I voted for Governor Inslee and thought he did a decent job responding to COVID-19 last year.
But after the last few weeks I have lost all faith in his decision making: from the new reopening plan that lumps Clallam and Jefferson counties with Kitsap and especially Mason counties, to his refusal to prioritize teacher vaccinations and his apparent indifference to school reopenings, to moving the goal posts and letting the Puget Sound metro area magically move to Phase 2 while the rest of the state is stuck in Phase 1.
Letting Puget Sound move forward while Clallam and Jefferson counties cannot, despite our infection rates being far lower, was the last straw.
Basing the reopening criteria on percent change rather than actual rates was always a bad idea, and now we see the inevitable results, which our local public health officers have called “crazy” and “insane.”
At a time when we desperately need to restore basic trust in government, these arbitrary decisions — which defy explanation, data, and common sense — do the exact opposite.
They also look incredibly self-interested and politically motivated, since they conveniently benefit the state’s three largest counties plus Olympia while penalizing almost everyone else.
And just think: if Inslee gets his way and House Bill 1152 and Senate Bill 5173 pass, eliminating our trusted county health departments in favor of a new regional authority based in Kitsap County, we could be stuck with this sort of system forever.
Stephen Hawley
Port Angeles