Washington State Board of Health
Wades Into the Misinformation War

by | May 4, 2023 | General | 26 comments

Years have gone by since the Covid outbreak of 2020, many meetings have been held, studies have been done, mountains of data have been compiled. What problem would you guess the Washington State Board of Health (WSBOH) would focus on, would ask for help in the form of millions of taxpayer dollars and three full time employees, to improve their response to future pandemics?

  • An in-depth review of the effectiveness of Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Covid treatment protocols?
  • A search for the reasons behind the large increase in vaccine related, died suddenly incidents, and injuries compiled in the VAERS data?
  • A panel discussion on exit strategies from Big Pharma capture of federal, state, and local health agencies?

Nope.

Just over a year has passed since I reported on the April 2022 meeting of the WSBOH during which they voted, for the time being, against adding the Covid shot to the list of vaccines required for children to attend school in Washington State.

You may recall during this meeting that one of the board members stated that “loss of public trust” was her “primary concern in this process.”

So, a year later, after hours and hours of public comments, thousands of emails, and thousands of pages of public letters offered in opposition to the WSBOH Covid pandemic policies and procedures, we find a PDF file, nestled amongst the many requests that are part of WSBOH’s 2023-25 Budget Proposal, titled “Restore TRUST to Public Health.” The agency recommendation summary for this budget request is as follows:

The Department of Health requests funding to launch a 5 year multifaceted campaign focused on rebuilding trust in Washington public health, and its information to ensure people in Washington are less skeptical and more likely to follow through on the desired behaviors central to risk mitigation. Over the past two years, public health has become controversial. Without this campaign, the public’s perception and relationship with public health agencies may continue to decline, and the Department will have less resources to repair and rebuild its trusted brand.

The WSBOH is asking for thirty million dollars, $7.5 million a year through 2027, for a public relations campaign — not to acknowledge and address the public concerns with how the WSBOH responded to the pandemic, but to ensure that the citizens in Washington State are “more likely to follow through on the desired behaviors central to risk mitigation.”

Clearly the problem, from the WSBOH’s perspective, isn’t with what they were saying, it is just that they weren’t saying it loudly enough, in enough places, or often enough for the public to finally realize their “safe and effective mantra” is the absolute truth.

If you were one of the many who took the time to write, email, or speak directly to the WSBOH, in good faith, hoping to help them make the right choices in a time of great difficulty, the following is what they think of you. This paragraph is taken from the section of the “Restore TRUST to Public Health” PDF labeled as “Problem”:

Over the past 6 years misinformation/disinformation has spread rampant throughout the nation. Over the last two years in Washington, DOH saw firsthand the impact of these disinformation campaigns through audience research, ongoing polls, and community feedback. As a result, some people have become more likely to believe something false from a friend or family member than something true from the government, which in some cases, leads to decisions to not access life­saving public health services.

If you find this statement by our state health officials condescending, you are not alone.

Further down in the document, in the section that is labeled “Proposal,” the actions to be taken are detailed. The line that seems to be attracting the most attention is the following:

The effectiveness of any public health intervention depends on the ability to influence the specific audience’s behavior.

Here in Jefferson County, we know what happens if a Board of Health intervention doesn’t influence a specific audience’s behavior. Those of us who would not comply were the first in the nation to face proof-of-covid-shot requirements for entry into restaurants and bars.

Take your concerns regarding the efficacy and legitimacy of county health practices to the local board of health and your statements will be dismissed in an avalanche of words from Public Health Officer Allison Berry, who has been shown, many times over in the Port Townsend Free Press, to have a problematic relationship with the facts.

Now we have County Commissioner Kate Dean appointed to a position on the WSBOH. She is an ideal candidate, a skilled politician who has demonstrated a willingness to follow the recommendations of Health Officer Berry… though her Board of Commissioners did draw the line at requiring the covid shot as a condition of employment for county employees (unlike Jefferson PUD).

Does that mean we will have a representative at the state level that can provide the citizens of Jefferson County with some transparency as to WSBOH actions? Or will this assure our position at the top of the list of test beds for future board of health actions in regards to pandemic policy?

In defense of the members of the WSBOH, after sitting through a few meetings, I am convinced that these are well-intentioned people that do their best to follow the illogical and arbitrary mandates handed down to them by the Governor. Over the last three years it has become readily apparent that everyone involved in state regulated health care, including doctors and nurses, has very little latitude for independent opinion without risking their ability to be employed.

However, following these mandates without reflection on their effectiveness was the beginning of a bad relationship. The complete lack of dialogue between the WSBOH and the citizens of this state has only solidified the problem. The few public comment opportunities at WSBOH meetings are similar to school board, city council, or county commissioner meetings. Speakers have two minutes to make their case. WSBOH members have no obligation to respond. There are no follow-up questions.

Nothing in the 2023-2025 budget request addresses this aspect of the WSBOH/citizen relationship.

Will thirty million dollars of taxpayer money and three new state employees (who are required by the governor to be up-to-date on all Covid shots before they can be hired) make everything better? Will enough public relations voodoo be generated over the next five years to restore your confidence in the WSBOH, so the next time around you will not hesitate to “follow through on the desired behaviors central to risk mitigation?”

I leave it to the reader to decide.

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Photos by Stephen Schumacher

Brett Nunn

Brett Nunn

Brett Nunn has spent the last two decades in Port Townsend’s Uptown, raising a family, volunteering at local schools and wandering the outdoors. He writes about survival, community and culture. He is the author of the book, “Panic Rising: True-Life Survivor Tales from the Great Outdoors.”

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26 Comments

  1. Ann Marie McNary

    So, we are to be brow-beaten. Not our body, our choice. We are the ignorant plebes whose wrong behavior must be corrected. First do no harm is now an antique and forgotten premise and we, are not only to fund their quackery but to submit to it. Medical schools are funded by Big Pharma, and good luck trying to find a doctor sympathetic to your views if they don’t agree with big pharma. I find this policy despicable, and it decreases my faith in public policy makers at a time when I didn’t necessarily expect it possible to be decreased. We are not citizens, clearly. The bureaucracy is acting as overlord and it is time to revolt.

    Reply
    • Janet

      One thing is clear, continuing to make sensible and articulate comments at the BOH meetings is not an effective strategy.

      Reply
  2. Q. Wayle

    One of the news pundits explained it well. These elite, that make the decisions throughout government are far too inbred in their ideas. They party with, associate with, dine with, and talk with each other, not the average citizen. So, in their circles, the policies they are making make perfect sense to them and they all support each other’s irrationality and misinformation.

    We all know the CDC, FDA, AMA, NIH, and WHO all lied about Covid, about mRNA vaccines, about masks, and who knows what else. Yet, these policy-makers are only accountable to each other, if that, and not to the citizenry. They believe their own manure, cite only “official” sources, reality be damned.

    I wish I knew the non-violent answers to get them to see reality, but I don’t. Perhaps wiser people do. The evidence of their wrong-think are ubiquitous, but unless we ram it down their throats somehow, they are woefully ignorant of reality, and likely dismiss anything contrary to “misinformation” or “conspiracy theory”. I suppose one way to get through to them would be MASSIVE refusal of dangerous and ineffective policies, but too many sheeple will go along and believe them. THEY are the experts, right? We’re only naïve fools.

    We have a tough road ahead.

    Reply
  3. Lee Stohr

    Never forget that they lied. Vaccine approval does not even require prevention of transmission or infection. FDA-2023-P-0360-0191, page 11. When Fauci and Walensky told the American people that the vaccines prevented transmission, they knowingly lied. Recently they tried to backtrack, saying that the science has changed. That’s another lie. Nothing changed, prevention of transmission was never required and Pfizer admitted under oath they never tested for it, because it was never required.

    Reply
  4. Beth ONeal

    Thank you Brett, for keeping us informed on this.
    That tee shirt “Please make ‘1984’ fiction again” comes to mind.
    I just posted your article on nextdoor.
    I am always hopeful that the quiet ones are getting something out of more information. The loud ones are lost down the hole of being controlled and will help the government do the controlling.
    May the veils of ignorance lift for more and more.
    Thanks for putting this out there.

    Reply
  5. Brad H

    It’s going to take more than a self serving PR campaign to re-establish our trust in our government agencies. It will take more government transparency, better policies, humility, and most importantly, accountability.

    It takes a long time to gain trust, and only a heart beat to lose it.

    Reply
  6. Beth ONeal

    And this article has been hidden on nextdoor. Flagged as misinformation.

    Reply
    • Brett Nunn

      Thanks for the heads up Beth and for spreading the word. Being censored on Next Door gave me a good chuckle. As my friends at ICWA say it’s not misinformation or disinformation — it’s missing information.

      Reply
    • Alison H.

      Beth, that’s to be expected. NextDoor is part of the social media SPY-derweb system. I wonder if you could try coding your posts (perhaps by asking a question with words that don’t set off algorithms), and actually inserting links to articles into the comments; they might stay up at least a while longer.

      Reply
    • Mossback the Webfoot

      NextDoor is a Big Data harvesting operation posing (dare I say masking?) as a friendly neighborhood infoshare.
      It was never that.
      It also is a Big Data harvesting operation whose goal is to figure out how to get the Perma Administrative State’s denizens’ paycheck signers in office.
      Look up how NextDoor got the execrable London Breed installed as the mayor of San Francisco.

      Brett wrote:
      “Over the last three years it has become readily apparent that everyone involved in state regulated health care, including doctors and nurses, has very little latitude for independent opinion without risking their ability to be employed.”

      It reminded me of something Upton Sinclair once wrote:
      “It is very difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.”

      And allow me to remind all members of the loyal PTFP Posse that one reason these county and local Perma Administrative State sinecure-holders are so doggone fired up for more and bigger programs is that they dream of moving onward and upward in their careers. Today Port Townsend, tomorrow Seattle or even Olympia…some day, who knows–the CDC! WOW!

      The former “head of COVID data” for Thurston County got moved into another position when it was clear even to Thurston County’s best and brightest that no more “COVID” “data” was worthwhile. Her newer position? Harassing rural residents about their septic systems. Meanwhile, everywhere in Olympia and its outskirts it’s perfectly OK for thousands of hobos to defecate, burn/use/dump toxins, do laundry/personal cleaning, drop needles/drug rigs and otherwise deposit toxic waste in riparian zones and bodies of water…and that’s simply not an issue.

      Reply
  7. insanitybytes22

    Well said, well written.

    What happened during covid was much like being trapped in an abusive relationship and the harm done to people’s mental health is significant. Minorities and other impoverished groups have long understood the dangers of public health and the arrogance of “do gooders” in government. Small pox blankets and thalidomide babies come to mind.

    I absolutely do not trust the public health system, but worse, I no longer trust the medical profession either.

    Reply
  8. Alison H.

    Excellent overview, Brett. We have learned that trying to make an impression on the State and JeffCo Boards of Health is an exercise in futility. They exist in a hall of mirrors, and only hire those who are on board with their toxic agenda. Yet — the board members seem to come and go rather quickly. Perhaps some wake up to their impending accountability and realize they need to disappear…

    Reply
  9. juliejaman9758

    Thanks Brett Nunn on your follow up to the Washington State Board of Health (WSBOH).

    Loss of public trust! How could it be otherwise given that many of us are still able to read and understand vocabulary and sentence structure albeit from the twentieth century. There is a sense of covert threats for questioning. Trust for sure is a feeling and we are now in an identity feeling war with numerous appendages wrapped into all manner of issues.

    So: The “New York Times” in 2021: “To Fight Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit an ‘Influencer Army'” the article reported about Ellie Zeller, 17 — a high school senior and a TikTok creator with over 10 million followers, being contacted by Village Marketing, an influencer marketing agency, on behalf of the White House. They wanted Zeller, “who usually posts fashion and lifestyle videos”, to participate in a campaign to encourage her audience to get vaccinated.  Ellie could help with the “massive need to grow awareness within the 12-18 age range.”

    The article goes on to describe the “army” of Twitch Streamers, YouTubers, TikTokers, etc., that the White House enlisted as part of their propaganda campaign. State and local governments also hired their own armies of ‘micro-influencers’ at the local level—people with 5k to 10k followers—paid $1,000 per month to promote pro-Vax propaganda…

    At $1000 a month, not bad, but where does the money come from? “…vaccine manufacturers who funded the various ‘fact checking’ agencies under some nebulous co-sponsorship with the federal government, giving it the outer veneer of an ‘official’ agency while actually representing very narrowly private interests.”

    I would recommend that the WA State and County Health Departments avoid promoting their “trust us, please” campaign via transgender mimics or, in case of a media failure, turning to prancing horses painted red, white and blue to re-establish their creds.

    Reply
  10. coincidence

    The vote is happening in Geneva this month!!!! We currently are facing even bigger more serious issues; Will the USA join the World Health Organization? This is a huge loss of our independence and right to regulate our own country’s health responses and policy making. Once joined there is no exit from having an outside body regulate health policy in the USA. Please contact your representatives in Washington D.C by calling the switch board where they will connect you with the correct representative at 202-224-3121, THEN vote here-http://support.childrenshealthdefense.org/site/MessageViewer?dlv_id=6801&em_id=4081.0

    Reply
    • Harvey Windle

      First, no amount of money spent can buy back trust on the County BOH level or any level. It is earned. Or squandered, as the proposed millions of dollars will be.
      .
      Dr. Berry walked into my business without a mask several months ago and stood very close to me after that same week telling all to wear them and distance due to a “surge”. Misinformation? Thanks to her for clarifying her real position regarding herself. No ad campaign can erase that insight for me.

      Second, I would cease using Next Door if that entity called Brett Nunn’s work misinformation. Do not participate or lend credibility by using it.

      Third, regarding what “Coincidence” said, the WHO treaty is very important. The WHO and sovereignty in Britian, the US and world are discussed in the two links below. Devil in details as always. Trust is earned or squandered by past performance as always. In tide pools and petri dishes large and small.

      Reply
  11. Ana Wolpin

    The irony of NextDoor removing Beth’s posting of this article discussing the BOH’s admitted crisis in public trust cannot be overstated. Yesterday saw the sudden resignation of CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who — along with pandemic architect Dr. Anthony Fauci — led a relentless campaign of mis- and disinformation that was arguably the most destructive response to a public health emergency in history. The Twitter files laid bare the elaborate collusion of government and regulatory agencies to control the narrative and censor any voice, even world-renowned doctors and scientists, who challenged the establishment’s mis/disinformation.

    Content in the Free Press undergoes rigorous vetting and fact-checking by all three editors — so much so that a single sentence in Brett’s article was debated through the course of a day and ultimately revised before publishing. More irony that counter-narrative voices like ours have been sticklers for accuracy, while those behind the censorship repeat lie after lie with impunity in service to an agenda that has decimated people’s faith in our institutions and “leaders”.

    Lies and cover-ups the Free Press has reported on — about masking, viral transmission, pharma’s safety trials, the inability of mRNA shots to protect against the virus, the true consequences of lockdowns, and more — have been so roundly exposed that even the Faucis and Walenskys have had to backpedal. But the censorship persists. Whether it’s an algorithm, a bot or a 1984-style Ministry-of-Truth lackey at NextDoor who removed the posting of this factual article quoting WSBOH’s multimillion-dollar proposal to repair its reputation and ensure future “compliance”, it underscores the continuing desperation to cover up the devastating collapse of public confidence in our institutions and maintain control of the narrative.

    Many thanks to Brett and appreciation to all our readers who contribute to exposing the truth!

    Reply
  12. Annette Huenke

    Thank you for this article, Brett. As one who also follows the education system closely, you likely won’t be surprised by what you hear in the linked video. The loss of trust in most aspects of the established order is well deserved and long overdue.

    “In Washington state, educators quietly work behind one couple’s backs to affirm their daughter as transgender. Jennifer, the mother, opens up about concerns at an early age and warns of subjecting children to a lifetime of harmful medical procedures if educators, politicians, health professionals, and the media continue pressuring parents to affirm.”

    This mother now says “I don’t trust professionals anymore… I was betrayed by the school and by the therapist…”

    Reply
  13. Sarah

    What we have been seeing from the BOH on down is an army of “useful idiots”. The BOH were brainwashed, indoctrinated and pre programmed way before even the first public discussion ever began. They were warned behind closed doors to expect the appearance of kooks, nuts, contrarians, extremists and misanthropes and told that it was their job to IGNORE THEM ALL in order “save lives”. Their minds were completely shut down before we ever got started with our campaigns to reason with them, to ask them to look at new facts and information. If we trace the web of lies up from them, it goes to state officials, then to Washington DC and then finally to a small group of enemy combatants, traitors and foreign powers who KNEW they were lying. Who KNEW people were being injured and killed by the millions. They KNEW it. That makes it a War being waged against the people of the world.

    Reply
  14. MJ Heins

    Thanks for maintaining the focus on the Public Health bureaucracy. One source of their continuing power is alleged expertise in analyzing health data. Even though simple tricks are used to manipulate data, it’s a challenge to explain these techniqes to a non-technical audience. For anyone who tried this in a three minute public comment period, note that it took Professor Norman Fenton eight minutes to describe a vaccine efficacy illusion.

    Fenton’s video shows how easy it is to manipulate statistics with entry level spreadsheet skills. No evil genius required – just evil.

    Most officials who believe the fake statistics are more likely ignorant or innumerate than evil. Although there is no math requirement for elected office, statistics is a requirement for Public Health credentials. These appointed officials knew or should have known about statistical illusions. They will eventually pay the price for giving the politicians bad advice.

    Reply
  15. Stephen Schumacher

    During fact-checking, I tweaked the cost of the TRUST initiative to “thirty million dollars, $7.5 million a year through 2027” based on its first-page Fiscal Summary shown above.

    But reading through the proposal again, I see this Fiscal Summary omitted 2028, so its true cost is “$35 Million dollars over a 5-year period awarded to a competitive bid consultant” plus an additional $500,000 per year for 3 new WSDOH Full-Time Employees to “manage the campaign” and “do work all rooted in evidence­ based health promotion, health behavior change science, and social marketing.”

    So it appears this TRUST proposal would actually cost $37.5 million over 5 years.

    Reply
  16. Stephen Schumacher

    Contrary to WSDOH’s hope to “Restore TRUST to Public Health” by ramping up propaganda and censorship, check out yesterday’s Newsweek article titled “It’s time for Laws Limiting Health Institutions” from Stanford Medical School Professor of Health Policy Jay Bhattacharya, where this actual expert states:

    “I have learned not to trust public health authorities with expansive power anymore. And I am of course not alone. Public trust in public health has cratered due to over-zealous enforcement of its guidance far past diminishing returns. It can only recover once public health authorities face the same checks and balances as other parts of government. … If public health rejects authoritarian power, and restores its commitment to basic ethical principles, it may regain the public’s trust so that it can creatively address the challenges to health that the American people now face.”

    Reply
  17. Stephen Schumacher

    “The public health establishment botched the COVID response and any distrust of them by the public is self-generated.” – DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin

    Reply
    • Harvey Windle

      International covid summit review posted by Dr. John Campbell.

      Seems a good idea to watch Europe and Canada, many aspects of what is going on there are coming to a town, County or State near you. Dr. Campbell has posted many “talks” regarding Covid and related subjects. Worth watching. He and others walk on eggshells not to be de platformed for “misinformation”.

      Regarding “misinformation”, remember as kids we said “I am rubber, you are glue. Rolls off me and sticks to you”. Seems time is revealing changes as to who is rubber and who is glue. Rubber documents, glue repeats sound bites, usually for pay.

      Thanks to Stephen for his early and continued vigilance.

      Reply
  18. JODI M WILKE

    Also comes to mind:
    Asbestos, cigarettes, Roundup, food pyramid, flu shots (and others), trans fats, trans people, cocaine cola,
    On the other side, garlic capsules and the whole realm of natural remedies outlawed by the agencies. Jail time!
    I could go on but coffee is calling. Blessings to all.

    Reply
  19. John Snyder

    The sad reality is that anything that doesn’t follow the party line is deamed missinformation. They have even went as far as attempting to defame the Cochrane study proving that the masks they are forcing everyone to wear don’t work. To be clear. I’m not talking about the N95 mask. I’m talking about the masks that grocery stores and medical facilities forced upon us supposidly for our own good. Unfortunatly, it’s not about the science any more but instead the politics behind the science. The fact is that we were lied to about masking and vaccines and someone needs to be held accountable. I pray it will all come out in the end and all those who betrayed the American people will get what they have coming in the end.

    Reply

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