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.

This update uses the latest data from the Washington State Department of Health released on September 8, 2021.

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Washington State Update for September 8, 2021

Washington state COVID update

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)

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.

Seattle Sounders FC announced for events at Lumen Field during the 2021 regular season and postseason that proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative FDA-approved test for entry to games and events will be required, beginning at the Rave Green’s first home match on September 19.

“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

Scott Phillips, medical director for the Washington Poison Center, told the Seattle Times that his agency has seen a threefold increase in calls relating to ivermectin since last year, attributing the rise to misinformation about the drug’s effects on COVID-19.

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.

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!

In August, King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin mentioned the N95 Project as a trusted source for N95 masks. A check on the website showed that a 50 count box of United States manufactured N95 masks are available for $40.00. We recommend wearing N95 masks indoors as they provide the best protection against COVID when properly fitted.

No promotional consideration has been given, or requested from the n95 project or any manufacturer of masks

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.

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!

King County has 2.26 million residents and according to King County Public Health, 67.6% of all residents are fully vaccinated. That would come out to 1,527,760 fully vaccinated, and 732,240 partially vaccinated or unvaccinated. The King County website indicates 1,528,211 fully vaccinated, so it provides a check for our math.

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

In a study of hospitalized patients in the Yale New Haven Health System, researchers identified 969 individuals who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection during a 14-week period between March and July 2021. Of that group, 54 were fully vaccinated.

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.

For information on getting a vaccination in King County, you can visit the King County Department of Public Health website.

Malcontent News

Hospital Status

Washington State Department of Health sounds the alarm with available hospital resources dwindling

The Washington State Department of Health released a statement today, indicating that the state is running out of options to stretch healthcare resources further.

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.

Data for pediatric patients receiving acute care or in a PICU due to COVID is not available.

Back to School

School District	Status	Quarantines	Closures
Bellevue	GREEN	– Bellevue (4) – Chinook (4) – Newport (1) – Sammamish (2) – Somerset (1) – Tyee (1) – Woodridge (6)	None
Lake Washington	RED	– 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

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.

The next board meeting for the Lake Washington School District is September 13, 2021, at 7:00 PM and will be remote only.

Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville

No update

National Round-Up

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.

Currently, almost 21% of all patients hospitalized are fighting COVID, with 23 on ventilators.

Arizona

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.

All three men face a single count of third-degree trespass, which has a maximum sentence of 30 days.

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.”

@thatdaneshguy

♬ original sound – Danesh/内田守

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.”

Earlier today her employer, SAP, said it was investigating the situation and at press time released a statement.

“We have reviewed the incident and can confirm that the individual in question no longer works for SAP.”

Florida

In Florida, Leon County circuit court judge John C. Cooper ruled the state cannot enforce a ban on public schools mandating the use of masks against the coronavirus while an appeals court sorts out whether the ban is ultimately legal.

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.

According to the South Central Public Health District (SCPHD), southern Idaho is right on the edge.

“What we’ve been warned as a health district is that we’re very close in our region, the situation is very extreme,” said Public Information Officer with SCPHD, Brianna Bodily. Department of Health and Welfare officials stated that Treasure Valley hospitals are “really close” to activating crisis standards of care too.

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.

Officials recorded another death of a child – a 4-month old baby.

Nevada

Officials are enacting a statewide mask mandate as cases continue to rise in rural areas. Nevada Health Response reported all of Nevada’s 17 counties are currently experiencing substantial or high COVID-19 transmission.

Ohio

The Ohio Children’s Hospital Association released a 17-page statement, signed by dozens of members issuing a dire warning on pediatric hospital resources in the state.

“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.

Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana are seeing a similar surge to the one ongoing in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

Oregon

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.

Douglas County Public Health reported the death of an infant from COVID, who passed on Monday.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (who is in open competition with Jenny Durkan for least popular large city major in the United States) has dropped the vaccination requirement for Portland Police officers.

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.”

Three South Carolina cities, Columbia, West Columbia, and Cayce passed emergency mask orders today.

South Dakota

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.

Dr. Jim Versalovic from Texas Children’s believes that we are seeing this spike right now because so many kids are back inside classrooms.

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.

See more

“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

— The Recount (@therecount) September 8, 2021

Misinformation

Taking the day off

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)

This update uses the latest data from the Washington State Department of Health released on September 7, 2021.

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Washington State Update for September 7, 2021

Washington state COVID update

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

The USA Today COVID Tracker did not report the number of COVID-related deaths today.

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.

A few hours later, the University of Washington Huskies and the Washington State Cougars made their announcements. The Huskies will implement a vaccine verification system for all Husky Athletics tickets events beginning on Sept. 25, starting with the Huskies’ football game against California at Husky Stadium.

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

KOMO reports that Seattle and King County are working on starting a vaccine verification program similar to those implemented in Honolulu, New York City, San Francisco, and Clallam and Jefferson counties. No details were announced, but similar programs in other cities and counties have required proof of vaccination to enter bars and restaurants.

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.

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!

In August, King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin mentioned the N95 Project as a trusted source for N95 masks. A check on the website showed that a 50 count box of United States manufactured N95 masks are available for $40.00. We recommend wearing N95 masks indoors as they provide the best protection against COVID when properly fitted.

No promotional consideration has been given, or requested from the n95 project or any manufacturer of masks

Vaccination

King County Health reports 84.4% of all eligible residents age 12 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. Additionally, every eligible age group from 12 to 80+ years old is over 70% for at least a first dose. Twenty to 29 years old are the furthest behind at 71.5%, with adolescents from 12 to 19 years old at 72.5%.

Washington state reports that 73.9% of all residents age 12 and up have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.

Nationally the United States reached a milestone with 75% of all adults 18 and over, with at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.

United Kingdom vaccine advisory board does not recommend vaccination for 12 to 15 year olds

The United Kingdom vaccine advisory board determined that children age 12 to 15 were at such a low risk from COVID that vaccination would provide only a “marginal benefit.”

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.

A CDC study released last week, Hospitalizations Associated with COVID-19 Among Children and Adolescents — COVID-NET, 14 States, March 1, 2020–August 14, 2021, found that children 5 to 11 years old were at a significantly lower risk than children from birth to 4 and 12 to 17. The CDC study found that the hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adolescents from 12 to 17 was 10 times higher than among the vaccinated.

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.

For information on getting a vaccination in King County, you can visit the King County Department of Public Health website.

Malcontent News

Hospital Status

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 reported 39 COVID patients at Kirkland and zero at Monroe on Monday. This is lower than the 44 reported last week but higher than the 35 reported on Friday.

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.

When the Delta variant exploded in India, officials saw numerous patients with kidney and pancreas damage developing type 1 diabetes as a long-hauler syndrome. A recent study by the Washington University of Medicine and US Veterans Affairs sees a similar trend in the United States.

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.

Back to School

School District	Status	Quarantines	Closures
Bellevue	GREEN	– Bellevue (4) – Chinook (4) – Newport (1) – Sammamish (1) – Somerset (1) – Tyee (1) – Woodridge (6)	None
Lake Washington	RED	– 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

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.

The next board meeting for the Lake Washington School District is September 13, 2021, at 7:00 PM and will be remote only.

Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville

No update

National Round-Up

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.

About the Mu variant

An article over the holiday weekend about the Mu variant got a lot of attention in the press. Catchy headlines announce that Mu has been found in 49 states (including Washington) and now represents 4% of all cases in Alaska.

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

Are you ready for some good news? A report published as a pre-print in medRxiv called COVID-19 vaccines dampen genomic diversity of SARS-CoV-2: Unvaccinated patients exhibit more antigenic mutational variance and provided insight into how increasing vaccination rates are impacting the formation of new COVID mutations.

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

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

President Joe Biden will deliver remarks on Thursday laying out a six-pronged strategy involving both the public and private sectors in his administration’s latest efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus and boost vaccination rates.

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. 

This evening, a group of night-shift nurses and hospital workers gathered outside UAB Hospital, briefly refusing to clock in for work in protest of long hours driven by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and what they say is unfair pay.

“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.

The state held a moment of silence today for the 12,000 Alabamians who have died from COVID.

Arizona

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.

Florida

A Florida doctor said she would no longer treat primary care patients in person who has not received the COVID-19 vaccine. 

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.

There is a lot of evidence that the surge in Florida has reached its peak. Sewage samples from the Space Coast paint a different picture, with the amount of COVID in the waste system doubled from what was tested a month ago.

Georgia

Georgia set a new hospitalization record with 6,032 COVID patients statewide. In another tragic tale, a 4-year-old girl in a pediatric hospital recovering from abdominal surgery became infected with COVID and died one day later.

“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.

According to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, hospitals and healthcare systems potentially affected are:

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.

Ohio

A judge ruled Monday that an Ohio hospital cannot be forced to give a patient ivermectin for Covid-19, reversing an earlier decision that ordered it to administer a parasite medication that has not been approved to treat the disease.

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.

Texas

A 74-year-old man whose family sought a court order against Memorial Hermann over his COVID-19 treatment has died.

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.

Vermont

Three Vermont State Police troopers out of the Shaftsbury barracks have resigned, and a criminal probe is underway into allegations that they may have violated federal law by making fake Covid-19 vaccination cards.

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.

Misinformation

Taking the day off

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) Two Lake Washington School District schools reported COVID cases today, as the CDC released a study on the impact the Delta variant is having among pediatric patients. New COVID cases continue at a very elevated rate, and data continues to hint the plateau in new cases is crumbling.

Pierce County joins King County in an outdoor mask mandate for large events, and members of Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys forced three Vancouver, Washington schools into lockdown due to an antimask protest. Someone is running around Pullman pretending to be a mask enforcer, including taking pictures of driver’s licenses. For big breakfast and cholesterol fans, sad news from Seattle with Beth’s Cafe announcing they are closing again.

Nationally, this felt like awful humans doing awful things day. A high school principal in Tuscon was threatened by a group of anti-maskers leading to one arrest. We learned that a doctor in Arkansas did not get medical consent to give prisoners Ivermectin.

In good news, Florida has hit peak COVID, but hospitalizations and deaths are trailing indicators. Some models indicate that Oregon will hit its peak next week as the state teeters on running out of resources.

Finally, if you have tickets to Dave Matthews, two band members have been exposed to COVID, but the show will go on.

This update uses the latest data from the Washington State Department of Health released on September 3, 2021.

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Washington State Update for September 3, 2021

Washington state COVID update

Through August 22, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average increased again to 521.7 COVID cases per 100K. Asotin (1,033.6 per 100K), Columbia (1,290.3 per 100K) Franklin (1,218.5 per 100K), and Okanogan (1,082.8 per 100K) reported an extreme number of new cases. Benton, Chelan, Clallam, Cowlitz, Douglas, Garfield, Grant, Lewis, Lincoln, Stevens, and Yakima counties are not far behind, with rates between 800.0 and 999.9 per 100K.

King County is at 324.9 cases per 100K.

The Washington Department of Health will not be updating data Saturday through Monday due to the Labor Day holiday. We do not expect to have a clear view of the situation for COVID cases until the middle of next 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 14.34%, and over the previous 7 days, 12.90%. Hospitalizations were up in all age groups except 12 to 19 years old. New cases for people over 80 years old were down slightly in the latest data.

Age Group	7-Day Case Rate	7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11	28.2 (up)	0.2 (up)
Ages 12-19	23.0 (up)	0.2
Ages 20-34	66.4	1.6 (up)
Ages 35-49	53.1 (up)	2.8 (up)
Ages 50-64	37.1 (up)	4.4 (up significantly)
Ages 65-79	18.5 (up)	3.8 (up significantly)
Ages 80+	4.8 (down)	1.5 (up)

The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 32 COVID-related deaths on Thursday. Another concerning trend, the data from USA Today, indicates that the plateau has broken, with Washington reporting over 4,300 new cases on Thursday, the second day in a row over 4,000.

Pierce County enacts outdoor mask mandate for large events

One day after King County enacted an outdoor mask mandate for large events, Dr. Anthony L-T Chen, Director of Health for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, issued a countywide health order requiring the same. Everyone 5 years and older in Pierce County must wear a face covering at any outdoor event with 500 or more people in attendance regardless of vaccination status beginning Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021.

The county also recommends wearing a mask in any crowded outdoor setting where physical distancing is not possible. This order, along with the statewide mask order, requires masks to be worn in indoor public settings like grocery stores, malls, and community centers.

“We are taking this step to ensure the most vulnerable people in our community do not become infected or spread COVID-19,” Dr. Chen said. “The highly contagious Delta variant is causing a rapid increase of positive COVID-19 cases and leading to increased hospitalizations and deaths.

“Wearing masks in crowds of 500 or more will reduce community transmission and protect children under the age of 12, people who are immunocompromised and unvaccinated adults.”

Yesterday, Pierce County Health released a video featuring Zac Duris, an ICU Nurse at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma.

Duris tells heartbreaking stories. From young, seemingly healthy people dying to families who can’t see their loved ones. 

“What sticks with me is the really ill patients who have families at home who are really concerned about them,” Duris said. “I can take care of critically ill patients with or without COVID. But what COVID has done has made families have to suffer more because they can’t be at their bedsides with their loved ones.” 

Right Wing extremists force three Vancouver schools into lockdown, harass students and staff

Patriot Prayer, headed by Joey Gibson, spread misinformation on the Internet that a student at Skyview High School was refusing to wear a mask and would be arrested on school grounds on Friday. Members of Patriot Prayer, the Proud Boys, and other anti-mask and anti-vaccination protesters gathered at the school chanting “USA.”

Three schools, Skyview High School, Alki Middle School, and Chinook Elementary School, went into lockdown. Students reported that teachers guarded classroom doors, and people trying to enter Skyview High School were met by security.

“All the learning gets disrupted. We have to sit down quietly, not make noise, and we were hunkered down in our classrooms for around an hour to an hour-and-a-half,” said Lucas, a 16-year-old high school student at Skyview. OPB is withholding Lucas’ last name to protect his identity.

He compared the lockdown to similar drills performed to prepare students for school shooters. Lucas said some students were harassed by the anti-mask demonstrators outside the school building.

“They’ve gotten pretty wild out here recently. It’s kind of crazy,” Lucas said.

Equal opportunity reporting – someone is trying to enforce mask wear at Washington State University – Pullman

Washington State University in Pullman sent out an alert to students warning them about a person claiming to be part of “mask enforcement.” The university, university police, and the city of Pullman all stated they were not doing any enforcement activity, and the person doing this is not an employee.

More alarming, the person took pictures of driver’s licenses and claimed that students would get a ticket in the mail. The person is described as a male driving a 2000s Toyota (which we realize doesn’t say much).

Northwest Washington Fair linked to 108 COVID cases

The Whatcom County Health Department is aware of 108 COVID-19 cases associated with the 10-day 2021 Northwest Washington Fair in Lynden.

“This includes both people who were contagious while they were at the fair and people who may have been exposed while they were at the fair,” health department spokesperson Jennifer Moon told The Bellingham Herald in an emailed statement Friday, Sept. 2. “We don’t have a more specific breakdown. This number may continue to increase as we continue to investigate cases.”

Officials refused to release attendance numbers for the fair.

Fake COVID vaccination cards intercepted in Seattle

Homeland Security Investigations in Seattle, which is a part of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents recently intercepted some fake COVID vaccination cards that were shipped to the United States through Seattle, with a final destination of Idaho.

No arrests have been made, and no information was shared on who the intended recipient in Idaho was.

See more

Maderna or anyway you spell it, making #counterfeit #COVID-19 vaccination cards is a federal crime! #SeattleHSI agents, working with @CBP have intercepted these cards shipped to the U.S. and then sent to Idaho. #fakecard #realcrime pic.twitter.com/uRwzq5nGeA

— HSI Pacific Northwest (@HSISeattle) September 1, 2021

Seattle icon Beth’s Cafe closing again due to COVID

During the height of the winter peak, Beth’s Cafe closed its doors because delivery only wasn’t fitting their business model. The cafe was sold to new owners, who reopened operating under limited hours. A combination of construction on Aurora Avenue eliminating parking, COVID, and a reduction in the nightlife, which fueled their business, is forcing Beth’s to close again.

The webpage indicates the closure will be for 3 to 6 months, or until things with COVID get under control. The 24-hour restaurant opened in 1954 and is famous for its 12-egg omelets, quirky clientele, and amazing milkshakes.

Expect long ferry waits this weekend

Washington State Ferries are expected to have significant delays this weekend due to many staffers out with COVID. Ironically, there were rumors of a “sick out” this weekend over looming vaccine mandates. Officials report that a sickout hasn’t materialized beyond the employees they already knew were sick so far.

“We just don’t have enough people to help run the boats,” said Ian Sterling with the Washington State Ferries. “Add COVID onto that, and unfortunately, we just lose out on the ferry fleet.”

According to Sterling, they’re dealing with major staffing shortages because of the pandemic, and there were rumors of a potential “sick out” this weekend because of the state vaccine mandate for state workers.

“Thankfully,” Sterling said, “we’re not seeing any evidence of that at this point in time.”

Dave Matthews Band changing weekend shows at The Gorge to an “alternate format”

The bassist and drummer of the Dave Matthew’s Band have had a COVID exposure and won’t be available for a planned show at The Gorge in George, Washington this weekend (yes, national readers, there is a George, Washington). The site says they are moving to an “alternate format” and that things will sound different from previous shows.

Organizers require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test in the last 48 hours. We request you wear a mask.

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!

In August, King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin mentioned the N95 Project as a trusted source for N95 masks. A check on the website showed that a 50 count box of United States manufactured N95 masks are available for $40.00. We recommend wearing N95 masks indoors as they provide the best protection against COVID when properly fitted.

No promotional consideration has been given, or requested from the n95 project or any manufacturer of masks

Vaccination

King County Health released a new dashboard showing the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing new cases, hospitalizations, and death.

Looking at data from the last 30 days, a person who is not fully vaccinated is 7 times more likely to test positive for COVID, 49 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 32 times more likely to die of COVID related illness. The data is age-adjusted to account for factors such as older people being more likely to have comorbidities while younger people are less likely to be vaccinated.

When looking at the data, be mindful that each statistic should be seen as a gate. You are 7 times more like to test positive for COVID if you’re unvaccinated. Among the people who tested positive, you’re 49 times more likely to end up in the hospital. If you’re unvaccinated and in the hospital, you’re 32 times more likely to die. So each number is a slice of a smaller and smaller group of people.

To booster shot, or not to booster shot, that is the question

Yesterday we wrote a lengthy piece about natural immunity versus immunity from vaccination and data out of Israel on the impact of booster shots. Our stressed-out editorial team (seriously, we need more copy editors desperately) struck the closing line of, “Confused? To some degree, we are too, but the evidence available supports that natural immunity wanes faster than vaccination-based immunity and booster shots are effective.”

Ehem – we should have left in.

A story in the New York Times reported Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the FDA, and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, urged caution and advised that their agencies needed more time before approving any further action regarding booster shots. The issue isn’t around the existing recommendation for immunocompromised and the elderly to get booster shots. There is significant data to support they are needed and effective.

Yesterday, we reported a growing number of voices joining the World Health Organization, recommending putting the brakes on booster shots. The two critical issues are large swaths of the world population is currently unvaccinated and don’t have access to a first dose, let alone a third. Secondly, although the data is supportive of booster shots, the data also shows that a vast majority of people who get breakthrough cases only have mild symptoms, especially those under 65.

The whole question of booster or not might be moot, as Moderna is reporting that they will not meet a September 20, 2021 deadline for booster shot approval. The Biden Administration is faced with the choice of offering a booster shot for Pfizer only or delaying the program.

Widespread data isn’t available yet for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the need for a booster shot, but early tests show a significant boost in the immune response. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna, which are mRNA vaccines, Johnson & Johnson uses a neutralized adenovirus as a messenger to the immune system.

Misleading headlines on the number of Americans with COVID anitbodies in their blood

Some digital ink has been spilled today after a study was published in JAMA declared 83% of blood donations have detectable COVID antibodies in them. This has led to a series of misleading headlines leaping to the conclusion that between natural exposure and immunization efforts, 83% of Americans now have some form of immunity against COVID.

No. Because the study includes this critical text.

“Based on a sample of blood donations in the US from July 2020 through May 2021, vaccine- and infection-induced SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence increased over time and varied by age, race and ethnicity, and geographic region. Despite weighting to adjust for demographic differences, these findings from a national sample of blood donors may not be representative of the entire US population.”

Here is the problem of leaping to conclude that 83% of Americans have some form of immunity. The data only represents people who donate blood, which is roughly 6.8 million Americans. People under 17 (16 in some states), who are under 110 pounds, have high or low blood pressure, diabetes, certain cancer and cancer history, HIV/AIDs, a history of Hepatitis or potential exposure, persons who are pregnant, or recently had a tattoo or STD can’t donate blood.

Because the pool (no pun intended) of people who can donate blood is already limited, there is no way to adjust this data to account for all the exceptions. It is a safer assumption that people who donate blood are more likely than the national average to have been vaccinated as a group.

When it comes to accepting donated blood, there is a movement among hardcore anti-vaccination adherents to refuse blood transfusions and blood-based agents because it can’t be proven the source is from an unvaccinated individual. We don’t recommend going too deep down that rabbit hole. The language used aligns with white nationalist ideals and the concept of “purity of blood.”

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.

For information on getting a vaccination in King County, you can visit the King County Department of Public Health website.

Malcontent News

Hospital Status

According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 21.6% 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 88.5% of capacity statewide, with 34.2% of ICU patients fighting COVID, virtually unchanged from yesterday.

The new hospital admission rate for COVID patients is 189 per day, an increase from yesterday. On September 2, there were 1,533 patients hospitalized with COVID and 233 on ventilators. This is the first day since August 20, when a new record was not set. There were 31 fewer patients in acute care and 8 fewer patients on ventilators.

Data for pediatric patients receiving acute care or in a PICU due to COVID is not available.

EvergreenHealth released information on the number of patients currently under care in Kirkland and their vaccination status. On Monday, they reported 44 patients being treated for COVID. On Thursday, the number had dropped to 35. 72% of all COVID patients and 91% of ICU patients are unvaccinated. These numbers align with data released from King County today.

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	GREEN	None	None

The first day of school brought COVID exposures to two Lake Washington School District schools. Parents at Kamiakin Middle School were notified about a confirmed COVID-positive case involving 28 people in close contact with the infected person.

Close contact is defined as anyone who has been within 6 feet of a person with COVID for a combined total of 15 minutes or more within a 24-hour period, or a person who lives in the same household as a person with a positive e COVID test, including caregivers. The standard does not mention any difference between licensed caregivers such as daycares or after-school programs or non-licensed caregivers such as a neighbor providing babysitting.

Unvaccinated close contacts are advised to quarantine for 14 days. Vaccinated contacts are advised to get a PCR COVID test (not a rapid test) 3 to 5 days after exposure.

Juanita High School also notified parents about a COVID-positive confirmed case involving 8 people in close contact. In both incidents, the district indicated they are deep cleaning the impacted areas. The Lake Washington School District COVID Safety Plan was last updated on August 18 and is available online.

The next board meeting for the Lake Washington School District is September 13, 2021, at 7:00 PM and will be remote only.

Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville

Bellevue-based Peter Pan Seafoods, with locations in Washington and Alaska, is mandating vaccination for all employees. The company is rolling out the mandate in phases, with office personnel part of the first wave.

National Round-Up

Johns Hopkins University Cumulitaive Case Tracker 153,143 new cases and 1,588 COVID-related deaths on Thursday. With the holiday weekend upon us, we don’t expect to have another set of accurate numbers until the end of next week.

CDC release long awaited study on hospitalizations associated with COVID among children

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina provided an excellent analysis of an early release study from the CDC, Hospitalizations Associated with COVID-19 Among Children and Adolescents — COVID-NET, 14 States, March 1, 2020–August 14, 2021.

• Infection rates were highest among children birth to 4-years old at 69.2 cases per 100K
• This was closely followed by adolescents age 12 to 17 years old at 63.7 cases per 100K
• Rates were lowest among children ages 5 to 11 years old at 24.0 cases per 100K
• Among all age groups, 26.5% of children admitted to the hospital required PICU care, 6.1% went on ventilators, and the mortality rate was 0.7%
• Pediatric hospitalizations rates increased fivefold in August compared to June
• Hospitalization rates among infants and toddlers from birth to 4 years old increased tenfold
• The hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adolescents from 12 to 17 years old was 10 times higher than among the vaccinated

We will deviate from one point Dr. Jetelina made in her analysis. We agree that there wasn’t a significant change in ICU admissions, children requiring ventilators, and fatalities when comparing Delta to the original strain and Alpha variants circulating in June. It is important to note that fewer children required ICU care, but the number of children who required ventilators increased, and the mortality rate went from 0.7% to 1.8%.

The challenge parents are facing isn’t that the Delta variant is more aggressive with children. The problem is there is widespread community transmission, particularly among the unvaccinated.

“Pediatric hospitalizations have dramatically increased in the past month,” Dr. Jetelina said. “Yes, the media is accurately portraying the situation on the ground. And, hospitalizations have increased the most for 0-4-year-olds. Importantly, this isn’t because Delta is more severe, it’s because we are transmitting Delta in the community, and our kids aren’t protected. Your decision not to get a vaccine or implement public health measures in schools or the community is directly impacting the health of kids.”

Etcetera

Boxer Oscar De La Hoya has tested positive for COVID and is hospitalized. De La Hoya, 48, who had a planned return to boxing this weekend after a 13-year break, is on hold. He tweeted from a hospital bed that is he is fully vaccinated. In the video, he isn’t on oxygen but appears exhausted and talks in a raspy voice.

We try to steer away from partisan sources and paywalls. We had a hard time finding a piece of local news or neutral source for this. Former President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he likely wouldn’t get a COVID booster shot, sort of.

“I feel like I’m in good shape from that standpoint—I probably won’t,” Trump said in an interview with the publication. “I’ll look at stuff later on. I’m not against it, but it’s probably not for me.”

We only toss in the “sort of” because in two sentences, he said probably twice, and given the last six years, OK, we’ll stop.

Alabama

Governor Kay Ivey on Friday reallocated $12.3 million of the Coronavirus Relief Fund to secure qualified, out-of-state travel nurses to work in Alabama hospitals in a temporary capacity.

“I’m pleased to see more folks getting vaccinated, but we are still in the thick of COVID-19, and our hospitals are overwhelmed,” Governor Ivey said. “In consideration of the current surge of the virus and the strain on our dedicated healthcare professionals, I have directed the $12.3 million of CARES Act funding be reallocated to recruit more trained staff to our nursing corps. Until our vaccination rates rise and our COVID-19 hospitalization rates fall, we will need the extra support these nurses provide.”

COVID cases in Alabama continue to surge, setting a new record of 4,705 new cases per day this week. Total hospitalizations declined—however, the number of patients in the ICU and on ventilators both set records.

The number of new COVID cases among school students more than doubled, with over 9,100 new cases reported in the last week, impacting 51 school districts.

Arizona

Kelly Walker, the owner of Viva Coffee House in Tuscon, Arizona, is no stranger to controversy. Rishi Rambaran is a 40-year-old parent of a student who attends Mesquite Elementary School in Tuscon. His child was told they would have to quarantine because of a COVID exposure and would not attend a school field trip.

Walker posted on his business’s Facebook page, “Apparently, Mesquite Elementary thinks they can break the law and act like the covid Gestapo. We will be headed over there shortly to disagree. Come join us because we won’t have this in OUR community!“

Walker, Rambaran, his child, and a third unidentified adult entered the school, confronted principal Diane Vargo in her office, and threatened her with a citizen’s arrest. Walker was allegedly equipped with black “military-style” zip-tie handcuffs and streamed the whole incident on his Instagram account. Vargo asked them to leave, and when they refused, called the police.

Vargo was forced to leave the school grounds for her own safety, and the men left before police arrived. Officials credit Vargo for using her active shooter training to deescalate the situation. Rambaran has been arrested and is facing a criminal charge of trespass. School officials and the Pinal County Sheriff say they are working on charges for the other men. There was no indication if Child Protective Services have become involved because a juvenile witnessed the interaction.

Vargo did nothing illegal and followed the guidelines established by the Republican-run Arizona state legislature and quarantining the child.

Editorial Opinion: Individuals such as Kelly Walker are a danger to the United States. He represents a small subset of very vocal individuals who actively foment the idea of violent action against the government and anyone that opposes his worldview. People like him, who have never served in a war zone, never been shot at, never watched their comrade’s in arms die, have a dangerous lust for the violence they’ve never experienced. His words and actions have motivated others into dangerous actions. We fully support the rights of the First Amendment to speak of your grievances and seek redress from the government. Continued calls for violence at a local, state, or federal level that lead people to action, are akin to screaming fire in a crowded movie theater. To quote the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.”

(yes, Justice Stewart was addressing hardcore pornography, it’s an analogy)

We would also be remiss if we did not point out, the only person arrested to date is a member of the BIPOC community. The events that happened yesterday directly result from disinformation campaigns and the radicalization of a subset of Americans with continued calls for violence.

Arkansas

We reported last week about Dr. Rob Karas, who was prescribing Ivermectin to inmates at the Washington County Jail with the approval of Sheriff Tim Helder. A couple of days later, we reported that Dr. Karas was under investigation by the state of Arkansas Medical Board.

According to a report in the Associated Press, multiple prisoners have come forward stating they were never told they were receiving Ivermectin. Some were told they were receiving vitamins or steroids.

Edrick Floreal-Wooten, an inmate, said he was given ivermectin at the jail after testing positive on Aug. 21.

“I asked what are they, and they’d just tell me vitamins,” Floreal-Wooten said. “With me being sick and all of us being sick, we thought that they were there to help us. I never thought they would do something shady.”

After seeing a news article about ivermectin being prescribed to inmates, Floreal-Wooten said he refused to take the drug last week.

Asked whether he would have taken the drug had they told him at the outset it was ivermectin, he responded: “Never. I’m not livestock. I’m a human.”

The ACLU said it has also heard from several inmates who say they were told the drug was vitamins or steroids.

Anti-vaccination disinformation recently latched on to the Nuremberg Code, and in some cases, has threatened people with citizens arrest, violence, and execution.

In 2017, JAMA had this to say. “The story of the Nuremberg Code is not one of the ethical norms taking on the force of law. Rather, its legacy shows the fundamental importance of a robust, organized medical profession that protects its independence from political interests and its ability to chart its own moral course, yet is at the same time open to the essential role of nations and government agencies that respect broadly defined and agreed-upon rules to protect the rights and well-being of human research participants.”

California

Like Missouri and maybe Florida (read further), California appears to be moving past a peak in COVID cases. That doesn’t mean the 3rd largest state geographically and with the largest population isn’t seeing hot spots in rural areas. The Central Valley, northern California along the I-5 corridor, and hospitals in Sacramento are still dealing with a massive surge of patients as Delta tears through the unvaccinated.

The high caseload is impacting schools, with several districts being forced to close their doors. The situation is further complicated by regional wildfires creating dangerous conditions at times.

Colorado

If you see a pattern of COVID plus schools equal problems in schools, you would be correct. The number of COVID cases in Colorado schools tripled this past week, impacting 43 learning institutions. Positive infections among students grew to 410 this week, which indirectly impacts exposed students and educations who then must quarantine.

A doctor in Denver found a seller of fake vaccination cards on a gun-selling website, and the state attorney general’s office is now investigating.

Florida

Yesterday’s spike in COVID cases was likely an outlier, as the trend of falling new cases and hospitalizations continue in Florida. We feel confident in saying Florida has hit its peak. “While the total number of hospitalizations remain high and workforce challenges remain, it is encouraging that fewer hospitals are expecting critical staffing and oxygen shortages. As Floridians continue to get vaccinated and with expanded availability of monoclonal antibody treatments for those who test positive, it looks like the worst of this surge may finally be behind us.”

Over 40,000 Floridians have received monoclonal antibody treatments, reducing hospitalizations by 10%.

As tens of thousands of students are now in quarantine due to COVID exposure, more school districts are considering mask mandates in open rebellion of governor Ron DeSantis. Since DeSantis’ order, more than a dozen Florida counties have rebelled and voted to require masks to protect students and teachers as the Delta variant sweeps across the state.

Earlier this week, populous Brevard County along Florida’s east coast, which went for Trump over President Joe Biden by more than 16 percentage points in November, narrowly voted to approve a 30-day school mask mandate.

A day later, Hernando County, which supported Trump over Biden by almost 30 points, also passed a mandate, but one that allows parents to opt-out.

Georgia

Georgia hit a grim milestone, logging its 20,000 confirmed COVID death since February 2020. After setting a record for hospitalizations yesterday, the numbers declined slightly on Friday. However, the state reported 106 deaths yesterday, which could account for the drop in hospitalizations.

Hawaii

A city council meeting in Honolulu led by Mayor Rick Blagiardi devolved into a shouting match and a platform for misinformation as more than 250 people spoke virtually.

Many of those who spoke repeated misinformation about the shots that are circulating on the internet.

Outside Honolulu Hale, demonstrators stood in protest. Inside the city building, they listened to the virtual council hearing without wearing masks.

The mayor addressed the overwhelming takeaway of the testimony, telling councilmembers, “The kinds of things you’re hearing today, ‘It’s my right to get sick, and when I get sick, you have to take care of me’ has a breaking point.”

The issue of out-of-state travelers came up, but Dr. Julius Pham of Queen’s Medical Center pushed back.

“Mostly, it’s travel among our own residents who have gone out of state and have come back.”

The medical experts also underscored the gravity of the situation, saying that hospitals are overflowing with COVID patients and quickly running low on supplies.

Councilmember Tommy Waters called the testimony “sobering.”

Iowa

New data out of Iowa echoes data across the United States – most patients in the ICU with COVID are unvaccinated. The state moved from reporting data once a week to three times a week and rolled out new dashboards today.

As of Friday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reports that 88.7% of COVID-19 patients in intensive care are not fully vaccinated.

Individuals not fully vaccinated make up for 82% of patients hospitalized because of COVID-19.

The Iowa DPH reports 527 COVID-19 patients in Iowa hospitals, with 100 admitted in the past 24-hours. One hundred and forty-two patients are in intensive care.

Kentucky

The situation in Kentucky has gone from bad to very bad in the last 24 hours. Kentucky Children’s Hospital in Lexington has reached full capacity, with COVID patients and children infected with RSV. The hospital has 199 total beds, including 16 PICU and PCICU beds, 12 progressive care unit beds, and 43 acute care beds. The hospital is also a Level 1 pediatric trauma hospital. State officials reported 5,111 new cases today, 30% of them among children 18-years old and younger.

Almost 90% of all ICU beds in Kentucky are occupied, with 661 people fighting COVID. A stunning 69% of people in ICU are on ventilators. The mortality rate for people infected with the Delta variant and on a ventilator for 7 or more days is close to 70%.

Like Idaho, FEMA strike teams have been deployed to the state to shore up exhausted and demoralized medical staff.

Gov. Beshear said three FEMA Emergency Medical Services (EMS) strike teams are on site in Kentucky tasked with transfers and transporting COVID-19 patients. The EMS strike teams are being managed by the Kentucky Board of Emergency Management Services (KBEMS) through American Medical Response.

Each team is comprised of five advanced life support ambulances, and each ambulance is staffed with one paramedic and one emergency medical technician (EMT). Each strike team is positioned regionally in Somerset, Prestonsburg, and Louisville. They are centrally dispatched and can respond to any area in the state.

Nevada

The Clark County School Board of Trustees authorized mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for employees during a marathon meeting that stretched into early Thursday morning, but the plan itself remains subject to negotiations with employee bargaining groups.

The 5-1 vote came after five hours of public testimony — the overwhelming majority of which was in opposition — and more than two hours of discussion. Trustee Danielle Ford cast the lone dissident vote, outlining a myriad of concerns ranging from operational challenges to medical accommodations being upheld. 

Trustee Katie Williams, who has unabashedly argued for personal choice regarding vaccines, participated at the beginning of the meeting by phone but was not present for the vote. Last week, she included a hashtag known to be affiliated with the QAnon conspiracy theory in a tweet about the potential vaccine mandate. The tweet was later deleted.

Before the public weighed in, Clark County Superintendent Jesus Jara laid out his pitch for approving the resolution, which merely gives staff the green light to develop a plan for mandating the vaccine. 

“The best medically available mitigation strategy we currently have is the vaccine,” he said. “The authority that I am requesting is to allow me as the superintendent to develop a plan and processes necessary to implement the full vaccination of our staff. I am not — let me be clear — I am not asking for authority for student vaccinations. Planning takes time. Development of the processes takes time. COVID-19 is not waiting.”

Clark County includes the city of Las Vegas, where a significant majority of all Nevada residents live.

Oklahoma

An Oklahoma judge blocked a state law banning public school mask mandates but added a requirement that parents and students could opt out if they wanted to.

Judge Natalie Mai said she would issue a temporary injunction that will go into effect next week when she issues a written order detailing her ruling. Mai said she is blocking the law because it applies only to public, not private, schools and that schools adopting a mask mandate must provide an option for parents or students to opt-out of the requirement.

The ruling drew praise from Gov. Kevin Stitt, who signed the law and opposes mask mandates without exemptions, and Dr. Mary Clarke, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, which joined the lawsuit brought by four parents who oppose the law.

Oregon

More hospitals in Oregon have requested mobile morgues as fatalities continue to rise. Providence Portland and Providence St. Vincent hospitals are bringing in temporary morgues, and Salem Health has signed a contract for a temporary morgue if needed.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Salem Health CEO Cheryl Nester Wolf in testimony to the Salem Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. “We didn’t see this at the beginning of the pandemic. The delta variant is a horse of a different color than where we started.”

Models predict that Oregon will hit its peak next week.

An Oregon State Trooper from Bend is on paid leave after post a video on social media in uniform from his issued vehicle. However, he does not directly identify himself as a member of the Oregon State Patrol.

“I have personal and religious reasons as to why I will not take the vaccine, but also the freedom not to,” said the trooper, which Portland attorney Dan Thenell confirmed to NewsChannel 21 is Zachary Kowing, 29, an eight-year OSP trooper assigned to the Bend office.

Kowing posted the 2-minute, 35-second video about a week ago on his Instagram account, thinblueline_patriot, where he refers to himself as “pro-choice-life” and “pro-freedom,” with a ‘SAVE OREGON!’ logo over the U.S. flag.

He calls mask requirements illegal (they mostly aren’t depending on the language) while saying he didn’t oppose vaccination in general but would rather rely “on his body’s ability to fight the virus.”

South Carolina

Pediatric cases are exploding in South Carolina, which now has the highest infection rate in the United States for all ages. Dr. Jonathan Knoche, DHEC medical consultant, said that, since Aug. 21, the 11 to 20 age group had recorded the highest number of new cases in the state. The second highest group are those 0 to 10 age group.

South Dakota

Hospitalizations in South Dakota are now at the highest level since January, as new COVID cases have increased 685% since the first day of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally on August 6. The surge in new cases, total cases, and hospitalizations far exceed the surge in cases the state saw in 2020 after the famous motorcycle rally.

Texas

Small town Texas is reeling from the closure of 45 school districts, impacting 42,000 students. From August 23 to 29, 27,353 students tested positive for COVID in the Lonestar state.

“By far, this is worse in terms of planning than last year,” said Tim Savoy, spokesperson for Hays Consolidated Independent School District, which closed some classrooms. “There’s no question about it. Last year we had a lot of tools at our disposal: We could require masks, and we could provide a virtual option that was funded. The delta variant really kind of appeared and just exploded on us.”

State data about the number of coronavirus cases in districts that have closed at least once during the school year thus far is incomplete — 19 have not reported any cases in students or staff to the state, while the state has suppressed case totals in 22 districts due to privacy policies. The list of public school closures in Texas is also incomplete, according to TEA. The agency is tracking closures informally based on media and district reports since districts are not required to report closures to TEA, said Frank Ward, an agency spokesperson.

The closures have been particularly hard in Deep East Texas, with districts closed in Brackett, Groveton, Hemphill, Livingston, Lumberton, Onalaska, and Trinity.

While Governor Greg Abbott was on CNBC tonight saying things were going well in Texas, the Texas Department of State Health Services removed an FAQ page on the practice referring to it as “the oldest, most utilized, and most important tool public health uses to manage infectious diseases.”

The new state budget, which took effect September 1, prohibits the use of state funds “for the purpose of contact tracing of COVID-19.”

Misinformation

Taking the day off