patients on Sunday had COVID-19. In plain language, Alabama is in “crisis care management” even without the declaration.
Of the 2,713 people hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide on Sunday, 84 percent were unvaccinated, according to the Alabama Hospital Association.
“The COVID pandemic and recent Delta variant surge have stressed the healthcare system and put tremendous pressure on our staff – including nurses on the front lines,” UAB Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Terri Poe said in a statement.
Lindsey Harris, president of the Alabama State Nurses Association, spoke to reporters after the workers entered the hospital. Although she had not spoken to the specific nurses who gathered at UAB tonight, Harris said Alabama nurses are paid 8% less on average than their counterparts in neighboring states.
Many hospitals are losing thousands of nurses and skilled professionals moving to contract work and traveling nursing due to significantly higher pay.
Tucson cannot force its employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and the city puts millions of dollars of state revenue at risk if it continues to enforce a mandate handed down by the City Council last month, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Tuesday.
“Tucson’s vaccine mandate is illegal, and the city could be held liable for attempting to force government employees to take it against their beliefs,” Brnovich said in a released statement. “COVID-19 vaccinations should be a choice, not a government mandate.”
If the city does not rescind or amend the policy within 30 days, it could lose state revenue dollars, Brnovich’s office said.
In other news, the Cyber Ninjas are still sick with COVID and have not released their election report to the Arizona state Senate.
Linda Marraccini, a family medicine doctor in South Miami, sent a letter to patients informing them that because the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for general use by the Food and Drug Administration, unvaccinated individuals will no longer be allowed to attend in-person appointments at her practice.
“This is a public health emergency — the health of the public takes priority over the rights of any given individual in this situation,” Marraccini wrote in the letter obtained by NBC Miami. “It appears that there is a lack of selflessness and concern for the burden on the health and well-being of our society from our encounters.”
Dr. Marraccini is not the first physician to make this announcement, and doctors can fire patients if they follow a procedure that does not medically abandon their patients.
“It’s an empty hole in our heart, and she was amazing,” Chris Wishart told WRDW. “I couldn’t have had a better daughter. She was everything I’d want in a daughter.”
Hawaii
Maui County will require vaccination cards to access indoor restaurants, nearly identical to a vaccination ID mandate in Honolulu. The program will go into effect on September 15.
Hawaii got an emergency shipment of medical-grade oxygen on Sunday, preventing disaster at state hospitals that were critically low of the important resource. Another shipment is expected later this week.
Idaho
The sum of all fears became a reality today as multiple hospitals in Northern Idaho went to “crisis standards of care,” including the Panhandle and the North Central Health District. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced the decision Tuesday morning. It applies to North Idaho, based on a recommendation from a large health care committee and patient-advocacy stakeholders from around the state.
Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene and surrounding area hospitals have run out of resources to care for the influx of patients.
Panhandle Health District — Benewah Community Hospital, Bonner General Hospital, Boundary Community Hospital, Kootenai Health, Shoshone Medical Center.
North Central Health District — Gritman Medical Center, Clearwater Valley Hospital and Clinics, St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, St. Mary’s Hospitals & Clinics, Syringa Hospital & Clinics.
The move allows hospitals to allot scarce resources like intensive care unit rooms to patients most likely to survive.
Other patients will still receive care, but they may be placed in hospital classrooms or conference rooms rather than traditional hospital rooms or go without some life-saving medical equipment.
“Crisis standards of care is a last resort. It means we have exhausted our resources to the point that our healthcare systems are unable to provide the treatment and care we expect,” Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said in a statement.
This standard of care isn’t just for COVID patients but any other medical care. Travel and activity in this area should be avoided because a medical emergency or car accident could result in not receiving adequate care due to a lack of resources.
In an 11-page decision, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Michael Oster Jr. wrote that there “was no doubt that the medical and scientific communities do not support the use of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19.”
Jeffrey Smith has been at West Chester Hospital since July and has been intubated since August 1. The original order has run its course. Julie Smith, the patient’s wife, claims that her husband’s condition has improved, but he is still on a ventilator.
UC Health, which operates West Chester Hospital, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the decision was “positive.”
“We implore all members of the community to do what we know works: wear a mask, become fully vaccinated and use social distancing whenever possible,” Martin told the newspaper. “At UC Health, we respect the expertise of our clinicians and appreciate the scientific rigor used to develop treatments, medications, and other therapies.
“We do not believe that hospitals or clinicians should be ordered to administer medications and/or therapies, especially unproven medications and/or therapies, against medical advice.”
Oklahoma
Last week we shared a local news report from Oklahoma from Dr. Jason McElyea about ivermectin overdoses overwhelming hospitals in the rural southeast portion of the state. In his report, he indicated that patients, including gunshot victims, had to wait in ambulances for available resources.
Rolling Stone and several other publications picked up the story. Over the weekend, one of the hospitals denied the claims made by Dr. McElya. Fox News then jumped on that claim, roasting Rolling Stone for publishing false information.
Having shared the KFOR story ourselves, we monitored this over the weekend and were prepared to do a retraction. Today, INTEGRIS Gover Hospital made a statement, “what we can confirm is that we have seen a handful of ivermectin patients in our emergency rooms.” The hospital added: “And while our hospitals are not filled with people who have taken ivermectin, such patients are adding to the congestion already caused by COVID-19 and other emergencies.” In a follow-up message Monday night, hospital spokesperson Kristi Wallace said they had no beds available that night.
So what went wrong here? The original story we linked to provided quotes from Dr. McElya but didn’t fully explain what he said. In another article done by Tulsa World, more context from the same interview was provided. He told a story about being unable for hours to find space at a big-city hospital for a gunshot victim he was treating in a small-town emergency room — but this article did not attribute the scarcity of appropriate beds to ivermectin. In fact, the article did not mention ivermectin at all.
When Northeastern Health System Sequoyah issued a statement saying he hadn’t worked there in more than two months, that the hospital hadn’t seen any patients with complications from taking ivermectin and that it “has not had to turn away any patients seeking emergency care,” ring wing media pounced on the story as badly as KFOR did.
One thing that jumped out at us was the word “northeast,” as the original KFOR story referenced “Southeast Oklahoma.” At the time the statement was made over the weekend, several other hospitals had not released statements.
In reaching the finish line, it appears KFOR didn’t provide proper context, aggregators (including us) were too quick to grab the story, the right-wing media was too quick to jump on a single denial, and Dr. McEyea statement as presented by KFOR was taken out of context.
Everyone screwed up – including us – we aren’t going to retract the story now there is more context, but we do apologize and will not use KFOR as an aggregate source in the future.
Pete Lopez of Richmond had been at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land for almost a month battling COVID-19. According to his family, he was put on a ventilator on Aug. 19.
His family, who has been appealing with Memorial Hermann to administer the controversial drug, won a court order for the hospital to treat him with the controversial drug.
Despite the family’s court order win, they claimed the hospital refused to administer the drug.
According to Snider, Lopez was previously prescribed ivermectin by VA Medical Center, but he was admitted to the hospital before he was able to take it.
“He had the prescription with him at the hospital, and the doctors knew that,” Snider told Eyewitness News on Sunday. “We have been asking them to administer it since day one.”
A judge signed a court order in favor of the family on Sept. 3, according to documents.
The matter has been referred to the U.S. Attorney Office in Vermont and FBI, which is investigating, according to a statement released by the Vermont State Police Tuesday afternoon in response to questions raised by VTDigger.
Michael Schirling, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, told VTDigger he couldn’t comment beyond the statement.
“Because there’s an ongoing federal investigation, I can’t get into in any more detail than what’s in the release,” he said.
Two of the troopers, Shawn Sommers and Raymond Witkowski, submitted their resignations on Aug. 10, according to the state police statement. That’s a day after another trooper brought the matter to a supervisor.
As a result of further investigation by the state Department of Public Safety, the third trooper, David Pfindel, resigned effective Sept. 3, according to the statement.
According to the statement, the troopers “are suspected of having varying roles in the creation of fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards,” a possible violation of federal law.
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) An anti-vaccination protest led by the Proud Boys turned violent in Olympia today, with one person shot. The Northshore School District reported new COVID cases at multiple schools on Friday. Predictions of a sickout over vaccine mandates by Washington State Ferry appear to have not come true.
The Washington state employees union appears to have reached a deal with the state over the COVID vaccine mandate. Federal unemployment programs including $300 a week in extra federal benefits, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) for the self-employed, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), and extended unemployment benefits end today for Washington state residents.
The Washington State Department of Health does not report data over the weekend.
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 48 COVID-related deaths on Friday and the third day in a row with more than 4,000 new COVID cases in the Evergreen State.
Anti vaccination “End of the Mandate” rally turns violent in Olympia with one shot
After forcing three schools into lockdown on Friday in Vancouver, Washington, the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys, planned an anti-vaccination protest in Olympia on Saturday called End of the Mandate. The group originally planned to gather on the Capitol grounds but moved their planned event to Sylvester Park to confront a group of Antifa protesters.
Several short video clips showed 50 to 75 heavily armed Proud Boys, including some carrying firearms and others with shields, paintball guns, and baseball bats, roaming the streets of Olympia chanting, “fuck Antifa.” The Proud Boys and their supporters left the main anti-vaccination protest and stalked the streets of Olympia for 20 minutes, assaulted several people including area residents who were uninvolved in the protest. All of their actions were documented on live streams.
Reporter Alissa azar being attacked by the proud boys in Olympia
The group then started chasing another person for approximately a half-mile. According to a Facebook post by the Washington State ACLU, several people running from the Proud Boys tried to board a city bus, and reports are one of them fired 5 shots, striking one person in the foot. The bullet allegedly struck Proud Boy leader Tusitala “Tiny” Toese in the ankle. A single 9mm casing was observed at the scene on a live stream.
Other people are reporting that the gunshot was self-inflicted, while others are claiming it was fired at the people boarding the bus by a person among the Proud Boys, ricocheted, and struck Toese. There is no update on Toese condition. The actual shooting was not caught on camera.
Gunshots fired in Olympia during an anti-vaccination protest that rapidly devolved into violence
In another video, Toese required a tourniquet and there was a significant amount of blood loss. The Proud Boy leader is currently on probation and was involved in violent assaults in Portland, Oregon last month. Tiny’s profile has increased in recent months with the arrests of Ethan Nordean and Rufio Panman for their alleged involvement in the January 6 insurrection, thrusting Toese into a leadership role.
Reports of multiple people being shot and a potential stabbing appear to be untrue. The situation is evolving and more information continues to come in. Despite multiple claims of a person arrested by right-wing social media accounts, the Gateway Pundit is reporting no one has been arrested.
There is an additional report of a person being arrested for pepper-spraying police officers before the shooting, but that is also unconfirmed. Olympia Police and Washington State Patrol didn’t have a significant presence, gathering on the edges of Sylvester Park. At one point the Proud Boy mob marched past the Washington State Patrol building adjacent to Capitol grounds. Over police scanners, the Olympia Police reported they didn’t have adequate resources to respond to the Proud Boys.
This is by far the most violent incident involving protests against mask and vaccination policy in the United States after a series of increasingly violent events in the past week.
Washington Federation of State Employees reaches tenative agreement with Governor Inslee over vaccine mandate
The union is reporting the following concessions were made by the state and is encouraging members to vote in favor of the deal.
Members who complete vaccination by October 18 will be credited one day of personal leave as an incentive, that must be taken within the 2022 calendar year
Anyone who wishes to retire by December 31, 2021, can do so regardless of their vaccination status as long as they submit their retirement paperwork by October 18
Any employee who files for a medical exemption by September 13, and has not had the evaluation process completed by October 18, will not have their pay suspended until the exemption decision is made
If an exemption is denied on valid grounds, the employee can use their annual leave and leave without pay to become fully vaccinated within 45 days
If an employee is not fully vaccinated by October 18, but has received their first dose, they can use leave without pay for up to 30 days to complete vaccination and return to their previous position or equivalent
The state will share vaccination rate data with the union, and partner to target worksites that are lagging for vaccine education and access
A requirement for telecommuting workers to return to the office on 3 days notice has been removed
Washington State Ferries sickout over vaccine mandate never materializes
According to the Washington State Ferries site, operations have been smooth over the holiday weekend. The only run impacted due to staffing issues was Seattle/Bremerton, which is operating on one ferry over the weekend, which was announced yesterday.
PeaceHealth reports 95% of employees elected to get vaccinated by deadline
Among the less than 300 remaining, an undisclosed number are awaiting final disposition on medical exemption or religious requests. The number of personnel who opted to resign is far lower than what activists predicted.
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Thank you to our new subscribers and those of you who have made one-time contributions. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for helping us keep the lights on!
No promotional consideration has been given, or requested from the n95 project or any manufacturer of masks
Vaccination
Another poll has come out showing support for getting the COVID vaccination is growing. The latest NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll conducted after the Food and Drug Administration gave the Pfizer vaccine full approval for people over 16 years old, mirrors findings from the Axios/Ipsos poll we reported on last week.
The survey was done from August 26 to August 31 and found 19% of U.S. adults declaring they do not intend to be vaccinated. This is down 5 points from the previous poll and is almost identical to the Axios/Ipsos poll that found 14% would never get vaccinated, and 6% declaring it was unlikely.
The same poll reported 72% of respondents have already received the vaccine. According to the CDC, 74.8% of Americans 18 and older have received at least one dose. On September 3, 1.4 million COVID vaccine doses were administered, including 550,000 people who were newly vaccinated. It was the highest number of doses given since July 1.
King County, Washington is reporting over 83% of age eligible residents are vaccinated with at least one dose. The highest rates of positivity are in areas with low vaccination rates statewide. The FDA has provided full approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital appealed to the public to follow guidance from officials to prevent any additional surges The 226-bed facility is caring for 223 patients, 50 with COVID and 6 on ventilators. Although the hospital has 226 beds on paper, 36 of those are for psychiatric care and labor and delivery. The hospital has expanded capacity by adding wards and parking patients in the emergency room while they wait for an available bed.
Back to School
School District
Status
Quarantines
Closures
Bellevue
GREEN
None
None
Lake Washington
YELLOW
– Kamiakin Middle School (28) – Juanita High School (8)
None
Northshore
YELLOW
– Bothell High School (12) – Cottage Lake Elementary (3) – Crystal Springs Elementary (6) – Fernwood Elementary (4) – Frank Love Elementary (1) – Hollywood Hill Elementary (1) – Inglemoor High School (1) – Kokanee Elementary (1) – Maywood Hills Elementary (4) – North Creek High School (2) – Northshore Middle School (2) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (15) – Shelton View Elementary (4) – Skyview Middle School (2) – Sunrise Elementary (1) – Timbercrest Middle School (2) – Wellington Elementary (6) – Westhill Elementary (1) – Woodin Elementary (2) – Woodinville High School (8) – Woodmoor Elementary (6)
None
Local School Districts Scorecard
The scorecard has been updated to include data from the Northshore School District.
How we score a district
GREEN: Less than 10 reported COVID cases within the entire school district contained to one facility.
YELLOW: More than 10 confirmed COVID cases resulting in quarantine of students, faculty, coaches, or transportation, or less than 10 confirmed COVID cases in more than one facility. Less than 10% of the student body is infected, and no school buildings have been closed due to infections or loss of faculty.
RED: The district has been forced to close at least one school or makes the decision to move to remote learning due to COVID infections, or the district remains opens with no school closures, but more than 10% of students are quarantined.
Officials in Spokane are reporting an unknown number of COVID cases among students at Rogers High School. Spokane Public Schools Spokesperson Sandra Jarrard doesn’t know how many cases there currently are, she told KREM 2’s Morgan Trau. In an email to parents, she added that the “situation is considered confined and not considered an outbreak.”
The contact tracing team is conducting an investigation to compile a list of close contacts, she said. Anyone who is considered to have been in close contact with those COVID-19 positive received “separate communication” with more information regarding testing and quarantine requirements. Staff and students that are not notified by the contact tracing team, have been determined not to have had close contact with the confirmed case, she added in the email.
Yesterday in the comments, there were questions about the vaccination rates by zip code in our area. We have that information.
King County COVID vaccination rates – at least one dose – by zip code as of September 3, 2021
Zip Code
Percent vaccinated, at least one dose, 12 and older
98155
92.0%
98028
88.7%
98011
88.0%
98034
85.2%
98033
91.9%
98072
91.0%
98052
>95.0%
98004
>95.0%
98039
93.8%
98005
94.5%
98007
88.9%
Vaccination rates for those 12 and older by zip code – at least one dose
Local area vaccination rates far exceed state and national averages, and are even higher for adults 18 and over. There is a touch of irony that the lowest vaccination rate is in the same zip code where the first COVID death was officially recorded in the United States.
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulative Case Tracker reported 300,957 new cases and 3,910 COVID-related deaths on Friday. It is important to note several states, including hard-hit Florida, only report their data once a week. This creates an artificially high number. Data is best viewed on a 14-day rolling average to analyze long-term trends and a 7-day rolling average for emergent trends.
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady reported he had COVID in February, shortly after the Super Bowl. He has since been vaccinated, and NFL officials report that the Buccaneers are one of only two NFL teams to be 100% vaccinated. It is reported that COVID filed a complaint with the NFL, claiming Tom Brady cheated by deflating his blood pressure and watching films on how COVID infects cells and replicates. A representative for Brady refused to comment.
Brady’s former coach, Bill Belichick, created controversy on Wednesday when being asked about the release of Quarterback Cam Newton. Belichick dodged the question, but went on to say, “high number of players, coaches and staff members” have tested positive for COVID-19 after they were fully vaccinated.”
“We released our data last week from the first three weeks of August, and that data has consistently shown higher rates of infection in unvaccinated players than in vaccinated players. That was true at intake when they first came into training camp and it was true during that first three-week period of August that we released,” he said. “From a medical perspective, go to any major medical center in the country and as you walk around, those patients who are hospitalized, those who are in the ICU, you see the evidence the vaccines are working.
“We know that vaccines are working. What we are seeing are some vaccinated people who test positive. But their illness tends to be very short and very mild, and that’s exactly what the vaccines were designed to do,” he continued. “Let’s all remember the vaccines were designed to prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death. They’re doing a terrific job of that so far, not only in the NFL where we haven’t seen any serious cases but in society as a whole.”
According to data from the NFL, 0.3% of players experienced a breakthrough case from August 1 to 21, while 2.2% of unvaccinated players became ill. The sevenfold difference between the vaccinated and unvaccinated mirrors data across the country.
COVID also claims that Belichick filmed how it operates against the immune system and supplied the films to Brady. However, officials were quick to point out that the relationship between the two soured in 2019.
At a Madison County School Board meeting Thursday night, parents remained split on masks with seven speakers opposed to a mandate and four in support.
“What kind of future will our kids have if they are being told from a young age to cover their mouth?” Kim Davis said during the meeting. “This is a decision for we the parents, not the school board. I demand the right for parents to decide for their child.”
The state argues the coalition lacks legal standing to challenge a law that, among other things, bars communities from enacting COVID-19 restrictions that affect businesses, schools, and churches. Irvine argued members of the coalition can’t show they were harmed by the law.
Irvine also argues the challenged provisions are constitutional.
Kelly Walker has not been arrested for his role in the incident at a Tuscon elementary school on Thursday, despite instigating the incident and issuing threats over social media.
California
Although California has done better than other west coast states in the current surge and has a highly vaccinated population, regional hot spots persist. Hospitals in the eight-county San Joaquin Valley region have had fewer than 10% of staffed adult ICU beds for three consecutive days. State officials labeled it a “surge,” triggering special rules announced last month that require nearby hospitals to accept transfer patients.
In Fresno County and neighboring counties, the number of confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients in hospitals is more than double what it was four weeks ago, the Fresno Bee reported.
If ICU capacity were to drop to zero, the state of California would enact forced patient transfers to other facilities where surging cases are not occurring.
Florida
It’s another sign that Florida has reached a peak, but the last part of a COVID surge is the worst. While new cases and hospitalizations continue to drop, COVID-related deaths continue to climb. Fatalities are a trailing indicator, and typically peak 4 to 6 weeks after new cases reach a peak, and 2 to 3 weeks after hospitalizations peak. Outcomes for patients who end up on ventilators are poor with the Delta variant, with 70% to 80% dying. For the lucky few who quality for ECMO, only 30% will move back to a ventilator.
But it also reported 2,345 new COVID-related deaths, the highest single-week death toll since the start of the pandemic.
Due to normal lags in how deaths are reported, more than 1,900 of these deaths occurred weeks earlier. New federal data shows that Florida’s daily death toll peaked at 244 on Aug. 15, well above the previous record of daily deaths set in August 2020.
It is estimated 40,000 Floridians received monoclonal antibody treatment, which is credited for preventing 10,000 hospitalizations.
Currently, the only thing that has staved off a worst-case scenario, in which health care officials have to start rationing care to those most likely to survive, is 438 medical relief workers, including nurses and respiratory therapists, provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to a blunt assessment that Hilton Raethel, president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, provided Friday to the Senate Special Committee on COVID-19. HAH is the major trade group for hospitals and long-term care facilities.
While last week Raethel didn’t want to disclose projections on when the state’s demand would outstrip supply, he told senators Friday that AirGas, which runs the state’s largest liquid oxygen plant, notified FEMA on Aug. 27 that Hawaii could run short as soon as Monday. Since then federal, state and hospital officials have been scrambling to find a remedy.
Oxygen is being flown to the state and is expected to arrive on Sunday. Another shipment is expected to be flown in on Wednesday.
Lt. Governor Josh Green warned that if total hospitalizations exceed 500 people, a statewide shutdown would be considered. Additionally, government officials warned that if the state has to move to “crisis standards of care,” vaccination status would be considered.
Currently, 85% of all hospitalized patients are unvaccinated.
“On Sept. 3, 2021, we will require all U.S. employees, plus all U.S. contractors who must work inside our buildings to conduct their jobs, to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Any U.S. employee (without an approved accommodation exemption for religion or disability) who chooses not to complete a full vaccine regimen by Nov. 15, 2021, will no longer be permitted to work for Micron following that date. Any U.S. contractor (without an approved accommodation for religion or disability) who chooses not to complete a full vaccine regimen by Nov. 15, 2021, will no longer be permitted to work inside a Micron building following that date. As vaccines become more readily available in other Micron locations worldwide, we anticipate requiring vaccination where allowed by local law.“
Micron has locations in Colorado, California, Idaho, Minnesota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. The company is one of Idaho’s largest employers.
Various emergency measures issued by Beshear are set to expire as a result of the landmark court decision. Lawmakers will decide whether to extend, alter or discontinue each emergency order, and they are expected to put their own stamp on the state’s response to COVID-19.
In the CentraCare health care system, which operates hospitals and clinics in central Minnesota including St. Cloud, the number of hospitalized patients is higher now than during the spring surge, said Dr. George Morris, medical incident commander for CentraCare’s COVID-19 response team.
The vast majority of patients with COVID in CentraCare’s hospitals — more than 90 percent — are unvaccinated, Morris said.
“I’m not trying to shame or blame here,” he said. “But so much of our resources have to be committed to unvaccinated COVID patients … that limits our ability to provide needed medical care for others.”
Nebraska
State officials activated the statewide patient transfer center as increasing cases push rural hospitals to the brink. Nurse Sarah Swistak at Nebraska Medicine is exhausted and frustrated.
“It’s filling up quicker and quicker every day that I come in,” said Swistak. “Last week I think our numbers were in the 40s. I believe this morning we were in the 70s. So our infectious disease unit is full.”
Swistak said the pandemic is overwhelming the hospital once again.
“The rate of this surge and this spike is so much quicker than what it was last fall that it’s scaring a lot of us,” said Swistak.
Starting September 4, nurses at the center will call hospitals around the state to find open beds for COVID-19 patients.
“I tell people I’m crisped. I’m way past burnt out,” says Dr. Andrea Jones, a Nebraska Medicine family medicine physician who has spent much of the past 18 months caring for desperately ill COVID-19 patients. “It’s hard for me to understand why people won’t do the right thing. What’s it going to take for people to do the right thing?
“I’m going to be honest. It’s really made me question my faith in humanity.”
Jones says she has been screamed at by hospitalized COVID-19 patients who refuse to believe they have the virus. On other occasions, she has told family members that a patient’s heart is damaged, or their liver is failing, and the patient’s family members have laughed in her face.
That’s ridiculous, they say. That can’t be from COVID-19. It can’t make anyone this sick.
“These people are in complete denial,” Jones says. “All I can do is care for them the best I can and move on.”
Oregon
Last week we wrote about Josephine County and how the COVID ravaged county suffers from poverty, low overall vaccination rates, and rampant misinformation supported by their political leaders. The numbers out of the rural county are in a word, devastating.
On Saturday, Josephine County released information on the deaths of their most recent COVID fatalities, including a 25-year-old unvaccinated woman who had underlying conditions.
Josephine County officials said they now have a total of 145 COVID-related deaths. Of those patients, 144 died from complications relating to COVID infections. Of the 145 COVID-19 patients who died, 129 were unvaccinated.
Combined, the southwestern counties of Oregon have a COVID death rate 17 times greater than the more vaccinated metro tri-counties.
To provide some context on how extreme 60.1 deaths per 100K is, the target for new COVID infections is 25.0 or less per 100K.
Wyoming
Memorial Hospital in Sweetwater County has been forced to move to “crisis standards of care,” which includes the canceling of day surgeries and considering patient care on a “case by case basis.” The 99-bed acute care hospital located in Rock Springs is currently caring for 16 COVID patients, but the emergency department is overwhelmed with both COVID and normal medical cases.
Emergency services director Kim White stated, “We are at crisis level. We appreciate the patience. The emergency room staff is extremely busy keeping up with the number of people presenting in the ER. Extra members of the hospital’s healthcare team have been brought in to help cover the influx.”
Only two weeks after school started, multiple districts are enacting mask mandates. Some parents have pulled students out of school rather than complying, and some teachers have been suspended. Wyoming has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation.
Ivermectin, again. Outrage has grown among advocates of ivermectin that the US government is giving the drug to Afghanistan refugees. The theory being pushed in social media memes and short twitter bursts is the refugees are being given the drug to treat and prevent COVID while Americans aren’t being offered the same options.
These messages use a common misinformation technique, linking to a document that doesn’t support the position in the meme in the hopes no one will actually go to the document and read it. Well, we did.
The document referenced is the Overseas Refugee Health Guidance, which was updated in 2019. There is your first problem with the conspiracy theory, the document was updated before SARS-CoV-2 was detected. We bolded the key language.
This guidance is intended for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) physicians and other panel physicians who administer overseas pre-departure presumptive treatment for intestinal parasites but may also be referenced by U.S. medical providers caring for refugees who will be receiving presumptive treatment after they arrive in the United States.
While these recommendations have been implemented in many overseas sites, logistical and procurement issues still limit their full implementation in some. All Middle Eastern, Asian, North African, Latin American, and Caribbean refugees should receive presumptive therapy with:
All Middle Eastern, Asian, North African, Latin American, and Caribbean refugees should receive presumptive therapy with:
Albendazole, single dose of 400 mg (200 mg for children 12-23 months) AND
Ivermectin, two doses 200 mcg/Kg orally once a day for 2 days before departure to the United States.
Further in the documents for recommendations, which were created in 2008:
Prior to departure for the United States, all refugees originating from the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, Latin American, & Caribbean should receive presumptive therapy with ivermectin for Strongyloides infection and with albendazole for infections caused by soil-transmitted helminths.
Further, the guidance states that children under 33 pounds, pregnant women, and women who are breastfeeding should not be given ivermectin. Ivermectin is listed as a Category C drug, which indicates, “Either studies in animals have revealed adverse effects on the fetus (teratogenic or embryocidal, or other) and there are no controlled studies in women or studies in women and animals are not available. Drugs should be given only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus.”
In simple terms, ivermectin can cause birth defects.
An analysis of existing studies concluded, “After excluding dozens of ivermectin studies with “high risk of bias,” the collaboration left little room for optimism: “Based on the current very low- to low-certainty evidence, we are uncertain about the efficacy and safety of ivermectin used to treat or prevent Covid-19.” The Cochrane Collaboration recommended that ivermectin use be restricted to clinical trials that might actually generate high-quality data.
One more time, for the people in the back, ivermectin is an effective treatment used around the world to treat intestinal parasites and some parasites of the dermis and epidermis.
Journalists, activists, and researchers defending the First Amendment
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