Look at Idaho and see why Tri-City leaders must rein in anti-COVID rhetoric | Editorial
With COVID-19 cases hitting record high levels in the community, the last thing we need is for weary Tri-Citians to think they have local officials’ permission to break social distancing rules.
Unfortunately, the reaction by some Tri-City leaders rallying against Gov. Jay Inslee’s latest set of restrictions risks sending just such a message.
Richland City Councilman Bob Thompson said during Tuesday night’s council meeting that he doesn’t believe masks or social distancing curb the spread of the disease. He also said he feels happy COVID-19 case numbers are going up because the increase will lead to “herd immunity.”
Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier reiterated this week that he would like to see Franklin County open up in defiance of the governor’s orders, and this time he said he would like to get other Eastern Washington counties to join the effort.
Kennewick City Councilman Brad Beauchamp said, “The public is getting pretty tired of getting preached down to,” and he urged the council to “trust our citizens.”
We know there are many Tri-Citians who agree with these sentiments, but if you want to see how relaxed COVID strategies really work out, look no further than to Idaho.
The Gem State is a mess.
Idaho has had one of the most lax COVID strategies in the country, with few restrictions and no mask mandate. For months the state simply trusted its citizens to be responsible.
Now, Idaho health officials are projecting a crisis in December. Hospitals there are getting maxed to capacity.
Idaho health care experts say if the spread of COVID-19 continues, then hospital staff may be forced to make decisions about who gets medical care and who doesn’t, according to the Idaho Statesman.
No doctor should be put in a position of making such a devastating choice. Who gets a hospital bed? Who gets turned away?
If hospitals take in too many COVID-19 patients, there won’t be beds, equipment and staff enough to handle other emergencies. At some point, instead of admitting all those in need of treatment, some people could be refused because they were deemed too old or too sick.
This tragic situation is what Inslee has been trying to avoid.
So far, hospitals in Washington state are managing, but if we don’t slow the spread of the virus, our state’s doctors eventually could find themselves in a similar situation as their colleagues in Idaho. And we already were close to it earlier this year.
It would be wonderful if enough people voluntarily did their part to slow the spread of disease, but sadly, Idaho’s situation shows that strategy does not work.
Idaho has the fifth highest rate of positive COVID-19 test results in the country, including Puerto Rico, according to John Hopkins University. Currently, Washington state ranks 35th.
When it came to masks, Gov. Brad Little threw up his hands because he didn’t think a state order would make a difference, according to the Lewiston Tribune.
Some local elected leaders in Idaho have tried to impose mask mandates and it hasn’t worked. COVID deniers in Twin Falls, for example, “browbeat” the city council into tabling its mask mandate, the Tribune reported.
In the Tri-Cities, people didn’t start wearing masks until businesses required it last summer. After that, our COVID-19 case numbers finally started to drop.
But now they are surging, and our local health leaders are pleading with the community to skip large gatherings for Thanksgiving and isolate as much as possible.
Inslee’s latest restrictions forbidding inside dining at restaurants, closing gyms and movie theaters and limiting businesses to 25 percent capacity hurts. Small business owners and employees who have already sacrificed financially during the first lockdown are struggling.
This is a horrible situation.
But rhetoric that inflames the idea that social distancing and masks don’t work, or that counties should open up, or that people simply should be trusted to do the right thing does not help.
Too many people in the state of Idaho with these same beliefs have helped to make the pandemic far worse in the Gem State than it needed to be. Tri-Citians should take note.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 11:41 AM.