Are your hopes dashed by Gov. Inslee’s COVID-19 shutdown extension? They shouldn’t be
Hope is a central element of the holiday season, reflected in the flames of a menorah and the radiance of the Bethlehem star. We all cling to hope in these dark days before the winter solstice, made darker under the shroud of an eight-month pandemic.
False hope, on the other hand, is no good for anybody - certainly not when it keeps some folks from accepting hard realities and adjusting their holiday plans and traditions accordingly.
That’s why we’re glad Gov. Jay Inslee didn’t wait any longer to announce his decision Tuesday to extend his latest COVID-19 shutdown. Washingtonians don’t want to be left hanging like Christmas stockings on the fireplace.
Instead of Dec. 14, Inslee has now set a goal of lifting restrictions by Jan. 4.
He struck a reasonable balance between giving residents and businesses time to prepare while holding out for reliable infection, hospitalization and death rate data on which to base his decision — no easy feat this time of year.
“The challenge for us is that we haven’t been able to get far enough post-Thanksgiving to see if we’ve had any measure of success in taming this beast,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Against a background of grim coronavirus news nationally, it was hardly surprising that Inslee extended the restrictions from four weeks to seven.
It was consistent with what his West Coast peers are doing; Californians this week are coping with a new series of lockdowns, the strictest in the country. At least Washington restaurants and bars can continue serving customers outdoors. Inslee kept his same set of restrictions rather than add to them.
The extension was also consistent with Inslee’s cautious precedent. Last spring, he lengthened his original “stay home, stay safe” edict not once but twice, first into April and finally through the end of May. But that second extension came with plenty of advance notice — a full month — and a phased reopening plan.
To be clear, the governor wasn’t wrong to reimpose restrictions on restaurants and bars, gyms, theaters, retail stores and other indoor gathering places effective Nov. 16. Excruciating as they are to Washington’s economy, personal liberties and way of life, his orders are guided by credible public-health science and understanding of how the virus spreads.
In mid-November, the number of coronavirus cases in Washington set records by zooming past 2,000 on consecutive days. Since then, case counts that size have become the norm, while hospitalizations and deaths conjure harsh memories of last spring; in Pierce County, MultiCare and Franciscan health systems have reported COVID-19 hospitalization surges of 136 percent and 175 percent, respectively, since Nov. 1.
It was March 30 when the total number of Americans dying from COVID-19 surpassed the number killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Last week, that death threshold was crossed for the first time in a single day.
Washingtonians are understandably disappointed that their Christmas and New Year’s plans are now officially grounded. Some families delayed a final verdict on holiday get-togethers. Travel plans were put on hold. Nursing home residents hung on to the faint hope of a Christmas visit from their grandkids. Churches won’t be able to light candles and sing “Silent Night” together in large groups like usual on Christmas Eve.
Perhaps people were willfully blind not to see the writing on the wall. For weeks it’s been clear that the prudent thing to do is to avoid large gatherings and mixed households, at least for the rest of this year. It was safe to assume that Inslee would stand pat until the holidays end. But hope is a funny thing.
Now it’s time to turn our hopes to 2021: the distribution of an effective, safe vaccine and the defeat of this pandemic.
Shared sacrifice is what will carry us through these trying times. What a great opportunity to take a break from the hectic pace and commercialism of Christmas. Let it be much like the first one: humble and simple with hope for the future.
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 1:40 PM.