WA reopens soon. What’s that mean for Tri-Citians who refuse COVID shots? | Editorial

Washington state will finally, fully reopen in a matter of days.

The target date is Thursday, June 30. That’s when restaurants, movie theaters, bowling alleys and other businesses can go from allowing 50% to full capacity.

It’s been a long time coming, so let’s not mess this up.

Washington is one of only four states in the country that has yet to reopen, making this countdown even more exciting than checking off the days before Christmas.

But in the Tri-Cities, a cloud of concern lingers despite the celebratory atmosphere in the community.

Benton and Franklin COVID vaccination rates are slowly climbing, but they aren’t even close to the 70% statewide goal.

Considering King County crossed that 70% threshold last week — the largest county in the nation to reach that mark — the Mid-Columbia region has some significant catching up to do.

In Benton County 52% of people ages 16 or older have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine and in Franklin County that rate is at 45%, according to the latest data available at the time of this writing.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses weeks apart to be fully effective so it’s important people don’t skip that second dose. They say it’s not too late to catch up if you delayed.

Tri-Citians who are choosing to forego getting the vaccine are supposed to still wear masks and social distance and do their part to keep COVID cases from surging again.

But are they?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its face mask requirement last month for fully vaccinated people, and Washington state has adopted those guidelines.

The catch is that businesses and event centers are not required to check if people have had their shots, so there is no way to tell if an unvaccinated person is following the “honor code.”

Judging by the number of shoppers going maskless at any given Tri-City store, it’s easy to assume a majority of unvaccinated customers are not following the rules.

And that’s alarming because COVID is continuing to spread throughout the country where vaccination rates are low. The more it spreads, the more likely variants will develop and those variants could be deadlier than what we’ve been dealing with so far.

A recent Associated Press analysis determined that unvaccinated people now account for nearly all COVID deaths in the U.S.

In addition, a separate AP report found that the new delta variant got a foothold in rural areas of Missouri where relatively few people had received their shots, and now the state leads the nation with the most new cases per capita.

As of June 24, Missouri had recorded 145 new cases for every 100,000 residents, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“If you are in a rural community where maybe a couple people got infected and nobody got sick, you think it is overblown,” said Dr. Bill Powderly, co-director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington University’s School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“You can understand why people start off the way they do, but I don’t want people to die in order to convince the rest of the population that they need to be vaccinated. I so hope people will start to realize that this is not trivial,” he told the AP.

The delta variant is concerning because it is more contagious than the COVID strain that initially plagued the country. The delta variant also leads to more hospitalizations.

After Washington state’s reopening date, unvaccinated Tri-Citians will be even more at risk of contracting COVID. Restaurants and bars will be more crowded, and it’s easy to imagine people thinking they are no longer in danger.

But a COVID surge is still possible. The past year has been especially tough on businesses, school children, college students, health care workers and those who lost loved ones to COVID.

We must do all we can to ensure the Tri-City area does not end up like Missouri — or other places where COVID numbers are spiking again. Please, everyone, do your part.

This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 12:41 PM.