Gov. Inslee extends pause on reopening plan as COVID-19 cases rise

Gov. Jay Inslee announced today that the state’s reopening plan is being paused for another two weeks.

In early July, Inslee said that no counties would advance to the next phase of the Safe Start plan for two weeks. Now, with a continued rise in COVID-19 cases statewide, Washington counties will have to wait until July 28 to apply for the next phase of reopening.

King County remains in Phase 2 of the reopening plan, and the statewide mandate on face masks in businesses is still in place

“The solution is not having that party,” Inslee said during a press conference this afternoon, stressing the importance of continued physical distancing. “That’s where the battle will be won or lost.”

45 thoughts to “Gov. Inslee extends pause on reopening plan as COVID-19 cases rise”

  1. Fear does not prevent death; it prevents life.
    Worrying does not take tomorrows troubles away; it takes today’s peace.
    There is currently a 99.96% chance that you will be fine. If we double the amount of deaths we currently have (which no expert is predicting) we would still have a 99.92% chance of survival.
    Do you value life or fear death?

    1. Cory, if this was how the world worked I would still be able to walk through airport security with my shoes on and without the agents taking naked photos of me.

      1. Ah yes, the great logic of TSA. Let’s bunch people up into a big crowd before we “check” if they are terrorists. To prevent them from blowing up a smaller number of people later.

    2. Texas, Florida and Arizona tried the “we ain’t worried about a wittle virus” method. Turns out, the virus STILL doesn’t care whether you are worried about it or not.

      Your percentages would be accurate if there were two possible outcomes for COVID-19: never feeling a single symptom or death. You are ignoring the vast range of symptoms in between, from a runny nose, to near death on a ventilator slowly drowning, not to mention the long term symptoms that persist AND the potential that infection may not infer immunity in all cases.

      You’re also conveniently ignoring all the treatable illnesses that will go untreated, resulting in further illness, injury or death, because hospitals are nearing capacity in hot spots again.

      Caring about the health and safety of our fellow Americans, in addition to ourselves, is valuing life at its most basic definition.

      1. Hospitalizations are a reasonable place to draw the line, those are still flat in King County… I wonder why… cases have skyrocketed!

        1. Maybe because King County listened to medical experts and implemented protocols that reduced the transmission of the virus, especially to the vulnerable that end up in hospitals, instead of trying to act tough towards a virus that doesn’t have the ability to care about misinterpreted freedoms and political ideologies?

          It’s a good thing King County didn’t take advice from an anonymous blog commenter who continues to spew false facts and moronic advice that flies in the face of advice from medical experts and good ol’ common sense!

          1. But king county cases are through the roof, higher that they’ve ever been. More cases in the last 30 days, then all months prior…. but no deaths, no hospitalizations! Explain that!

          2. Reading isn’t your strong suit, I’ll quote from my comment that you directly replied to:

            Maybe because King County listened to medical experts and implemented protocols that reduced the transmission of the virus, especially to the vulnerable that end up in hospitals, instead of trying to act tough towards a virus that doesn’t have the ability to care about misinterpreted freedoms and political ideologies?

            And where do you get “no deaths, no hospitalizations”? They are definitely down from the peak, no one is arguing that, but hospitalizations are starting to tick upwards since late June and deaths are still happening, 14 deaths reported yesterday. Of course, you would know this since you “get your information from the King County COVID dashboard”:

            https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/daily-summary.aspx

            So while we are definitely doing better than a lot of the states that have similar paths to what you’ve been suggesting from the get go, it’s no reason to pull back guidelines, since those same states have shown EXACTLY what will happen.

          3. I’ll throw a few more crumbs out to this moron… multiple studies showing attack rate in households between 5-20%…. I’ll make this easy for this simpleton on what this means: your infected, the risk of a household member getting infected is between 1:20 to 1:5; and this is for a person living with you.

          4. Lancet is a pretty good journal… but what do you know…

            Jing, Q-L, et al. Lancet. Online First: 6/17/2020.

            We estimated the household SAR to be 13.8% (95% CI: 11.1-17.0%) if household contacts are defined as all close relatives and 19.3% (95% CI: 15.5-23.9%) if household contacts only include those at the same residential address as the cases, assuming a mean incubation period of 4 days and a maximum infectious period of 13 days.

          5. I forgot I need to spell it our for this internet “expert.” SAR means secondary attack rate, not search and rescue.

    3. Fear causes us to make rational decisions. When 200,000 Americans were being killed on roadways every year we didn’t ban cars we added seat-belts, airbags, enforced fronts and sides, etc.

      Wearing a mask isn’t scary. My five year old can talk you through it.

      1. Fear of a 0.08% chance of death isn’t really rational is it. Masks are the least of my worries. I wear one. Inslee doesn’t care about masks he cares about power.
        The fear I have is how many people support a politician who suspends civil rights, the rule of law, and operates without limits. His emergency powers expired and he refuses to call the legislature in to extend them. Perhaps he fears they will limit his power grab?

        1. “The fear I have is how many people support a politician who suspends civil rights, the rule of law, and operates without limits.”

          Hmmm…this reminds me of someone.

        2. RCW 43.06.220
          State of emergency—Powers of governor pursuant to proclamation.

          (3) In imposing the restrictions provided for by RCW 43.06.010, and 43.06.200 through 43.06.270, the governor may impose them for such times, upon such conditions, with such exceptions and in such areas of this state he or she from time to time deems necessary.

          You must be thinking of:

          RCW 43.06.220
          State of emergency—Powers of governor pursuant to proclamation.

          (4) No order or orders concerning waiver or suspension of statutory obligations or limitations under subsection (2) of this section may continue for longer than thirty days unless extended by the legislature through concurrent resolution. If the legislature is not in session, the waiver or suspension of statutory obligations or limitations may be extended in writing by the leadership of the senate and the house of representatives until the legislature can extend the waiver or suspension by concurrent resolution. For purposes of this section, “leadership of the senate and the house of representatives” means the majority and minority leaders of the senate and the speaker and the minority leader of the house of representatives.

          If you’d like further explanation of the differences between the two emergency orders and their limitations, the Washington House Republicans have a pretty good explanation:

          https://houserepublicans.wa.gov/coronavirus/governor/

          I’d say do some basic research and critical thinking before you post, but clearly that’s not a strong skill of yours…

          1. That is a great post and very accurate. However the Governor must still abide by the law; especially the US Constitution. No State law can suspend federal law.

            Article VI, Clause 2:
            This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

            Inslee is currently violating the First Amendment several different ways. One he is violating the separation between church and state by dictating how people can practice their religion.

            Inslee is also violating the First Amendment’s right to petition government of your grievances and freedom of speech by only allowing protests that he approves of. Protesters protesting something that he is opposed to get arrested or threatened with arrest.

            Then there is the 5th Amendment; No person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;” Taking people’s livelihoods away, shutting down businesses, and preventing people from going about their business is certainly depriving people of their liberty without due process of the law.

            Then there is the threat of significant jail time without charges being threatened by Inslee. Highly illegal is so many ways I certainly don’t need to list them.

          2. Just curious which angry man on the radio/internet do you get these complete BS talking points from?

          3. This Truth character always reverts to “angry man on the radio” but when confronted with legit facts, hides in his/her internet hidey hole…. ever read AND understand a Medical Journal?

          4. @ Coryclassic

            Generally, the government is allowed to place limits on your rights. Where the line is drawn depends on the right.

            Free speech is a right, but does not protect slander or yelling fire in a crowded theater.

            We have the right to bear arms, but background checks are permissible and machine guns are heavily regulated.

            Separation between church and state. He is treating all religions the same. He isn’t picking favorites, nor is there any ban that is specific to religion — people can still practice. No violation.

            Feeedom of speech. Your facts are wrong on this one. There have been plenty of protests that I’m guessing the governor doesn’t agree with. Has anyone been arrested for not wearing a mask or protesting in a peaceful manner?

            Life, liberty, property. These are not unbounded rights. You don’t have the right to undertake all actions that are detrimental to others. The government can properly and lawfully place limits on your actions. Nobody is stopping anybody from working, you just have to operate within the new rules, which are different from the old rules. But notice that there have always been rules. The fact that you don’t like the new rules does not make them unconstitutional.

            And I’m not even sure what your referring to regarding the significant jail time without charges. The governor is not in charge of jailing or charging people. That is a county level function of government and I’m not seeing the State taking over our jails and courts.

            Please stop getting your news from wherever it is that you’re getting your news.

            And maybe read up on constitutional law if that’s something that interests you. There’s 225 years of precedent that has occurred since the Constitution was written that interprets it and sets the limits of our personal rights.

    1. If you could keep all of your vapors inside your body we wouldn’t have an issue. But it seems that you — like every human alive — have a nasty tendency to spew the viral contents of your lungs, throat, and sinuses all about. So this isn’t really about “my body my choice” any more than punching somebody in the face is.

      1. But why haven’t we treated influenza this seriously before… mandatory lockdowns, disrupted schools and businesses, and masks…. think if this, there IS a vaccine for influenza, and STILL, many, many people die. Where do you draw the line?

        1. My dude, have you spent this whole quarantine arguing about the pandemic response without knowing about the 1918 flu?

          I also think this is an especially weird argument because if the flu was a novel virus it would be catastrophic. With no vaccine and no immunity millions of people would die from influenza.

          1. No, I’ve spent this entire pandemic living life as I normally would. The numbers don’t lie. Infections don’t equal death or hospitalization. In king county right now, infections are THROUGH THE ROOF, and have been for the last month; but deaths and hospitalizations are FLAT…. how can the be?

            Perhaps, because the age adjusted death rate indicates (and this is FACT), that you’re only at an elevated risk (there’s a thing called a hazard ratio that has 95% confidence intervals; note smart people base their decisions based on that) if your above 75… and frankly, it doesn’t really get bad until you’re above 85. Factor in the age adjusted death rate, and this is a BLIP in the grand scheme of things.

            But I digress, go ahead and live in fear… no skin of my back, I’ll keep in truckin’

          2. This is hilarious to keep referring a pandemic over 100 years ago, where there was no understanding on epidemiology, virology, genetics, or a mechanistic understanding immunology… I’ll defer to the later…. mask up suckers, follow the herd.

          3. It’s great you think that scientists have advanced the science around pandemics in the last 100 years (I think that as well) and it is also great that you are willing to follow the science. One thing that scientists have found is that wearing masks is effective at reducing transmission rates and the controlling the spread of airborne contagions.

            So do as you said and start masking

          4. there IS a vaccine for influenza

            The are vaccines for specific mutations of specific strains of influenza, but they typically don’t infer any immunity to other mutations or strains and there is definitely no universal influenza vaccine (though there has been positive research towards this).

            I believe that having immunity to certain mutations within a influenza strain may provide partial immunity to other mutations of the same strain, meaning you are less sick and less likely to die, which is why not every flu outbreak is as bad as 1918 or other historical flu pandemics. The severity of the pandemics are also directly related to how the public reacts, the 1918 flu pandemic being a great historical example that some people are pretending never existed.

            If a novel strain of flu pops up, we typically have the ability to create a vaccine for it, but as a reaction that takes months to develop and manufacture, hence why researchers attempt to predict which strains and mutations will be dominant every winter to create a vaccine. Influenza typically spreads so fast that the virus has run it’s initial course by the time a vaccine could be created for a novel strain.

          5. I agree with all of this. Which is why I think Neighborhood’s contention that we don’t act like this for the flu is especially inane. The amount of time and money every year put into monitoring and responding to the flu is immense.

            Remember it was the Seattle FLU Study that first identified community transmission of Covid-19 in the US.

          6. What’s so insane about acknowledging that the age adjusted death or hospitalization rates are essentially nil for the vast majority of the population (I.e. everyone below 75)?

          7. I said “inane” not “insane”. Inane means I think you are dumb not crazy.

          8. Off topic redirect… internet expert 101 when they don’t have a good response to the real question at hand… let’s try again.

            What’s so insane about acknowledging the age adjusted death or hospitalization rate is mill if your under 75?

          9. Also, how many ‘rona deaths would have been flu deaths, or all cause deaths otherwise…. overlapping data… maybe?

          10. Part of this is the most logical thing you’ve ever wrote on here… ‘rona going to be the same; it’s going to run it’s course before a vaccine is ever developed AND globally deployed.

        2. @neighborhood

          “Where do you draw the line?”

          Somewhere between influenza and corona virus, that’s where.

          On average, CDC estimates look to be about 30,000 deaths per year from flu.

          So far COVID-19 has killed somewhere north of 130,000. That’s a big difference.

          What’s the scenario if we just let the virus run? In Piedmont, Italy, the death rate was around 0.01% of the population (roughly 4,000 deaths in a population of 4,000,000). And that was with them shutting down the economy and imposing a very strict quarantine.

          That death rate would amount to 330,000 deaths. Maybe less by some amount because the U.S. population isn’t as dense. But also more by some amount because you’re basically talking about just letting this run rampant. But I think that that’s probably a good starting point. (I’m also certain that there are much better estimates out there than my half-assed approach.)

          AND we still have no idea what the long term consequences are of infection. This is a vascular disease that has the ability to impact every organ. Doctors are just beginning to understand it.

          There’s also the cautionary tale that is Sweden. No shutdown. No quarantine. And because the rest of the world has shut down, Sweden’s economy has been impacted by about the same amount as the other Nordic countries that have shut down (lots of sick people, global economy, etc.). So no benefit from reduced loss of life and all the economic consequences. Awesome. Great planning. Sounds like a great solution…

          1. If you try to ask Neighborhood about how many deaths are acceptable to maintain an open economy or his estimate of the impacts when the economy utterly collapses when the death rate skyrockets due to trying to keep an open economy, he’ll accuse you of being a Russian troll or “not really from Ballard” and continue with his unfounded opinions.

            His thinking seems to stem from his belief that the two scenarios for COVID are 100% healthy with no long term effects or dead and ignores everything in between. Then he can post his minuscule death rate percentage and post some bizarre comparison like “more people get paper cuts than die of COVID!!!111!”.

            It’s also cute how he both criticizes Washington State’s response to the virus AND points out the flattened hospitalization and death rates as proof that the virus is a bunch of phooey because of course, Washington’s response had nothing to do with low hospitalization and death rates.

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