Thanksgiving could lead to more COVID deaths. Tri-Citians must protect each other | Editorial

If your family has an empty chair at the Thanksgiving table because a loved one has passed away, we are truly sorry for your loss.

If COVID-19 was a factor in your loved one’s death, our hearts ache for you.

If your Thanksgiving meal does not include relatives and friends because you decided to follow the advice of health officials and forego large gatherings, we thank you for your good judgment.

And if you are among those Tri-Citians whose turkey dinner will be meager or nonexistent because you are struggling financially after COVID restrictions caused you to lose your job or your business, we hurt for you too.

For so many people, this year’s Thanksgiving won’t be as happy an occasion as in the past — and it’s awful.

Perhaps that is why it is so difficult to hear people dismissing the seriousness of the pandemic. Protesters in the Tri-Cities this week railed against Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s latest rounds of restrictions as if the coronavirus is just a passing bug.

It isn’t.

COVID-19 is a killer and it is surging in the Tri-Cities. If we do not slow its spread then there surely will be more empty chairs around tables in December.

Health experts continue to tell us that people can be carriers of the disease and not show any symptoms. You may not feel sick, but you can still infect others.

That seems to be information people still stubbornly won’t believe.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asymptomatic people account for more than 50 percent of transmissions. That means over half the people who test positive for COVID-19 likely were infected by someone who didn’t know they were contagious.

You just can’t be sure who is a carrier. That is why we are supposed to isolate.

At indoor gatherings, the virus can spread quickly from person to person — especially if they are not wearing masks. People who have risked going out to crowded venues and have not gotten sick have been fortunate.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t hurting others.

Consider the Nov. 7 wedding at an airplane hanger near Ritzville. We’re sure none of the 300 guests believed they could be carrying the disease.

But at least 40 COVID cases now can be traced back to the wedding, as well as two COVID outbreaks, according to the Grant County Health District. One of those outbreaks was in a school district, and the other was in a long-term care home.

And at least four COVID cases in the Tri-Cities have been directly linked to that wedding.

This is a scary example of how a fun time for one person can harm so many others.

In the Tri-Cities, the number of Tri-City COVID-19 cases is erupting, according to Benton Franklin Health District officials. Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the district, said we are “really at a critical juncture.”

Benton County’s COVID cases now total more than the county’s summer peak. Franklin County has not reached its peak yet, but it is only a matter of time if people don’t work harder to slow the spread.

More cases lead to more hospital stays and more deaths. It’s a devastating trajectory.

Our health care workers are exhausted.

Gov. Jay Inslee and state health officials have been saying for weeks that hospitals could be overrun as COVID cases continue to rise statewide. It is getting to the point where some hospitals are limiting elective surgeries.

Unfortunately, no matter how often this information is repeated, too many people dismiss it.

If the people who want to defy the governor and open up the counties could separate themselves from the rest of us, their skeptical attitude wouldn’t be so concerning.

But they can’t.

So we must all work together to protect one another. It’s the only way to slow the spread of this virus.

If we don’t all do our part, then the disease wins and there will be more empty chairs at dining room tables throughout the Tri-Cities.