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[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.

This update uses the latest data from the Washington State Department of Health (WSDOH), released on November 10, 2021.

Washington State Update for November 10, 2021

Washington state Covid-19 update

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.

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.

The USA Today COVID Tracker reported 31 deaths on Wednesday.

Washington State reports 94.7% of state workers in compliance with the vaccine mandate

Almost 95% of state employees are in compliance with the state employee vaccine mandate according to the latest data available by the Washington State Office of Financial Management.

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

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) announced it will be closed on Friday, November 12 due to staffing issues. The district stated on its website “a larger than normal number of SPS staff taking leave on Friday, and [we] do not believe we have adequate personnel to open schools.”

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

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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.

Get Your Booster

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.

Hospital Status

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.

School Readiness

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.

The Associated Press reported the Kaiser Family Foundation study released this week found the clear ties between news outlets that people trusted and the amount of misinformation they believe, it took no stand on whether those attitudes specifically came from what they saw there.

“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.

State Updates

Alaska

State officials reported 130 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday.

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.

In Anchorage, an attempt by anti-vaccination advocates to recall Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel for supporting a mask mandate fell flat.

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.

Kathleen Combs has been in some of the most uncomfortable places of our times. She has now spent 19 months working in UCHealth Hospital’s COVID ICU in Aurora, Colorado.

“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.”

Florida

COVID-19 has had a staggering impact on the sheriff’s department in Broward County, Florida, where Sheriff Gregory Tony told a memorial service for nine employees who died from the virus that well over half the department’s 5,600 employees had been exposed and 32% — or 1,800 employees — have contracted the disease.

“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.

Idaho

Idaho is six days away from entering the third month under crisis standards of care. The Idaho Department of Health announced an infant has become the first child in the state to die from Covid-19.

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.”

Iowa

The Iowa Department of Public Health on Wednesday released new virus data showing 97 additional virus deaths, bringing the total to 7,166 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The state’s 14-day positivity rate for Covid-19 tests increased from 8.7% to 8.9%.

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.

Minnesota

A player on the Minnesota Vikings was reportedly hospitalized due to COVID-19 symptoms. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer confirmed a player went to the emergency room Tuesday night due to shortness of breath. 

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.

Disinformation

Taking the night off