It is appalling that our Democratic governor issues rules that deprive individual employees and business owners of their livelihood without consulting the Legislature, and that our Democrat-controlled Legislature supinely accepts that.
Despite brave talk from some individual legislators last fall how they were going to limit the governor’s dictatorial emergency powers once the legislature was back in session, when that moment came they did exactly nothing.
I favor looking at facts and statistics.
Differing COVID-19 policies among different states provide an interesting comparative scientific study of what works, and what maybe does not work as advertised.
Policies that do not work should be reexamined in light of evidence and revised if appropriate.
Anything else would be denying science.
Daily COVID-19 new cases in Florida declined by 93 percent from their summer 2021 high of 27,761 on Aug. 27 to 2,006 on Oct. 22.
By comparison, in Washington state daily COVID-19 new cases only declined by 48 percent from 4,697 on Aug. 27 to 2,424 on Oct. 22.
Washington currently has 31.8 daily new cases per 100,000 population, but Florida has only 9.3, or less than a third.
Florida, often held up as a poster child for irresponsible behavior in confronting the pandemic, is doing three times as well as Washington?
Despite Washington’s mask mandates and prohibitions on unvaccinated individuals entering certain businesses?
What is going on?
Those who subject us to onerous rules without involving our elected representatives, from the governor to the county public health officer, owe us an explanation of the scientific and statistical underpinning for their rules in light of the most recent real world data.
Kaj Ahlburg
Port Angeles