Commissioners pitch outlandish COVID measure

Opposition to mandates coincides with rising levels of infection

The Board of Health tabled this matter late Tuesday morning due to a discussion of other matters running long. I will post a short update later this afternoon.

The Cowlitz County Board of Health on Tuesday will consider a “Medical Freedom Resolution” that seeks to ban any new masking, vaccine and closure mandates to protect the public from rising COVID-19 infections.

It contains outrageously and dangerously misleading claims about COVID medications, the efficacy of masks and even the impact of COVID on death rates in the United States.

The proposed two-page resolution repeatedly asserts a constitutional right to decline medical treatment.

Whether government has legal authority to mandate vaccination and mask wearing to protect public health is a debatable matter. Yet this document goes well beyond that. It disparages the medical tools that likely have saved millions of lives and that will be needed again as the virus continues to ebb and flow.

It is reckless. It will endanger public health and is yet another example of ideology negating facts and common sense.

Although COVID cases are rising, the state is not at this point proposing to resume  any mandates. Earlier ones have been discontinued, but the rise in COVID cases seems be sparking renewed concern and opposition.

The resolution apparently was requested by members of the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners, three of whom make up the six-member board of health. Commissioners Arne Mortensen and Rick Dahl are libertarian Republicans, and Mortensen has been a past outspoken opponent of COVID mandates.

The board of health will take up the resolution at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Commissioners Hearing Room of the Cowlitz County Administration Building in Kelso. Members of the medical community are preparing to show up in force to oppose the resolution and ask for further study of the matter.

It is not clear who wrote the document, which is coming before the board without any previous public discussion. 

The Cowlitz County Prosecutor’s Office, which serves as the county’s lawyer, has advised the board of health that local authorities could not countermand measures adopted under a state health emergency. It notes that numerous lawsuits challenged the emergency COVID orders of Gov. Jay Inslee and the state health director, but they failed. The prosecutor’s office also said that the resolution would violate numerous state laws, and that local officials could be charged with misdemeanors for authorizing actions that weaken state mandates. 

The text of the proposed resolution is attached to the county commissioners’ website: https://www.co.cowlitz.wa.us/535/Agendas (see pages 512-513).

Without citing specific evidence, the county resolution says masks are ineffective against respiratory viruses like COVID 19 and impeded children’s social and speech development.

It alleges that governments used “unconstitutional” means to suppress Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and several other so-called therapies  — which were proven to be ineffective — and prompted use of Remdesivir in children. It  also claims that  ventilators  killed thousands of people. 

Stunningly, the resolution also asserts that death rates across the nation were unchanged before, during and after the pandemic. 

There’s too much to address  all that needs  to be refuted in the resolution. But to be brief:

Covid has killed an estimated 1.3 million Americans. Deaths in the United States increased by 19% between 2019 and 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 — the largest spike in mortality in 100 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Deaths remained elevated in 2021 as the virus persisted, the agency reported. Deaths in Cowlitz County increased 18%.

On July 18, the New York Times reported that during the worst periods of the pandemic, 30% more Americans than normal were dying each day. Death rates have now returned to normal.

Masks are not foolproof, but they do reduce the chance of passing on the virus. The Centers for Disease Control has consistently endorsed their use. And while recent studies are not as conclusive, the preponderance of evidence still shows they help block the spread of viruses.

If masks don’t work, then Masseurs. Mortensen and Dahl should tell their surgeons not to wear them if they ever need operations.  

As to Remdesivir: While initial studies questioned its efficacy,  the World Health Organization study of 3,400 veterans showed it caused significant reductions of disease progression. Conversely, Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have been shown not to work. And why is was “unconstitutional” for public health officials to denounce these Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine: It was their job to do so.

And about the complaint that ventilators killed people, remember that patients put on them already are on death’s door. Saying the machines killed them is like saying CPR killed someone already in major cardiac arrest.

And the commissioners’ assertion of constitutional prohibition about forcible medical treatment itself must be questioned. The government can, indeed, quarantine people with infections diseases. For years it has required children to be vaccinated to attend school. Personal freedom is an imperative, but is it not an absolute when a person’s refusal to comply with health edicts jeopardizes others. This is a tough line to draw, but it should be drawn thoughtfully.

Life has returned largely to normal, as have death rates. This is due to three major causes, The Times reported: About 75% of adults have had COVID and acquired some immunity; 75 percent have had at least one dose of vaccine; and treatments for the disease are now widely available.

In other words: We’ve brought the virus under some control using many of the same tools that this Cowlitz resolution disparages.  

This resolution is aimed at scoring political points with the deep red community. And besides spreading misinformation, it is a form of Monday morning quarterbacking.  

Have the commissioners forgotten the fear many people felt at going to the grocery store during the peaks of the pandemic? That St. John Medical Center had to postpone surgeries to make space for COVID patients? That the county coroner’s Office asked for a refrigerator truck to store excess bodies due to COVID 19 deaths?

As pandemics go, the one caused by COVID 19 was relatively brief compared with others, such as he Spanish Flu, because science gave us more means to fight it.

It’s telling that states around the nation that are Republican and more resistant to COVID mandates had higher death rates — often much higher — than Democratic states.  Yes, COVID measures were detrimental to the economy and the whole of society, children included, but they worked. 

Denial is deadly.

“Nearly every death is preventable,” Ashish Jha, MD, President Biden’s former top COVID-19 adviser, told The New York Times. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have COVID, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

In response to my queries about the county resolution Washington Department of Health spokesman  John Doyle said, “Combined strategies, such as staying up to date on vaccines, improving  ventilation, staying home when you're sick, and wearing masks or respirators can help prevent severe illness and lower the burden on the healthcare system.” 

The agency still recommends COVID vaccines for everyone six years and older.

The new resolution is proposed just as COVID infection rates are rising and state health officials are encouraging the public to get vaccinated.

Statewide, the seasonal rate of new hospitalizations are the lowest in the last year, as well as sharply below the spike that occurred in September 2021. 

However, wastewater surveillance — which monitors how much virus people excrete in their feces — show a doubling of infection rates in parts of the Puget Sound, Spokane and Vancouver areas in the past two weeks. Rates also are rising around Olympia. (Cowlitz County wastewater is not monitored for COVID).

A new vaccine engineered to combat the latest variants of the COVID virus is just now becoming available. Only 19 percent of Cowlitz County’s eligible residents are considered up to date with COVID vaccines and boosters, according to the state Department of Health. That’s significantly lower than the state rate, 25.6%.

Despite the rising cases, no agency has announced plans for mandatory measures. State mandates for masks and vaccines adopted in 2021 in some population groups were especially unpopular in Cowlitz County, and they made Gov. Jay Inslee extremely unpopular here.  

However, now is the time to encourage the public to be alert and to take precautions — not for outrageously misleading statements of constitutional principle that could undermine battles against COVID or the next disease. The Constitution is just the beginning of enlightened governance. The real foundation is honesty and concern for the public good.

This resolution fails miserably on both accounts.