Ignore the rumors. Gov. Inslee isn’t using COVID to punish Tri-Cities | Editorial
We can’t imagine Gov. Jay Inslee is holding a grudge against the Tri-Cities because the region did not support his Congressional run in 1994 against Pasco’s Doc Hastings.
But Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier tossed that thought out at a recent commission meeting, saying that Inslee might be punishing the Tri-Cities for his defeat 26 years ago.
Inslee lost Washington’s 4th Congressional District seat in that election, and because of that loss, Didier wondered if the state is conducting more COVID-19 tests in the Tri-Cities than in other counties — particularly King, Snohomish and Pierce counties.
Didier, like many Tri-Citians, must be under the impression that an increase in COVID-19 testing makes disease rates go up, which in turns hurts our chance to get out of state-imposed restrictions.
But according to health officials, that assumption is wrong.
Additional testing actually contributes to lowering the number of COVID-19 victims in the community. That’s because those who test positive can then isolate right away instead of spreading the disease unknowingly to others.
Some studies show people are most contagious just before they start showing their own symptoms.
On the other hand, decreasing COVID-19 testing means the disease is under-reported, which causes wider spread and causes more people to get sick in the long run.
Still, some people refuse to believe that’s the case. Confusion and misinformation are making it more difficult for medical health experts in the community to get the correct message out to citizens.
Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the Benton Franklin Health District, recently said that in addition to the pandemic, the country is also facing an “infodemic,” which undermines the COVID-19 advice from experts in the medical field.
“It’s the proliferation of misinformation, old information or just deliberate hoaxes ... that add to the continued confusion that people have around what is COVID — Is it real and serious? Should we even care about it?” she said.
Public health officials learned that it is not enough to have the knowledge and facts, she said.
They need help from community leaders and people in positions of trust to help get the correct information to the public.
Last month, the infection rate in Benton and Franklin counties was among the highest in the state. In fact, there was a point early on when Franklin County was considered the worst hot spot on the West Coast.
But then health experts, community leaders and the governor pushed for an increase in the use of masks in order to get our COVID-19 numbers down, and Tri-City businesses started requiring masks be worn by shoppers,
Guess what?
As predicted by Tri-City health officials, the community is now seeing a significant decline in the number of coronavirus cases, and there is a chance — especially in Benton County — that schools could offer some form of in-person instruction in a couple of months.
That is encouraging news.
We all want to get back some sense of normalcy, but we must accept that the only way that will happen is to follow the advice of health experts and do whatever it takes to get the infection rate down to a manageable level.
Passing on old information or misinformation and listening to people who don’t really know what they are talking about will only hurt our efforts to reopen.
Dr. Person said that spreading untrue rumors isn’t helpful. She said she hopes “that people will not choose to further spread falsehoods about the health district.”
She and others with the bi-county health district have enough to do trying to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus without having people of influence undermine their efforts by spreading incorrect information.
The Tri-Cities appears to finally be on the right track for slowing the coronavirus spread.
We’ll have a better chance staying there if we ignore rumors and listen to those with the medical expertise to see us through.
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 12:49 PM.