A Tale of Three Counties:
JeffCo Has Most Vax Uptake,
Highest Covid Case Rate in State
Out of 39 Washington counties, Jefferson County rang in the new year with the dubious distinction of being the only “red alert” spot for Covid cases in the state.
We’ve reported extensively on the disinformation from Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry, our health department, and the Board of Health — all parroting a thoroughly discredited global narrative — and on the damage that has wrought on our community. This article will take a look at how our county is currently faring in the wake of nearly three years of a massive propaganda campaign to keep residents in a state of fear and anxiety, a campaign that shows no sign of easing up.
And we’ll compare two other counties that help flesh out the picture: neighboring Clallam County, also under the direction of health officer Berry; and Adams County, at the other end of the spectrum. Where Jefferson has the highest numbers for the case and booster metrics being tracked, Adams reports the lowest figures in the state.
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) posted the maps shown here on their COVID-19 Data Dashboard on January 11. Data is updated weekly. Numbers of Covid cases are converted to rates per 100,000 so that there is equivalence between counties.
The map above, for the period between December 26, 2022 and January 2, 2023, shows the 7-day Covid case rate in Jefferson County at the start of the new year — 127 cases per 100,000 (41 reported cases in a population of 32,190).
Contrast this with the lowest case rate in the state: Adams County. The Eastern Washington county shown in blue reported only 2 Covid cases in a population of 20,450 or 10 per 100,000 during the same week. The third comparative, Clallam County, shows a case rate of 46 per 100,000 (35 people out of 76,770).
The colors on the map’s 39 counties vary from week to week as new data is reported. But it is not unusual for Jefferson County to be a red standout and for Adams County to have the lowest Covid cases, represented in blue. Clallam County typically is yellow or orange.
Which brings us to the second of Jefferson County’s “bests”:
JeffCo’s booster rates are also highest in the state
The charts below depict the dozen counties with the highest Covid bivalent (Omicron) booster uptake followed by the dozen lowest as of 1/9/2023. (The fifteen counties in the middle are not shown.) Jefferson County again tops the list of 39 counties, with the highest jab uptake in the state for bivalent boosters. The percentage of uptake is based on county residents eligible for the booster, defined as people aged 5 and above.
Below is the state map from the DOH dashboard showing the levels of uptake throughout Washington as of January 9 by color coding.
The increasing awareness that after a brief antibody response the shots soon offer no benefit and only cause harm has led to a national uptake rate of only 11% for the Omicron bivalent boosters. Adams County, with the lowest uptake in Washington’s 39 counties at 11.1%, reflects that national figure. But again we see that Jefferson County leads the state with a whopping 47.3% — nearly half of those eligible — receiving the shot. Clallam is third highest in the state at 36.5%.
More boosters —> worse outcomes
By now everyone should know that the mRNA injections do not prevent anyone from contracting Covid. But higher numbers of infections among the vaxxed than those who declined the shot? Is there a connection between high jab rates and high case numbers?
The phenomenon of seeing more cases among the jabbed is playing out globally. Not just in more Covid infections, but greater illness in general. Reports indicate that as strains have become less virulent hospitals are treating few Covid patients, but those who do seek medical care are people who got the shots. Especially those with multiple boosters.
One recent survey of hospital workers, conducted by Vaccine Safety Research Foundation founder Steve Kirsch, asked “What is REALLY going on in hospitals?” Kirsch summarized five key results (emphasis his):
- Hospital COVID wards are empty
- Emergency is not justified
- The only patients with COVID are the vaccinated
- Vaxxed doing worse than unvaxxed (< 10% disagree)
- More boosters —> worse outcomes (only 1% disagree)
The link to survey responses can be seen here.
Even mainstream media is acknowledging this problem, with headlines like these:
- More of the vaccinated and boosted landing in hospital with COVID-19
- Most people in hospital with COVID are fully vaccinated (Canada)
- Immunology professor on why data shows more COVID infections among boosted Americans
- Most people admitted to hospital with Covid-19 are vaccinated (UK)
“Experts” continue to make excuses for negative outcomes. However the public can see that they have been lied to, and their increasing rejection of the shots reflects the crumbling narrative. Less and less people are opting for boosters.
But not in Jefferson County. According to the state dashboard, uptake of the latest bivalent booster rises here with each passing week (now at 47.3%, it was 32.1% at our last reporting). All local health messaging continues to push the jabs:
“Get up to date with your COVID-19 vaccinations,” says Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) on its website.
Health Officer Berry also urges more shots at every opportunity, spouting demonstrable falsehoods:
“Thankfully we have a good vaccine… to reduce one’s likelihood of contracting the virus and passing it on to others,” Berry told the Peninsula Daily News in a story about winter cases on the rise. “The bivalent booster is still holding up strong against these variants,” she continued to misinform, “so if you have gotten yours, you are well protected.”
A study just published in December 2022 evaluating the bivalent shot in over 51,000 Cleveland Clinic employees found the opposite:
“The risk of COVID-19 also varied by the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses previously received. The higher the number of vaccines previously received, the higher the risk of contracting COVID-19 (Figure 2).”
Cleveland Clinic Figure 2: Risk of COVID-19 infections increases with number of doses.
Black = 0 doses, Red = 1 dose, Green = 2 doses, Purple = 3 doses, Orange = >3 doses
As we have documented in previous articles, the boosters not only are failing to protect — let alone protect well as Berry concocts — they create negative efficacy. The more boosters, the more likely you will elevate the risks of hospitalization and severe diseases rather than reducing them. ‘Negative Efficacy’ Should Have Stopped COVID Vaccine Recommendations in Their Tracks wrote The Epoch Times in November 2022.
Since we first reported on it more than a year ago, data has been pouring in confirming negative vaccine efficacy around the world — from Denmark, Iceland and other northern European nations to Britain, Scotland, Canada, and most recently South Africa. And with new variant XBB.1.5 (ominously dubbed Kraken) quickly overcoming Omicron as the dominant strain, any possible benefit of the bivalent Omicron booster even in the short term is completely negated.
But Berry continues to peddle the failed shot with the absurd assurance that “if you have gotten yours, you are well protected.” So well protected that our heavily-jabbed populace has the highest case rate in the state. Still, nearly half of Jefferson County’s population appears to believe her dangerous disinformation.
Is JCPH just exaggerating its numbers?
We’ve seen that Berry and our health department have ramped up fear over Covid cases at every opportunity. Is the high JeffCo case rate because our health department is over-reporting?
JCPH claims that the opposite is true — that the number of Covid cases is significantly under-reported. From their website:
“Jefferson County Public Health staff estimate that 1 in 12 COVID-19 cases in Jefferson County were reported to public health last week.”
Those reporting their Covid infections to the health department do not even come close to the actual number of cases, JCPH says. A previous estimate of under-reports was even higher: 1 in 15. From the cases that were reported, according to the JCPH website, the two-week case rate — the metric that they use for their visual risk meter — is 252 cases per 100,000 people (last updated 1/9/23).
The department’s website continues the local fear messaging it has been engaging in for nearly three years with this red alert:
Reinforcing that fear porn in JeffCo is our Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), a trio who also comprise nearly half of the county Board of Health (3 out of 7 BOH members). In October 2022, all but fawning over Berry’s autocratic pronouncements, they led the state in another dubious distinction. As Covid restrictions were dropped statewide and nationally — with Covid acknowledged as endemic and relegated to flu status — Jefferson’s BOCC was the only board in Washington state to officially extend its State of Emergency. We remain perpetually in official crisis mode, in an “Emergency Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic.”
How does Jefferson County’s messaging compare to Berry’s other jurisdiction, Clallam County, with the third highest booster uptake in the state?
And what about distant Adams County where the bivalent shot uptake is dead last, faring as poorly as the national average?
Clallam County: Notable Differences
To start with, Clallam’s commissioners reasonably discarded their emergency declarations as of October 31, 2022 — along with Washington State and every county board statewide except Jefferson.
The spell that Jefferson BOCC still appear to be under was not successfully cast over Clallam’s commissioners. While our BOCC gave Berry a bully pulpit for Covid “briefings” at every commission meeting — providing relentless bombardment of her fear narrative — Clallam’s electeds did not. Periodic “coronavirus briefings” were held in Clallam, but they were not weekly.
And the Clallam briefings were not amplified, as they were in Jefferson County, through a radio show. Not only was our young health officer’s rhetoric a constant feature at Jefferson BOCC weekly meetings, Port Townsend radio station KPTZ first elevated former health officer Tom Locke’s reports, then Berry’s, to a weekly community broadcast over the local airwaves. (The station did not air the county’s full meetings, only the Covid briefing segment.) True “programming” of the masses.
Clallam’s Health and Human Services “Coronavirus Information” webpage is far less bombastic than Jefferson’s. It offers a state hotline, a sidebar saying “Covid Cases Are Back Up!” with a link to order free at-home Covid tests, and a link to a separate Clallam County COVID-19 Dashboard.
The dashboard is also less aggressive than Jefferson’s Covid page. It provides the stats below and a couple of charts, directing people to the state DOH website for all other statistics.
A sidebar there has the standard Mask Up! and Get Vaccinated! messages. But significantly, there is no risk meter, no tally of weekly cases to generate anxiety.
With Berry overseeing both counties, Clallam endured the same damaging Covid orders as Jefferson, the most draconian in the state. Her two-county mandate requiring people to be vaccinated before being allowed to dine or drink indoors at restaurants and bars not only set a precedent for the state, it was the first in the nation. In Jefferson County, the BOCC embraced it with enthusiasm, and traumatized residents accepted it compliantly. But in Clallam, so many showed up to protest outside the commissioners hearing room at the courthouse, it took three hours to hear all the public testimony.
“More than 50 were against the mandate, called for Berry’s resignation or insisted she be fired by the county board of health,” according to a September 8, 2021 PDN article. And while there was no pushback from Jefferson County businesses, Clallam restaurants initiated a lawsuit, forcing the Proof of Vaccination Order to be rescinded.
The main platform in Clallam for Berry’s rhetoric was and continues to be the Peninsula Daily News, that county’s newspaper of record. Both the PDN and Jefferson County’s Leader have given her their full support, censoring letters and even paid ads that challenge the official narrative. Berry’s domination of the media and her ongoing disinformation, as quoted earlier, is surely a factor in the high booster rate in our neighboring county.
However we see less masking, lower jab uptake and fewer Covid cases in Clallam County. There are clearly more people in Clallam than in Jefferson paying attention to the actual data, rejecting our joint health officer’s fear messaging and thinking for themselves.
Adams County: Another World
As everyone who has traveled east of the mountains has noted, eastern Washington exhibited far less Covid hysteria than our side of the state.
According to the Washington DOH Covid dashboard, 68.7% of Adams County’s population had an initial jab and just 61.6% completed their primary series. While 42.3% received “any booster,” as described earlier only 11.1% have gone for the bivalent shot. Comparing those numbers to our two western counties:
Adams County – 68.7% / 61.6% / 42.3% / 11.1%
Clallam County – 77.7% / 71.6% / 65.2% / 36.5%
Jefferson County – 86.4% / 80.4% / 74.8% / 47.3%
With less initial primary series injections, and only a fraction of our booster uptake, Adams’ case numbers are also significantly lower, the correlation we are seeing worldwide. Their weekly cases are now in the single digits, two people out of a population of 20,450 at last report.
What kind of messaging about a continuing threat from Covid are Adams’ residents getting? In looking for information on the Adams County Health Department website, Covid is not even listed under their Public Health headings. You have to enter COVID-19 in the search bar to tease out three related links:
The Resources page doesn’t contain any information; it is comprised entirely of links to Washington state websites. The only local link is to the Adams County Facebook page. That page stopped reporting on Covid last summer, as is described below.
The Covid-19 Graphs page looks like this:
Nothing to see here. Literally a blank page. The yellow band at left accesses archived documents from early in the pandemic — a March 16, 2020 emergency declaration; a May 4, 2020 letter to the Governor stating the county’s compliance with state guidelines; a May 26, 2020 media release; a November 2021 press release about free Covid tests, an old booklet for phased re-opening of businesses.
The Covid-19 Update page does not have any Covid-related information.
In a general web search for “Adams County WA COVID-19” the only media coverage that comes up is a story about 43 cases tied to a wedding more than two years ago (November 2020). The county’s Facebook page mentioned above does show some case information, but it is five months old, last updated the week of August 8-12, 2022.
Since last August’s case numbers, there is nothing on any of Adams County’s websites about Covid. No graphs, no charts, no alerts. No statistics of any kind. No Mask Up or Get Your Vax messages.
Might there be a semblance of normalcy in Adams County? Based on what can be found online and what the Washington DOH Covid-19 dashboard shows, as far as Adams County is concerned, Covid is a non-issue.
As well it should be here, too, three years in. But still the hype, the alerts, the “emergency” persist.
The only statement coming out of Berry and our health department that may bear a kernel of truth is that just one in 12 or 15 people are reporting their cases. It wouldn’t be surprising if that ratio was even higher.
Why should we participate in the health department’s fear-mongering?
My household and numerous friends had bouts with respiratory illnesses in the last month. None of us tested, reported, or sought medical care. Was it Covid — Omicron, BA.2, BA.5, BF.7, BQ.1, BQ.1.1 or Kraken? Or some common cold or flu? What does it matter? The symptoms and severity are similar, sometimes identical, the treatments are the same. We all recouped at home as one would with any respiratory virus. As people everywhere have been doing for millennia.
The real illness in this community now is the relentless fear and anxiety that persists over normal health challenges that have been with us forever. Adams County got it right. Respiratory viruses have always been endemic and will continue to be with us in the future.
All the masking and injections in the world will not eliminate risk to the elderly, immune-compromised, and those with multiple co-morbidities. Conversely, overwhelming evidence shows these interventions are damaging immune systems and increasing risks. Having admitted a link from the shots to myocarditis in 2021, just days ago the CDC also finally acknowledged that Covid boosters are “possibly” causing strokes in people over 65.
Continuing to terrorize the public with risk meters and red alerts, telling us to test every time we have a sniffle, to mask up and get dangerous shots, is itself a sickness. What will it take to undo the brainwashing and trauma we still see all around us — most especially here in Jefferson County?
Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry dispensing fear
