We are now two plus months into our own version of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic. Here in King County, Washington there have been 15 deaths. Of those, 14 were residents of the same nursing home, senior citizens and with an underlying medical situation. King County is proactive in their sharing of information, as is Washington State.
Washington state is fortunate in so many ways, as the state hosts a plethora of biotechnology companies and our universities are top shelf. Our state, like others found itself shipping COVID-19 test kits to the CDC and waiting for the glacial turnaround.
Governor Inslee took a leadership role, based on science and fact. Every advisor shared the same perspective, containment is a step to give oneself time to address the impending community spread. The state took the formula from the Food and Drug Administration/Center for Disease Control and fired up the state run lab in Shoreline, WA with a capacity of 200 tests per day.
The University of Washington stepped forward and devoted their lab to contribute to the ability of testing. This next week the UW lab will have a throughput of approximately 1500 tests per day. Then the state reached out to the biotech industry and two entities stepped forward, Lab Corp and Quest Diagnostics. Soon the state will have a capacity close to 5000 tests per day.
The congress allocated $8.3 billion toward the COVID-19 crisis and the President signed the authorization. $25 million of that will be heading to Washington according to my congersswoman Delbene. The Washington legislature approved $100 million in emergency spending – both houses of the state congress were unanimous in their support.
While this was happening, our President abdicated his leadership and instead chose to cast aspersions upon our Governor Inslee who was showing exceptional crisis management and leadership. The President missed the leadership opportunity to signal to the nation the federal government was prepared to support and back the states.
Fortunately, Governor Inslee cares little for what the President has to say in the form of personal attacks and has focused on engaging the various agencies to ensure federal support to the state’s initiatives. He shared some thoughts with Margaret Brenner of Face the Nation.
In my opinion piece last week, I wrote of the need to relegate the spread of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to the back and seek facts. The above shenanigans by our President serves only to feed the FUD beast. He is worried more about personal optics than providing leadership to our nation.
Nowhere was this more evident than on the discussion concerning the Grand Princess cruise liner off the coast of California. COVID-19 test kits were airlifted to the ship and the result indicated at least 21 on board (19 crew and 2 passengers) tested positive. The ship has been turning circles off the coast for three days.
The ship will be docking on 09 March in Oakland and CDC, Princess Cruise lines, US Coast Guard and the California Department of Health will be sorting the disembarkation, quarantine and isolation requirements. When asked on 07 March about the ship docking in California the President did not prevaricate, he went for what was important to him, the perception which would form by increasing the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States
Your state, county and city health departments are more invested in you than the federal government under the current leadership. Follow the advice of your care provider. Get your information from trusted sources and not the rumor mill.
Cost for testing in the State of Washington is not an issue. The state declared all testing for COVID-19 to be made without co-pay for the insured and the state would absorb the cost for the uninsured.
Our local public health colleagues are stepping up across this nation in ways we could not have fathomed just three months ago. Collaborate with them, heed their advice and help yourself and your community manage our way through this COVID-19 crisis.
I thank you for your time,
Christopher Burgess
King County, Washington COVID-19 resource page: CLICK TO READ
