Once again the experts were wrong. We were warned that those reckless and irresponsible people on the steps of the Capitol in mid-April protesting the statewide lockdown would cause a spike in COVID cases. Unmasked cries of “Give me liberty or give me death!” would guarantee both for foolish freedom lovers.
The first organized protests against Governor Inslee’s order started sporadically across Washington within three weeks of his Stay at Home edict. They culminated in the first large rally on April 19 attended by thousands of protestors. Port Townsend Free Press contributor Tod Brundage was there and wrote about that event: Face Toward the Enemy: Protesting Governor Inslee’s Stay At Home Order.
More than six weeks have passed. The COVID virus manifests itself within 10 to 14 days of exposure. Tod Brundage is doing just fine and there have been no reports of any attendees at the Capitol rally getting sick.
Olympia is in Thurston County, which has not experienced an explosion of COVID cases and was green-lighted to move into Phase 2 due to its low infection rate. The Thurston County Department of Health reports that 9,233 people have been tested with only 2% coming back positive. Only one person has died in that county of a COVID-related illness.
On May 19, the Reopen Jeffco: Rally for Civil Rights and Justice event was held in Port Townsend, attended by just under 100 people at its peak. Only one protester wore a mask. The gestational period for the virus has passed. No one who attended the rally got sick or has been diagnosed with the virus. (A child, with no symptoms of fever, wracking cough, etc. was on June 1, reported to have tested positive during routine screening at the hospital. That child’s family did not participate in the rally, and is it not yet known how the child was exposed.)
For about a month now, a weekly Freedom Rally has been held in Port Angeles, growing larger every week. None of the protestors have gotten sick or been diagnosed with the virus.
An anti-lock down rally of hundreds of people was held in Lynden in Whatcom County a month ago. That county has seen no spike in COVID cases.
There have been rolling protests across the state, with large rallies in Spokane Yakima, Richland and Snohomish County, to smaller demonstrations in Tacoma, Sequim, Monroe, Leavenworth, Wenatchee and elsewhere. Not one public authority has linked any new COVID diagnosis to a demonstration. (The new Yakima cases have been identified as arising in nursing homes and agricultural industry settings).
As the late Fred Ward would say, “Whaw hoppened?”
Public health authorities seem to have been avoiding an answer to that question. Those that condemned the protests in advance have been silent since. Thousands more people are tested every week. The new positive diagnoses are reported to be among mostly the nursing home population, followed by agricultural industry workers, health care workers and those in contact with people in those groups. Not one press conference or news release from the Governor of Department of Health identifies any rally as the cause of new infections.
It is not this writer’s place to speculate as to why the dire predictions failed, only to observe that, once again, the experts and doomsayers were wrong. We deserve an explanation from officials who attempted to use fear to suppress peaceable assemblies. In that answer may lie truths about the limits of the COVID threat we need to know, and which can better inform our decision makers.
As for the riots and looting we’ve seen this past week, the jury is still out whether they will be the super-spreder events Governor Inslee thought would result from the peaceful protests targeting him. When the City of Seattle announced it was organizing a street protest of the killing of George Floyd, we note he issued no statements condemning that effort for creating an unreasonable risk of spreading the COVID virus.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our “About” page for more information.
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