Doug M.
Member
I live one county north of Yakima WA. Our county has been very low in comparison to others (although not near as low as the tiny counties in the SE part of the state). This is almost certainly due to the efforts of our Public Health folks to learn as much as they can in a fluid environment where the knowledge is to some extent a moving target, and to educate the community. Folks here have taken significant steps to make sure that they are not part of the problem. Our demographics help, too - we don't have a lot of high risk working environments such as fruit and meat packing. We did have a big outbreak in a canning plant - for that reason, combined with another big factor: most of the folks working there are lower socio-economic status and living close to others of similar occupational and social background.
Yakima is a dumpster fire, or worse. Their case volume has been high; is staying high, and increasing. They have no room in their hospitals for anyone. Period. Patients are being shipped out out to anyplace they can find room.
Then we have some of the incorrect legal claims being made. I've answered this before in greater detail. I do this stuff for a living. I'm a government lawyer. Although I do not represent Public Health, I work with them and my colleague who does their work on a regular basis, usually on issues that overlap with one client agency's interactions with PH. I have been involved in or made aware of the legal issues since early March. Not to near the extent she has - but much more than most other people.
There is US Supreme Court case law well over a century old that addresses and closes off the claims that the emergency powers with regard to contagion do not exist or are unconstitutional. It is simply not a sound assertion, and as far as I know, every case in this state (both state and federal courts) has rejected the attacks. Nationally, as far as I know, the only cases that have found violations and been upheld on appeal relate to process failures - narrow points of State administrative law and practice that were not properly followed. That's likely bad or non-existent legal advice combined with sloth; I see that a lot. As I recall, the Wisconsin case discussed here before (where I think I provided a more detailed analysis) is of that nature. The is generally so clear that I would seek terms/sanctions for frivolous pleadings if we ended up in litigation over this issue (and if we have it, there is a good chance I'll be working with my colleague).
Yakima is a dumpster fire, or worse. Their case volume has been high; is staying high, and increasing. They have no room in their hospitals for anyone. Period. Patients are being shipped out out to anyplace they can find room.
Then we have some of the incorrect legal claims being made. I've answered this before in greater detail. I do this stuff for a living. I'm a government lawyer. Although I do not represent Public Health, I work with them and my colleague who does their work on a regular basis, usually on issues that overlap with one client agency's interactions with PH. I have been involved in or made aware of the legal issues since early March. Not to near the extent she has - but much more than most other people.
There is US Supreme Court case law well over a century old that addresses and closes off the claims that the emergency powers with regard to contagion do not exist or are unconstitutional. It is simply not a sound assertion, and as far as I know, every case in this state (both state and federal courts) has rejected the attacks. Nationally, as far as I know, the only cases that have found violations and been upheld on appeal relate to process failures - narrow points of State administrative law and practice that were not properly followed. That's likely bad or non-existent legal advice combined with sloth; I see that a lot. As I recall, the Wisconsin case discussed here before (where I think I provided a more detailed analysis) is of that nature. The is generally so clear that I would seek terms/sanctions for frivolous pleadings if we ended up in litigation over this issue (and if we have it, there is a good chance I'll be working with my colleague).
