Rabbit Hole

COVID-19 is a rabbit hole. It’s daunting, ever-changing, and more scrambled than the eggs you had for breakfast – and that’s before the conspiracies kick in. If your brain is hurting while trying to comprehend this HUGE, NATIONAL ORDEAL, pull up a chair, settle down, and let’s look on a local level instead.

For this article, I interviewed the Yakima County coroner, the Yakima County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) manager, and the Yakima Valley Farm Worker’s Clinic.

The First Interview

The first interview was with the coroner, Jim Curtice. His office has had two COVID-19 deaths fall under their jurisdiction. This may seem low, but the coroner’s jurisdiction is rather niche (i.e. passing away at home, or in the ER before being fully admitted to the hospital).

The two cases Mr. Curtice saw tested positive for COVID-19, had the appropriate prior symptoms, and had underlying health conditions. Mr. Curtice told me that coroners have generally been discouraged from fully autopsying COVID-19 cases because the virus is airborne and could put personnel at risk. While COVID-19 seems like it should be the main issue for coroners right now, Mr. Curtice is seeing a different problem that could be related to COVID-19.

There has been a possible increase in toxic overdose deaths. Last year, from mid-March to mid-May, there were 7 overdose deaths (which is typical from year to year). This year, in the same timeframe, there were 20-21 pending overdose cases. While most of these cases still have unresolved lab results, it’s a higher number than Mr. Curtice has seen before. For this reason, he was concerned that the precaution of staying home could be worse than the illness itself by causing drug relapses.

I asked Mr. Curtice if there was anything he would like to say to the public, his reply addressed the potential drug overdoses:

“If a prescription drug is not from a pharmacy, do not take it.”

The Second Interview

The second interview was with the Emergency Operations Center manager for Yakima County, Horace Ward. The EOC manages resource distribution and business reentry. Most counties have an EOC. Ours is currently facilitating the National Guard training to increase COVID-19 testing.

When we spoke, Mr. Ward said there were two National Guard testing sites for Yakima County. They were practicing 4 days per week, and the county has them from at least May 18th to June 19th. The National Guard was up to about 200 tests per day. Mr. Ward said these tests are free and meant to reduce cost to citizens. Normally, a test could cost as much as $1,500.

At the time of my interview with Mr. Ward there was some controversy about involuntary quarantine camps. When I asked Mr. Ward if there was anything he would like to say to the public, he said:

“We and the public are having a struggle for data. We know things suck, and we’re right there with everybody on that. There’s a lot of misinformation going around. We want people to have a safe place to go to for quarantine, and it’s voluntary. People have said they’re [the quarantine locations] internment camps, but it’s not happening like that in Klickitat County.** We’re trying to help people protect their families. It’s hard when you can’t see a hazard or a stress like a virus.”

**According to the Goldendale Sentinel on May 14th, the Klickitat County EOC “announced it is establishing voluntary COVID-19 sheltering housing at the county fairgrounds in Goldendale.”

The Third Interview

The third interview was with the Yakima Valley Farm Worker’s Clinic. It was twofold: I emailed some questions to Lori Kelley (the Senior Director of Quality) and had a phone call with Carlos Olivares (the CEO).

Ms. Kelley wrote that Farm Worker’s serves over 160,000 people across Washington and Oregon. Between all their sites, they’re testing 1,000 to 1,250 people per week. Farm Worker’s primarily uses LabCorp and the Washington Public Health laboratories. It takes 48-72 hours to get test results back. They only report positive, not probable, test results to the local health jurisdiction (in our case, the Yakima County Health District).

Ms. Kelley wrote that in some cases they’ll test asymptomatic people if they’re close contacts of a positive patient or are individuals exposed in congregate settings (i.e. long-term care, corrections, meat-packing plants, etc.). When I asked Ms. Kelley about any common symptoms, she wrote that over 40% of COVID-19 patients have reported a loss of taste or smell. When I asked Ms. Kelley if there was anything she would like to say to the public, she said:

“Please follow the guidelines of your local health district for COVID-19. Some counties are starting to resume activities, but we still encourage social distancing and wearing a mask when outside of the home. It is critical that we all work together to reduce the risk of COVID-19 to our communities and our vulnerable populations.”

Mr. Olivares, the CEO of Farm Worker’s, mentioned they’d conducted about 6,500 total tests (4,000 of those in Yakima County). Farm Worker’s has tested more people than all the other systems in Yakima combined and was one of the first on the frontline. Mr. Olivares said they received $2.1 million from the federal government as part of the stimulus package. $1.1 million of that was divvied to Washington sites. These funds must be used specifically for COVID-19 testing.

Mr. Olivares believes the federal funding is sufficient, provided our numbers don’t rise abruptly or get drastically worse. No funding has come from the State, although the Department of Health has helped with securing some testing kits and personal protective equipment (PPE). However, Mr. Olivares said they’ve been paying “through the nose” for PPE.

Farm Worker’s has also been expanding their efforts into the community. For example: Allan Bros. has called Farm Worker’s and asked if tests could be supplied for Allan Bros. employees. Farm Worker’s agreed and was able to supply 50 tests. When I called Mr. Olivares, he stated that 9 employers had already requested similar testing just that morning. For larger requests, Farm Worker’s usually outsources to the Health Department. Mr. Olivares expects this service to increase.

Mr. Olivares expressed concern that while people are quick to bail-out corporations, we need to also be thinking about the effects on our public servants, like teachers and first responders. His message to the public was:

“… I understand the need to get the economy going. I’m as anxious as anybody, but there are precautionary needs [measures] we need to take. We’re not seeing a decrease in the number of positive cases. Every day, we’re getting 26% positives in the community. We don’t know what information they’re [the public] receiving that makes them feel this isn’t problematic. It’s a true pandemic, and if we don’t treat it that way, we run the risk of not being able to open the economy at all. … We’re not there yet in Yakima. What [the data] I’m looking at is telling me we better be careful.”