June 5, 2020

Source: ShiftWA.org

As Shift reported previously, Governor Inslee has abandoned his meaningless and inaccurate “dials.” The perpetually confused governor’s office attempted to pass Inslee’s dials off as the “science” and “data” behind his decisions.  Yet, when it became obvious to Washington citizens that the dials were an irrelevant smokescreen to provide cover for the governor’s partisan actions, they were tossed aside by the Inslee team. It is interesting to note that the seemingly more accurate data that the governor’s office is now providing shows that Inslee and his team had not really been truthful in their statements that COVID-19 testing has gone up.  The new data shows the disturbing fact that testing has gone down – to April levels.  Previously Inslee blamed the Trump Administration for the lack of testing, yet other states in the (Democrats only) Western States Pact (and nearly all other states) have increased their testing.  The drop of testing in Washington could be costly as the governor has opened more counties to slowly re-open. (Washington Policy Center)

Almost 90 days after Governor Inslee shut down restaurants, bars, and other businesses, most will be able to conditionally re-open in Washington’s three most populous counties.  Pierce and Snohomish counties will be moving into “Phase II,” while King County creeps forward into “Phase 1.5.”  Even though health officials allowed protestors to violate guidelines for interactions this past week, businesses will be required to limit the number of customers allowed inside their stores.  We wonder if looters will have to follow these same guidelines if they break into businesses when the owners are not there to enforce distancing? It is interesting to read King County Executive Dow Constantine’s statement that, “the success of this guidance depends on business owners and community members embracing public health best practices,” while totally disregarding the fact that he supported the largest snubbing of health guidelines in the state when his office passed out a thousand taxpayer-funded facemasks (that were mostly thrown away) to the violent protestors last weekend. (Seattle Times and MyNorthwest)