— by Minor Lile, Orcas Issues reporter —
At the Monday, May 11, meeting of the San Juan County Board of Health, Public Health Officer Dr. Frank James stated his clear support for San Juan County to request a variance that would allow the County to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the Governor’s Covid-19 economic recovery plan, also known as Safe Start Washington.
Although no formal action was taken at the meeting, the Board of Health is likely to meet later this week to vote on a letter of recommendation that Dr. James is currently preparing. Dr. James also indicated that as an accompaniment to the letter supporting a variance, he is likely to issue an order that will require the wearing of masks in public settings throughout the County.
The process for a County to request a variance from the Safe Start plan includes four steps. The first step is for the Public Health Officer (Dr. James) to issue a recommendation in support of a variance. The Board of Health then votes on the recommendation. If the vote of the Board of Health is in support of the variance, the recommendation is forwarded to the County Council for review. Upon approval by the County Council, the application is then prepared and submitted to the State. At the State level, variance applications are reviewed by the Secretary of Health, who can approve the plans as submitted, approve them with modifications or deny the application.
To apply for a variance, counties must have a population of less than 75,000 and no new cases of Covid-19 in the last three weeks. Dr. James noted that although a new case was recorded in San Juan County last week, the actual onset occurred on April 1 and the person who contracted the virus is well beyond the period of being contagious.
Counties must also demonstrate that they have access to sufficient hospital bed capacity as well as adequate PPE supplies to keep health care workers safe. For San Juan County, access to hospital beds includes arrangements with St Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham and Island Hospital in Anacortes.
The application for variance must include plans for:
- Making testing available and accessible to everyone in the county with symptoms
- Staffing case investigations and contact tracing
- Housing people in isolation or quarantine who can’t or don’t want to isolate at home
- Providing case management services to those in isolation and quarantine
- The capacity to rapidly respond to outbreaks.
Both Dr. James and Mark Tompkins, the SJC Director of Health and Human Services, agreed that the County’s capacity to meet each of these requirements had already been met or was well within reach.
If new Covid-19 cases or other adverse conditions are detected once a variance has been granted, the Governor retains the power to revoke the variance and return the County to Phase 1 of the recovery process. More information on the Safe Start program and the process of obtaining a variance can be found here.
The Governor’s Safe Start Washington plan provides that there will be at least three weeks for each phase of recovery. Phase 1 of the plan began on May 4 and will continue through at least May 25 if no variance is obtained.
Following Dr. James comments, Rick Hughes offered a motion that the Board of Health accept Dr. James recommendation prior to receiving his formal letter so that the process of applying for the variance could proceed as quickly as possible.
The Board of Health voted 4-3 to wait for Dr. James to provide his letter before making a recommendation to the County Council. Those voting against the motion and in favor of waiting were Board chair Dale Heisinger, Bill Watson, John Geyman, and Kyle Davies, with Jamie Stephens, Rick Hughes and Noel Monin voting to accept the letter of recommendation from Dr. James prior to its being completed. Following the vote, Dr. James said that he anticipated being able to complete the letter by Wednesday, which would allow time for another meeting of the Board of Health on either Thursday or Friday.
In addition to discussing the request for a variance, Dr. James also expressed concern that last weekend there were many people in the islands from high risk areas outside of San Juan County. It was his perception that those who were visiting were not observing the ‘same high standard of safe behavior’ that he has seen being practiced by local residents. In particular, he noticed a widespread lack of mask use and unsafe social distancing.
Dr. James said that it is unfortunate that because of the time lag between contracting the Covid-19 virus and the onset of symptoms, the potential impact of the weekend won’t be known for one to two weeks. He added that such activity presents a ‘significant risk’ and that for the sake of both public safety and restarting the economy, thought needs to be given to how to effectively prevent these behaviors.
There was also discussion about the timing of re-opening vacation rentals and other transient accommodations. The Governor’s phased approach does not directly address the timing of when these facilities will be allowed to re-open for use by non-essential workers. Dr. James said that it was his belief that this was intentional on the part of the Governor and allowed for local discretion. He shared his view it is not only a public safety issue, it is also a political question that goes to the challenge of finding the right balance between public safety and re-opening the local economy.
Dr. James concluded with the observation that in his view there was no point in reopening transient accommodations for general use when the Governor’s phased approach to reopening calls for continued observation of the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order through Phase 3. Although no action was taken, others who spoke on this topic at the meeting seemed to be in agreement that allowing transient accommodations to reopen for non-essential use was not currently envisioned through at least Phase 2.
Transient accommodations are underway with or without a variance.
Dr. James states that among the off island visitors “… he noticed a widespread lack of mask use and social distancing” and believes that “… such activity presents a significant risk … [therefore] thought needs to be given to how to effectively prevent these behaviors.” If the decision is made to mandate wearing masks and social distancing, it must unfortunately be businesses themselves, particularly the tourist oriented ones, that enforce a “No shirt, No shoes, No mask – No service” policy. The Sheriff can’t really be expected to do so and local citizens probably shouldn’t. Some business owner/operators may not be keen, but it is their employees and their island clientele that they are protecting.
(It would remove quite a bit of pressure off of those businesses if the County were to post a notice of the policy very clearly visible to anyone arriving via the ferry.)
As we approach reaching the “metrics” established by the State for preparedness, a point worth considering is this:
Looking at the Counties that have already been granted variances https://q13fox.com/2020/05/11/three-more-counties-in-washington-state-approved-for-phase-2-reopening/ it is immediately apparent that these are relatively isolated counties, not ones located near major metropolitan areas and not ones dependent on tourism. That is, they are not ones which are opening themselves up to a much larger (and more infected) population.
We were told that when we go off island for any reason, we should self-quarantine for a full two weeks. When I went to Mt. Vernon for a medical test I took the trouble to stay away from friends, family and public places. What has changed that this is no longer considered to be necessary, at least for tourists? We did a great job of keeping our islands clean and relatively disease free. Did we do this so that people who don’t observe social distancing, don’t wear masks, and definitely don’t quarantine themselves when they come here from infected places can feel secure as they shed their virus loads? Our county officials should NOT be pushing to “open up the County”.
The eight counties which have received a variance allowing them to move to Phase 2 are as different from San Juan County as they could possibly be. They are rural with economies NOT dominated by tourism, and they are typically distant from the major metro areas which were significantly impacted by Covid19. The push by some members of the County Council (even voting to approve a letter they had not received) and Friday Harbor’s town council, and members of the public seem to ignore these important distinctions. We have already seen an influx of visitors despite the fact that most businesses are operating, if at all, in a limited manner. Dr. Fauci has warned that States which open up prematurely will very likely see an uptick in C19 cases. What goes for states must surely apply to communities, especially those such as ours.
According to modeling based on past recessions, each 1% of US unemployment will lead to 47,000 deaths, of which 26,000 are due to untreated heart attacks. The quarantine will have costs in lives too.
You can’t keep the virus off the island without shutting down the local economy permanently. A study by Harvard’s school of Public Health and Epidemiology suggests that keeping vulnerable populations home while allowing businesses to reopen with social distancing and masks is the optimal strategy.
I think islanders who believe the virus can be kept at bay indefinitely are mistaken, and the more draconian the shutdown, the greater the ultimate virus resurgence, until (if ever) a vaccine is developed.
If you’re vulnerable, no one will force you to leave your home. It’s selfish to prevent people who aren’t on retiree incomes to forego their paychecks indefinitely. This just prioritizes elderly lives over everyone else.
I like the idea of saving the economy. If opening it up now would save it, that might be a good idea. Except it won’t. The people arguing for going slowly are doing that because they want to avoid a devastating second wave of the virus, which would would force the economy to shut down again anyway.
Quarantining and distancing have a high cost. Nobody disputes that. The issue is whether that cost is, in the end, lower than we would pay if we relaxed too much, too soon.
Furthermore, those of you arguing to open things up should always remember that you are playing dice with other peoples’ lives, not just your own.
I, personally, want things to open sooner. But I, personally, have the luxury of staying home and keeping my family at home. We will stay locked down for many weeks longer than most people can. I may want it, but I cannot in good conscience call for other people to do what my family will not do.
Paula, the idea that restrictions are the only thing preventing businesses returning to pre-C19 norms is so far fetched as to be comical. The sad fact is C19 rendered most of those business models obsolete. We must develop new models that can flourish in a post C19 world without putting lives at risk. Continuing to push the false narrative that It’s only the old or infirm at risk of C19 complications is ill-considered, especially given the clusters of severe reactions now occurring in children in multiple states.
I agree with Rick Hughes and the two other voters that to facilitate the process the Board of Health should have voted to support the variance Pending completion of the letter by the health director. I think these times of urgency require parallel processing for efficiency. I think it is appropriate but also critical for San Juan county to move to phase 2 and to the subsequent phases as soon as possible given the draconian affects the lockdown is having on the local economy and the general well-being of the residents.