[WASHINGTON] – (MTN) – Michael Scott Langton, 46, a veteran officer with the Ferndale, Washington, Police Department, was arrested at his Blaine home around 9 p.m. on Tuesday July 26 on a charge of Criminal Attempt, Solicitation of a Minor. The charges were upgraded on Wednesday to Attempted Child Molestation 2nd Degree.
Langton was booked into Skagit County’s jail following his arrest. Information from the jail only indicates he is being held for another agency and does not list a bail status.
Because the charge involves a minor and is sensitive, the Bellingham police will not be releasing any further details at this time according to a city press release.
According to a report in the Bellingham Herald, Bellingham Police Lt. Chad Cristelli reported that his department received a call regarding Langton on July 26 and started an investigation. Cristelli did disclose that one victim has been identified, but the investigation is ongoing.
Whatcom County asked the Bellingham police to investigate to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. However, this is not Langton’s first time being investigated.
The Alleged Oath Keepers Connection
In 2021 an anonymous hacker breached the Oath Keepers security and downloaded data, including emails, from 2020 and part of 2021. The hacker released the data to Distributed Denial of Secrets, a transparency organization, and much of the information ended up posted online.
BuzzFeed reported on the released data, and among the active military members and law enforcement employees who had sent inquiries about joining the Oath Keepers, the article cited a specific email from February 4, 2020, scarcely a week after three members of the Oath Keepers had been indicted for their part in the attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2020. The email in question was from Scott Langton who identified himself as “a current Washington State Police Officer looking for information.”
The Buzzfeed article was published on October 1, 2021, and on October 4, Officer Langton was placed on paid administrative leave while the department and city investigated the incident.
Local community groups in Whatcom County, including the Riveters Collective and Connect Ferndale, advocated for transparency in the investigation. The request fell on deaf ears, and Langton was back on full duty by the end of October. The internal investigation concluded that no violation of law or department policy had taken place.
Local groups were disappointed with the outcome of the investigations into Langton, prompting Connect Ferndale and the Riveters Collective Justice System Committee to release statements calling for independent review, transparency, and policy improvement. They criticized the investigation for the inherent conflict of interest, having been performed by Langton’s colleagues, and the blatant disregard of the published department polices as relates to making contact with such groups.
Prior to the October 2021 investigation, the Riveters Collective Justice System Committee gathered information on police practices and published the data and their analysis. The project, titled Learn Why We Believe Public Safety Reform is Necessary, first appeared on their website in September of 2021. Multiple updates soon followed, and Langton turned out to be a focal point due to the statistically significant number of complaints against him.
Other Incidents Involving Officer Langton
The Riveters Collective Justice System Committee (JSC) looked at 52 complaint allegations dating from 2015 – 2020 for Ferndale Police officers employed at the time of their records request in January 2021. Their findings revealed that the department has sided with officers 94% of the time when the complaint came from a civilian. However, when a complaint started internally, 98% of allegations were either sustained or ruled founded. The name at the top of the list for most complaints was Langston’s.
From 2015 to 2021, Langton has 17 complaints on record. The officer with the next highest number has three.
Langton started with the Ferndale Police Department in August 2012, but prior to July 2021, when SB 5051 went into effect, complaint records at Ferndale PD, Bellingham PD, Blaine PD, and Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office were destroyed after six years. The earliest records available at the time dated back to 2015.
Most of the complaints against Langton alleged behavior described him as harassing, discriminatory, rude, insulting, or overly aggressive. Five complainants specifically identified the color of skin as the element that triggered Officer Langton’s behavior towards them.
Of the 17 complaints, 16 were internally investigated, and his colleagues deemed them “frivolous” or “did not occur.” The JSC report noted that at least one complaint acknowledged that Langton is known by many of the areas minorities as “the racist cop.”
Lawsuits
In February of 2020, Langton pulled over a female motorist that he alleged committed a traffic violation. Following his decision to cite her, he continued to detain her at the scene, in violation of federal law and the Fourth Amendment. The lawsuit alleged Langton purposefully delayed citing the woman for a traffic violation so he could have a police dog brought to search the woman’s car.
The case was moved out of Whatcom County Superior Court and into Federal Court in September of 2020. According to the Bellingham Herald, the case was settled out of court and dismissed on April 12.
In June of 2011, while Officer Langton worked for the city of Blaine, he was alleged to have used excessive force against a 54-year-old, legally blind man with limited mobility due to crushed vertebrae. During that encounter, which was initially a call for a verbal dispute between neighbors. Langton was alleged to have struck man, dragged him across a parking lot, and thrown him to the ground. That lawsuit was reportedly settled for $129,000.
There is some evidence that other incidents exist: A letter from 2013 references a lawsuit involving Langton and the City of Blaine. A 2011 court document described a witness report that they had to avert their eyes due to the rough treatment that Langton applied to a Blaine resident.
Partially due to previous policies around destroying records of complaints, there may be no further information available anymore, and advocacy groups think that’s part of the problem that needs to be addressed in Whatcom County.
Could Ferndale Have Intervened Before Things Went This Far?
It is unclear if Ferndale knew of Langton’s complaint history from Blaine. The Ferndale police policy does have a requirement for comprehensive screening, background investigation, and selection process, but it does recommend reviewing an officer’s complaint history.
Despite this, by October of 2021, when Langton’s email exchange with the Oath Keepers came to light, a third of all complaints against the Ferndale Police Department since 2015 were against Langston. Ferndale existing policies did not catch this outlier in their department, nor considered the significant number of complaints piling up against Langton in comparison to other officers on the force. Additionally, there is an apparent pattern of ignoring the work of community organizations and independent journalists that provided concrete evidence that Langston was violating already published internal policies.
The Present
On Tuesday, when Bellingham police arrested Langton at his home in Blaine, they contacted the Ferndale Police Department informing them of his charges. Officer Langton, who is still listed as an employee on the Ferndale Police Department website, has been placed on paid administrative leave. His annual salary is listed as $98,810 per year.
[SEATTLE, Wash.] – (MTN) Brett Allen Forsell, 48, was released from King County Jail late on Wednesday without being criminally charged or having to post bond after the Seattle Police Department failed to file their findings of fact with King County Prosecutors for any alleged crime within the Constitutionally required 72 hours.
King County Prosecutors were expecting to receive the required paperwork from the SPD, but the paperwork was never submitted.
Within the Bill of Rights, the Fifth Amendment states, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury.” Two Supreme Court of the United States rulings, McNabb v. United States (1943) and Mallory v. United States (1957), created what many call the “72 hours rule.”
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 5(a) states that defendants must be brought before the court “without delay,” which is defined as 48 to 72 hours. No time on Saturday, Sunday, or holidays counts toward the requirement to file charing papers with the court, and exceptions can be made if a judge isn’t available. In Washington, Rule 3.2.1 states, “Unless an information or indictment is filed or the affected person consents in writing or on the record in open court, an accused shall not be detained in jail or subjected to conditions of release for more than 72 hours.”
Forsell denies he threatened Jayapal, brandished a weapon, or made racist comments. SPD claims that a follow-up investigation supports the man’s version of events, but the investigation continues. Seattle Police did not respond at press time on why there was a discrepancy in the arresting officer’s report and the follow-up investigation.
The Seattle Police Department requested an extreme risk protection order be filed against Forsell, which will require him to give up all firearms prior to a review, typically 14 days after the court authorizes the protection order. Forsell’s weapons will be returned if the court determines that he isn’t an extreme risk. If Forsell does not show up for the hearing or the court determines he is an extreme risk, the order is automatically extended to one year.
Forsell admitted to police that he had been driving past Jayapal’s house multiple times over the week before his arrest, yelling obscenities and taunts.
King County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Casey McNerthey released a statement.
“The recent incident outside Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Seattle home is disturbing and unacceptable. In a time of increased political violence, security concerns against any elected official should be taken seriously.”
“The suspect’s alleged language and actions, coupled with his possession of a concealed weapon, deserve the full attention of the justice system. Presently, the investigation is ongoing, and our office is working with police investigators to make sure we understand the full extent of the suspect’s actions to build the strongest case possible.”
On July 9, Seattle police reported they were called to Jayapal’s home after multiple reports of a person driving by her home and yelling obscene and racist statements. A neighbor also called 911 reporting that someone may have fired a “pellet gun,” displaying a weapon.
Forsell was arrested in the middle of the street, possessing a handgun within his waistband. A witness told investigators they heard Forsell yelling, “Go back to India,” and “I’m going to kill you,” driving by the congressperson’s house three times.
Jayapal is the first Indian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives and heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
[SEATTLE, Wash.] – (MTN) Brett Allen Forsell, 48, is being held in King County Jail until he can make $500,000 bail, for brandishing a handgun and making racist death threats outside the home of United States Congressperson Pramila Jayapal (WA-D).
Rep. Jayapal’s office released a statement about the incident on her website.
“Congresswoman Jayapal confirms that incidents occurred at her Seattle home on Saturday night when she was present. The Congresswoman and her family are safe and appreciate the many calls and good wishes she is receiving from constituents. She is very grateful for the swift and professional response from the Seattle Police Department, the US Capitol Police, and the FBI investigators who are working together diligently on the investigation, and ensuring that she and her family stay safe. Because this is an ongoing investigation, she will not be commenting further at this time.”
Seattle police reported they were called to Jayapal’s home on Saturday reporting a person was driving by the home, and yelling obscene and racist statements. A neighbor also called 911 reporting that someone may have fired a “pellet gun,” displaying a weapon.
Forsell was arrested in the middle of the street, possessing a handgun with it in his waistband. A witness told investigators they heard Forsell yelling, “Go back to India,” and “I’m going to kill you,” driving by the congressperson’s house three times.
Prosecutors asked for an emergency restraining order, but the motion was denied. The judge overseeing the initial hearing said there was “probable cause” for additional hate crime charges.
Jayapal is the first Indian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives and heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
The FBI and the United States Secret Service are also investigating. Formal charges are expected to be filed on Wednesday.
Photo Credit: Quentin Melson – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
[NEWSROOM] – (MTN) The rural town of Elberton, Georgia was rocked by a large explosion at 4 AM, which caused significant damage to the Georgia Guidestones, sometimes referred to as America’s Stonehenge. The Guidestones was commissioned in 1979 by an unknown eccentric. After its installation in 1980, the site has been an oddity, a tourist trap, and an increasing focal point of QAnon and New World Order conspiracy theorists.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released a statement indicating agents had found evidence that explosives were used to damage the site.
“The preliminary information indicates that unknown individuals detonated an explosive device at around 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 6th. Elbert County Sheriff’s Office personnel responded to discover the explosion destroyed a large portion of the structure.”
July 6, 2022 – Georgia bureau of investigation
The Georgia Guidestones were commissioned by a man using the alias of R. C. Christian. He worked with an area banker to buy up farmland in rural northeastern Georgia and commissioned Elberton Granite to produce the monument. As the Cold War with the Soviet Union simmered, Christian wanted to create a “guide” for the survivors of a post-nuclear apocalypse world.
Inscribed on four massive granite slabs, were ten recommendations for the post-nuclear survivors, written in English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, and Russian. The instructions carved into the stones were simplistic.
Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
Unite humanity with a living new language.
Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
Balance personal rights with social duties.
Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
Be not a cancer on the Earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
Elberton Granite wasn’t interested in the project, and allegedly provided a quote four times higher than the normal cost. To the company’s surprise, Christian agreed. The property where the Guidestones were placed was owned by Wayne Mullenix. Mullenix and his children were given lifetime grazing rights to the five-acre site as part of the purchase agreement.
The site was considered an oddity by most, and as the threat of the Cold War faded away, so did the understanding of why the stones were commissioned in the first place.
The idea of leaving messages behind for a post-nuclear war society wasn’t unique to a cow pasture in Georgia. In 1981 the Human Interference Task Force recommended that nuclear waste sites have warnings at their perimeter that could survive 10,000 years. The proposed stone pillars would be carved with glyphs that a more primitive society could understand. They would contain a message that the area they surround has no value, is dangerous, and should not be disturbed for any reason.
Conspiracy theories about the stones started multiplying on the Internet in 2008. Theories included they were created by a shadowy cabal who want to build a “new world order,” a manifesto to create a tribal global government, to a Satanic monument calling for the death of billions of people. the site was vandalized in 2008 with the message “Death to the New World Order,” written in red paint. The stones were defaced again in 2014. In 2015 a documentary claimed the stones were created by white supremacists connected to the Ku Klux Klan.
The rise of QAnon and the COVID-19 pandemic caused conspiracy theories to spread faster. In darker corners of the Internet, the sharing of theories morphed into calls for action.
During the 2022 Georgia gubernatorial primaries, Republican candidate Kandiss Taylor made the destruction of the Guidestones a pillar of her platform. On her campaign website, she posted a video on Rumble explaining Executive Order #10, “Demolish the Satanic Georgia Guidestones.”
Campaign page of failed Georgia governor candidate Kandiss Taylor, published on May 1, 2022, called for the destruction of the Georgia Guidestones
I am the ONLY candidate bold enough to stand up to the Luciferian Cabal.
Elect me Governor of Georgia, and I will bring the Satanic Regime to its knees— and DEMOLISH the Georgia Guidestones.
Taylor celebrated the bombing, tweeting, “God is God all by Himself. He can do ANYTHING He wants to do. That includes striking down Satanic Guidestones.”
God is God all by Himself. He can do ANYTHING He wants to do. That includes striking down Satanic Guidestones.
The site is owned and cared for by Elbert County. Government officials have repeatedly expressed no desire to remove the stones as public pressure has increased. Elberton is called the Granite Capital of the World and business leaders consider the post-nuclear war instructions free advertising. Almost 25% of Elberton residents live below the federal poverty line with a median household income of $23,250 a year and the town’s population has been declining since 1960. Whether people travel two hours from Atlanta to visit the site because they love it or hate it, tourism has become a critical source of income for Elberton’s 4,600 residents.
“It’s sad,” Kubas said. “Not just for Elberton and Elbert County, but I’m sad for the United States and the world. These were tourist attractions, and it was not uncommon for people from around the world to be up here at any given time.”
Kubas said the site has security cameras and expressed hope that they would help identify the suspect or suspects.
[KIRKLAND, Wash.] – MTN On February 26, 2020, in the Totem Lake Fred Meyer parking lot in Kirkland, FBI agents moved in and arrested neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division leader Cameron Brandon Shea of Redmond, Washington, on a warrant for four felonies. Shea, who worked in the Seattle suburb grocery store, was arrested with four coconspirators on various charges. On the surface, Atomwaffen appears to be an internally created extremist group that identifies with the policies of Nazi Germany. In reality, the group has ties to the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), and former Washington state residents Kaleb James Cole and Aiden Bruce Umbaugh likely received military training in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The trail that led three Washingtonians to connect with Russian neo-Nazi terrorist leaders follows a twisted path that begins in the mind of a 14-year-old American in 1966. The road winds through a global white nationalist movement with roots in St. Petersburg, Russia, leading to the creation of Iron March by a Russian national who used the pseudonym of Alexander Slavros, and amplified by Brandon Clint Russell. In late 2015, the Atomwaffen division in the United States was born, and a few months later, Cole created the Washington Divison of Atomwaffen in the suburbs of Seattle. Among those who created a deeper connection to the terrorist organization RIM? The founder of the white power Traditionalist Worker Party and Iron Dome, Matthew Heimbach.
Russell, a dual citizen of The Bahamas and the United States, was openly radicalized in his teens. He engaged in the online forum Iron March, where he quickly grew credibility among the neo-Nazi movement. Despite his beliefs being public and his direct ties to five radicalized far-right organizations, Russell was able to enlist in the Florida National Guard. A 2017 double homicide investigation in Tampa, Florida, revealed Russell’s connections and the discovery of bomb-making materials, radioactive isotopes, and neo-Nazi propaganda.
Russell was never charged with the murder of his roommates, both members of Atomwaffen. He was arrested on federal charges and, in September 2017, pled guilty to possessing an unregistered destructive device and illegally storing explosives. Within Russell’s orbit was John Cameron Denton, one of the earliest members of Atomwaffen. Between 2016 and 2017 and likely before his arrest, Russell passed leadership to the neo-Nazi group to him.
Heimbach was influenced by the ramblings of cult leader Charles Manson and his admirer James Mason. Mason is considered the Godfather of fascist terrorism in North America. Among white nationalists, the 1992 book The Seige is a manifesto for creating a global race war to establish white nationalist rule. Mason’s writings call for the creation of autonomous neo-Nazi terror cells and the destruction of the United States government.
Mason’s radicalization started when he was 14 and joined the American Nazi Party (ANP) in the 1960s. After the founder of the ANP was assassinated in 1967, Mason wandered for several years before joining the National Socialist Liberation Front. In 1982 Mason started writing letters to Manson disciples Sandra Good and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. The pair were imprisoned for participating in the grizzly Manson Family murder spree in 1969, leaving seven dead. Good and Fromme introduced Mason to Manson through correspondence, and Manson, from his prison cell, formed the Universal Order movement with Mason in 1982.
Mason had started writing a series of essays in 1980 for a self-published monthly newsletter called The Seige. From 1980 to 1986, Mason praised Manson and professed that the cult leader would be the ideal person to mold a new Nazi leadership in a post-race-fueled civil war America. Michael Moynihan (not to be confused with the American journalist) was a reader of The Seige, and in 1992 he edited and published the writings as a book called The Seige: The Collective Writings of James Mason. In 2003, the Black Sun Press republished the book under a new name, The Seige. and added a foreword written by Mason.
Around the same time The Seige was being prepared for publication Stanislav Vorobyev formed RIM in St. Petersburg, Russia. The ultranationalist organization embraces neo-Nazi ideology, wants to restore Russia to its pre-1917 borders, eliminate those not of ethno-Russian blood and re-establish rule by the Russian Orthodox Church and white nationalists with bloodlines to the tsarist Romanovs.
RIM didn’t draw much attention in post-Soviet collapsed Russia until 2007 when Vorobyev formed the Rezerv Paramilitary Club (RPC). In Russia, paramilitary clubs are legal and controlled by the Voluntary Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy (DOSAAF). DOSAAF was created in the 1950s by the Soviet Union to promote a healthy lifestyle and teach the history of Russian military glory. The RPC formed a paramilitary training camp at an abandoned Soviet-era military base in St. Petersburg with the blessing of the Kremlin.
In 2012 with support from then Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev, RIM formed the New Force political party. The platform softened its extremist message to become more palatable to the Russian public. It claimed to support “democratic values” but called for restricting immigration to ethnic Russians and holding undocumented immigrants in slave labor camps. In 2013 working with other Russian-based neo-Nazi groups, RIM went public, organizing an anti-immigration protest in Voronezh, Russia.
In late 2013 as Ukraine made its intentions of pulling away from the Kremlin known, Vorobyev wrote, “The stability of anti-Russian regimes on all the territory inhabited by the Russian ethnos” is the greatest threat to the “Russian national survival.” Working with pro-Russian figures in Ukraine, members of RIM were involved in destabilizing the Kyiv government and fomenting Euromaidan counterprotests that led to dozens of deaths.
On February 28, 2014, the day after the Russian military occupied the Crimea Peninsula, members of RIM flew with the Russian military to Sevastopol. Among the passengers were Vorobyev and Nikolay Trushchalov, the head of external affairs for RIM. In March, four members of RIM met with neo-Nazi pro-Russian separatist leaders in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
After the meeting in Donetsk, RIM coordinated with other ultranationalist and pro-Nazi organizations in Russia, including Rodina. It held a demonstration in Moscow to support ethnic Russians living in Ukraine. In a cynical twist, Russian organizations aligned with Nazi ideology led protests accusing the legitimate government in Kyiv of Nazi atrocities.
Around the same time, the RPC received its new name, the Russian Imperial Legion, and started training mercenaries to fight against Ukraine. RIM actively recruited military veterans and provided two weeks of combat training, sending squad-sized groups into separatist-controlled Ukraine through humanitarian corridors. RIM mercenaries reported directly into the Russian 1st and 2nd Army Corps of the Donetsk (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republics (LNR). Vorobyev and Trushchalov worked with Russian military veteran and Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent Igor Girkin (who goes by the alias Igor Strelkov). Girkin is accused of being directly responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which killed 298 when a Boeing 777-200ER was shot down on the Ukraine-Russia border. Girkin was the first commander of the 1st Army Corps of the DNR and had up to 300 RIM-provided mercenaries of the Imperial Legion under his command.
The troops led by Girkin were accused of committing dozens of atrocities against Ukrainians and Ukrainian soldiers. Even today, Girkin on Telegram rails against prisoner of war exchanges done by the Russian Federation in Ukraine and reminds his followers that if he was still in charge of the DNR 1st Army Corps, he would take no prisoners.
In the fall of 2014, Girkin was forced to flee to Russia after a series of military failures in the Donbas, refusal to comply with the directives of the Kremlin and the negative publicity from the downing of Flight 17. The FSB started a purge of Girkin-aligned leaders in the 1st Army Corps due to their ideology being out of alignment with Moscow’s goals. But among white nationalists and neo-Nazis, the credibility of RIM and the Imperial Legion grew, gaining international attention on Telegram, the dark web, and the Russian Facebook clone VKontakte.
Although overt racism and white nationalism were pushed just under the surface in American society starting in the late 1970s, the ideology and its purveyors didn’t fade away. The Internet, economic dissatisfaction caused by the Great Recession of 2008, and the election of Barack Obama and his “liberal agenda” caused the movement to rise back to the surface. Hate groups found the Internet was the perfect place to share their message, radicalize people in their youth, and recruit members to their ranks. The organizations weaponized the First Amendment to support their cause while amplifying their messages through the use of marketing agencies, troll farms, and automated bots. Social media companies and web host providers were slow to respond.
Among those to embrace this newfound acceptance was Heimbach, the co-founder of the Traditionalist Worker Party. In 2011, he joined the Youth for Western Civilization (YFWC) club at Towson University in Maryland. Like Mason and Russell, Heimbach’s radicalization started in his teens, and like RIM founder Vorobyev in Russia, he earned a degree in history. In 2012 Heimbach wrote in the YFWC blog, “No longer will the homosexual, Muslim, and black supremacist groups be allowed to hijack our campus. [We are] preparing to take our campus back, all we need is the help of people like you to make it happen.”
For the administration of Towson University, the blog posts and campus vandalism with the messages of “white pride” and “white guilt is over” scrawled on sidewalks and buildings was a bridge too far. In the spring of 2012, the university dissolved the YFWC chapter. Undeterred, Heimbach created the White Student Union and invited Jared Taylor, the creator of the ultranationalist faux think tank American Renaissance, to speak at the university. Taylor was so impressed by Heimbach’s radical views on race that he took him under his wing.
In 2013 Taylor invited Heimbach to speak at the American Renaissance conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Another featured speaker was neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, a speaker, and organizer of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Taylor’s session was called “Report from the Trenches.” At the conference, Heimbach asked Paul Ramsey, “Where do we create our ethnostate?”
Ramsey replied, “We need to Balkanize and create our own homeland. We have a right to exist.”
With white nationalist movements moving to the open in the United States and Russia and politicians in both countries embracing the ideology, the twin paths a world apart were on a collision course.
In 2015 the International Conservative Forum of Russia was held in St. Petersburg with support from the Russian government. The conference was organized by Rodina and RIM, attracting leaders and influencers of white nationalist organizations from Germany, Italy, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the United States. Among the attendees from the United States was Taylor of American Renaissance. Also in attendance was Russell, who had already laid the foundation to create Atomwaffen.
Russell began spreading his ultranationalist message online in 2011 when he was 16 years old, creating the neo-Nazi organization Iron March in 2013. In 2015 while in St. Petersburg, he met with Taylor of American Renaissance and the leaders of the Nordic Resistance Movement of Sweden, the National Action group of Germany, CasPound of Italy, and Golden Dawn of Greece. In October of 2015, Russell announced the creation of Atomwaffen in Florida.
Shortly after the same conference and Taylor’s return to the United States, his pupil Heimbach formed Iron Dome. The new organization was created in parallel with the Traditionalist Worker Party, but aligned with the call of direct action and terror cell-based ultranationalism. Iron Dome would eventually merge with Atomwaffen.
Matthew Heimbach’s Traditional Worker Party of the United States and the Russia Imperial Movement show unity between the two groups in this Facebook graphic
Members of the Nordic Resistance Movement who attended the Russian forum in 2015 returned to St. Petersburg in 2016 and received combat training from RIM. From November 2016 to January 2017, Nordic Resistance Movement members Anton Thulin, Viktor Melin, and a third coconspirator executed three terrorist attacks in Gothenburg, Sweden. The trio targeted a coffee shop and two asylum homes for refugees. In the third incident, the bomb failed to detonate. The three were tried and found guilty of the attacks and sentenced to 8-1/2 years in prison.
At the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Heimbach met members of the Atomwaffen Division and moved the Traditionalist Workers Party further right, fully embracing anti-Semtisim and white nationalism. According to ProPublica and the Southern Poverty Law Center, Heimbach wrote on Discord after Charlottesville, “The Jews will use their guns to try to stop us, but also their pigs and courts to try to break our spirits.” In the same post, he referred to people of the white race as victims of the “Zionist Occupation Government” – repeating the antisemitic conspiracy that a Jewish deep state international conspiracy runs the United States government. Heimbach was enamored with Atomwaffen, calling the group “our friends.”
After Charlottesville, RIM’s Western European representative Stanislav Shevchuk traveled to the United States to establish connections between RIM and far-right extremist white nationalist groups. Heimbach had become a regular on American news programs, interviewed by the mainstream media where he was given an open platform to share his white nationalist views. Due to Heimbach’s public profile in the United States and his connections to Taylor, Mason, Spencer, and his embrace of Atomwaffen, Shevchuk asked to meet with the white nationalist figure. Despite being a highly visible voice for white nationalism in the United States, behind the curtain, he held little influence. The real power brokers in Atomwaffen were Cole, Shea, Russell, and Denton, who was the leader of Atomwaffen in the United States.
Matthew Heimbach (left) and Stanislav Shevchuk (right) hold the flag of the Russia Imperial Movement in front of the White House in 2017
Heimbach gave Shevchuk a guided tour of Washington D.C., where they displayed the RIM nationalist flag outside the White House. They also visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and posed in front of a statue of Robert E. Lee with a Confederate flag and the RIM nationalistic flag of black, yellow, and white.
While Heimbach was the bearded smiling face of white nationalism and anti-Semitism, Cole, Shea, Russell, and Denton were moving ahead with a far more violent plan influenced by Mason. In 2016, Cole founded the Washington chapter of Atomwaffen in the shadow of Seattle.
Although Seattle and Portland, Oregon are perceived to be liberal strongholds, both cities lie in what was once the Oregon Territory which passed increasingly aggressive anti-immigration legislation. On June 18, 1844, the Oregon Territory Provisional Government passed a law that Blacks attempting to settle in the territory would be publicly whipped with 39 lashes every six months.
On September 27, 1850, the United States Congress passed the Donation Land Claim Act, which made it illegal for anyone other than whites, or whites of mixed race with indigenous peoples, to settle in the Oregon Territory. The law designated that any white male United States citizen eighteen years or older could claim a 320-acre parcel of land free of charge in parts of modern-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming.
More than 160 years later, hate groups, white nationalist organizations, anti-Semites, and neo-Nazis thrive just out of view. The Proud Boys, III%, Patriot Front, and Patriot Prayer operate in the open and actively recruit members online and among the antivaccination and antigovernment communities.
Overt racism, anti-Black, and anti-immigration legislation and violence continued in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century, the echoes continuing to impact immigration patterns within the United States. The 2020 United Census showed that people who identify as Black make up 1% of Idaho, 2% of Oregon, and 4.3% of Washington – 13.4% of people in the United States identify as Black. For Atomwaffen, Western Washington was a fertile ground to recruit new members who grew up in a monocultural environment and saw everything wrong in the world shimmering in the Seattle skyline.
Cole’s life was ordinary before becoming an Atomwaffen Divison leader. He grew up in Everett, spent time in Bellingham, and eventually moved to Arlington. By 2015 he was already deeply radicalized and held neo-Nazi beliefs. Members of Atomwaffen practiced firing guns in the forests north of Seattle. In 2018 Cole and Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh, of Olympia, Washington embarked on a one-month trip to Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and allegedly Russia, where they had a purpose.
During that trip, Cole and Bruce-Umbaugh allegedly traveled to St. Petersburg and received combat training from RIM. The pair slipped into Russia through Ukraine using a green corridor in the Donbas. After completing Imperial Legion training, the pair traveled back through Ukraine, entered Poland, and visited the Nazi Concentration Camp Auschwitz. A picture was taken on the train tracks that lead to the extermination camp, Bruce-Umbagh with a thumbs up and Cole pointing to the sky. Cole wasn’t flashing a number one but referencing the extermination of ethnic Jews at the death camp and the ash and smoke rising from the incinerators.
Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh (left) and Kaleb James Cole (right) pose outside the main entrance at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland after recently completing combat training in Russia
The training in firearms, explosives, moving as a squad, and terrorist tactics were taken back to Washington state. At an abandoned cement factory in Concrete, members of Atomwaffen attended “hate camps” to train in guerilla and urban warfare and fire automatic weapons. Cole, despite never being in the United States military or having received any military training of public record, also set up a second “hate camp” in the Nevada desert near Death Valley.
Cole was also behind the editing and design of propaganda, posters, and slick recruiting videos. The scenes from “Devil’s Tower,” as the locals called the graffiti-covered ruins, closely resemble the videos made by Russian-proxy troops from Chechnya. The soldiers in those videos are called the “Chechen TikTok unit” and create numerous videos of fighters shooting wildly at nothing and staging raids of empty buildings.
Atomwaffen members holding the organization’s flag during weapons training in Concrete, Washington
In 2018, neo-Nazi posters began appearing at churches, government offices, and public areas in Kirkland, Redmond, and Bellevue. The posters and propaganda appeared across the region for almost two years. The content was never connected back to Atomwaffen, but the designs of some of the materials were similar. Emboldened by the sign campaign, Patriot Front also distributed materials in the suburban areas east of Seattle.
A 2018 investigation by ProPublica found Atomwaffen had cells in 23 states and was growing in influence and violence. By 2019 federal, state, county, and local authorities were increasingly concerned by Atomwaffen’s actions and rhetoric. Domestic terrorist experts believed that the language was moving from suggesting there should be a race war to purge the United States to discussing direct action. On September 26, 2019, a King County judge granted the Seattle Police Department’s request to issue an extreme risk protection order on Cole. In October, authorities seized five military-style rifles, three handguns, gun parts, and ammunition at Cole’s residence in Arlington.
Cole had an opportunity to have his guns returned at a hearing a couple of weeks later but instead fled to Montgomery, Texas, where he found refuge with Denton. The extreme risk protection order was automatically extended for a year because Cole defaulted by not attending the hearing. Because of Cole’s propaganda abilities and combat training, Denton allegedly made Cole the Texas leader of Atomwaffen. His tenure would be very short-lived, as Shea had already made a mistake and allowed an FBI informant to infiltrate the group.
Graphic design work by Kaleb James Cole threatened the press, featured Nazi symbols, Charles Manson, and scenes of open revolution
Only days after arriving in Texas, Cole was involved in a November 4, 2019, traffic stop in the west Texas town of Post, with Bruce-Umbaugh in the passenger seat. Police found marijuana, concentrated THC, an AR-15, two AK-47s, a 9mm pistol, and 1,500 rounds of ammunition. The extreme risk protection order on Cole was flagged during the stop, but Bruce-Umbaugh claimed that the drugs and guns were his. Cole was behind the wheel of the blue Ford Focus with Washington plates, and despite this glaring discrepancy, Bruce-Umbaugh was arrested, and Cole was released.
A month later, the mistake was identified, and a warrant was issued for Cole’s arrest for unlawful possession of a firearm with bail set at $20,000. Bruce-Umbaugh was unable to post bond for his release and languished in a west Texas jail cell, where authorities confronted him about a nascent Atomwaffen plot.
In November 2019, Shea had unknowingly contacted an FBI informant and invited the agent to join a budding operation to threaten journalists across the country. His goal was to “erode the media/states air of legitimacy by showing people they have names and addresses, and hopefully embolden others to act.” The informant worked with Shea on his plans and through conversations exposed other Atomwaffen members, including Cole, now hiding in the outskirts of Houston. An undercover agent visited Cole in January 2020, and in a sworn statement claimed the newly minted Atomwaffen Division leader of Texas was wearing a Klu Klux Klan robe.
Later that same month, Atomwaffen threatened a Seattle TV news reporter, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Pacific Northwest Chapter, and attempted to threaten a Florida reporter. In the Florida incident, the flyers were affixed to the wrong home.
On February 26, 2020, the group was unraveled by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Operation Erste Saule arrested five members of Atomwaffen in four states. John Cameron Denton and Kaleb J. Cole were arrested in Texas. Cameron Brandon Shea was arrested in Kirkland, Washington, as he walked into a Fred Meyer grocery store to start his work shift. Also arrested were John Garza of Arizona and Tyler “Taylor” Parker-Dipeppe of Florida.
Bruce-Umbaugh was also federally charged while he was still sitting in a west Texas jail cell. On February 3, 2020, he pled guilty to federal charges of possession of firearms and ammunition by a prohibited person.
Three months after Operation Erste Saule and the FBI investigation revealing the military training of Atomwaffen members in St. Petersburg, Russia, the United States Department of State designated the Russia Imperial Movement and members of its leadership as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. It was the first time the United States government had declared a white supremacist group a terrorist organization.
On April 6, 2020, Vorobyev, Nikolayevich, and Denis Garijev were designated as terrorists “for providing training for acts of terrorism that threaten the national security and foreign policy of the United States and being leaders of such a group.”
In September of the same year, National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller confirmed that United States members of the “extreme right” had traveled to Russia for military training. Testifying before Congress with FBI Director Chris Wray, Miller reported Americans have traveled to Russia to train with RIM and the Imperial Legion. He added that the relationship between extremists in the United States and RIM had remained casual and had not organized into cross-nation terrorism. Miller did not list the names of the organizations or individuals that had trained with the Imperial Legion during his testimony.
The Russian Federation does not consider RIM a terrorist organization. A Kremlin spokesperson defended the group and its military training of foreign fighters declaring, “We are also not going to prohibit foreigners from coming to visit their barracks or receive training. That is its purpose.”
Like many countries that identify as being formed by people with white ancestry, Ukraine has its own problem with neo-Nazi ideology. A lot of digital ink has been spilled about the history of the Azov Battalion and its founding members identifying with white supremacism and Nazi beliefs. While white nationalist extremists founded the Azov Battalion in 2014, the military unit slowly shifted its political alignment and views during the last six years. The early ranks were mostly filled with Russian-speaking residents of eastern Ukraine and were funded partly by Jewish businessperson and billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskyi. The group was colloquially called “The Men In Black” to counter Russia’s “little green men.”
Before the war in Ukraine, members of Atomwaffen were still within the ranks of the Azov Battalion. The battalion ejected the extremists from its ranks in 2020, including those with Atomwaffen.
When the Russia-Ukraine War started on February 24, Russian propaganda had turned the Azovs into mythical monsters while ignoring the thousands of ultranationalist neo-Nazis being trained and deployed to Ukraine under the watchful eye of DOSAAF. It used the group as justification to invade Ukraine for “denazification.” Despite the legends, the Azov Regiment had fewer than 3,000 troops, including Israeli foreign volunteers within the ranks. In May 2022, new insignia for the unit was introduced, wiping the last hints of its white nationalist founding.
While the Kremlin and the social media accounts it backs push a denazification agenda in Ukraine, it is estimated that several thousand members of the Imperial Legion are fighting in Ukraine, concentrated in Izyum and the Donbas. In an ironic twist, ultranationalist mercenaries with the Imperial Legion fought in Mariupol, likely against the Azov Battalion, to “denazify” Ukraine.
In Izyum, Ukraine, two mercenaries with Russian Private Military Company Wagner Group pose outside the destroyed hospital in the city center. The person on the left is trained by the Imperial Legion and wearing a Nazi-inspired patch.
While the alleged atrocities of Azov are mostly limited to memes, propaganda, and disinformation, an internal report of the German Federal Intelligence Service BND claims that the Imperial Legion engages in destroying cultural icons that don’t align with the Russian Orthodox Church and tortures and executes Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Unlike Russia, all 50 states ban private militias that are involved in extremist activity or move their presence into the public domain. Despite these regulations, enforcement is almost non-existent. It is estimated there are almost 300 private militias operating in the United States. They represent a fertile ground for recruitment to fight in Ukraine with Russian extremist organizations and Private Military Companies such as the Wagner Group. For those that survive, they bring back that experience, which can be applied to future domestic terrorism.
Kaleb James Cole was convicted of conspiracy, three counts of mailing threatening communications, and one count of interfering with a federally protected activity. On January 11, Cole was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison. Cole has been labeled a terrorist by Canada.
Cameron Brandon Shea pled guilty to one count of conspiring to commit three offenses against the United States: interference with federally-protected activities because of religion and one count of interfering with a federally protected activity because of religion. On April 25, Shea was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison.
Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh pled guilty to possessing firearms and ammunition by a prohibited person. On April 28, 2020, he was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. While awaiting his sentencing in jail, he bragged to other inmates about his photo at Auschwitz and openly told others he was a Nazi.
John Cameron Denton was convicted of conspiracy and a hate crime for “swatting” over 130 people. Denton participated in a conspiracy that conducted swatting attacks between October 2018 and February 2019. Swatting is a harassment tactic that involves deceiving emergency dispatchers into believing that a person or persons are in imminent danger of death or bodily harm and causing the dispatchers to send police and emergency services to an unwitting third party’s address. Denton chose his targets motivated by racial hatred. On May 4, 2021, Denton was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison.
Johnny Roman Garza pled guilty to conspiracy to mail threatening communications, to commit stalking, and to interfere with federally protected activities. On September 8, 2020, he was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison.
Tyler “Taylor” Parker-Dipeppe pled guilty to conspiracy to mail threatening communications, to commit stalking, and to interfere with federally protected activities. Taylor, who is transgender, uses he/him pronouns and goes by the name Tyler, was abused by his biological father and stepfather growing up. Growing up in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, he was so severely bullied in school for identifying as male, that he brought a lawsuit against the school and was paid a $50,000 settlement. Parker-Dipeppe fell into Atomwaffen when he was 15 or 16, and found a family within the group while hiding he is transgender.
As the only person in the Florida Atomwaffen cell that owned a car, he and another member drove to St. Petersburg, Florida to affix threatening posters on a journalist’s home, but went to the wrong house. After making the threat, Parker-Dipeppe confessed to his mother what had happened and was afraid the group would learn he is transgender. He confessed his LGBTQIA status to Shea in Washington state and was kicked out of Atomwaffen.
On September 8, 2020, United States District Judge John Coughenour sentenced Parker-Dipeppe to time served, saying he struggled with sentencing but given his history, “enough is enough.” Parker-Dipeppe is now married and employed, and fears that he will be targeted for violence in the future.
Brandon Clint Russell pled guilty to one count of possessing an unregistered destructive device and one count of unlawful storage of explosive material. On January 9, 2018, he was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison. While awaiting sentencing in jail, Russell tried to send bomb-making information to members of Atomwaffen. He wrote in one letter, “I don’t care how long you put me in jail, your Honor, … as soon as I get out, I will go right back to fight for my White Race and my America!” Russell will be eligible for release in January 2023.
Matthew Heimbach’s life and connections with the white nationalist movement fell apart in 2017. On March 2, 2016, Heimbach was caught on camera harassing and shoving a Black woman at a Donald Trump rally in Louisville, Kentucky. As the incident unfolded, then-candidate Trump yelled, “get her out!” On May 17, 2017, Heimbach was charged with misdemeanor harassment. Heimbach called the charges “politically motivated” and said he “acted pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump.” On July 20, 2017, Heimbach cut a plea deal. He was fined $145 and sentenced to 90 days in jail for second-degree disorderly conduct. The sentence was suspended through a deferred adjudication agreement that required Heimbach not to get in further legal trouble for the next two years.
On March 14, 2018, Heimbach was arrested again for two counts of domestic violence assault against his wife, Jessica Parrott, and his father-in-law Matt Parrott. Ms. Parrott believed that Heimbach was having an affair, so she and her father set up a sting operation to confirm her suspicions. Her suspicion was well placed, but to the pair’s surprise, Heimbach was having an affair with his mother-in-law. Heimbach allegedly choked his father-in-law until he lost consciousness. Ms. Parrott told police that Heimbach “demanded that I tell the cops to leave,” kicked a wall, grabbed her face, and threw me face-first into a bed.” Despite violating his deferred adjudication agreement and being charged with two domestic violence assaults, bail was set for $1,000.
On May 16, 2018, Heimbach was sentenced to 37 days in jail for violating his 2017 plea agreement. In a June 2018 hearing, the Parrotts did not want to pursue charges. After the 2018 domestic violence incident, the Traditionalist Worker Party, which Heimbach founded with Parrott, collapsed.
The neo-Nazi and white nationalist movements have rejected Heimbach, labeling him a traitor, informant, and a communist. In 2020, he stated he was done with identifying with white nationalism.
Heimbach was named a defendant in Sines v. Kessler in October 2017 due to the violence that erupted at the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally. Heimbach was found liable for civil conspiracy and ordered to pay $500,000 in punitive damages.
James Mason still writes about Charles Manson, calls for violence against Jews, and his support of neo-Nazi ideals. He is currently considered the leader of Atomwaffen, an allegation he denies. Mason claims that Atomwaffen collapsed in 2020 after the arrests of key leaders.
Mason has a significant criminal record including a 1992 guilty plea of “illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented materials” after two police raids in 1988 and 1991 found child pornography in his home. He was fined $500. In 1994 Mason was arrested again and charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Mason, who was 42 years old at the time, had threatened his Latina 16-year-old ex-girlfriend and her mother with a gun. He was sentenced to 36 months in prison.
Jared Taylor continues to lead the faux think tank American Renaissance. Taylor doesn’t view Jews as a threat to a new order. He severed his ties with Heimbach as he became more radicalized by RIM and Atomwaffen. In 2017, Taylor had a front-row VIP seat at the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Taylor is banned from traveling to 26 European Union nations that comprise the Schengen Area.
Richard Spencer’s life also fell apart in 2017. Spencer planned to hold a neo-Nazi march in Whitefish, Montana, in January 2017. Congressional Representative Ryan Zinke, Senator Steve Daines, Senator Jon Tester, Montana Governor Steve Bullock, and Montana Attorney General Tim Fox condemned the planned event. The community of Whitefish rallied to create a counterprotest, and the march never happened. Spencer became a pariah in Montana and was forced to move to an apartment in Virginia.
In 2014 while doing a speaking tour in Hungary, Spencer enraged Prime Minister Viktor Orban so much, that the right-wing leader pressed through legislation that banned Spencer – the Polish government passed a similar measure. In 2018 Spencer was detained in Iceland trying to enter Sweden and was forced to return to the United States due to his ban on travel in the Schengen Area.
Also, in 2018, his Russian-born wife filed for divorce, accusing him of being abusive in their marriage. Audio recordings and text messages sent to Nina Kouprianova threatened to break her nose and encouraged her to commit suicide.
Spencer was threatened with jail time in June 2020, owing more than $60,000 to the guardian ad litem assigned to defend the interests of the two children he had with his ex-wife. He was also named a defendant in Sines v. Kessler in October 2017 and ordered to pay $500,000 in punitive damages.
Stanislav Shevchuk was sanctioned by the United States Department of Treasury on June 15, 2022, for reaching out to individuals in the United States for the purpose of identifying racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists to support fundraising, training, and recruitment.
Russia Imperialist Movement – RIM does not support Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime. Still, they see his policies and the war in Ukraine as a means to move their white nationalistic plan forward. It is believed several thousand mercenaries are part of the Imperial Legion fighting in Ukraine, the Central African Republic, Lybia, and Syria. The Imperialist Movement maintains Russian sanction training centers in St. Petersburg and Moscow (both in Russia). It is believed the Imperial Legion assists in training contract volunteers of the Russian army and forced conscripts of the DNR and LNR north of Izyum, Ukraine. Imperial Legion fighters report directly to the Russian armed forces command structure and work cooperatively with the Russian Federation Armed Forces, DNR, and LNR separatists. They continue to train foreign fighters in combat and terrorist tactics worldwide with the blessing of the Kremlin.
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) Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed the need to get booster shots and waning immunity in a discussion yesterday with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (CA-D) when he was asked if a sixth wave was coming to the United States.
The surge that tore through the Pacific Northwest is coming to an end from Barrow, Alaska to Brookings, Oregon, and out to Boise, Idaho, while new hotspots are emerging in northern states plateauing the national decline in new cases and hospitalizations. Seventy-nine million Americans age five and up remain unvaccinated and millions more need boosters or wrongly believe they have lifetime natural immunity.
A study published in JAMA found a correlation between sleep apnea and a higher risk of hospitalization and having severe Covid-19 symptoms. The study did not indicate if CPAP therapy decreased the risk.
Johns Hopkins University data shows that new case rates in the United States have plateaued at a high level for the last three weeks and continue to be driven by the unvaccinated.
In Washington state, new cases continue to decline with almost half the population living in counties on the other side of the fifth wave. Hospitalizations also declined and we have lifted the avoid all unnecessary travel advisory for the East Hospital Region.
The Washington State Office of Financial Management reported 94.7% of all state employees are in compliance with the October 18 vaccine mandate and another 2% are either completing their vaccinations, waiting for accommodation, in the process of retiring, or facing termination.
The Kent School District joined Seattle Public Schools and the Bellevue School District (BSD) and canceled all classes on Friday due to staffing issues. In better news BSD moved to status green, with only 9 active Covid-19 cases reported between staff and students.
Nationally, the Department of Homeland Security updated the National Threat Advisory through February 8, 2022. DHS reported that domestic violent extremists remain their primary concern, and the agency had prevented “several” attacks. The bulletin indicated that there were no specific threats.
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that consumers of Fox News were more likely to believe Covid-19 disinformation. In related news, doctors are seeing a growing connection between prior COVID infections and erectile dysfunction in young men around the world.
New cases continued to decline statewide. The end of farming season, colder weather, and helping drive new case rates down in several sparsely populated counties in Eastern Washington. There remains a significant difference between lower-vaccinated counties and counties where at least 70% of the total population is fully inoculated.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Total Population in Group
Average 14-Day New Case Rate
70.00% or above (3 counties)
2,343,250
184.7
60.00% to 69.99% (4 counties)
1,242,200
305.3
50.00% to 59.99% (16 counties)
3,454,700
321.8
40.00% to 49.99% (10 counties)
584,875
317.5
31.60% to 39.99% (6 counties)
151,850
290.8
14-Day New Covid-19 Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate for Total Population, Adjusted for Population by County
Through November 10, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average is 277.0 Covid-19 cases per 100K.
Skagit County remains above 600, with a new case rate of 620.2 per 100K residents.
Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Klickitat, Lewis, Lincoln, Okanagan, Pend Orielle, and Spokane counties have new case rates between 400.0 and 599.9. Asotin County is just under 400.
Fourteen counties representing 3.13 million Washingtonians have a 7 day moving average case rate under 100. This includes some former hotspots such as Benton, Garfield, and Kittitas Counties.
The 7 day new case rate was mixed, slight down to unchanged except for ages 20 to 34, which saw a larger decline, and up significantly for ages 50 to 64. Hospitalizations were down significantly for adults and declined slightly for children and adolescents.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
125.8
0.8
Ages 12-19
127.2
1.2
Ages 20-34
127.8 (down)
2.2 (down)
Ages 35-49
130.2
5.5 (down)
Ages 50-64
130.3 (up)
9.8 (down)
Ages 65-79
70.6
14.8 (down)
Ages 80+
78.6
25.0 (down)
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
Over 57,000 of the 62,145 impacted employees have verified they are vaccinated. Another 1,945 workers requested and received accommodation based on medical or religious grounds. Combined, almost 95% of all employees have met the state requirement. The number of employees who were terminated or quit increased slightly to 1,857.
The state reported another 1,259 workers are pending a final outcome. Some are finishing their vaccination series while others are waiting for accommodation decisions. There are also employees who are still pending termination.
Several unions negotiated that if a state worker planned to retire by December 31, they would be exempt from the mandate – and some of those employees fall into this group. According to the OFM, only 121 state employees opted to retire so far because of the mandate.
4,973 employees requested a religious exemption. 1,518 have been approved and 745 requests were withdrawn, another 1,306 people requested medical exemptions with 427 approved and 333 withdrawn.
The mandate’s impact on services statewide has been minimal. The Washington State Department of Transportation has cautioned that snow removal could be reduced during the upcoming winter season and Washington State Ferries are still managing service reductions on some routes.
Seattle and Kent School Districts join Bellevue in canceling school on Friday
The district said, “fatigue that educators and students are experiencing, locally and nationwide, 11 weeks into the return to in-class learning” was driving the staffing issue.
Kent School District (KSD) also announced they were canceling school on Friday.
Due to staff and substitute shortages, on “Friday, November 12, 2021, our schools will be closed and the central office will be open,” was posted on the KSD website.
SPS did not provide a make-up date while KSD reported the make-up day would be on March 25. We reported yesterday Bellevue Public Schools had canceled class for Friday.
A quirk in the holiday calendar has Veteran’s Day falling on a Thursday. Government offices and services will be closed nationwide, along with banks and there won’t be mail delivery. Because of the federal holiday, many are opting to take Friday off and have a four-day weekend.
“We recognize the late notice creates challenging circumstances for many families. Our hope is that the four-day weekend allows for some level of physical, mental, and emotional rest and recharging.”
A recent survey reported that 40% of school districts nationwide reported a critical shortage of staff and schools closing or moving to remote learning for November 12 has been reported in states such as Colorado and Louisiana.
Travel Advisories
Today, we are downgrading the avoid unnecessary travel advisory for the East Hospital Region to avoid recreational travel. Adams, Asotin, Ferry, Garfield, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Wahkiakum, and Whitman counties join Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, and Mason counties in the avoid recreational travel advisory. Hospital resources remain limited. It is likely in the next seven days we will end the travel advisory to both regions.
We are maintaining our avoid all nonessential travel advisories for Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. The Idaho Panhandle continues to experience an extreme number of Covid-19 hospitalizations. Hospital resources in all of these states are constrained, and you may receive inadequate care if you experience a serious medical emergency.
We continue to maintain our travel advisory for Wyoming and recommend avoiding recreational travel at this time.
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!
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Vaccination
Dr. Fauci does not believe a sixth wave is inevitable, if people take action
Yesterday, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (CA-D) spoke with Dr. Anthony Fauci on Facebook Live. During the 31 minute discussion, Eshoo asked Fauci if the United States would experience a “sixth wave” like Europe is having now.
Dr. Fauci did not see a sixth wave as inevitable but set the bar high to prevent it. He stated that 62 million Americans who are eligible for vaccination remain unvaccinated, and getting them vaccinated was a critical priority. He also addressed vaccine and natural immunity fading, and the need for people who are eligible to get booster shots as soon as possible.
If you are eligible for a Covid-19 booster shoot Malcontent News strongly encourages you to not delay getting your second or third dose. It is fast, free, and easy. There is growing evidence that the half-life of Covid-19 vaccines is six to ten months, and the half-life for so-called natural immunity is five to seven months.
King County, Washington is reporting over 89.2% 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 and EUA approval for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine has EUA approval for children 5 to 15 years old.
COVID vaccines and boosters are free for anyone 5 and older. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
Our belief that there was an issue with the East Hospital Region data was correct. The Washington Department of Health updated the information in today’s report that accurately reflects the situation. However, there appears to be a different error in the data that we suspect will be corrected on Friday or next week.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 91% of all staffed acute care beds are occupied, and 13.6% of patients have Covid-19. This is not a sudden jump from yesterday and reflects a full dataset being provided. Statewide, hospitals have the staff to support approximately 642 additional acute care patients.
ICUs are at 88.3% of capacity statewide, with 23.0% of ICU patients fighting Covid-19 – an estimated 273 patients with 33.4% on ventilators. The state has the staff to support approximately 140 additional ICU patients.
On Tuesday, the 7-day rolling average hospital admission rate for new COVID patients had climbed back up to 111. The Department of Health reported 737 Covid-19 patients statewide on November 8, with 91 requiring ventilators. We believe that data is missing from these numbers. It is highly unlikely more than 200 Covid-19 patients were released in the last 24 hours.
Based on what we believe is accurate data out of the East Hospital Region, we are ending our travel advisory.
Hospital status by region – ICU Occupancy should be below 80%, ICU COVID Patients should be below 20%, Acute Care Occupancy should be below 80%, and Acute Care COVID Patients should be below 10%
– Alcott (19) – Bell (24) – Blackwell (5) – Carson Elementary (10) – Clara Barton (23) – Eastlake High (66) – Ella Baker (6) – Evergreen Middle School (1) – Finn Hill Middle School (5) – Frost (5) – Inglewood Middle School (13) – Juanita Elementary (1) – Juanita High (30) – Kamiakin Middle School (5) – Keller (6) – Kirk Elementary (20) – Lakeview Elementary (7) – Lake Washington High School (7) – McAuliffe (1) – Northstar Middle School (12) – Redmond High School (37) – Renaissance Middle School (1) – Rush Elementary (1) – Sandburg/Discovery (9) – Thoreau (5) – Timberline Middle School (14) – Twain Elementary (2)
None
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (3) – Bothell High School (12) – Canyon Creek Elementary (13) – Canyon Park Middle School (1) – Crystal Springs Elementary (30) – Fernwood Elementary (5) – Frank Love Elementary (8) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (9) – Inglemoor High School (12**) – Kenmore Elementary (16) – Kenmore Middle School (11) – Kokanee Elementary (7) – Leota Middle School (2) – Maywood Hills Elementary (3) – Moorlands Elementary (1) – North Creek High School (7) – Northshore Middle School (34) – Ruby Bridges Elementary (13) – Shelton View Elementary (4) – Skyview Middle School (2) – Sunrise Elementary (5) – Timbercrest Middle School (3) – Wellington Elementary (5) – Westhill Elementary (2) – Woodin Elementary (1) – Woodinville High School (5) – Woodmoor Elementary (5)
None
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
Malcontent News redefined the school district statuses in early October. Information for classroom and building closures has been a challenge to obtain, both for closures and reopening. We adopted moving any school with more than ten active COVID cases reported into the red, and we’ve adjusted the third column to reflect this change.
A number (X) represents Covid-19 positive and quarantined students and faculty combined. A number with an asterisk (X*) represents Covid-19 positive students and faculty only. Bellevue School District does not report quarantine numbers by the facility. Finally a number with two asterisks (X**) indicates a school facility with five or more confirmed Covid-19 cases in the last 14 days between students and faculty.
The Bellevue School District moved to status green today, having eight confirmed cases in the last 14 days districtwide. The Northshore School District continues to improve with the number of confirmed cases declining at many schools.
We continued to encourage parents to request daily updates from the Lake Washington School District. We would also encourage parents to request the Bellevue School District include data on close contacts. These two changes would bring the three school districts we track into alignment.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
No update
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulative Case Tracker reports 79,829 new cases and 1,662 deaths nationwide on Wednesday.
Department of Homeland Security remains concerned about domestic violence exteremists
The Secretary of Homeland Security has issued an updated National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin regarding the current heightened threat environment across the United States effective through February 8, 2022. The Homeland continues to face a diverse and challenging threat environment as it approaches several religious holidays and associated mass gatherings that in the past have served as potential targets for acts of violence. These threats include those posed by individuals and small groups engaged in violence, including domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and those inspired or motivated by foreign terrorists and other malign foreign influences.
Through the remainder of 2021 and into 2022, racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and anti-government/anti-authority violent extremists will continue to pose a threat to the United States. Pandemic-related stressors have contributed to increased societal strains and tensions, driving several plots by DVEs, and they may contribute to more violence this and next year. If a new Covid-19 variant emerges and new public health restrictions are imposed as a result, anti-government violent extremists could potentially use the new restrictions as a rationale to target government or public health officials or facilities.
Historically, DVEs and individuals inspired by foreign terrorist organizations have targeted crowded commercial facilities, houses of worship, and public gatherings, which have at times caused mass causalities. The continued reopening of commercial and government facilities and the potential for ongoing societal and economic disruptions due to the pandemic, as well as mass gatherings associated with several dates of religious significance over the next few months, could provide increased targets of opportunity for violence, though there are currently no credible or imminent threats tied to any dates or locations.
Fifth Wave in the United States starting to mirror the U.K. as new case numbers nationally plateau
After weeks of plunging U.S. Covid-19 cases, the decline in infections has stalled out according to a report in CNBC.
New infections have dropped to an average of more than 74,000 per day over the past week, a 57% fall from the delta wave’s peak level of 172,500 new cases per day on September 13.
While that surely is good news, the downward trajectory has leveled off in recent weeks, bouncing between 70,000 and 75,000 new cases a day for nearly three weeks, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“We came from a very high spot, so we had our spike a little bit earlier,” Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a professor in the departments of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said of her state’s declining cases. She noted that the cooler fall and winter temperatures in the typically tropic climate make it easier for Floridians to spend time outside, where the virus does not spread as easily as it does indoors.
Malcontent News had predicted this seasonality impact. Cases are surging in areas where colder weather has moved people to indoor activities. In 2020 a similar pattern of severe cases in the south during the summer as residents moved to air-conditioned comfort shifting to the north as people moved indoors to keep warm.
Although some are calling the growing number of cases in cooler areas a “sixth wave,” states like Idaho, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado didn’t have the same spike that the Southeastern United States experienced.
Fox News viewers more likely to believe Covid disinformation
People who trust Fox News Channel and other media outlets that appeal to conservatives are more likely to believe falsehoods about COVID-19 and vaccines than those who primarily go elsewhere for news, a study has found.
“It may be because the people who are self-selecting these organizations believe (the misinformation) going in,” said Liz Hamel, vice president and director of public opinion and survey research at Kaiser.
Doctors link being nervous in the service and a failure to stand at attention with prior Covid-19 infection
The number of men in their twenties and thirties seeking help for erectile dysfunction is skyrocketing, and doctors are linking it to the after-effects of being infected with COVID-19.
Doctors around the world are seeing more younger men, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, report they can no longer perform in the bedroom or even be stimulated after they’ve recovered from COVID-19.
“We started to see our first patients with this issue post-COVID as early as last winter,” Greg Girard, manager of the Tulsa Men’s Clinic, told FOX23. “We’ve easily seen recently a more than 35 percent increase in the number of patients coming to us for help.”
“These are men mostly in their mid to late twenties and early thirties. We usually don’t see men seeking help or care until their forties and fifties.”
Girard said it appears the virus lingers in and is damaging the tiny blood vessels in the penis, and even after someone has recovered, the damage remains.
“There is no way to tell the difference between erectile dysfunction caused by COVID and E.D. caused by other factors, but we have ways of scanning and seeing what’s actually going on,” he said.
Sleep apnea severity linked to Covid-19 outcomes
The risk of severe illness from COVID-19 is higher in people with obstructive sleep apnea and other breathing problems that cause oxygen levels to drop during sleep, researchers say. They tracked 5,402 adults with these problems and found that roughly a third of them eventually tested posted for the coronavirus. While the chance of being infected did not increase with the severity of their problems, people with higher scores on the “apnea-hypopnia index” – a measure of the severity of their sleep-related breathing problems – had higher odds of needing to be hospitalized or dying from COVID-19, Drs. Cinthya Pena Orbea and Reena Mehra of the Cleveland Clinic and colleagues reported on Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. It is not clear if treatments that improve sleep apnea, such as CPAP machines that push air into patients’ airways during sleep, would also reduce the risk of severe COVID-19, said Pene Orbea and Mehra.
While crisis standards of care are still officially enabled at approximately 20 of Alaska’s hospitals, hospital officials have said that declining COVID-positive patient counts meant that facilities have not had to act on those standards in the last few weeks.
Nearly 11,000 votes were cast in the Oct. 26 special election, with the Assembly unanimously certifying the results during its Tuesday meeting.
The official reason for the recall attempt stemmed from Zaletel’s attendance at a public meeting in which recall backers say attracted more people than was allowed under COVID-19 protocols at the time.
Colorado
Although the current surge in Colorado is part of the “fifth wave,” it could be an unnerving omen about what awaits other states in the coming months.
Gov. Jared Polis said Wednesday that the state will take new steps such as increasing the number of hospital beds and making indoor events safer as Colorado’s hospital bed capacity has hit an all-time low.
This update came at a meeting of the Governor’s Expert Emergency Epidemic Response Committee (GEEERC), at which state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said that COVID-19 cases have increased rapidly over the past few days.
There are 759 hospital beds available in Colorado, and 1,426 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized.
Of those who are currently hospitalized, 79% of them are unvaccinated, she said, adding that unvaccinated patients are 8.9 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19.
The maximum number of COVID-19 patients that Colorado hospitals can accommodate is about 2,000, and current models show that the state will exceed that number by late next month.
“My world is still fully COVID,” said Combs. She has worked in ICUs for 18 years and has been a nurse for more than 20.
Combs says a great percentage of critical COVID patients now are not merely in disbelief, as she’s witnessed with cancer patients over the years, but disbelievers.
“It’s hard though when you know that you’re doing good for the patients, but they’re yelling at you,” she said. “They’re telling you it’s not real. They’re telling you that you’re a murderer.”
Some believe the hospital is making them sick.
“’I can’t breathe,’” she hears them say. “Exactly. That’s because you have COVID. ‘Well no I don’t have COVID, that’s not real.’ I’ve had these conversations with people.”
“We didn’t lose one, two, three — we lost nine,” the sheriff said, noting that the first death from the virus came in April 2020.
The South Florida SunSentinel reported that black and white photos of the victims were on stage at the church in Sunrise: Deputy Shannon Bennett, 39; Nikima Thompson, 41; Wiley Huff, 73; Lt. Aldemar Rengifo Jr., 54; Pamela Ford, 54; Stephen Adams, 42; Sgt. Shane Owens, 48; Edwin Sanchez, 61; and Tasha Blackwood, 54.
Covid-19 has been the largest killer of law enforcement in 2020 and 2021.
The baby died in October in the Southwest health district, which includes Adams, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, and Washington counties. To protect the privacy of the family, additional information about the infant will not be released, according to IDHW.
“Our hearts go out to the family of this child,” said Elke Shaw-Tulloch, administrator for the Idaho Division of Public Health. “Infection with the virus can have devastating impacts on families, and this situation highlights the seriousness of COVID-19.”
While Idaho has made transferring COVID patients to other states a leading economic export, the state legislature is poised to vote on blocking vaccine mandates.
Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry President Alex LaBeau told lawmakers that such a law would put “tyrannical practices on the free market.”
The Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Monday, mainly to pass a law or laws to thwart President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates. But potential laws aimed at preventing Idaho employers from requiring employees to get the coronavirus vaccine is also likely to be introduced by far-right Republican lawmakers.
Most mainstream Republicans are wary of government getting between employers and employees, including Republican House Speaker Scott Bedke and Republican Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder. Both have said lawmakers will look at legislation that would allow the state to initiate legal action over federal vaccine mandates on private employers. The legislation would include $2 million for a potential legal battle.
About a dozen potential laws are expected to be brought forward next week. Those proposed laws are likely to include some from far-right lawmakers that would prevent Idaho employers from requiring employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s not clear how they will do in the House and Senate if brought forward.
“As we hear about possible legislation from self-proclaimed ‘champions of liberty and limited government’ in support of guaranteed salaries and stripping the rights of entrepreneurs, we couldn’t stand by quietly as this thinly cloaked socialism gets wrapped up in a facade of freedom,” LaBeau wrote.
Editor’s Note: Yes, you read that right, conservative business-owning Republicans are calling far-right Republicans “socialists.”
There are currently 525 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 481 on Monday. Of those hospitalized with COVID-19, 71.6% are unvaccinated and 85% of those listed in intensive care with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
The number of long-term care facilities reporting a virus outbreak increased from 28 to 29 since Monday.
Iowa is also seeing a late-stage “fifth wave” as the weather has turned cooler and people moved indoors.
Montana
Dr. Justin Buls, the Kalispell site director of the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana, is also a school trustee on the West Valley School District in the Flathead, and that board last month voted to distance itself from the comments he posted to his Facebook account, which also included updating his profile picture to show a swastika made with syringe needles.
KPAX reported University of Montana spokesman Dave Kuntz said that while Bulls remains affiliated with the university’s physician training program, which includes supervising medical doctors in training, the institution is aware of the comments and the controversy.
“The UM Family Medicine program doesn’t endorse these personal views,” Kuntz said. “We don’t support hate-speech and anti-Semitism, and we expect that of our community members, especially those in critical teaching roles, and expect physicians to act in a way that meets those. Dr. Buls hasn’t lived up to them.”
Repeated messages to Buls by the Daily Montanan via his social media account and through a university spokesperson went unanswered.
However, archived posts from his Facebook account show that he was suspended at least twice from Facebook and independent fact-checkers also flagged several of his posts. In his comments, he also claims the COVID-19 virus was created in a lab and “released on purpose to kill millions of people,” a narrative that is popular in some social media circles but without a factual basis.
That player was still in the hospital Wednesday, though Zimmer said the player is “stable now.” Zimmer added the situation “was scary.”
The Vikings are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak. The team placed three players — center Garrett Bradbury, guard Dakota Dozier, and safety Harrison Smith — on the Reserve/COVID-19 list Thursday. The team placed two additional players — linebacker Ryan Connelly and practice squad tackle Timon Parris — on that list Monday.
Kirk Cousins, the starting quarterback for the Vikings, is one of the league’s most outspoken critics of the Covid-19 vaccine.
In life, Dr. Christopher Foley was a beloved husband, father, and grandfather. He cycled regularly, played handball, and had a passion for Irish music.
As a physician who trained in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota and became a natural medicine doctor, Foley’s “passion lay truly in taking care of other people,” said his son, Logan.
But through his Vadnais Heights-based practice, Foley also spread falsehoods about the COVID pandemic and vaccines. Foley died in October of complications from Covid-19. He was 71. At his funeral, Foley’s son Logan confirmed his father’s death from COVID and that he was unvaccinated.
Wisconsin
For a second day in a row, testing identified more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases in Wisconsin, as the state saw the highest one-day increase in its death toll in two weeks. At the same time, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which has dealt with a number of issues with vaccination reporting the past couple of weeks, revised the total number of doses back to Friday’s figure while it solves the latest problems.
The latest DHS report says there are 3,370 more confirmed cases in the past day. This caused the 7-day average to jump again, from 2,295 to 2,453 cases per day, the highest 7-day average in a month.
It comes as no surprise with the rising case numbers this past week that more counties saw their virus activity labels upgraded — or downgraded, depending on your perspective. The DHS says 8 counties have “critically high” virus activity, which is twice as many counties as the last two weeks; 62 counties have “very high” activity, down from 65 counties last week; 2 counties have “high” activity, down from 3 counties. No counties have “moderate” or “low” virus activity.
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) New Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations remain stuck on a plateau exhausting medical personnel across the state. Skagit County has a significant surge in new Covid-19 cases that continued to grow over the weekend.
The United States is approaching 750,000 Covid-19 deaths while the world passed 5 million confirmed fatalities in less than 23 months today.
The eviction moratorium ended for most Washingtonians today, but help is available for Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, and King County residents.
Vaccination rates increased across the state and in King County, 88.6% of all eligible residents have had at least one dose.
A long list of public figures including Jen Psaki, Jason Momoa, Jon Bon Jovi, and Kristy Swanson reported they have Covid-19 in the last 48 hours. Only Swanson is in the hospital. After dire predictions in New York of thousands of police officers walking off the job, only 34 were suspended this morning.
The U.S. Marine Corps reported 93% of all active-duty troops are at least partially vaccinated with the deadline looming on November 28. The Corps made it clear they will take no prisoners among those who refuse to get vaccinated, and servicemembers will face discharge.
On Friday, Cornell Beard, the president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Witchita, Kansas went on an anti-Semitic rant to the applause of the Kansas legislature. Not to be outdone, protesters outside New York governor Kathy Hochul’s house on Sunday said they will burn down schools and town halls.
In disinformation, we dive into why two different studies about myocarditis have been pulled by medical journals.
County vaccination data was updated today and the tiers for new case rates have been updated. The least vaccinated counties have 197% more new cases per 100,000 residents than the most vaccinated. The 7 day moving average new case rate in San Juan County has been under 25 for four days. It is the only county in the state where the Covid-19 situation could be called, “normal.”
For the first time since we started tracking new case rates by vaccinated population, a lower vaccinated group of counties has a lower rate. The number of new cases in Skagit County has increased over the weekend pushing up the average.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Total Population in Group
Average 14-Day New Case Rate
70% or above (3 counties)
2,343,250
220.4
60.00% to 69.99% (4 counties)
1,242,200
356.3
50.00% to 59.99% (15 counties)
3,433,900
392.0
40.00% to 49.99% (9 counties)
599,225
378.5
31.20% to 39.99% (8 counties)
158,300
434.3
14-Day New Covid-19 Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate for Total Population, Adjusted for Population by County
Through October 31, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average is 334.6 Covid-19 cases per 100K – statistically unchanged from Friday.
No counties are reporting a new case rate above 800.0. This is the first time this has happened since August 17.
Four counties, Ferry, Klickitat, Lincoln, and Skagit, have a new case rate between 600.0 to 799.9.
Asotin, Chelan, Cowlitz, Douglas, Garfield, Grant, Lewis, Mason, Okanagan, Pend Oreille, Skamania, Spokane, and Stevens counties have a new case rate between 400.0 and 599.9.
It appears new cases and hospitalizations dropped significantly for people over 79 years old. However, Monday’s report is typically incomplete and the numbers will likely be adjusted tomorrow.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
159.8
0.5
Ages 12-19
146.7
0.9
Ages 20-34
147.4
3.9
Ages 35-49
166.2
7.3
Ages 50-64
127.2
11.5
Ages 65-79
95.1
18.2
Ages 80+
80.8
26.8
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
Washington state Covid-19 related eviction and foreclosure moratorium ends
Almost 21 months since the first Covid-19 case was identified in Everett on January 21, 2020, Governor Jay Inslee let the eviction moratorium come to an end. The governor created a bridge over the summer, extending eviction relief until October 31 due to issues at a state, county, and local level in distributing funds allocated by the American Rescue Plan.
Seattle, Burien, and Kenmore extended eviction protections until early 2022.
The unemployment rate in Washington dropped to 4.9% in September.
Travel Advisories
We are very encouraged by the hospital readiness data for the East Hospital Region and believe we can end the travel advisory in the next five to 12 days. For now, we’re maintaining our recreational travel advisory to the East Hospital Region, including Adams, Asotin, Ferry, Garfield, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Wahkiakum, and Whitman counties. Acute care and ICU capacity remain limited.
Additionally, we are maintaining the travel advisory for the Northwest Hospital Region. The region includes Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, and Mason counties.
We continue to strongly advise against all nonessential travel to Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Alaska and the Idaho Panhandle are experiencing an extreme number of Covid-19 hospitalizations. Hospital resources in these regions are constrained, and you may receive inadequate care if you experience a serious medical emergency. Data out of Wyoming is encourage and we may drop our travel advisory in the next 14 to 21 days.
Thank you
Thank you to our new subscribers and those of you who have made one-time contributions. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for helping us keep the lights on!
The immune responses of children 5 through 11 were comparable to adolescents and young adults. In addition, the vaccine was found to be 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 in children 5 through 11. The vaccine’s safety was studied in approximately 3,100 children who received the vaccine and no serious side effects.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet next week on November 2 and 3 to discuss further clinical recommendations.
“As a mother and a physician, I know that parents, caregivers, school staff, and children have been waiting for today’s authorization. Vaccinating younger children against COVID-19 will bring us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “Our comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of the data pertaining to the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness should help assure parents and guardians that this vaccine meets our high standards.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine for children 5 through 11 is administered as a two-dose series, three weeks apart, as a 10 microgram dose. Individuals 12 years of age and older receive a 30 microgram dose. Full efficacy is reached two weeks after the final dose is administered.
Health and Human Services have purchased 28 million doses with regional distribution beginning next week.
King County, Washington is reporting over 88.6% 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 and EUA approval for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 91% of all staffed acute care beds are occupied, and 15.2% of patients have Covid-19. Statewide, hospitals have the staff to support approximately 641 additional acute care patients.
ICUs are at 88.7% of capacity statewide, with 25.0% of ICU patients fighting Covid-19 – an estimated 295 patients with 54.0% on ventilators. The state has the staff to support approximately 137 additional ICU patients.
On Sunday, the 7-day rolling average hospital admission rate for new COVID patients was 94. The Department of Health reported 1,026 Covid-19 patients statewide on October 31, with 159 requiring ventilators. Data on Monday is typically incomplete and will likely be adjusted tomorrow.
Although the percentage of Covid-19 patients continues to slowly decline, most hospitals remain near capacity as elective surgeries restart.
During the Washington State Hospital Association briefing today, Dr. Mary Fairchok of Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma said during September 114 pediatric patients tested positive for Covid-19 in the emergency department. Almost 40% of those patients, 45, developed Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C). MIS-C is a rare complication that school-age children can get during and after a COVID infection. Discovered in the U.K in 2020, it is similar to toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease.
The vast majority of hospitalized Covid-19 patients are unvaccinated.
Hospital status by region – ICU Occupancy should be below 80%, ICU COVID Patients should be below 20%, Acute Care Occupancy should be below 80%, and Acute Care COVID Patients should be below 10%
– Alcott (5) – Bell (24) – Carson Elementary (6) – Clara Barton (3) – Eastlake High (48) – Ella Baker (6) – Finn Hill Middle School (6) – Frost (5) – ICS (4) – Juanita Elementary (1) – Juanita High (17) – Kamiakin Middle School (25) – Keller (6) – Kirk Elementary (10) – Lakeview Elementary (7) – Lake Washington High School (7) – McAuliffe (1) – Muir Elementary (1) – Redmond Middle School (1) – Redmond High School (52) – Rockwell (2) – Sandburg/Discovery (4) – Timberline Middle School (28) – Twain Elementary (15)
None
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (5) – Bothell High School (21**) – Canyon Creek Elementary (4) – Canyon Park Middle School (2) – Crystal Springs Elementary (9) – East Ridge Elementary (7) – Fernwood Elementary (4) – Frank Love Elementary (17) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (1) – Inglemoor High School (7) – Kenmore Elementary (4) – Kenmore Middle School (6) – Kokanee Elementary (4) – Leota Middle School (1) – Lockwood Elementary (16**) – Maywood Hills Elementary (5) – Morelands Elementary (1) – North Creek High School (9**) – Northshore Middle School (11) – Ruby Bridge Elementary (14) – Shelton View Elementary (4) – Skyview Middle School (3) – Timbercrest Middle School (5) – Wellington Elementary (8**) – Westhill Elementary (9) – Woodin Elementary (10**) – Woodinville High School (7) – Woodmoor Elementary (14)
None
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
We redefined the school district statuses. Information for classroom and building closures has been a challenge to obtain, both for closures and reopening. We are adopting moving any school with more than ten active COVID cases reported into the red, and we’ve adjusted the third column to reflect this change.
The Northshore School District moved back to yellow status with active Covid-19 cases dropping at Bothell High School and Lockwood Elementary School.
The Lake Washington School District added seven schools with active COVID cases, but total numbers remain low.
We continued to encourage parents to request daily updates from the Lake Washington School District. We would also encourage parents to request the Bellevue School District include data on close contacts. These two changes would bring the three school districts we track into alignment.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
EvergreenHealth Kirkland reports hospital is treating 29 Covid-19 patients
EvergreenHealth in Kirkland reported they had 29 hospitalized Covid-19 patients on Monday afternoon, with five more admitted after 6:30 a.m. on Sunday.
None of the ICU patients are vaccinated and four of the nine are on ventilators. The two breakthrough cases currently being treated are over 60 years old.
Local rent, mortgage, and utility assistance are available
Rent, mortgage, and utility assistance are available for the Bellevue-Kirkland-Woodinville region.
The Bellevue City Council authorized $7 million from the federal American Rescue Plan to support residential rental and mortgage relief. The City of Bellevue Rental and Mortgage Assistance web page provides additional information and links to community organizations accepting applications.
Kirkland has a Rental Relief Resource Center to apply for rent, mortgage, and utility assistance. Additionally, rent and assistance are available for small businesses.
For people who live in unincorporated King County, rental assistance is available for low-income households through the Eviction Prevention and Rent Assistance Program. Renters can visit the Tenant Registration page to learn about eligibility and apply for assistance.
Kirkland Health Fair and Community Vaccination Event on November 6
The Kirkland Health Fair and Community Vaccination Event will be held on Saturday, November 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m at Juanita High School. Hosted by the City of Kirkland in partnership with Public Health – Seattle and King County, the event will provide Covid-19 vaccination, information, education, and more.
At this time, organizers are not planning to provide vaccinations for children 5 to 11 years old, according to David Wolbrecht, Senior Neighborhood Services Coordinator with the City of Kirkland.
Save the date! The Kirkland Health Fair and Community Vaccination Event takes place 10 am – 2 pm, Sat 11/6 at Juanita High School. We are partnering with @KCPubHealth to provide COVID-19 vaccinations, vaccine info & education, & much more! More information to come. pic.twitter.com/JJcFnqggrJ
Johns Hopkins University Cumulative Case Tracker reports 17,599 new cases and 164 deaths nationwide on Monday. Most states don’t report data over the weekend so the number should be considered incomplete.
Johns Hopkins University also reported that the planet has recorded 5,005,344 Covid-19 deaths and 247,118,535 confirmed cases since SARS-CoV-2 appeared in China 23 months ago. Researchers believe both figures are undercounted, with the estimated death toll closer to 10 million.
Almost 15% of the confirmed deaths have been in the United States.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has Covid-19
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that she had tested positive for Covid-19. Psaki last met with President Joe Biden on Tuesday of last week, is vaccinated, and said she only has mild symptoms.
In a statement released on Sunday, Psaki reported “members of my household testing positive for Covid-19,” as the reason why she did not accompany President Biden on his European diplomacy trip.
“Since then, I have quarantined and tested negative (via PCR) for COVID on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,” Psaki said. “However, today, I tested positive for COVID. While I have not had close contact in person with the president or senior members of the White House staff since Wednesday — and tested negative for four days after that last contact — I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency. I last saw the president on Tuesday, when we sat outside more than six feet apart, and wore masks.”
Actor Jason Momoa tests positive for Covid-19
Days after attending the Dune premiere in the U.K on October 15, the 42-year-old actor Jason Momoa reported he had tested positive for Covid-19 in an Instagram story.
“I got hit with COVID right after the premiere. There was a lot of people I met in England, and so got a lot of aloha from people.”
“And who knows? But either way, I’m doing fine. Thank you for all your concerns and love. And, yeah, I’m just camped out in my house.”
Jon Bon Jovi tests positive for Covid-19
Jon Bon Jovi tested positive for COVID-19 during a rapid test just before he was set to perform a concert in Miami Beach according to a report in the Idaho Statesman. An announcer took to the stage to give the crowd the bad news just before Saturday night’s concert at Loews South Beach was set to begin, WSVN in Miami reported. Bon Jovi, 59, and his bandmates took rapid tests just before the concert and Bon Jovi tested positive. He is fully vaccinated.
Actor Kristy Swanson hospitalized with Covid-19
Kristy Swanson has been hospitalized due to COVID pneumonia according to a tweet she posted early Monday morning. The 51-year-old actress who was Buffy in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie has expressed support for Ivermectin, doubts about the vaccine, and supports a variety of conspiracy theories. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital on Sunday.
“Prayers for me please,” she wrote. “Yesterday I took an ambulance ride to the hospital. I’m still here with pneumonia, I’m on oxygen etc, all covid related of course. I’m in good spirits and in great hands.”
🙏🏼 Prayers for me please. Yesterday I took an ambulance ride to the hospital. I’m still here with pneumonia, I’m on oxygen etc, all covid related of course. I’m in good spirits and in great hands. ❤️🙏🏼
In a follow-up, she tweeted more details about what led to her hospital stay: “I was just at the tail end of my Covid diagnosis when it jumped into my lungs. So they are treating me with Baricitinib & blood thinners so I don’t clot. I’m ok.”
After multiple news agencies reported on her previous Twitter history, she released a statement declaring she has never been “anti-vax.”
93% of U.S. Marines vaccinated as deadline looms on November 28
As of October 21, 93% of active duty U.S. Marines were at least partially vaccinated according to the Department of Defense.
Barring an approved administrative, medical or religious accommodation, or a pending appeal, Marines who fail to meet the deadline will be processed for administrative separation, the MARADMIN said. General court-martial convening authorities will “retain authority to take any additional adverse administrative or disciplinary action” deemed appropriate.
A Marine is considered to have “refused the vaccine” when they do not have approved administrative, medical, or religious accommodation or a pending appeal, and they “received and willfully disobeyed a lawful order from a superior commissioned officer to be vaccinated against COVID-19;” the MARADMIN said.
The Marine Corps had not approved any religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, said Capt. Andrew Wood, a Marine Corps spokesman.
State Updates
Alaska
Multiple hospitals operate under crisis standards of care across Alaska with 202 Covid-19 patients hospitalized and more than 1,500 new cases over the weekend. Health officials are reporting 610 new COVID cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of 8.5%, offering the first positive news in weeks. A number of hospitals continue to operate under crisis standards of care and 22 ICU beds were available on Monday afternoon.
Earlier in the month, a series of contentious meetings at Anchorage City Hall debating a mask mandate for Alaska’s large city turned into a super spreader event. Several members of Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration became sick with Covid-19, including some breakthrough cases. William Topel, a well-known anti-vaccination activist was among the hundreds of mostly unmasked people in the packed room.
Topel, 68, had multiple health issues became ill with Covid-19 shortly after the meeting, and quickly declined in health. He was hospitalized in Anchorage and died of COVID-related illness on October 13. His supporters remained defiant at his funeral on October 25, according to Alaska Public Media.
“God’s going to use this as a fulcrum to propel us into victory,” friend and fellow activist Dustin Darden told the crowd after Topel’s burial. “We’re going to take every square inch of Anchorage, everything that Bill stood for every time he was out there, it’s just been amplified 1,000 times.”
After more than a week of theatrics that included Mayor Bronson supporting the use of Nazi symbols, and seven meetings that frequently devolved into screaming matches, the Anchorage Assembly voted to issue an emergency mask mandate. On October 13, the same day Topel died, Bronson vetoed the decision. A day later, the Assembly overrode the veto by vote, requiring masks on October 14.
On October 27, the Anchorage Assembly meeting scheduled to discuss routine city business devolved into an anti-mask debate again.
Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson spoke at the “Alaska Early Treatment Summit” on Saturday. The summit included Covid-19 disinformation spreaders including Robert W. Malone MD, Ophthalmologist Richard Urso MD, and Ryan Cole, MD, who is the head of Ada County Health in Idaho and currently under investigation by the state medical board.
Malone claims he had Covid-19 in February 2020 and suffers from long hauler syndrome. He states he got the Moderna vaccine in hopes it would “cure” his symptoms, but believes the vaccination made it worse.
Paul Kendall, who ran for office several times without success, used the slur toward Chris Constant, a member of the Anchorage Assembly, during a September 29 meeting on a proposed mask mandate for the city. The assembly is Anchorage’s governing body, similar to a city council.
At the meeting, many residents who opposed the mandate spoke to the council. When Kendall took the mike, he said to Constant, “I thought you were just a cocksucker, but you’re a coward,” as documented on video by The Alaska Landmine, a news website. Some people cheered Kendall, who was then escorted from the building. He was later arrested for trespassing.
“I’ve been called worse by better,” Constant, who supports the mandate, said when the meeting closed.
Alaska remains at the top of the list for the highest rate of COVID-19 infection in the country, according to a report by Alaska Public Radio. And with a higher proportion of unvaccinated residents occupying hospital beds, Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink is pointing to misinformation and distrust as major factors.
Zink recently wrote an editorial in The Washington Post reflecting on many issues around the pandemic. In part of the piece, Zink writes about treating an unvaccinated patient struggling with COVID-19 who had spent hundreds of dollars on unproven, online remedies that didn’t help.
May the odds ever be in your favor.
Idaho
Idaho reported 37 more Covid-19 deaths over the weekend with 17 in overwhelmed Kootenai County. The Gem State is now in its seventh week of rationing hospital care with no end in sight.
KMVT reported, “Idaho will be able to exit crisis standards of care when the surge of patients being driven by COVID-19 no longer exceeds the healthcare resources available,” said Dave Jeppesen, Director of the Department of Health and Welfare.
COVID data is beginning to show some promising signs of decline, but Jeppesen says the state is still not ready to begin actively restoring conventional care standards.
“Testing positivity declined to 12% this past week, marking the fifth week of decline, but still remains far above the target of 5%,” Jeppesen said. “The number of new cases remains high, but declining and hospitalizations remain too high, but with encouraging downward trends.”
Not only is the current hospital data not yet to a point that conventional standards of care would be possible, but other Idaho COVID trends offer more reason for healthcare officials to be hesitant.
Kansas
On Friday a special legislative hearing was held in Topeka where several state lawmakers met with members of the public to discuss the vaccine mandate pressed by the Biden administration.
“We’re basically saying you’re the modern-day Jew,” Beard told the committee on Friday. “You’re gonna wear that star … and we don’t give a damn if you complain about it or not.”
Several state representatives and senators also agreed with Beard’s comparison to what companies like Spirit and Textron have enforced following the executive order to have all federal contracted workers to be vaccinated by December 8, 2021
Committee Chair Brenda Landwehr, of Wichita, said she agrees with his comparison saying, …”you’re right and I thank you for saying that.” regarding the comments made by Beard of comparing mask-wearing and the stance of being against the mandate similar to being ‘a modern-day racist.”
Montana Public Radio is reporting provisional data show that 1,258 Montanans died last year due to COVID-19. So far in 2021, there have been more than 1,100 deaths due to the virus.
The state’s acting medical director, Dr. Maggie Cook-Shimanek, says the deaths are “almost entirely preventable” with the widespread availability of safe and effective vaccines to protect against the virus.
New York
Anti-vaccination, anti-mandate, and anti-government protesters gathered outside New York governor Kathy Hochul’s Staten Island home and cheered as a speaker declared that schools and city halls would be burned down. The speaker continued to mutilate U.S. history stating that in 1776 American Colonists didn’t talk they just took action.
"If theyre going to push this on the kids, without any type of you know [inaudible], I can guarantee you one thing, town halls and schools will be fuckin burned to the ground" – said speaker during Staten Island rally against the mandates. pic.twitter.com/11yOPsj6HH
After weeks of fear-mongering and predictions from the New York City Police union president that 10,000 officers would quit, only 34 NYPD commissioned officers were on unpaid leave for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Another 40 civilian employees were also on leave, representing just 0.15% of the entire force.
Data from Wyoming is more encouraging as new cases and hospitalizations start to drop. Officials reported 182 hospitalized statewide while the number of new cases dropped to 250 per day.
This is the second study withdrawn in less than 60 days. A study out of Ottawa, Canada was withdrawn on October 1 after it failed peer review. That study alleged to have found that one out of every thousand mRNA Covid-19 vaccinations causes myopericarditis to develop rapidly in otherwise healthy individuals.
The study was based on researching 32,000 doses and reviewing reports of adverse events. However, the actual number was 845,930 doses, resulting in an error that was 25 times smaller than the original result.
Some medical journals with official-sounding names are “pay to play” and there is tremendous competition to get published in the medical field. For smaller journals, tantalizing headlines equals clicks and subscribers which provides revenue. Regrettably, in the race to provide content, due diligence sometimes is delayed and for unethical publishers, ignored.
Myocarditis is a very rare condition that can occur after receiving a dose of an mRNA vaccine, particularly among young men. In the United States, Myocarditis has been reported less than 1,000 times to date.
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) New Covid-19 cases are stuck on a plateau while hospitalizations increased 7% over the last week. An analysis of available data provides strong evidence the pandemic of the unvaccinated continues.
The FDA has authorized the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in children 5 to 11 today. The Centers for Disease Control Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting on November 2 and 3. It is widely expected the panel will support the authorization. UW Medicine has announced a waitlist for parents who want to get their children immunized.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee expressed growing concern over the case rates and said the state is at a “fork in a road.” In what is likely the last broad challenge for the state vaccine mandate, a U.S. District Judge denied a last-ditch effort to block the public health rules on the grounds it was a violation of civil rights.
Data from August to September is supportive of following the Centers for Disease Control’s back-to-school guidelines, with Washington schools reporting 189 outbreaks statewide, with only a handful resulting in school closures.
A former naturopathic doctor on the Olympic Peninsula was convicted for misbranding drugs, reselling them, and making false claims of offering a COVID cure. Richard Marschall, 68, has been convicted for the third time since 2011. Washougal Physician Assistant Scott Miller will face the medical board on November 3, for allegedly spreading Covid-19 disinformation. Miller had his license suspended earlier this month after an investigation into his activities that started in August 2021.
Washington State University tried to counter the COVID misinformation former football coach Nick Rolovich believed as early as April 2021 to no avail.
Last week, Snohomish barber Bob Martin had two court hearings after a judge rejected his promissory note to cover $90,000 in fines he accumulated last year. Martin is tight-lipped about the hearings, and the court has yet to release the transcripts.
The Washington Medical Coordinator Center at Harborview, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, and Swedish Health Services each received the Community Health Leadership Award from the Washington State Hospital Association for their 2021 Covid-19 related efforts.
Proud Boy Tusitala “Tiny” Toese is reported to be hospitalized and in “poor” condition. Toese was shot on September 4 in Olympia after the Proud Boys group he was with left an anti-mandate protest to go “hunting.”
COVID hospitalizations have increased 7% since October 22, reversing weeks of improvement. Unvaccinated people continue to hold up relief for the stressed medical system.
Malcontent News moved the Northshore School District to status red due to Bothell High School, and Lockwood Elementary reporting ten confirmed Covid-19 cases each on Friday.
Twelve states are suing the Biden Administration in an attempt to block a looming vaccination mandate.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, refused to block Maine’s vaccination mandate for healthcare workers. The decision may have further strengthened Jacobson versus Massachusetts.
The Pentagon reported that 96.4% of active-duty U.S. Air Force personnel and 98% of special forces are vaccinated. For the Air Force it still leaves up to 12,000 members facing disciplinary action.
In disinformation, we take a critical look at a September 30 article entitled, Increase in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States. Daniel Horowitz has held this up as proof that vaccinations don’t work. Is it true?
The New case rate was almost unchanged from yesterday. The least vaccinated counties have 228% more new cases per 100,000 residents than the most vaccinated. San Juan County reported a 7 day moving average of 11.5, which is considered “normal.” Three of the five counties with the lowest new case rate have more than 70% of their total population fully vaccinated.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Total Population in Group
Average 14-Day New Case Rate
70% or above (3 counties)
2,343,250
214.3
60.00% to 69.99% (4 counties)
1,242,200
335.9 (down)
50.00% to 59.99% (14 counties)
3,172,600
389.7
40.00% to 49.99% (10 counties)
860,525
406.7
30.80% to 39.99% (8 counties)
158,300
467.8
14-Day New Covid-19 Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate for Total Population, Adjusted for Population by County
Through October 28, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average is 335.5 Covid-19 cases per 100K – statistically unchanged from yesterday. Although new case rates are dropping in the eastern half of the state, they remain stubbornly high.
One county, Ferry, is between 800.0 and 999.9 with 859.7 new cases per 100K residents.
Four counties, Grant, Klickitat, Lincoln, and Skagit, have a new case rate between 600.0 to 799.9.
New cases by age were unchanged while the hospitalization rate declined for geriatric patients over 79 years old.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
150.8
0.5
Ages 12-19
146.4
0.8
Ages 20-34
146.4 (not a typo)
3.5
Ages 35-49
161.8
8.9
Ages 50-64
129.2
13.7
Ages 65-79
96.4
19.8
Ages 80+
90.2
35.9 (down)
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 31 Covid-19 related deaths in Washington state on Thursday. The Washington State Department of Health is reporting 8,628 Washingtonians have died since February 29, 2020. That is equal to every man, woman, and child in Hoquiam, Washington dying.
Governor Inslee express concern as Washington reaches a “fork in the road” with Covid-19
During a press briefing yesterday, Governor Jay Inslee (WA-D) expressed growing concern over plateauing cases and the potential for Washington state to move into a “sixth wave.”
“We still have an extremely dangerous pandemic on our hands,” Inslee told reporters, adding that the state is still seeing more than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases a day.
The plateau is concerning to public health officials because case rates and COVID hospitalization rates are still similar to last winter’s wave. Hospitals in Washington have limited capacity to care for a surge in patients over the winter if new case rates and hospitalizations don’t start to decrease again.
Inslee said the state has reached “a fork in the road.” Residents can either accept Covid-19 or continue to fight it, and the only way out is by getting vaccinated.
“Every day, I believe we should fight it,” he said.
New Covid-19 cases were declining from mid-September to mid-October, but are now stubbornly sitting at new normal that is well above what experts consider acceptable. Over the last week, COVID-related hospitalizations have increased 7%.
On October 20, Malcontent News predicted that another wave of Covid-19 will sweep across the United States starting in mid to late December and peak in February 2022.
Federal judge tosses civil rights based lawsuit attempting to block Washington state Covid-19 mandate
A federal judge in Eastern Washington on Monday denied a bid by firefighters, state troopers, and others to halt Washington’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for state workers and emergency responders. The Associated Press reported U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice denied the motion.
Dozens of municipal, county, and state workers sued Governor Jay Inslee, Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste, and others. The case was filed just days before the October 18 mandate deadline. The plaintiffs claimed their civil rights were being violated by the requirement they get vaccinated to continue in their jobs.
In his ruling, Rice wrote: “The Supreme Court has long endorsed state and local government authority to impose compulsory vaccines… Federal courts have routinely analyzed such cases using rational basis and regularly reject cases similar to this one that challenge vaccine mandates based on free exercise of religion.”
Rice was referring to the 1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Jacobson versus Massachusetts that decided the Tenth Amendment gave municipalities, counties, and states the power to make public health decisions that aim to protect the larger population. The decision has been challenged dozens of times in the last 116 years.
Judge Rice’s decision ended the last large-scale lawsuit attempting to block or pause the vaccine mandate. As of October 25, 94% of Washington state employees, 99.7% of Washington educators, and an estimated 97% of Washington healthcare workers, including firefighters, were fully vaccinated, completing vaccination, have an exemption review pending, or received an approved exemption with accommodation.
Following back to school guidelines by the CDC has had a positive impact in Washington
From August 1 to September 30, there have been 189 Covid-19 outbreaks in Washington schools involving 1,284 confirmed infections according to the Washington Department of Health.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist, Deputy Secretary of Covid-19 Response Lacy Fehrenbach, and Acting Assistant Secretary for the DOH Michele Roberts shared the information on Wednesday during a press briefing.
Almost 88% of the confirmed Covid-19 cases involved students. Unlike other states such as in the southeast, where dozens of children were sickened in superspreader events that closed entire school districts, the average number of cases per event was five.
“That relatively small number of cases in each outbreak is an indication that schools are continuing to do a really good job on layered prevention measures and responding when they have cases and outbreaks,” Fehrenbach said.
A few districts were forced to move single schools to remote learning to manage outbreaks including in Medical Lake, Edmonds, and Eatonville.
Former naturopathic doctor convicted of selling fake Covid-19 cures
A former Port Angeles naturopathic physician who falsely claimed that two substances containing garlic extract and larch tree starch could treat and prevent Covid-19 has been found guilty of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. The conviction of Richard Marschall, 68, was first reported by the Peninsula Daily News.
The federal jury last week found that Richard Marschall, 68, misbranded the drugs and fraudulently marketed them, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.
This is the third conviction for Marschall since 2011 for making false claims. On his Facebook page, he made claims that two supplements, allicin a garlic extract, and IAG a larch tree starch had antiviral properties that would cure Covid-19.
Both supplements are made in the United States and neither maker makes any claims that their products are antiviral. Marschall was charging $140 for the supplements plus shipping and handling. He added his own labels making false claims about the abilities of the combination.
A 60 count bottle of allicin is $21.95 and a 3.6 ounce bottle of IAG is $39.48 on Amazon with free Prime shipping. A 400 pack of ink jet-ready bottle labels is $9.99.
Washington physician assistant has November 3 medical board hearing after allegedly peddled Covid-19 disinformation
Washougal Physician Assistant Scott Miller is facing a medical board hearing on November 3 after state officials suspended his license on October 16 for allegedly creating and spreading Covid-19 disinformation.
Accusations against Miller included:
Starting a public camaign promoting ivermectin as a Covid-19 cure
Prescribing ivermectin to at least one patient without providing an adequate examination
Interfering with the care of hospitalized patients
Engaging in a hostile and threatening campaign against both hospitals and individual physicians regarding Covid-19 treatment
Lying on his licensing application and denying he was already under investigation by the state of California
Miller spoke at a Camas School Board Meeting in May of 2021 against mask mandates and promoted ivermectin as a “cure.”
“I don’t know anybody that’s died (from COVID-19),” Miller said. “I’ve treated 350 COVID patients. Do you know there’s treatment? … I treat people every day. I had 90 COVID patients come into my clinic last month.” Miller then went on to call the school board “pure evil.”
Miller runs Miller Family Pediatrics in Washougal, Washington. A GoFundMe for Miller was suspended on October 19. Organizers moved to the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo. On October 29, $11,477 had been raised to support his defense, which is far short of the $50,000 goal set by organizers.
Washington State University infectious disease professor attempted to explain Covid-19 vaccines to Nick Rolovich
In April 2021 when officials at Washington State University learned that former football coach Nick Rolovich was falling down a disinformation hole, they arranged a meeting between Rolovich and Dr. Guy Palmer, a world-renowned WSU regents professor of pathology and infectious diseases.
According to a report by ESPN, Rolovich drove a conversation that focused on topics that were consistent with what Palmer said has been shared by the “anti-vax crowd on social media” over the past several years.
Questions included if Bill Gates was behind the vaccine or if SV40 was in the Covid-19 vaccines.
“I just tried to address those kind of more specific questions that have come up and I think many of those concerns were widely shared on social media, by individuals, and I just addressed them with the best data that I could and tried to give him clear answers,” Palmer said.
Palmer says that Rolovich’s primary concern was around side effects and he never brought up religious beliefs or questioned if fetal cells were used in the testing, development, or manufacturing of the vaccines.
Rolovich, through his lawyer, announced his plans to sue WSU after his religious exemption was declined and he was terminated on October 18. Rolovich served as head coach of the Cougars for less than two seasons with a 5 and 6 record. During his time as head coach of the UH Rainbow Warriors, they achieved a record of 28 and 27. At the time of his termination, Rolovich was the highest-paid public employee in Washington state.
Snohomish barber goes before two judges to answer questions about his anti-lockdown actions
Bob Martin because a cause celebre when he refused to close his Snohomish, Washington barbershop in 2020 when the state was under lockdown. Over the months that followed, the retired Marine Corps veteran racked up over $90,000 in fines for his continued refusal to close.
The barbershop became a rallying point for people against lockdowns and to a lesser extent, people desperate for a haircut.
“I’m not going to let the parasites in Olympia tell me that I cannot work,” Martin told KOMO News. “It’s my right to work.”
Martin insists the $90,000 in fines has been paid to the state of Washington through a promissory note. Last week a Snohomish County judge told Martin that the note does not satisfy his debt. Martin had two court hearings last week but the results of those hearings and transcripts have not been released.
Three Puget Sound area hospitals lauded by the Washington State Hospital Association for Covid-19 related efforts
Three Western Washington hospitals are receiving the Community Health Leadership Award for taking an innovative approach to addressing the pandemic in 2021 according to a report by Patch.
The Washington Medical Coordination Center at Harborview Medical Center was recognized for helping triage and placing Covid-19 patients across the state, and from across the region.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health was lauded for its vaccination program that spanned across three counties. At its peak, the hospital system was vaccinated 3,100 people a day.
Swedish Health Services was commended for setting up 21 mobile vaccination clinics in under-served areas reaching out to rural, poor, and BIPOC communities. The hospital network partnered with the Ethiopian Community Center, and Pacific Islander Community Association.
Proud Boy shot after providing “security” at Olympia anti-vaccine mandate rally reportedly back in the hospital
Social media reports indicated Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, who was shot in the leg on September 4 shortly after providing “security” at an End the Mandate protest in Olympia, was back in the hospital and in “poor” condition.
On September 4 a group of 50 to 75 heavily armed Proud Boys roamed the streets of Olympia after leaving the End the Mandate protest to go “hunting,” as reported by independent journalists. The group assaulted several people who were not associated with any protest or counterprotest and attacked reporter Alissa Azar. Approximately 20 minutes after leaving the protest, they identified a small group of counterprotesters who were attempting to flee from the group.
Security camera video shows a man stopping, pulling out a handgun, and firing five shots. Toese was shot in the leg and required a short hospital stay in Olympia. A 36-year-old Olympia man was arrested on September 23 for the shooting and charged with first-degree assault.
Toese, who held more of an enforcer role, has been an acting regional leader for the Proud Boys since the January 6 Insurrection. Ethan Nordean of Washington is alleged to be the Proud Boy leader on January 6 after Enrique Tarrio was arrested on January 4. Nordean is currently in federal custody awaiting trial. Alan Swinney was arrested after multiple incidents in Portland, Oregon in August 2020 and was recently convicted on 11 of 12 charges, including one count of first-degree assault. Rufio Panman was also arrested for his involvement in the January 6 Insurrection and remains in federal custody.
Toese was seen at several anti-vaccination, anti-mask, and anti-mandate protests shortly after his shooting including an anti-mask protest on September 10.
No specific information on Toese’s condition was available beyond he is allegedly hospitalized and in “poor condition.” There was no information on if the hospitalization is related to the shooting or a different medical condition.
Travel Advisories
We are very encouraged by the hospital readiness data for the East Hospital Region and believe we can end the travel advisory in the next five to 12 days. For now, we’re maintaining our recreational travel advisory to the East Hospital Region, including Adams, Asotin, Ferry, Garfield, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Wahkiakum, and Whitman counties. Acute care and ICU capacity remain limited.
Additionally, we are maintaining the travel advisory for the Northwest Hospital Region. The region includes Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, and Mason counties.
We continue to strongly advise against all nonessential travel to Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Alaska and the Idaho Panhandle are experiencing an extreme number of Covid-19 hospitalizations. Hospital resources in these regions are constrained, and you may receive inadequate care if you experience a serious medical emergency. Data out of Wyoming is encourage and we may drop our travel advisory in the next 14 to 21 days.
Thank you
Thank you to our new subscribers and those of you who have made one-time contributions. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for helping us keep the lights on!
The immune responses of children 5 through 11 were comparable to adolescents and young adults. In addition, the vaccine was found to be 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 in children 5 through 11. The vaccine’s safety was studied in approximately 3,100 children who received the vaccine and no serious side effects.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet next week on November 2 and 3 to discuss further clinical recommendations.
“As a mother and a physician, I know that parents, caregivers, school staff, and children have been waiting for today’s authorization. Vaccinating younger children against COVID-19 will bring us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “Our comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of the data pertaining to the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness should help assure parents and guardians that this vaccine meets our high standards.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine for children 5 through 11 is administered as a two-dose series, three weeks apart, as a 10 microgram dose. Individuals 12 years of age and older receive a 30 microgram dose. Full efficacy is reached two weeks after the final dose is administered.
Health and Human Services have purchased 28 million doses with regional distribution beginning next week.
King County, Washington is reporting over 88.1% 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 and EUA approval for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 91% of all staffed acute care beds are occupied, and 15.3% of patients have Covid-19. Statewide, hospitals have the staff to support approximately 607 additional acute care patients.
ICUs are at 88.3% of capacity statewide, with 25.0% of ICU patients fighting Covid-19 – an estimated 296 patients with 49.0% on ventilators. The state has the staff to support approximately 140 additional ICU patients.
On Thursday, the 7-day rolling average hospital admission rate for new COVID patients is 102. The Department of Health reported 1,096 Covid-19 patients statewide on October 28, with 144 requiring ventilators.
After declining for weeks Covid-19 hospitalizations increased 7% over the last 7 days. We analyzed the latest Covid-19 Cases, Hospitalizations, and Deaths by Vaccination Status report by the DOH to determine if the growing hospitalization numbers are being driven by breakthrough cases.
From September 15 to October 12, unvaccinated individuals from 12 to 34 were 16 times more likely to be hospitalized, 35 to 64 were 18 times more likely, and 65 and over were 9 times more likely. The total number of vaccinated individuals. Statewide since vaccines have become available, 12.1% of hospitalizations have been breakthrough cases.
According to King County Health over the last 30 days, 3,248 unvaccinated people have been hospitalized with Covid-19, compared to 378 fully vaccinated individuals. The 10% rate aligns closely with the broader state average. No vaccine is 100% effective. Even if we make the bad assumption, statewide hospitalizations would still be close to 1,000. The growing hospitalization numbers continue to be fueled by the unvaccinated.
Hospital readiness gave back some improvements from earlier this week with the East Hospital Region going status red across all four metrics again.
Hospital status by region – ICU Occupancy should be below 80%, ICU COVID Patients should be below 20%, Acute Care Occupancy should be below 80%, and Acute Care COVID Patients should be below 10%
– Blackwell Elementary (4) – Carson Elementary (6) – Clara Barton (4) – Einstein (3) – Eastlake High (11) – Ella Baker (8) – Finn Hill Middle School (6 + 1 see notes) – ICS (4) – Juanita Elementary (3) – Kamiakin Middle School (20) – Kirk Elementary (2) – Lakeview Elementary (3) – Lake Washington High School (27) – Muir Elementary (1) – Redmond Elementary (9) – Redmond Middle School (64) – Redmond High School (46) – Timberline Middle School (45**) – Twain Elementary (27)
None
Northshore
RED
– Arrowhead Elementary (5) – Canyon Creek Elementary (5) – Canyon Park Middle School (2) – Crystal Springs Elementary (5) – East Ridge Elementary (7) – Fernwood Elementary (3) – Frank Love Elementary (24) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (2) – Inglemoor High School (13) – Kenmore Elementary (6) – Kenmore Middle School (17) – Kokanee Elementary (6) – Leota Middle School (1) – Maywood Hills Elementary (3) – Morelands Elementary (2) – North Creek High School (9**) – Northshore Middle School (16) – Ruby Bridge Elementary (68) – Shelton View Elementary (4) – Skyview Middle School (9) – Timbercrest Middle School (9) – Wellington Elementary (14**) – Westhill Elementary (11) – Woodin Elementary (50**) – Woodinville High School (7) – Woodmoor Elementary (5)
– Bothell High School (25**) – Lockwood Elementary (20**)
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
We redefined the school district statuses. Information for classroom and building closures has been a challenge to obtain, both for closures and reopening. We are adopting moving any school with more than ten active COVID cases reported into the red, and we’ve adjusted the third column to reflect this change.
The Northshore School District moved to red status with two facilities reporting ten confirmed Covid-19 cases each today. Bothell High School and Lockwood Elementary doubled the number of cases this week. There are four additional schools that have five to nine confirmed COVID cases.
We received a parent confirmed report of an additional Covid-19 case at Finn Hill Middle School. The Lake Washington School District only updates data. We rely on confirmed parental reports to provide additional details.
We continued to encourage parents to request daily updates from the Lake Washington School District. We would also encourage parents to request the Bellevue School District include data on close contacts. These two changes would bring the three school districts we track into alignment.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
UW Medicine opens up Covid-19 vaccine waitlist for children 5 to 11 years old
With the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granting emergency use authorization to the Pfizer vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, UW Medicine has opened up a waitlist. Although the use of the vaccine has been authorized, federal supply rules require the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to formally recommend the protocol.
To join the vaccine waitlist, parents or guardians can call 844-520-8700. Individuals who register will receive a text or phone call when it is time to schedule an appointment. Scheduling is done online through a single-use registration link. UW Medicine is not accepting walk-in appointments for vaccination.
A CDC panel is meeting on November 2 and 3. A formal recommendation to vaccinate children from 5 to 11 is widely expected next week and the Seattle Times reported Central Puget Sound is receiving an initial shipment of 316,000 doses.
Kirkland Health Fair and Community Vaccination Event on November 6
The Kirkland Health Fair and Community Vaccination Event will be held on Saturday, November 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m at Juanita High School. Hosted by the City of Kirkland in partnership with Public Health – Seattle and King County, the event will provide Covid-19 vaccination, information, education, and more.
At this time we do not know if vaccination for 5 to 11-year-olds will be available.
Save the date! The Kirkland Health Fair and Community Vaccination Event takes place 10 am – 2 pm, Sat 11/6 at Juanita High School. We are partnering with @KCPubHealth to provide COVID-19 vaccinations, vaccine info & education, & much more! More information to come. pic.twitter.com/JJcFnqggrJ
Johns Hopkins University Cumulative Case Tracker reports 76,957 new cases and 2,141 deaths nationwide on Thursday.
12 states sue Biden administration over Covid-19 vaccine rule
Eleven states filed lawsuits Friday to stop President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors, arguing that the requirement violates federal law.
Attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming signed on to the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri.
The states asked a federal judge to block Biden’s requirement that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the coronavirus, arguing that the mandate violates federal procurement law and is an overreach of federal power.
“If the federal government attempts to unconstitutionally exert its will and force federal contractors to mandate vaccinations, the workforce and businesses could be decimated, further exacerbating the supply chain and workforce crises,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican, said in a statement. “The federal government should not be mandating vaccinations, and that’s why we filed suit today – to halt this illegal, unconstitutional action.”
That lawsuit, along with one filed Friday by Texas and Thursday by Florida, brings to 12 the number of states challenging the Biden administration mandate in three federal courts.
Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming currently have hospitals operating at crisis standards of care due to a surge in COVID cases.
Supreme Court refuses to block Maine’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an emergency appeal from Maine health care workers to halt a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that took effect Friday.
Health care workers at hospitals and nursing homes throughout the state risk losing their jobs if they are not vaccinated and religious exemptions are not being offered.
According to Fox News, three justices – Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito – signed on to a dissent written by Gorsuch, who suggested they would have adhered to the request from Maine health care workers.
“This case presents an important constitutional question, a serious error, and an irreparable injury,” Gorsuch wrote. “Where many other States have adopted religious exemptions, Maine has charted a different course. There, healthcare workers who have served on the front line of a pandemic for the last 18 months are now being fired and their practices shuttered. All for adhering to their constitutionally protected religious beliefs.”
The case could be significant for future challenges to municipal, county, state, and private employer public health-related mandate challenges. In 2021, no case brought before the Supreme Court has given relief to plaintiffs looking to modify or block vaccine mandates. The 6 to 3 decision could have closed the door for those seeking public health exemptions based on religious grounds.
96.4% of active duty US Air Force personnel are vaccinated
The U.S. Air Force is reporting up to 12,000 personnel could be facing disciplinary action for refusing to get vaccinated for Covid-19. The Air Force is the first military branch to approach a vaccine mandate deadline.
Air Force officials would not provide any information on the status of the estimated 12,000 hold-outs. When compared to other mandates across the United States, a 96.4% vaccination rate is high before factoring in medical or religious exemption requests and previously planned retirements.
According to the Pentagon, only one active-duty service member has received an exemption.
Different military branches have different vaccination deadlines ranging from the U.S. Air Force November 1 deadline to a June 30, 2022 deadline for the National Guard.
So far In 2021, 71 military personnel have died from Covid-19 – none were fully vaccinated.
SOCOM’s commander, Army Gen. Richard D. Clarke, shared the statistic during the annual Military Reporters and Editors Conference here and said that percentage includes special operators like SEALS and Green Berets, but also administrative and other troops that make up the joint force of roughly 70,000.
State Updates
Alaska
Multiple hospitals operate under crisis standards of care across Alaska with 232 Covid-19 patients hospitalized and a sky-high new case rate. Health officials are reporting 629 new COVID cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of 9.2%. Over 60% of new cases are among people under 40 years old. Although the transmission rate has plateaued, it has remained unchanged for more than six weeks as COVID rages through unvaccinated communities.
Earlier in the month, a series of contentious meetings at Anchorage City Hall debating a mask mandate for Alaska’s large city turned into a super spreader event. Several members of Mayor Dave Bronson’s administration became sick with Covid-19, including some breakthrough cases. William Topel, a well-known anti-vaccination activist was among the hundreds of mostly unmasked people in the packed room.
Topel, 68, had multiple health issues became ill with Covid-19 shortly after the meeting, and quickly declined in health. He was hospitalized in Anchorage and died of COVID-related illness on October 13. His supporters remained defiant at his funeral on October 25, according to Alaska Public Media.
“God’s going to use this as a fulcrum to propel us into victory,” friend and fellow activist Dustin Darden told the crowd after Topel’s burial. “We’re going to take every square inch of Anchorage, everything that Bill stood for every time he was out there, it’s just been amplified 1,000 times.”
After more than a week of theatrics that included Mayor Bronson supporting the use of Nazi symbols, and seven meetings that frequently devolved into screaming matches, the Anchorage Assembly voted to issue an emergency mask mandate. On October 13, the same day Topel died, Bronson vetoed the decision. A day later, the Assembly overrode the veto by vote, requiring masks on October 14.
On October 27, the Anchorage Assembly meeting scheduled to discuss routine city business devolved into an anti-mask debate again.
On Saturday, anti-vaccination activists are holding the “Alaska Early Treatment Summit” that includes Robert W. Malone, Ophthalmologist Richard Urso MD, and Ryan Cole, MD, head of Ada County Health in Idaho and currently under investigation by the state medical board.
Malone claims he had Covid-19 in February 2020 and suffers from long hauler syndrome. He states he got the Moderna vaccine in hopes it would “cure” his symptoms, but believes the vaccination made it worse.
Malone is also the originator of the disinformation claim that people who receive the Covid-19 vaccine will die within six months to three years. The first Phase 1 trials started in April 2020 and in the United States, four vaccine-related deaths have been reported due to an extremely rare but dangerous condition called VITT.
Idaho
Idaho is facing good news, bad news situations as new case rates and hospitalizations plateau and fall respectively, while Covid-19 continues to rage in Northern Idaho and the Panhandle. The apocalyptic forecasts of 30,000 new cases a week (that Malcontent News reported was likely too grim) have not materialized, however, new cases are still running between 8,000 and 10,000 a week. Test positivity dropped to 11.5% but remains well above the optimal rate of 3% to 5% which would indicate adequate testing.
The Panhandle District accounts for 22% of Idaho’s new cases and Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene has been operating in crisis standards of care for almost two months. State officials don’t see the hospital situation improving much with concerns over the approaching flu season and continued spread in the unvaccinated population.
Since Covid-19 first arrived in the Gem State, there have been 290,872 confirmed cases – 4.5% vaccination breakthroughs. The state has recorded 3,543 Covid-19 related deaths.
Dr. Kathryn Turner, the deputy state epidemiologist, said North Idahoans are also not very helpful when it comes to contact tracing for the coronavirus.
“People are not as cooperative as in other parts of the state,” Turner said.
Idaho does not provide daily hospitalization data. The most recent report stated 570 were hospitalized with Covid-19, 163 in the ICU, with more than half on ventilators. Under normal conditions, Idaho has 170 staffed ICU beds.
Only two “large” hospitals, Community Medical Center and Northern Montana Hospital had normal occupancy rates. The largest hospital, Billings Clinic, was caring for 277 patients, including 76 people infected with Covid-19.
To date, 5% of confirmed COVID cases require hospitalization. Currently, 1% of the entire Montana population is infected with Covid-19 every 14 days.
“It has been an exceptionally challenging week for us here, with record numbers of hospitalizations and very, very sick and very, very acutely ill patients hospitalized due to COVID,” said Katie Gallagher, Covid-19 public information officer for St. Peter’s Hospital.
St. Peter’s reports that, in October, 26 patients died due to complications from COVID – including five on a single day, the highest one-day total they’ve recorded. Gallagher said that was compared to nine COVID-related deaths in September.
More patients are also being hospitalized with COVID-related illnesses according to a report by KTVH. Gallagher says they have been averaging more than 30 over recent weeks, with the highest number being 44 – almost half of the available inpatient beds.
On Friday the Montana Nurses Association filed a motion to join a lawsuit by a coalition of medical providers and patients that seeks to invalidate Montana law that bars medical organizations from requiring employees to be vaccinated, saying it violates federal law and the U.S. and Montana constitution.
According to KTVQ, the original suit was filed in September in U.S. District Court in Missoula with the Montana Medical Association as the lead plaintiff. It challenges parts of HB 702 – passed by Republican majorities at the 2021 Legislature – saying it illegally prevents physicians, their offices, and hospitals from providing a safe environment for patients.
The nurses’ suit comes as Montana faces the worst rates for hospitalizations and death from COVID-19 in the United States, according to data from the Mayo Clinic.
New York
Six FDNY members of Ladder 113 have been suspended for allegedly driving their truck to a state senator’s New York City office and threatening his staff over the vaccine mandate for city workers according to a report by New York NBC 4.
The on-duty firefighters drove an in-service ladder truck to state Senator Zellnor Myrie’s office in Brooklyn on Friday and questioned staff as to where the politician lives, a department spokesperson confirmed. The crew is accused of telling his staffers they would have “blood on their hands” Monday when unvaccinated workers must go on unpaid leave.
The group of firefighters also allegedly told the staff that if a fire was reported at Myrie’s home they would not respond.
Commissioner Daniel Nigro says, “this is a highly inappropriate act by on duty members of this Department who should only be concerned with responding to emergencies and helping New Yorkers and not harassing an elected official and his staff."
New York City’s vaccine mandate deadline for municipal workers which includes fire, police, is November 1. Compared to other cities such as Seattle and San Francisco as well as the state of Hawaii, vaccination rates are alarming low.
As of 8 p.m. Thursday, 33,400 city workers remained unvaccinated. The city said it would provide updated vaccine rates on Saturday.
The fire department said it was prepared to close up to 20% of its fire companies and have 20% fewer ambulances in service while changing schedules, canceling vacations, and turning to outside EMS providers to make up for expected staffing shortages.
Wyoming
Data from Wyoming is more encouraging as new cases continue to drop while hospitalizations remain very high. Officials reported 193 hospitalized statewide while the number of new cases is averaging 557 per day. Wyoming has lost 178 residents to Covid-19 in October and crossed the 1,000 death threshold this month. Over 15% of COVID-related deaths occurred in the last 28 days. On October 21, Wyoming set a new hospitalization record peaking at 249 patients.
Elective surgeries have been delayed for weeks, creating additional health problems, according to a story by Wyoming Public Media. Jeffrey Chapman is the chief medical officer at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center – one of the many Wyoming hospitals that have had to limit what procedures they can perform.
“For almost five weeks we’ve only been doing urgent and emergent cases,” he said.
From Sheridan to Casper to Rock Springs, hospitals are monitoring their capacity on a day-to-day basis. In Campbell County, the hospital system canceled all elective surgeries earlier this week. And at Cheyenne Regional, Chapman said they have to make decisions about which surgeries can wait and which cannot.
The anti-vaccination community has seized upon the Harvard study as proof that vaccines are ineffective, and the momentum has been further fueled by Daniel Horowitz of The Blaze. So who is right?
First, we should look to the main author of the paper S.V. Subramanian, a Harvard professor of population health and geography who is saying the anti-vaccination community has it all wrong.
“That conclusion is misleading and inaccurate,” Subramanian wrote in an email to Ali Breland, a journalist. “This paper supports vaccination as an important strategy for reducing infection and transmission, along with hand-washing, mask-wearing, and physical distancing.”
Second and more important, there are serious data issues, inaccuracies, assumptions, and questions about the co-author of the paper.
The data analysis starts at January 1, before anyone was fully vaccinated. Additionally vaccination programs targeted the elderly and those most likely to get severe Covid-19, and the analysis did not take into account the base rate. The data only considered hospitalization data through May 2021, just weeks after multiple states permitted vaccination to all age groups over 16.
The second author of the study is a high school student in Canada
Errors within the paper aside, Subramanian has stated the paper is supportive of vaccination as part of a holistic approach to defeating the pandemic.
Knowledge is the best tool to fight against fear. A wise person chooses to be informed so they can make sound decisions. To join the fight against COVID misinformation, you can share this update through your social media platform of choice.
[KING COUNTY, Wash.] – (MTN) Hospitals in Eastern Washington are starting to feel the crush of transfer patients and Idahoans seeking medical treatment in Washington state. As new cases decline statewide, hospitalizations have plateaued, with Eastern Washington taking on the brunt of new cases.
More Seattle Police Officers provided proof of vaccination while city officials forged a plan for October 18. In contrast, over 93% of Washington State Patrol employees are vaccinated, including more than 90% of commissioned officers. A King County Sheriff Office Sergeant did a reply-all e-mail about the vaccine mandate that was full of conspiracy theories – it’s a sad story.
In Eastern Washington, 19 municipal and state employees filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the looming vaccine mandate.
There were new Covid-19 cases reported in all three school districts we track.
Nationally, a Maryland man killed his pharmacist brother and two other people due to his alleged belief in Covid-19 vaccine conspiracies.
Scientists learn the secrets of Covid Toe and how to treat it. In another study, researchers find increasing proof that Covid-19 can damage the pancreas, leading to a sudden onset of diabetes.
Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming continue to have hospitals operating under crisis standards of care protocols. In Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai Health has been using those protocols for almost a month.
A 51-year-old man whose wife sued to treat him with ivermectin in an Ohio hospital died in late September.
A common objection to receiving the Covid-19 vaccine is the belief that the government assumes no liability. Is it true? We tackle that issue in misinformation.
New cases in Washington state continue to decline slowly. We’re adding some new metrics. A combination of increasing vaccination rates, mask wear, and the Delta variant running out of new hosts contributes to the slowdown.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Average 14-Day New Case Rate (unadjusted)
60.00% or above (4)
212.0 (down)
50.00% to 59.99% (13 counties)
515.1 (down)
40.00% to 49.99% (14 counties)
624.1 (down)
29.30% to 39.99% (8 counties)
713.3 (up)
14-Day New Covid-19 Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate, Not Adjusted for Population
Through October 5, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average is 403.8 Covid-19 cases per 100K.
Ferry County reported 1,011.4 new cases per 100K residents.
Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Grant, Klickitat, Lincoln Pend Oreille, and Stevens.
Counties in the 600.0 to 799.9 per 100K range include Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Columbia, Cowlitz, Franklin, Garfield, Grays Harbor, Mason, Okanogan, and Walla Walla. Franklin County remained just under 800 while Adams, Douglas, Lewis, and Spokane counties were just under 600.0.
New cases were down from birth to 34 years old and statistically unchanged for 35 and above. Pediatric and adolescent hospitalizations were up, along with ages 50 to 64 and over 80.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
170.3 (down)
1.1 (up)
Ages 12-19
202.1 (down)
0.8 (up)
Ages 20-34
166.1 (down)
5.0
Ages 35-49
173.9
8.4
Ages 50-64
120.1
15.1 (up)
Ages 65-79
97.6
17.4
Ages 80+
109.8
35.2 (up)
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 53 deaths yesterday. The state of Washington is not reporting the percentage of positive cases.
Idahoans seeking medical care pushing Eastern Washington hospitals to the brink
Dr. Dan Getz, the chief medical officer of Providence Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, said patients from Idaho are pushing Providence Medical toward capacity limits, leaving hospitals scrambling for options. KATC reported hospitals have had to pause some surgeries to create space.
“Idaho is currently in crisis standards of care where they basically said, ‘We can’t deliver normal care for people in our state,’ and they’re looking at rationalizing things,” Getz said. “We are not in that crisis in Washington state — however if we continue to see increasing cases and we are not able to care for our community, that’s always a potential.”
At Multicare Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, the staff says they are spread thin.
Luke Eckoff, a Covid-19 ICU nurse at Multicare Deaconess Hospital, said, “Flight teams are bringing patients from outlying hospitals — and that’s putting more strain on us. These rural hospitals don’t have the capacity we do to take care of these patients. What that’s doing is putting further pressure on our hospital and resources. It’s hard at the end of the day when you have to put that patient in the body bag. And that’s happening more and more.”
More SPD officers present proof of vaccination
The number of Seattle Police Department officers who haven’t confirmed being fully vaccinated dropped to 292 today. Brandi Kruse of KCPQ tweeted that an additional 101 SPD officers have requested vaccination exemptions.
“The problem is they’re using bully tactics to force their employees to get this, and that’s what’s led to this disconnect,” Solan said. “Right now, more than ever, our community’s begging for police officers to stop the rise in crime. And we need politicians who are willing to understand the public safety staffing crisis that they created. They’re in charge, they can change this.”
Over 93% of Washington State Patrol workers provided proof of vaccination
The Washington State Patrol reported Wednesday that more of its workers are providing proof they are vaccinated, according to a report by KXLY.
Only seven percent of its employees hadn’t been vaccinated or turned in proof they got the shot. That means 152 of its 2,184 employees could face getting fired if they do not meet the vaccine mandate deadline of October 18. Of those, only 91 are commissioned troopers.
King County Sheriff Deputy sends department-wide reply all e-mail against vaccine mandate
The original e-mail sent on Monday reminded KCSO employees they needed to submit their vaccination status so the department could make a staffing plan.
“Our planning process is hampered by lack of complete information because some have not yet provided evidence of vaccination,” the chiefs’ e-mail reads. “Again, we are hopeful that you have the required information but have not yet shared it with HR. One of our goals is to plan for possible separation in a way that is least likely to disrupt your city or precinct, and it is hard to do that without all the information.”
In his reply, Lefler indicated he had requested an exemption but had not gotten a response from King County, adding, “What [is[ King County is going to do about the thousands of us who have requested medical and/or religious exemptions.”
He then stated that being a sheriff deputy was equal to being under constant siege in war, called out King County Executive Dow Constantine, and called for the entire department to quit. Lefler then suggested that the vaccine mandate would lead to gun control and remove “CPO” (conceal carry permits).
“Anything goes once the precedent is set. I will fight for what is right, and you reading this know in your gut that I am right,” Lefler continues. “It’s not just about a jab in the arm. It’s about our very freedoms. This is about our right to self-determination and choice. God gave us these rights, but only if we are willing to fight for them.”
According to the website Together We Served, Lafer was in Marine Corps from 2001 to 2005 and served in Iraq. The unit he was with deployed to Fallujah and Ramadi during his tour at the height of the Iraqi insurrection. It is worth noting that Lefler would have been required to take the Emergency Use Authorized Anthrax vaccine as part of his military service and could have used Nerve Agent antidotes as part of his military tour.
All US service members are required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by December.
Sgt. Tim Meyer e-mailed the South Seattle Emerald after the original story was published.
“KCSO appreciates Sgt. Lefler’s years of service and the difficult decision he is trying to make for himself and his family,” Meyer’s e-mail to the Emerald reads. “We do not have ‘thousands’ of deputies, rather we employ roughly 750. We hope we don’t lose any of them. As our members struggle with the decision to comply with the Executive’s mandate, we know some would like to believe that the Sheriff and her command staff have the power to get the mandate rescinded. That is not possible.”
Approximately 100 KCSO employees have applied for Covid-19 vaccine exemptions.
19 state and municipal workers file lawsuit over vaccine mandate
The suit lists as defendants Governor Inslee, Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste, and other leaders of state agencies.
The suit claims “the plaintiffs are on the brink of having adverse employment action against them. It claims that in each case, “a form of disability or sincere religious belief requires them to decline vaccination.”
The group of workers comprises Washington State Patrol troopers, Spokane firefighters, and employees of other state agencies, including the Department of Social and Health Services.
Virtually none of the lawsuits filed at a federal level have been successful at blocking a vaccine mandate. The 1905 United States Supreme Court ruling of Jacobson versus Massachusetts cemented the rights of municipalities, counties, and states to mandate vaccines and other public health measures.
Federal medical team of 8 nurses and 10 certified nursing assistants deployed in Spokane
The team of eight nurses and 10 certified nursing assistants (CNA), and eight nurses will be deployed to the Avalon Care Center in North Spokane. The medical staff is from ACI Federal, according to the Washington Department of Health (DOH). According to the DOH, these are not federal resources but are available through a federal contract. Avalon Care Center will pay for the nurses.
Travel Advisories
Today, we are lifting our travel advisory to Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla Counties. We continue to recommend when visiting those counties, you use reasonable caution and don’t engage in dangerous activities.
We continue to recommend avoiding recreational travel to Spokane County. We strongly advise against all nonessential travel to Alaska, Idaho, and Montana. Hospital resources in these regions are constrained, and you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
We continue to monitor the situation in the East Hospital Region and may expand our travel advisory beyond Spokane County.
Thank you
Thank you to our new subscribers and those of you who have made one-time contributions. On behalf of the entire team, thank you for helping us keep the lights on!
No promotional consideration has been given, or requested from the n95 project or any manufacturer of masks
Vaccination
Pfizer vaccine booster shots are now available
Booster shots for eligible individuals are now available statewide. Individuals who received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine more than six months ago, are 65 or older, or are immunocompromised can receive their third dose immediately.
In the Kirland-Bellevue-Woodinville area, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Bartell’s, and QFC are offering booster shots. Additionally, the third dose is available at the CVS located within the Target store at 17,700 NE 76th Street in Redmond.
Most locations require an appointment, which can be scheduled online.
King County, Washington is reporting over 86.7% 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 and EUA approval for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 91% of all staffed acute care beds are occupied, and 17.4% of patients have Covid-19. Statewide, hospitals have the staff to support approximately 665 additional acute care patients. ICUs are at 88.1% of capacity statewide, with 30.0% of ICU patients fighting Covid-19 – an estimated 353 patients with 57% on ventilators. The state has the staff to support approximately 142 additional ICU patients.
The 7-day rolling average hospital admission rate for new COVID patients was 123. The Department of Health reported 1,199 Covid-19 patients statewide on October 5, with 200 on ventilators.
Hospital status by region – ICU Occupancy should be below 80%, ICU COVID Patients should be below 20%, Acute Care Occupancy should be below 80%, and Acute Care COVID Patients should be below 10%
There was very little change in the status of Hospital Regions overnight, with the East and Northwest Hospital Regions below the threshold of issuing a travel advisory.
– Bell Elementary (1*) – Barton Elementary (1*) – Dickinson/Explorer Elementary (1*) – Ella Baker Elementary (1*) – Eastlake High (2*) – Finn Hill Middle School (3*) – Franklin Elementary (2*) – Frost Elementary (2*) – ICS (1*) – Inglewood Middle School (1*) – Juanita Elementary (1*) – Kamiakin Middle School (4*) – Keller Elementary (2*) – Kirkland Middle School (1* see notes) – Lakeview Elementary (4*) – McAuliffe Elementary (1*) – Muir Elementary (1*) – Northstar Middle (1*) – Redmond Elementary (2*) – Redmond Middle School (1*) – Redmond High School (2*) – Renaissance Middle School (1*) – Rosa Parks Elementary (1*) – Rush Elementary (1*)
see notes below
None
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (4) – Bothell High School (42**) – Canyon Creek Elementary (23) – Canyon Park Middle School (6) – Cottage Lake Elementary (3) – Crystal Springs Elementary (26) – East Ridge Elementary (12) – Fernwood Elementary (1) – Frank Love Elementary (17) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (27) – Inglemoor High School (1) – Innovation Lab High School (1) – Kenmore Elementary (3) – Kenmore Middle School (25) – Leota Middle School (4) – Lockwood Elementary (40**) – Maywood Hills Elementary (29) – Moorlands Elementary (1) – North Creek High School (5) – Northshore Family Partnership (30) – Northshore Middle School (2) – Secondary Academy for Success (5) – Shelton View Elementary (5) – Skyview Middle School (12) – Sunrise Elementary (9) – Timbercrest Middle School (5) – Wellington Elementary (26) – Westhill Elementary (50) – Woodin Elementary (16**) – Woodinville High School (11) – Woodmoor Elementary (12)
None
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
We redefined the school district statuses. Information for classroom and building closures has been a challenge to obtain, both for closures and reopening. We are adopting moving any school with more than 10 active COVID cases reported into the red, and we’ve adjusted the third column to reflect this change.
Bellevue School District added two more confirmed Covid-19 cases at Highland Middle School, for a total of eight. Additionally, a confirmed case was reported at Ardmore Elementary School.
The Northshore School District added multiple schools to their report. Lockwood Elementary reported three more confirmed cases this morning, bringing the count to nine. Bothell High School and Woodin Elementary each have six confirmed cases.
We have a parent confirmed report of a single Covid-19 case at Kirkland Middle School, with an additional 17 students quarantined.
We multiple parents e-mailed us about two confirmed Covid-19 cases at Juanita High School. However, because the district sent the e-mail on Monday, we cannot confirm if these are new or included in the last dashboard update.
We continued to encourage parents to request improved daily data reporting from the Lake Washington School District.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
The City of Kirkland has rolled out additional phases of its COVID-19 relief program to provide immediate financial assistance for small businesses, thanks to funding available through the American Rescue Plan Act. A limited number of $1,000 to $10,000 grants are now available for small Kirkland-based businesses behind on rent for the commercial properties they lease. To start the application process, businesses should go to www.kirklandwa.gov/business-help to complete and submit the intake form between October 5 – October 19, 2021. Program funds may only be used as a payment against a small business tenant’s past-due rent due to COVID-19 economic hardship experienced between March 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021. Note that the application process requires the cooperation of tenants and landlords, and payments will be made to the landlord.
“The pandemic has had a profound impact on many of our businesses, making it difficult for some to keep up with rent and stay in their current locations,” said Deputy Mayor Jay Arnold. “Our hope is that by passing federal relief funding directly to businesses and landlords that these businesses can get the foothold they need to thrive in our Kirkland community.”
For questions about the small business rent relief grant program, contact businesssupport@kirklandwa.gov (425) 587-3266 or the City’s Business Response Team at (206) 686-3424.
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulative Case Tracker is reporting 95,756 new cases and 1,916 deaths nationwide on Wednesday. As of October 4, the CDC reported 65,162 hospitalized Covid-19 patients in the United States, down 13.6% from the week before. The number of Covid-19 related deaths decreased 3.3%, indicating that the Delta variant surge is ending.
Maryland man accused of killing 3 due to alleged belief of Covid-19 vaccine conspiracies
According to arrest documents, Burnham’s mother told investigators that he wanted to confront his brother – a pharmacist – because he purportedly helped administer vaccines.
Burnham had told their mother he believed the government was poisoning people with vaccines, and he “repeatedly stated, “Brian knows something!” – police say.
Investigators say a tipster alerted Maryland State Police that Burnham had arrived at his home in a red Corvette, and said that “his brother had been ‘killing people with the COVID shot.'”
Burnham has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder and the use of a handgun in the commission of a crime.
“Clearly there’s a link, there’s some sort of mechanism that makes the diseases fuel one another,” Francesco Rubino chair of metabolic surgery at King’s College London, told Insider. “The question is whether new-onset diabetes could be caused by this virus.”
One theory was that the body could be confusing pancreas cells for the coronavirus, and trying to destroy them. This would disrupt insulin supply and cause diabetes, the scientists thought.
Remember “Covid Toe?” Doctors may have figured out what causes it
A small study published in the British Journal of Dermatology reported that researchers had identified the cause of Covid Toe and how to treat it.
Based on blood and skin tests, these latest study findings suggest two parts of the immune system may be at play.
One is an antiviral protein called type 1 interferon, and the other is an antibody that mistakenly attacks the person’s own cells and tissues, not just the invading virus.
Cells lining small blood vessels supplying the affected areas are also involved, say the investigators from the University of Paris, France.
The researchers studied 50 people with suspected Covid toe in the spring of 2020 and 13 others with similar lesions not linked to Covid infections because they occurred long before the pandemic began.
Alaska
New cases in Alaska still lead the nation but have declined significantly from last week. The state is still operating under “crisis standards of care” with 184 Covid-19 patients statewide. Alaska has 126 staffed ICU beds statewide, with 28 available. There were 867 new cases reported today, about equal to Tuesday. Over 10% of Covid-19 tests are coming back positive, indicating under testing is accelerating.
Before the current surge hit Alaska, it had the third-lowest death per capita in the United States. Six weeks later, the state is ranked 25th. More than 25% of all Covid-19 deaths reported in Alaska happened after August 1, 2021, despite the widespread availability of vaccines.
Hospitals in Anchorage, Bethel, and Valdez continue to be the most impacted by the ongoing surge.
Officials are also concerned by a rising test positivity rate, which is just below 10%.
California
Los Angeles leaders on Wednesday approved one of the nation’s strictest vaccine mandates — a sweeping measure that would require the shots for everyone entering bars, restaurants, nail salons, gyms, or even a Lakers game.
According to a report by NBC News, the City Council voted 11-2 in favor of the ordinance that will require proof of full vaccination by Nov. 4.
The move came after the council postponed a vote last week to deal with concerns ranging from who could be fined for violations to whether employees could end up in fist-fights when they have to serve as vaccine door monitors.
Florida
According to The Palm Beach Post, six weeks after Tamara Drock was admitted to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, the 47-year-old Loxahatchee woman is in a medically induced coma and tethered to a ventilator.
It was an outcome that her husband, Ryan, tried to prevent.
“No ventilators,” he said of his orders to the hospital staff.
With his hope and his wife’s options running out, Drock on Friday filed suit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court to force the hospital to give his wife the drug that he believes helped him and others recover from the highly contagious respiratory disease.
“I think it’s worth a shot,” Drock said. “I don’t have anything to lose.”
The second-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.
Only one court case in Ohio successfully forced a hospital to administer ivermectin, and two weeks later, the judge reversed his decision.
Idaho
Governor Brad Little reversed Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin’s executive orders banning vaccine passports or mandatory Covid-19 testing at K-12 schools and universities in Idaho, eight minutes after he landed in Boise.
McGeachin also tried to activate the National Guard to deploy Idaho troops, already assisting with the Covid-19 surge, to the Mexico border. According to The Independent, the commanding general of the Idaho National Guard told McGeachin she can’t activate troops to send to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Idaho has reported more than 1,000 new Covid-19 cases per day for the last 27 days. The 7 day moving average has reached 1,320.6 cases per day and is likely higher due to a backlog of more than 8,200 tests.
Idaho now has 715 Covid-19 patients, down from a peak of almost 800 at the end of September. The state has 170 staffed ICU beds and reported 184 ICU patients. At St. Luke’s, the mortality rate for people in the ICU has reached 40%, and 98% of ICU patients are unvaccinated.
Almost a month after Kootenai Health declared it was moving to crisis standards of care, the number of Covid-19 patients they are treating has increased, according to a report by KTVB.
“150 COVID patients is about 75 percent of our normal pre-COVID bed capacity for med surge admissions,” said Jeremy Evans, Kootenai Health’s Chief Regional Operations Officer. “Today, we have got 44 critical care patients and 17 on ventilators. It continues to amaze me how our medical staff, our clinical staff, and our leaders, are able to accommodate this surge.”
Evans added that around 10 to 20 patients are admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 treatments each day.
“We have seen a lot of deaths, we are averaging about one a day in the COVID population, I spent the last week in the ICU and it’s a very hard place to work right now it’s just a constant struggle to take care of these patients on a daily basis,” said Robert Scoggins, the Medical Director of the ICU.
According to Boise Public Radio, unvaccinated Idahoans continue to be hospitalized at five and a half times the rate of vaccinated people, straining the hospital systems and overwhelming health care workers. Yet, misinformation and anger continue to spread throughout the state — with hateful acts targeted at the doctors and nurses working to treat those infected.
Boise Public Radio’s program Idaho Matters was joined by Dr. David Pate, former CEO of St. Luke’s Health System and a current member of the Idaho Coronavirus Task Force, and Dr. Frank Johnson, Chief Medical Officer for St. Luke’s Boise, Elmore and McCall.
While Alaska appears to have peaked and Idaho is on a plateau, Montana continues to deteriorate. According to KPAX, the state has 11,550 active cases and added 30 more hospitalized patients overnight, raising the number to 444 – a new record. Over 5% of Montanans who have tested positive for Covid-19 have ended up hospitalized.
National Guard troops have been deployed to Great Falls and Livingston to aid with expanding surge of cases.
Ohio
Jeffrey Smith, 51, who was at the center of a lawsuit forcing a Cinncinati hospital to treat him with ivermectin, died on September 25 of Covid-19, according to KXAN.
Jeffrey Smith’s wife, Julie Smith, claimed she offered to sign documents releasing all other parties, doctors, and the hospital from all liability related to the Ivermectin treatment and dosage. But the hospital declined. Smith said her husband, who was on a ventilator, had a very slim chance of survival, and she was willing to try anything to keep him alive.
Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital to give Smith 30 milligrams of ivermectin every day for three weeks, even though there is no supporting evidence that it treats Covid-19.
Another Butler County judge reversed Howard’s decision in September, saying ivermectin didn’t show “convincing evidence” in treating COVID-19. Butler County Judge Michael Oster said in his ruling, “judges are not doctors or nurses… public policy should not and does not support allowing a physician to try ‘any’ type of treatment on human beings.”
Like Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, hospitals are tipping over into “crisis standards of care.” Cody Regional Health and Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County reported they continue to move from “contingency care” to “crisis standards of care” as the situation changes.
Misinformation
A common reason for refusing to get vaccinated is the belief that the government is mandating vaccination but does not accept any liability for vaccine injuries. Is that true?
The short answer, no.
The Health Resources and Services Administration is a federal program that provides compensation to people who have suffered a serious vaccine injury or surviving family members. The program has existed for years and is known as the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP).
Federal declarations issued by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services specify the countermeasures covered by the Program. Declarations have been issued for medical countermeasures against the following vaccinations.
COVID-19
Marburg
Ebola
Nerve Agents and Certain Insecticides (Organophophorus and/or Carbamate)
Claims filed under CICP for lost income are capped at $50,000 per year and won’t provide compensation for pain, suffering, emotional distress, or similar damages. According to the Washington Post, there have been 686 claims filed in CICP.
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) Dr. Umair A. Shah, Washington State Secretary of Health, confirmed the death of a Seattle woman who suffered serious complications after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Jessica Berg-Wilson received the single-dose vaccination on August 26 and died of complications on September 7.
New COVID cases continue to decline statewide, while the gap between the least and most vaccinated counties is starting to narrow.
Seattle Police Officer Eric Whitehead, who refused to wear a mask at a Seattle hospital on January 15, was disciplined after the OPA determined he had acted unprofessionally. SPD also announced that more than 350 officers had not submitted proof of vaccination to city officials.
Less than 9% of Washingtonians say they will never get the Covid-19 vaccine, down by almost half from six weeks ago. According to the Washington Department of Health, over 70% of all Washingtonians over 11 years old are fully vaccinated.
The Lancet released a study on natural immunity to Covid-19 and how long it lasts. Researchers came up with a wide range, but the average is just 16 months.
Highland Middle School in the Bellevue School District and Lockwood Elementary in the Northshore School District reported six active Covid-19 cases in both facilities.
The City of Kirkland has funds available from the American Rescue Plan Act to aid small businesses behind on commercial property rent.
Nationally, the CDC pulled the holiday travel guidance they published on Friday, saying it was outdated information posted by mistake. The Department of Justice will start investigating the most egregious threats, and violent acts at school board meetings after multiple states pleaded for aid.
If you’ve got a home rapid Covid-19 test from the company Ellume, it might be under recall due to a high rate of false positives.
New York City Department of Education, Kaiser Permanente, and Northwell Health, representing more than 475,000 employees across the United States, reported vaccination rates from 95% to 99%. For the 8,000 New York DoE workers who so far are refusing to get vaccinated, some took to direct action in Union Square.
Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming continue to demonstrate the impact of laisse faire public health strategies. Again, in Idaho, Janice McGeachin goes full awful, while Wyoming state senator Anthony Bouchard pushes Covid-19 misinformation and argues with a Tik Tok influencer on Twitter.
We lift our travel advisory to the South Central Hospital Region but continue to keep a close eye on the east.
New cases in Washington state continue to decline slowly. We’re adding some new metrics. A combination of increasing vaccination rates, mask wear, and the Delta variant running out of new hosts contributes to the slowdown.
Percent of Total Population Fully Vaccinated
Average 14-Day New Case Rate (unadjusted)
60.00% or above (4)
212.0 (down)
50.00% to 59.99% (13 counties)
533.1 (down)
40.00% to 49.99% (14 counties)
650.1 (down)
29.30% to 39.99% (8 counties)
679.0 (down)
14-Day New Covid-19 Cases per 100K average by Vaccination Rate, Not Adjusted for Population
Through October 4, Washington’s statewide 14-day rolling average is 417.1 Covid-19 cases per 100K, the lowest number since August 18.
For the second time in three days, no counties reported more than 1000 new cases per 100K residents.
Counties in the 800.0 to 999.9 per 100K range include Ferry, Grant, Grays Harbor, Klickitat, Lincoln Pend Oreille, and Stevens.
Counties in the 600.0 to 799.9 per 100K range include Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Columbia, Cowlitz, Franklin, Mason, Okanogan, and Walla Walla. Franklin County remained just under 800 while Spokane, Lewis, Douglas, Garfield, and Chelan counties were just under 600.0.
New cases were up for all people under 80 years old were down, and unchanged for those 80 and above. Hospitalizations were mixed. Down for children and adolescents, up for age 35 to 49, and down for ages 65 to 79.
Age Group
7-Day Case Rate
7-Day Hospitalization Rate
Ages 0-11
185.2 (down)
0.7 (down)
Ages 12-19
220.8 (down)
0.4 (down)
Ages 20-34
183.5 (down)
5.4
Ages 35-49
183.2 (down)
8.4 (up)
Ages 50-64
127.9 (down)
14.3
Ages 65-79
98.9 (down)
17.7 (down)
Ages 80+
111.2
33.3
7-day case rate and 7-day hospitalization rate is per 100K within the age group – the target for 7-day case rate is <25.0, but there are other factors such as vaccination rates within the age groups, how many total tests within the 7-day period, and the positivity rate within each age group
The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 42 deaths yesterday. The state of Washington is not reporting the percentage of positive cases.
Washington Department of Health confirms Johnson & Johnson vaccine related death
Washington Secretary of Health Dr. Umair A. Shah confirmed today that a Seattle resident became the fourth person to die in the United States from a vaccine-related injury. Jessica Berg Wilson, 37, received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on August 26. On September 7, she died after a Vaccine-Induced Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT) formed.
During a five-week pause, researchers determined the incident rate was less than 3 per million people. In contrast, the risk for serious blood clots due to a Covid-19 infection is 207 per one million. Additionally, doctors determined that common emergency room strategies for treating blood clots, such as using the anti-clotting drug heparin, were contraindicated. The CDC created updated guidelines on identifying and properly treating VITT in patients and reauthorized the single-dose vaccine.
As of June 30, the CDC has confirmed 35 incidents of VITT and three fatalities after 12. 5 million doses were administered. Berg-Wlson is the fourth Covid-19 vaccine-related death in the United States, where 185 million people are fully vaccinated, and approximately 15.4 million have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Seattle Times reported 47 incidents of VITT through the end of September in a separate article.
Yesterday we reported that the VAERS database indicated a 30 to 39-year-old female from Washington state who received the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine had died. Twitter created a firestorm on Sunday night and Monday morning when the social media platform labeled her death as misinformation.
VITT has only been documented with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the United States. The condition is very rare, with similar odds to dying from snakebite in the United States. It is more prevalent among women from 30 to 50 years old. Hormone-based contraceptives can slightly increase risk, along with a personal or family history of blood clotting disorders. The condition will typically appear two to three weeks after inoculation but can occur as far as seven weeks out.
If you are still choosing to get vaccinated, talk to your healthcare professional about which vaccine is best for you. Additionally, if you have recently received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, learn the symptoms to watch for. Be sure that your medical provider is aware you were recently vaccinated if you got to an emergency room.
SPD Officer who refused to wear a mask at hospital emergency department suspended one day
A five-month investigation determined that Whitehead violated only one rule, Standards and Duties 5.001.10, to be professional. The investigation also recommended administrative changes in how SPD Human Resources documents medical waivers issued to officers and communicates acceptance of the request.
On January 15, Whitehead was called to an unnamed area hospital to assist with a disruptive suspect in the Emergency Department. Four other SPD officers were present, and all were wearing masks. Whitehead was given a mask by a nurse but refused to wear it. He told the nurse, “I hear that. I’m here doing a job. I’m talking to my squadmate about what we got going on. You want me to wear a mask or whatever. We can entertain that idea later on, okay. I just wanna do my job right now, just like you.”
The nurse contacted the charge nurse, who reported the issue to a nursing security supervisor. The supervisor again asked Whitehead to wear a mask, who responded with, “Is she all in a tizzy about it?”
Whitehead expressed concern that the surgical mask could be used as a weapon against him. Whitehead ultimately put on the mask when talking with the detainee, and after some other action, left the hospital.
The entire incident was filmed on security cameras and Whitehead’s body camera. The OPA found that Whitehead was not honest with investigators. He told the OPA he maintained social distance from other people and said the hospital staff he was medically exempt from wearing a mask. The videos and testimony from the hospital staff and other officers indicated he did neither.
When asked why he never told the hospital about his exemption and the discrepancy in his testimony, he changed his story, indicating the “interaction had become contentious.” Whitehead told investigators he had a medical exemption from SPD, allowing him not to wear a mask.
According to the OPA report, “A copy of a memorandum that Named Employee 1 submitted to the HR Lieutenant on June 28, 2020. In that memorandum, he stated that he had a medical condition that prevented him from wearing facemasks and asserted that he was entitled to not do so by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). He noted in the memorandum that wearing the facemask caused him mental and physical strain, as well as increased respiratory distress. He wrote that he tried using a variety of different facemasks but stopped doing so as they continued to cause him problems.“
Whitehead did receive an e-mail saying that state and city could grant an exemption, but it never stated he had been given one. Whitehead presented the OPA with letters from two doctors. One letter claims he has a dermatological condition that is exacerbated by mask wear.
Despite his claims that any mask caused “mental and physical” strain, Whitehead was on duty for multiple protests during the summer of 2020. During his service, he was exposed to pepper spray, OC, and blast balls, while wearing a full-face respirator, ballistic vest, and riot gear as part of his duties without issue.
OPA Director Andrew Myerberg has come under fire for failing to enforce existing SPD department rules and working too closely with SPOG in an Office of Inspector General complaint. Director Myerberg is currently interviewing for a different job in Arizona and planning to leave the OPA.
SPOG estimates as many as 200 SPD officers will voluntarily separate from the department after the October 18 vaccine mandate deadline. The Seattle Police Department reported tonight that 354 sworn officers had not submitted proof of vaccination. While vaccination rates for hospital staff, educators, and skilled workers such as pilots, bankers, flight attendants, and computer programmers, have ranged from 95% to 99.5%, law enforcement officers remain one of the lowest vaccinated groups.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has refused to indicate if she will fire the unvaccinated officers after October 18 or leave the issue for the next mayor.
Editor’s Note:Our Chief Content Officer is listed as a party in an ongoing OPA investigation into the conduct of SPOG President Mike Solan. One of our Senior Staff was listed as a part of a closed OPA investigation for the excessive use of force.
Less than 9% of Washingtonians say they will never get the Covid-19 vaccine
Today, we are lifting our travel advisory to Yakima, Klickitat, Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla Counties. We continue to recommend when visiting those counties, you use reasonable caution and don’t engage in dangerous activities.
We continue to recommend avoiding recreational travel to Spokane County. We strongly advise against all nonessential travel to Alaska, Idaho, and Montana. Hospital resources in these regions are constrained, and you may receive inadequate care if you experience a medical emergency.
We continue to monitor the situation in the East Hospital Region and may expand our travel advisory beyond Spokane County.
Thank you
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The report found, “Reinfection by SARS-CoV-2 under endemic conditions would likely occur between 3 and 63 months after peak antibody response, with a median of 16 months. This protection is of less than half the duration revealed for the endemic coronaviruses circulating among humans.”
Three to 63 months is a very wide range, and a serology test that detects the presence of Covid-19 antibodies can’t determine how robust a response the body would make if reinfected. The researchers added, “Relying on herd immunity without widespread vaccination jeopardises millions of lives, entailing high rates of reinfection, morbidity, and death. In areas with low vaccination, our data-driven analysis reinforces the need for continued safety practices such as social distancing, proper indoor ventilation, and mask wearing to avoid reinfection as pandemic conditions continue.”
Other studies have indicated that the combination of vaccination and natural immunity creates a supercharged response to the Covid-19 virus.
Pfizer vaccine booster shots are now available
Booster shots for eligible individuals are now available statewide. Individuals who received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine more than six months ago, are 65 or older, or are immunocompromised can receive their third dose immediately.
In the Kirland-Bellevue-Woodinville area, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Bartell’s, and QFC are offering booster shots. Additionally, the third dose is available at the CVS located within the Target store at 17,700 NE 76th Street in Redmond.
Most locations require an appointment, which can be scheduled online.
King County, Washington is reporting over 86.7% 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 and EUA approval for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
COVID vaccines are free for anyone over 12 years old, and no appointment is necessary at most locations. Lyft and Hopelink provide free transportation, and KinderCare, the Learning Care Group, and the YMCA offer free childcare during vaccination appointments or recuperation.
According to the DoH COVID Dashboard, 17.5% of all acute care patients hospitalized in Washington have Covid-19. Currently, 91% of all staffed acute care beds are occupied statewide, with approximately 654 available. ICUs are at 88.4% of capacity statewide, with 30.0% of ICU patients fighting Covid-19 – an estimated 352 patients with 55% on ventilators. The state has approximately 138 ICU beds available.
The 7-day rolling average hospital admission rate for new COVID patients was 124. The Department of Health reported 1,192 Covid-19 patients statewide on October 4, with 192 on ventilators. The total number of patients for October 3 was adjusted downward slightly, to 1,197.
Hospital status by region – September 30, 2021 – ICU Occupancy should be below 80%, ICU COVID Patients should be below 20%, Acute Care Occupancy should be below 80%, and Acute Care COVID Patients should be below 10%
There was very little change in the status of Hospital Regions over the weekend.
– Bell Elementary (1*) – Barton Elementary (1*) – Dickinson/Explorer Elementary (1*) – Ella Baker Elementary (1*) – Eastlake High (2*) – Finn Hill Middle School (3*) – Franklin Elementary (2*) – Frost Elementary (2*) – ICS (1*) – Inglewood Middle School (1*) – Juanita Elementary (1*) – Kamiakin Middle School (4*) – Keller Elementary (2*) – Lakeview Elementary (4*) – McAuliffe Elementary (1*) – Muir Elementary (1*) – Northstar Middle (1*) – Redmond Elementary (2*) – Redmond Middle School (1*) – Redmond High School (2*) – Renaissance Middle School (1*) – Rosa Parks Elementary (1*) – Rush Elementary (1*)
None
Northshore
YELLOW
– Arrowhead Elementary (3) – Bothell High School (31) – Canyon Creek Elementary (26) – Canyon Park Middle School (6) – Cottage Lake Elementary (3) – Crystal Springs Elementary (28) – East Ridge Elementary (14) – Fernwood Elementary (1) – Frank Love Elementary (9) – Hollywood Hills Elementary (27) – Inglemoor High School (1) – Innovation Lab High School (1) – Kenmore Elementary (3) – Kenmore Middle School (23) – Leota Middle School (4) – Lockwood Elementary (37**) – Maywood Hills Elementary (28) – North Creek High School (4) – Northshore Family Partnership (30) – Northshore Middle School (2) – Secondary Academy for Success (4) – Shelton View Elementary (5) – Skyview Middle School (12) – Sunrise Elementary (9) – Timbercrest Middle School (8) – Wellington Elementary (21) – Westhill Elementary (41) – Woodin Elementary (16**) – Woodinville High School (11) – Woodmoor Elementary (11)
None
Local Districts Scorecard – * indicates positive cases only ** indicates 5 or more confirmed positive cases
We redefined the school district statuses. Information for classroom and building closures has been a challenge to obtain, both for closures and reopening. We are adopting moving any school with more than 10 active COVID cases reported into the red, and we’ve adjusted the third column to reflect this change.
Bellevue School District added a 7th confirmed Covid-19 case at Bellevue High School and reported six confirmed cases at Highland Middle School.
The Northshore School District added multiple schools to their report. Lockwood Elementary reported six confirmed cases overnight, putting another 31 students and faculty into quarantine.
The Lake Washington School District updates its Covid-19 dashboard once a week. We received multiple parents confirmed Covid-19 e-mails yesterday. However, Lake Washington updates its dashboards on Monday, and we can’t ensure if the parental reports add to the dashboard numbers or are included in the Monday report.
We continued to encourage parents to request improved daily data reporting from the Lake Washington School District.
Kirkland-Bellevue-Woodinville
The City of Kirkland has rolled out additional phases of its COVID-19 relief program to provide immediate financial assistance for small businesses, thanks to funding available through the American Rescue Plan Act. A limited number of $1,000 to $10,000 grants are now available for small Kirkland-based businesses behind on rent for the commercial properties they lease. To start the application process, businesses should go to www.kirklandwa.gov/business-help to complete and submit the intake form between October 5 – October 19, 2021. Program funds may only be used as a payment against a small business tenant’s past-due rent due to COVID-19 economic hardship experienced between March 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021. Note that the application process requires the cooperation of tenants and landlords, and payments will be made to the landlord.
“The pandemic has had a profound impact on many of our businesses, making it difficult for some to keep up with rent and stay in their current locations,” said Deputy Mayor Jay Arnold. “Our hope is that by passing federal relief funding directly to businesses and landlords that these businesses can get the foothold they need to thrive in our Kirkland community.”
For questions about the small business rent relief grant program, contact businesssupport@kirklandwa.gov (425) 587-3266 or the City’s Business Response Team at (206) 686-3424.
National Round-Up
Johns Hopkins University Cumulative Case Tracker is reporting 167,209 new cases and 2,106 deaths nationwide. Tuesday’s update will include numbers from over the weekend.
CDC pulls holiday travel guidance from website
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday took down a page with holiday COVID-19 guidance, saying it was old information posted in error and that updated guidance would be coming soon, according to a report in The Hill.
The page, updated on Friday, gave a range of guidance on holiday gatherings, including that opening windows for indoor gatherings would improve ventilation and noting that virtual or outdoor gatherings are the safest option.
An agency spokesperson said the page “doesn’t reflect the CDC’s guidance ahead of this upcoming holiday season” and added that the agency “will share additional guidance soon.”
At home Covid-19 rapid test recalled due to excessive false positives
The Australian company, Ellume, recalled over 400,000 rapid test kits sold in the United States for an unacceptable level of false positives. The test kits were shipped from April to August, and currently, 200,000 kits remain unused.
In a statement on Ellume’s website, the company wrote, “we noted an increased chance that Ellume COVID-19 Home Tests from specific lots may provide an incorrect positive result. Following a thorough investigation, we isolated the cause and confirmed that this incidence of false positives is limited to specific lots.”
“We worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to voluntarily remove affected Ellume tests from the market. Importantly, the reliability of negative results is unaffected by this issue and are not included within this recall.”
In parallel, the FDA released a “Safety Communication” outlining the recall. People who have used one of the Ellume tests and believe they had a false reading are asked to report the incident to MedWatch.
Almost 99% of all Kaiser Permanente employees get vaccinated
Kaiser Permanente has placed more than 2,200 of its employees nationwide, who have refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, on unpaid administrative leave.
The health care company announced its vaccine mandate on August 2, with a deadline of Sept. 30. It has more than 220,000 employees across the country, with suspensions impacting about 1% of its entire workforce.
Over 98% of Northwell Health employees get vaccinated
New York State’s largest private hospital system laid off 1,400 workers who wouldn’t get vaccinated against Covid-19, a spokesperson for the health care network confirmed Monday afternoon.
Hospital and nursing home workers were required to get at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by September 27th, under a state mandate first announced in mid-August. Last week, Northwell said it started warning employees and planned layoffs, starting with the highest-paid workers who refused the shots.
The hospital system employed over 76,000 workers, with 98.2% getting vaccinated.
8,000 New York City Department of Education employees on unpaid leave
Approximately 500 cafeteria workers have been put on unpaid leave. Employees on leave who get vaccinated after the deadline can return to work. Additionally, employees that volunteer to quit will be provided healthcare coverage by the city for a year.
Department of Justice addresses violent threats against school officials and teachers
“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” wrote Attorney General Garland. “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”
According to the Attorney General’s memorandum, the Justice Department will launch a series of additional efforts in the coming days designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel. Those efforts are expected to include the creation of a task force, consisting of representatives from the department’s Criminal Division, National Security Division, Civil Rights Division, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the Community Relations Service, and the Office of Justice Programs, to determine how federal enforcement tools can be used to prosecute these crimes and ways to assist state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement where threats of violence may not constitute federal crimes.
The Justice Department will also create specialized training and guidance for local school boards and school administrators. This training will help school board members and other potential victims understand the type of behavior that constitutes threats, how to report threatening conduct to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and how to capture and preserve evidence of threatening conduct to aid in the investigation and prosecution of these crimes.
As the anti-vaccination and medical freedom movement has gotten smaller, some elements within the movements have become increasingly radicalized. School board meetings have been disrupted nationwide, including the Lake Washington School District. In other communities, fights have broken out in meetings, board members have received death threats, stalked, doxxed, and had their homes vandalized.
Alaska
The mayor of Alaska’s largest city apologized Thursday for his comments supporting some residents’ use of Holocaust imagery to liken a proposed citywide mask mandate to the oppression of Jewish people in Nazi Germany, the Associated Press reported.
Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson has said he staunchly opposes the proposal and initially defended the use of yellow Stars of David worn by other critics this week at heated public hearings. Such imagery has been used by opponents of mask and vaccine mandates across the U.S., drawing condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations.
Hospitals in Anchorage, Bethel, and Valdez continue to be the most impacted by the ongoing surge.
Officials are also concerned by a rising test positivity rate, which is just below 10%.
Idaho
Editor’s Note: I must maintain objectivity. I must maintain objectivity. I must maintain objectivity. I must maintain objectivity.
While his state struggles to deliver medical services and deal with the mounting number of corpses, Idaho governor Brad Little departed the state to visit the U.S.-Mexico border. According to a report by KTVB, less than 24 hours after he left, Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin signed an executive order as acting governor banning vaccine passports or mandatory Covid-19 testing at K-12 schools and universities in Idaho.
In a tweet, McGeachin wrote that she “fixed” Little’s executive order on vaccine passports, which was initially issued in April, to include K-12 schools and universities.
Less than ten minutes after McGeachin announced her executive order, Little responded on Twitter, stating he did not authorize McGeachin to act on his behalf and “I will be rescinding and reversing any actions taken by the Lt. Governor when I return.”
McGeachin also tried to activate the National Guard to deploy Idaho troops, already assisting with the Covid-19 surge, to the Mexico border. According to The Independent, the commanding general of the Idaho National Guard told McGeachin she can’t activate troops to send to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Governor Little issues a terse statement late on Tuesday.
“Attempting to deploy our National Guard for political grandstanding is an affront to the Idaho constitution [sic] and insults the men and women who have dedicated their life to serving our state and the country.”
This isn’t the first time McGeachin has pulled this type of political stunt, as she postures herself as the candidate that Idaho deserves in the upcoming 2022 election.
Idaho added 1,835 new cases on Tuesday and reported 11 deaths. The number of hospital beds within the state has improved slightly, Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said on Tuesday. He added improving bed availability could be, in part, attributed to the high number of deaths recently.
In a briefing on Tuesday, Jeppesen reported 89.1% of all Covid-19 cases are among the unvaccinated, 90.3% of hospitalizations, and 88% of deaths. Officials said that despite the intervention of volunteers, the National Guard, federal resources, and FEMA strike teams, staffing levels remain at crisis standards of care levels.
“Due to COVID patient volume added to non-COVID urgent patient care, we have been forced to care for patients in repurposed clinical areas and a non-clinical space (a hospital gym),” Dr. Steven Nemerson of St. Luke’s Hospital told the Idaho Statesman in an e-mail. The system has been “using ratios of patients to health care team members exceeding contingency standards of care despite staffing resources received through the state of Idaho and FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency).”
May the odds ever be in your favor.
Montana
While Alaska appears to have peaked and Idaho is on a plateau, Montana continues to deteriorate. According to the Billings Gazette, the state has 11,498 active cases, with 419 people hospitalized.
Despite activating the National Guard, asking for FEMA strike teams, and the Veteran’s Administration opening up a hospital to civilians, eight out of 10 large hospitals in the state reported having limited bed availability or nearing capacity. Likewise, eight out of 10 large hospitals reported having limited intensive care unit availability or nearing ICU capacity.
New York
A video caught the men in Union Square flipping over a table next to a mobile coronavirus testing van, tearing down the tent erected next to it and tossing a chair, before police intervened to stop them permanently destroying any property, according to a report in The Independent.
Protesters at the rally shouted “boo” and “shame on you” at the staff member working at the Covid-19 testing site as they went past, followed by chants of “no vaccine mandate.”
Hundreds of Department of Education staffers were involved in the protest, following the coronavirus vaccine mandate that went into place on Monday.
Two of the marchers just flipped over a Covid-19 mobile testing site tent, knocking down a table and chairs set up in Union Square in New York #NYC#NewYorkpic.twitter.com/RkEKwSMzzi
On September 16, Republican lightning rod, state senator, Ivermectin enthusiast, and 2022 Congressional candidate Anthony Bouchard assembled a panel to discuss Covid-19 vaccine mandates at hospitals. The esteemed group of top experts included Ryne Paulson, D.D.S., Melissa Hieb D.O., Andrew McAfee M.D., and Dena L’Heureux M.D. All four spouted conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination rhetoric and claimed they would medicine if the state passed a vaccine mandate. All of this was political theater if any providers accept or work for an organization that receives federal dollars.
How well is that going?
The Wyoming Medical Center in Casper reported they admitted 17 Covid-19 patients – in 24 hours from Saturday to Sunday. Only one of the recently admitted patients is vaccinated. Wyoming added 627 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, in a state with 578,000 residents. If that pace holds, almost 1% of all Wyomingians will catch Covid-19 this week. Test positivity on Monday was over 18%, which is down from last week.
The state reported 45 new Covid-19 related deaths and breaching 1,000 total deaths since the pandemic started in 2020. Put another way, 1.7% of the entire population of Wyoming has died from Covid-19.
Like Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, hospitals are tipping over into “crisis standards of care.” Cody Regional Health and Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County reported they continue to move from “contingency care” to “crisis standards of care” as the situation changes.
Rural hospitals in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska are dependent on larger hospitals in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Utah to take more challenging patients. Oregon and Washington barely avoided moving to crisis standards of care last month, while Colorado and Utah are dealing with their surges. With interstate transfers gridlocked, states like Wyoming, which only has 37 hospitals, have been forced to make do with their resources.
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