Discussion i some big news to make very controversial issue. I would do want to
announce that our colleagues or do of this bill that will make pickle ball the
washing state sport. I actually think this is a good idea for
a number of reasons. One, this is such a product of washington's genius,
my predecessor joe prichard,
in congress and Bill bill barney mccall and nine hundred sixty five right. Got
together and invented a whole new sport. This is now that I'm told most rapidly,
who in sport in the world today. It was very right here in Washington. We're proud
of the going seven or seven software and billable. And it's
a great sport. It helps people keep healthy. It's available to so many different
people and it keeps old basketball, people playing, pick a ball,
and I want to thank everybody involved and growing the sport leaders like claire
roberts,
bainbridge island and others who are getting more courts for folks. So I hope the
legislature can make this a, our official sport turning to
a more pressing challenge,
which is coded just to come at where we are coded. We know you are now still
a very rapidly rising infection rate and rising hospitalization rates which is
extremely concerning. We know that there is some good news around the world that
some places look like that they have hit
a peak even in the United States. But we do believe we are in for several weeks,
a very hard slogging in Washington stay where all of us have to pitch in together.
Because we don't know where that peak will be. It's likely to be later in many
places because this hit us later than many places in the United States in the
hospitalization rates will continue to go up even after the infection rate peaks,
because hospitalizations follow the peak of the infection rate. So we have some
work to do in the next several weeks,
and we have some things we're gonna talk about today to help us through that
difficult period. First, we want to talk about how to help our hospitals,
hospitals,
and doctors have told us that their systems really are now in crisis because of
this on a crowd,
a search. And so we are responding to those concerns today and ways that we can
help. We currently have over two thousand covered hospitalizations across the state,
a covey. Patients today make up about eighteen percent of all the people in our
hospitals and twenty two percent of our i. C use. And unfortunately those numbers
are going to continue to climb. That we know roughly about eighty percent of those
people unfortunately are not vaccinated. So there are many things we need to do to
try to help our hospitals through this crisis. I first we want to help them with
staff in shortages. And this is really out, most of the problem is not
a physical logistics problem. It's
a staffing shortage problem both because of the increasing cases. And because
people who work in these hospitals are themselves becoming ill. So we know that the
staff shortages have pushed hospitals beyond their capacity. So hospitals have told
us that they believe having some national guard personnel can help them. So I am
order in a hundred members,
the Washington national guard. This is non clinical personnel to across the state
to help hospitals to assist in non medical tasks, to alleviate issues,
particularly in their emergency departments. And also to ad testing capacity at
these hospitals to get the testing to alleviate the challenge in the emergency
departments. By the way, I know that this is non medical personnel and we'd,
we'd love it if we thought the guard had, you know,
tons of medical personnel. We do have some people who serve in or guard that,
that are medically trained nurses and physicians. But it's not
a solution to take those nurses and physicians out of their civilian employment
with their today working in hospitals. Put them in
a guard uniform and then putting back just where they were working. That doesn't
increase capacity. But we know the emergency rooms are full,
more people are showing up all the time. We want to help hospitals handle the
volume of patients. And we think that the guard can help in
a variety of tass. We're gonna, we're going to up
a call up to these individuals for months. We really appreciate them coming out of
their civilian life to do this. They've been working really,
really hard last two years. And we appreciate their efforts. I will send that
personnel
a to providence regional Medical Center in everett the aqua valley memorial
Hospital yakima to confluence central washing hospice when actually in providence
secret heart in spokane. Now we'd also like to help by doing some of the testing
now do been doing hospitals doing out outside the hospitals. So we're in
a deploy guard personnel to,
to run those testing operations. We've heard the many from the hospitals in many
people was covered. symptoms are seeking test in the emergency departments. We want
to alleviate that pressure on the emergency departments. So those testing teams
will be placed at providence st. Peter hospital in olympia,
cadillac regional Medical Center, richmond, u. W. medicine harbor view,
and in Seattle and multi care tacoma. General hospital it'll take
a week or so to set up those testing centers and what we're doing as fast as we can
to get them set up. We're also of course please It. We're going to have fema mask
testing sites been set up and king in snohomish county. Now we're looking for other
ways to help as well. One of our,
our problems in our hospital capacity is we today have quite
a number of patients who are ready to discharge two other types of lower
intensive care. But we don't have
a place for them to go. So we want to increase the capacity of the state to give
people additional places to go after their discharges,
to still receive the care that they need. Those are our long term care providers
that they themselves faced dire shortages and staffing. Which means they have less
capacity to admit individuals for from the hospitals. So they,
they're stuck in the hospital. And so we want to try to increase that capacity in
our long term care facility. So we can get more people out of our hospitals
appropriately. Obviously as contributing to the string. So we're going to expand,
contracted staffing,
and dedicate more staff to provide care in our nursing homes to increase their
capacity to help patients who no longer need intensive care in the hospital. We had
already done this with sixty contracted staff in the months before we're going to
increase that by another two hundred in they'll serve probably about two hundred
forty more residents so we can get out of our hospitals will be able to serve at
least another seventy five people also who need guardianships or we hope to
increase our social service staff and our agency to help with the assessments that
are necessary to help accelerate people being allowed to go to
a really more appropriate setting not central hospital. So we're gonna require
additional assessment staff to work with patients on transitioning in selecting
providers in expediting their eligibility work to get assistance are also in
a contract with the area agency on agency at high volume hospitals to help patients
who are not relying on Medicaid for their transition we also are creating
a program to engage more guardians. Some of these folks who are not competent to
make decisions on their own under current law require
a guardianship. So we want to provide more resources to get more guardian so we can
accelerate that process. This will help people without the capacity to make
decisions and hopefully expedite people's transition out of hospitals into more
suitable care. Now we wish that was an overnight process,
but we want accelerated as fast as we can by having more guardians to work on this
. So we're also going to provide the incentives for strike
teams for long term care, so that they can themselves, you know,
accelerator staffing levels and their own employment. Now also
a way to alleviate some stress on hospitals is to reduce the,
the demands for some of the work they do in the procedures they do in this one of
the ways to increase capacity to deal with this on
a surge obviously. So we're going to be requiring hospitals to temporarily
halt
a non urgent procedures. So as much capacity and staff can be dedicated to emergent
needs, the people who need this right now, not just for all of our patients,
but for heart attack victims for car crash victims for gunshot victims,
they all need help right now. And so this is a difficult but it is
a necessary decision to make sure people get access that is life saving right now.
So many hospitals are already doing this to help utilize staff and others of the
hospital university washington hospital system has already taken this action
voluntarily. And they have successfully re deployed staff to other areas of the
hospital,
make sure they take care of these life saving issues. So when we're looking across
washington, we really need to make sure that all hospitals are sharing this,
this effort so that we can transfer people amongst hospitals depending on what
their demands are in their staffing level are out. So basically,
we gotta make sure ospital help each other to make sure that no one hospital goes
to too deep into this capacity crisis. I know this, the,
this is going to delay some care that we,
we may want. And none of us should be happy about this. So I think we're properly
disheartened to find ourselves in situation. And so many people are not vaccinated
. And like I said about eighty percent of our people are being treated for co right
now or not vaccinated. So we should not be help happy that the fact that so many
people in vaccinated have put us behind people on this. But that is the situation.
We should also not be happy about people spreading misinformation about this,
this deadly disease in the vaccine. I was frank,
I think everybody should be enraged about this internet hoax that republican
politicians yesterday scared the living daylights out of thirty thousand people
telling them they were going to be put in concentration camps if they weren't
vaccinated. It was
a bunch of baloney and it scared people to death. And that's got to stop. And I'm
calling all republican legislators to stand up and speak against this denounced
those who are responsible for this internet hoax. This is dangerous for people to
scare them like this. And it certainly makes it more difficult for our medical
personnel to really help people save their lives. So just
a little bit more about the decision. Look the determination of what is urgent
procedure is going to be left to the physicians in this regard. So if
a physician identifies harm or a worsening condition or deteriorating health of
a patient,
that procedure can still be done under the physician's discretion. When leave it in
the capable hands of physicians to determine the appropriate needs under this
direction. That last the four weeks. We think that's a reasonable time,
hopefully to get through the peak of this. And we know people are working real hard,
want to thank everybody in the hospitals, everybody in the hospitals,
for their incredibly hard work in this regard. We want to help them through these
artworks on top of this. We're also going to,
I want to highlight the availability of the third party contract. We are state is
establish
a contract under which hospitals can order up staffing. And today they're
already more than eight hundred seventy five personnel that we have helped the
hospitals to deploy that are on the job today. And we intend for another two
hundred that are traveling, you know,
to get in harness today under that what we've done for the hospitals there.
But I want to strongly encourage hospitals to maximize that. There's another
hundred twenty five personnel available to the hospitals to hire. I really urge the
hospitals to do this. Look,
they've asked for the National guard to step out of their civilian lives in the
guards. Going to do that, but we really need the hospitals to use this
a procedure to get more staff,
even if they have to pay for it. We need to staff and I really encourage him to,
to utilize that. So if we talk about mass for a workers to work and so ard,
we also need help hospital staff day state say. So I am requiring hospitals to
operate in what we call conventional p P status. And that means that
a steady supply is available within hospitals,
so that coming back to work or confident they can be protected. supply chain issues
are not a challenge. They once were,
are state does have access to appropriate p P. If hospitals are not available to
access themselves, but we need them to protect, are working hard,
working personnel, or hospitals. I'd also like to issue
a call for retired health Care workers the next few weeks look,
even if you can help temporarily in
a hospital. If you can help with testing or vaccinations or staffing
a hospital or a long term care facility in your neighborhood here,
hope you could consider helping. And you can go to la serve dot org. That's
w A serve dot org to sign up to help this crisis is I hope temporary,
and we can use all the help we get to give
a little relief to our hard working personnel and,
and it helps save lives to. So thanks million for thinking about this Now this is
a long term as well as a short term problem. We've had
a nursing shortage in other personnel shortage for some period of time. So we need
to invest more to increase the pipeline healthcare workers in our state. So my
submittal budget would invest about thirty million dollars to remove delays caused
by lack of training opportunities for nurses and others. This will allow nurses,
nursing assistance and medical assistance to achieve their professional
requirements faster. We want to open up, we need more folks. Even after the I'm
a kron hopefully passes by or at least reduced dramatically. We're still going to
need more personnel. So I wanna just mentioned sir,
as some of the work we've done in the past two, since our announcement just was
a week and a half ago,
an increase in masking and testing access last week. Our department of Health is
already sent out more than two point four million mass through the local emergency
management to schools and the public. And as I mentioned before,
we really encourage people to up their game. I'm asking to get higher levels of
efficiency in our maskeen,
above and beyond just to cotton mass. This is an extremely contagious disease. And
we hope that you will think about that for your own personal protection and those
law around you. We've also distributed since January first two thousand and ten
wrap it,
or I don't test for our partners to distribute to their local communities. A
millions is more tests are on the way as you know. Early next week,
the Department health will release details on how individuals can access our portal
for rapid in home delivery through Amazon. We hope that that's open next Friday,
no guarantees,
but that's what we're shooting for that. And those tests will be the access to
those tests will be in addition to the fema testing sites in king county. So much
kerry as well as the testing expansion that we're providing through the National
guard A quick update on or state employee. That's an issue requirement
as of today or current state workforce is more than ninety nine percent in
compliance,
meaning they have the vaccine or accommodation. This is an extraordinary accomplishment
. We're very pleased about our success. And we want to thank our dedicated public
service for stepping up to play in this regard. By the way,
just comment on the supreme court decision regarding the federal
a proposed mandate. This will not out. We don't believe will affect our operations
in the state of Washington. There's nothing that we can,
at least at the moment we see in
a decision that would somehow necessarily alter our positions god and what they are
in the state of Washington. So with that we have
a general dordy doctor shaw lacy fear back in nick's truly available for
a small advisor and amber leaders. We're also helping of policy on
a health Care hospitals behavioral Health. So feel free to ask him any questions
you like as well. So or now you may fire when ready,
really to read. I spoke it originally. He hi governor. I know you said it
would take
a week or so to set up the testing centers. But when will the guard members arrive
at the emergency departments to help with staffing and organs deploying twelve
hundred guard members to assist hostile hospitals to why only one hundred in
Washington. And then I have
a question for Dr. Shaw or lacey concerning the forty three percent increase and
break through cases that you announced this morning. Can you clarify the timeframe
in which you saw that increase and can you give
a breakdown of how many people were boosted and whether there's
a distinction depending on what type of vaccines someone has received?
General you answer the guard questions?
Sure, governor, glad. Glad to do that. You know, the,
the forest structure in different national guard states across our country is
different. And right now there are eight states,
nine when we count washington that are doing this mission. And you know,
here in Washington we have a lot of combat units. We don't have
a lot of medical units. And so we just don't have
a lot of medical capability to put out there. And as a governor mentioned,
you know, we've been heavily committed to this pandemic along with
a host of other nations to include fight and a couple of wars overseas for,
for quite some time. And most of our soldiers and airmen were so heavily committed
. They had just returned to their civilian jobs,
whereas other states did not commit their national guard early in this fight. And
so we have to try to balance our commitment to respond to the needs here within our
state, with our commitment to our civilian employers. And while i've got the mike,
i just want to take this opportunity to thank our civilian employers who have been
incredibly supportive and patient with us or these last couple of years as we've
done food banks and testing and vaccines and then o gambit of things. So so that,
that's my answer that question for you, governor. Thank you. Thank you and viking,
they had our guard. I don't know if there's
a better guard united States. They have step up to play. They've been doing food
delivery, shoveling snow, and stack, and sandbags. They have done everything,
these people been working really hard last two years. Now the other thing we have
to consider is when you, when you do activator guard, if you take a teacher out of
a classroom. Now all of a sudden, maybe this, you know, the classroom doesn't have
a teacher if you activate them in their work for an airline,
more airline flights get cancelled. So you do have to balance these things. We
think this will be helpful to Austin. We're, I'm glad we do it. There is
a questionnaire for Dr. shar lease here. They Yes, I just wanted clarification the,
when are they arriving before we move on to the question for what we're getting?
We're sure governor. Yeah, we're,
we're moving as quickly as we can. So we're hoping to have the whole team in place
no later than the twenty fourth. We've got seventeen right now on site that we
think will be able to kick out
a little bit quicker. But we need to coordinate with the hospitals first of all,
and then move out according to their schedule as well. So we're working on it,
but the twenty fourth for everybody at the latest governor. Hi. Again.
Marsha secretive health for washington. I just want to first all thank you for your
your proactive steps to help support our health Care system. I know they're very
important for what's happening in our system right now. As for this question,
a couple things. If I could add in context one is that this increase that we
described this morning was over the timeframe of twenty twenty one. So as
essentially january twenty one through either beginning part of twenty two. So that
one year timeframe. And there are
a couple of things to just point out. One is that while breakthroughs were
highlighted, what was also highlighted was that severe disease, for example,
hospitalizations was still at a, at a markedly low level. In other words,
vaccines. Even though someone may have had a break through, there was either
a mild disease or no symptoms and that is really important for people to keep in
mind. So I believe we quoted three percent on that press release. And I think it's
really critical that we continue to,
to keep that message out there. I cannot give you because our team is still working
on the remote vaccination versus recent vaccination, or someone who's gotten
a booster. So it is true that this includes people who may have been remotely
vaccinated meaning eight months ago, ten months ago,
twelve months ago. But it also includes those who have been more recently
vaccinated now,
or information thus far. preliminarily looks as if it's those who are remotely
vaccinated, more than it is the ones that have gotten a recent vaccination and or
a booster. So that's why we are been so focused on making sure people get their
booster vaccine, lacy, anything i've missed or does that cover it?
Yeah,
I can quickly add. I think rachel asked if we differentiate by type of vaccine. We
don't in the report. I also want to remind people that, you know,
even when we see break through cases,
we really want to emphasize that the vaccine is extraordinarily protected against
severe disease. Depending on your age, if you are unvaccinated,
you're eight to eleven times more likely to be hospitalized. If you're unvaccinated,
that if you're fully vaccinated in Washington State. Thanks lacy.
Next question will come from joe with the seattle times the had joe
Joe, can you unmute yourself too?
If not, you can email me your question as well,
and we can come back to you that way. We will go to laurel this next interview. In
the meantime,
go ahead. laurel i mission and executive order to figure out why we can't take jos
calls. Let's fix this week, let me call for
a bluff and somehow we got to fix this On governor i had two questions. Are
the first we've heard from some local leaders and hospital leaders that were extra
staff is really needed is long term care facilities. So can you explain your
decision to not send the National guard to those facilities and only to hospitals?
And then secondly,
on the guardianship issue. Have you talked at all with legislators about possibly
changing that law?
If you feel like you don't have the emergency authority to do so. Yeah. Well listen,
the reason we said garden hospitals is because the hospitals ask us to the guard to
come to their hospitals and help them. And that's why we're helping them out as
possible. There might be some things we do long term care facilities,
but we're handling that to this contract of hiring civilian personnel on the
government's dime to go into the long term care facilities to increase their
capacity. So as I've indicated, we are adding capacity instead of the guard,
but using civilian personnel, which frankly,
are going to be needed long term. Anyway, the guard as
a short term assistance. But the long term care system really needs
a longer term staffing increase. No matter what,
even after we get through our crime, we need to have more capacity. So it's
a more reliable, longer term solution. And they can be do relatively rapidly,
and we're doing it at significant scope. Now, as it indicated,
we already have over eight hundred people in this project. We want to continue to
to increase that your other question to remind me your question. Yeah,
we're going to,
we think we can serve about another two hundred forty residents. That's
a pretty big increase in Long term care capacity and can, can do it,
maybe even faster than the guard to get there. So we thought that was
a superior way to go. Yes, there's
a question yes. On the guardianship law and whether you're talking to legislators
about possibly changing that. And if you don't have the emergency authority to do
so. Yeah, I have not had
a chance to talk to them about this. I do think it's worthy of consideration. If
there are ways that we can reduce any of the paperwork that's necessary. If we have
good family members support around to person that are trustworthy,
and is there anything we can do to, to make this, this process faster?
Sometimes it can take sixty days. Sometimes longer. I'm hopeful that we find some
way to make this
a faster process. And it may involve more resources for superior court even so they
got access to to me will hold these hearings or maybe there's some other solution.
So I'm open to ideas about this. I want to
reiterate what you said or hand write were hired war guardians,
get this job done fast, is we humanly can't. And that's what we're doing, governor,
it's ok for me to just add that we have long term care facilities. Can
also utilize the AC. I contract that we have and as the governor mentioned,
we've already deployed over eight hundred seventy five staff,
both through the hospital system but also in some long term care facilities. And so
it's really critical that we continue to remember that today's announcement is,
is not the first set of actions. There have been actions that the state has taken
throughout this pandemic,
even recently as we continue to provide support for hospitals and our health Care
system. Thanks governor. Yeah, I maybe that was
a third. The C I contract is available for long term. We're already done this I
think is really clear. We're going to do hundreds more. So it's
a longer term play to help boost
a capacity long term situation. And I have just questioned
hospitals, hospitals use that contract to make that clear. There's
a hundred twenty five staff, they can either tomorrow under the
a contract and hospitals. And since they've asked the guard for taxpayers to pay
for that,
we're really hopeful that the hospitals can step up the plate and use that contract
to its maximum. And we probably will be asking for additional contracting authority
over time. Jose question the heat mailed
was for the governor or lisi. Can you give some detail about the existing program
that could allow for another one hundred and twenty five workers in hospitals
around the state? And if that program is available, why aren't hospitals using it?
Governor, maybe I'll jump in, I think you just said this,
let's be maybe help with some of the the math here are
a C I contract that has
a ceiling in terms of the number of people personnel that we can request and,
and provide as a, as an institution gives us
a request that we can provide to that institution,
that that ceiling is that twelve hundred and ten. It's just over twelve hundred,
eight,
over eight hundred seventy five. Have already been deployed within the health Care
system. And other two hundred are in process of being deployed. That leaves the one
hundred and whatever that is one hundred twenty five or hundred twenty nine or
hundred thirty that are additionally able to be requested. They can be requested.
So it's not that our hospitals,
health Care system have not been requested. We have been working with them,
but the governor is saying that we have additional capacity there. And that twelve
ten ceiling is what we're also asking over time. If we can increase that and we do
not have that in place yet,
but right now we still have some additional staff that can be deployed to those
hospitals through that
a C I contract. Yeah. Just make sure that ceiling the doctor referred to by federal
law. This is
a federal program. So the federal law is that has that ceiling. We're going to ask
him to raise it over time, but there's hundred twenty five available. Now,
why are hospitals? Haven't they done this already?
You need to ask them,
but one of the issues they might be thinking about is it. To get full reimbursement
through this,
that can only be for treating coven patients. So there's an administrative headache,
figuring out how you use that money. And if you, if you're treating
a non co patient,
then you have to do it on your own medical in the hospital. So that may be one of
the reasons they, they haven't been is rapidly using this, but they need to ok,
we need to get these people treated and we need more staff. And so they need to
step up the plate. Now are these people were open in the hospital need to help?
So I hope that they can take that action. Next question comes from Austin with
northwest news network, the head austin. Thank you governor,
just briefly in light of that supreme court decision today. I think in the biden
mandate, where does that leave you in terms of your thinking about
a state level mandate for private employers beyond the health Care sector to
require that their employees get back to me?
Well, I haven't read the decision full,
but our first analysis is it doesn't change our situation. Washington State,
there was
a decision about the ability of the osha agency under federal law to make
a decision. So there's nothing in that decision that would narrow the state's
capability under on State law,
but we are not at the moment intending to move in that direction on
a requirement. So it neither accelerates or retards it,
it leads is kind of where we were,
which is at the moment we're not at least an immediate future. thinking about that
immediate vaccine requirement was focusing on hospital capacity and getting people
you know,
the knowledge they need to get boosted and getting them access to mass. So that's
where we're focused on at the moment. Next question comes from jerry with the ever
harold. Go ahead,
jerry mitch and
I'm you to sorry. Ok, we will try jerry,
after santa and mcclockey,
go ahead china. Good afternoon. My question has to deal with the current health
Care workers. So a lot a lot,
but some health Care workers are leaving are planning on leaving the industry due
to burn out. So I'm curious what your long term plan is to keep workers in the
field now. And how do you think the state can encourage nurses to stay at the
bedside now? Well, the things we're doing, we're trying to increase,
we try to decrease their load by decreasing the number of procedures that have to
be done. So they can focus on the people's life saving measures. That's the order
involving non urgent procedures. We're trying to get them additional help to the
National guard and the a C I contract
a longer term. We're attempting to increase the pipeline of people to train and
thereby apply more nor to point more nurses that's critical. And I've actually put
money in the budget to do that. But we're also doing some things that are secondary,
but very important. We'll try to get people vaccinated,
so not so many people get sick and I want to reiterate this. Your booster decreases
the odds of you having
a severe and I was like maybe eight or nine or ten times. And so trying to get
people boosted in backs and that maybe that's the best thing I can do for nurses
right now too. So that they don't have to work twenty three hours
a day. And I think all of us, I hope, will continue to work on this, you know,
and frankly, again, that's one of my feelings of frankly, anger,
people who are lying about this vaccine and light about our efforts to do something
about it. You had these guys the other day running for congress,
who are republicans,
who use this to try to scare thirty thousand people in the think they're going into
some concentration camp in to diminish your ability to fight this this disease.
robbie is not going to do that,
that was never under consideration by anybody. And yet they're using this for
political purposes. So I'm helping nurses by trying to share
a little truth. She ended up against these big lies in these internet hoaxes,
that republican politicians are engaging it as helping nurses to by preventing
people from getting sick in
a serious way. So we're doing all we can do. I just want to reiterate how hard they
have been working. Listen they, there's the stresses that nurses are under,
you know,
when you listen to nurses when they talk to people who beg them for the vaccine.
When they go in,
they do talk to the their patients and we're going to have to innovate you,
which is really very difficult process. We don't know if we're going to wake up or
not. And then the patient starts begging for the vaccine and they have to explain
to the person it's too late. They actually can help, you know, that's
a really hard thing for nurses and doctors to do. It's emotionally devastating,
not just for the patient of the nurse. So we were trying to reduce the number time
that conversation has to take place. Now we're also increasing access to masking
a my order today will go to the usual masking requirement. So up till now they've,
they've been able to so the hospitals been able to use less effective masking. Well,
they're no longer going to be able to do that. We're going to have to have totally
effective masking available for nurses. Now there is
a bill also looking at some staffing requirements to impose additional staffing
requirements on hospitals. So the people are not over, burt. I haven't
a chance looking at detail, but it's certainly worth
a consideration to help hardwood and folks governor if I could just
add to what you just said,
which is also we're asking our health Care system partners also to help support
their teams. Now they, as,
as you mention and everybody should know we're coming to just upon to years of this,
of the first confirmation of the case in Washington. And,
and so it's been two years that that health Care system, that health Care provider,
doctor, a nurse, a respiratory therapist, you know,
anyone else in that health Care system. They've had to go through absent flows.
This is our sixth wave. We're going through this just on and on and on. And it
feels that there is an incredible emotional toll that's been taken on our health
Care providers. And so while we're doing everything we can as the state,
I continue as the health Care provider myself to just remind everybody of what is
ahead here. But we also want to ask,
and I know they have already been doing this. So this is not a new ask,
but also making sure that our health Care system partners are also doing what they
can to support their team members who are going through some very difficult times.
And then finally, governor, as you mentioned,
the messaging to our community members do not go to the hospital or emergency
department unless you have an urgent and emergency issue. Do not go there to,
you know, to, to confirm a test that you received a positive result on, for coven,
one nineteen, you know, do not go there. If you have mild symptoms,
there. messages that we really need to share with our community members because
that hospital and health Care system is truly stretched right now. When do
everything we can to do our part. And of course get,
get back and get boosted and certainly where you're masked and be really
appropriate to the risk you're taking in your everyday activities.
Will go to jerry with the ever at her elbow more time. Go ahead,
jerry. Thank you. I hope I'm on muted this time. Appreciate take question governor
first. I think they're both pretty quick ones. The can you just clarify?
Last week you had mentioned the National guard. You had them ready,
but hospitals needed to ask, so I just want to clear to did these
a hospitals where you're deploying, did they make formal requests in the past week?
And then my second question is california has adopted
a temporary rule where nurses and health Care workers who test positive but are
a symptomatic,
are asked to come back to work and keep working with cova patients. Are you
considering or did you consider such a policy for washington in the short term?
Well, I have not, and that's not to say we won't at some point, but at the moment,
at the moment we have not on your first question. Listen,
we've been talking to the hospitals for some period of time,
but out of help. And there's been communications to figure out which hospitals it
makes the most sense. And in one way or another they requested,
we responded. And we got a good plan by the way,
I should know this is pretty unusual situation. Our hospitals been gone and rocker
garden got into hospital before. So we're,
we're below innovative here. But I am hopeful that that it is going to work. By the
way, jerry, also, you didn't ask this question. My name's what you ask,
what somebody, I said state and state. I said,
I said that the legislature has been
a good partner in this response to coven. And I noted that the legislature had
had voted to confirm on the go twenty six of my emergency orders. And you see you
wrote something to contest that the legislature has done that by majority vote. You
noted appropriately did not everybody voted for it, but the legislature as
a group afforded to confirm at least twenty six times my emergency orders. And I
continued to confer with the legislators as recently this morning with the
leadership of both chambers. And they seem to believe the decisions we're doing
today make sense. So we're continue to work in that partnership. But I got some
republicans who are continuing to lie about this vaccine. And in our efforts i got
republicans running for legit for the congress saying we're going to put people in
concentration camps where
a bunch of market and republican leadership won't denounce those people. But
eighteen hours then said,
go about republican leadership should be denouncing those lies in those internet
hoaxes that I'm asking them to do,
that we just cannot have one party lying about this vaccine
in our ability to deal with it. At the next we're going to keep
with coma. The hacky governor to state hospital association says it does believe
you have the emergency authority to handle the guardianship questions for those who
have loved ones or family members who are in the hospital rooms with them right now
able to make other legal decisions. They believe when they sent you
a draft proclamation for you to sign immediately to allow those people to bypass
the guardians and get those people out into the long term care facilities. Are you
going to sign that and consider it immediately? And if not, why not?
Well, I'll tell you what,
I'm not going to tell them how to heart surgery and they shouldn't tell me what I
have authority to do. I,
we've talked to our attorney general about this in some depth. I want to help. I
think I've made very clear that I want to help the hospitals accelerate there,
so that rational decisions can be made in
a lawful way. And we're doing that by increasing the number of gardens. This is
something that needs to be improved and I'm dedicated myself to do that in
a lawful way. So when they serve on the supreme court,
when they have nine doctors who works with hospitals on spring court and then make
a different decision. But that's where we are right now. Listen to what they've
actually asked me to do is ignore the law. They've actually asked me to basically
say,
just don't enforce it. I can't do that. I don't have authority just say don't enforce
the law. Now there are occasions where I can waive laws,
but because of the intersection between federal law and state law here you have to
comply with federal law to admit somebody into
a long term care facility. I cannot waive federal law. And so
maybe there is a way to say i'd be able to say people can walk out of the hospital,
but that does not solve the problem because we have to get them in the long term
care facilities as well. An under combination of state federal law that requires
its moments guardianship proceedings. So I'm interested in talking legislature. See
if there is
a faster way to do business. I'll bring find something. Next question comes from
nicole with kyra radio. Go ahead and call. Good
afternoon governor. We know that some hospitals are telling staffers who have coded
to go back to work even when they're showing symptoms. How will the St ensure that
infection isn't being spread to people who are in a week state,
even if they are not working with those who are technically immunocompromised
people still don't go to a hospital when they're feeling well?
So surely,
these are society's most vulnerable here. How will the stake step in to protect
them and then perhaps dr. Shaw could clarify what immunocompromised exactly means
in this context. Well,
we have existing rules. We expect people to follow them. If you're saying people
are,
follow the rules or should be following the rules. And I have not actually heard
that if you have,
I haven't heard about that you want to call the Department of Health and tell us
who those folks are in sure that we can look into that. But we do have
a suite of rules to protect patients and we expect everybody to follow them. Ok,
those rules change if there's new science?
Yes. But at the moment we expect to really follow the rules to protect people
through an ad in our shop. thanksgiving are nicole,
can you just clarify when you said what immunocompromised means with respect to the
patients that they're taking care of?
I just wanna make sure I'm understanding your question. Right,
well what we have found out is that one hostile gene, in particular,
multi care is telling coded positive stoppers that as long as they have been fever
free for twenty four hours, they,
they may go back to work. They should go back to work that they should not be
working with them, you know, compromised patients. However,
it did say that they should work with those patients who have tested positive for
coded or who happened vaccinated. Yeah, so we can follow up with,
with that health Care entity, you know, in general when we say immunocompromised,
it's referring to individuals that either because of you know,
cancer treatment or they're on chronic steroids or their for for example,
or perhaps a patient on dialysis. That when we st. immunocompromised in general,
it refers to individuals in that kind of
a state that that may require additional steps to protect them. individuals that
may be immunocompromised, also include those living with h I,
V aids. So this is how it's classified and the reason why I wanted to clarify with
that is that the C D. C had also put
a list of what immunocompromised mat as they were going through the various
guidelines for vaccinations and other efforts out there. During this pandemic,
so we can follow up with this institution and try to figure out what exactly
they're telling the individuals. Again as the governor is that we want to make sure
that our health Care workers are protected themselves. And we also want to make
sure that they are protecting their patients and how do you do that?
Well, one is the masking,
but the other is to get boosted. I'm very concerned that we have health Care
workers who were vaccinated well,
early in the process of the vaccines being rolled out,
but they have not gotten their boosters yet. There for whatever reason, waiting,
and my plea to health Care workers is do not wait, get your vaccine booster to day,
because you are both risk in yourself and to your question,
you're risking potentially the patient that you are caring for. So, you know,
if anyone in our community in our state, in our country needs to get a booster,
it is absolutely our health Care workers. They are the ones that we need to get
them to have
a recent vaccination. A booster is something that protects them because
a remote vaccination for months and months and months and months ago when, when
a health Care worker is eligible for a booster,
they need to get it today. Next question comes from
joey with puget, sam business journal, go ahead. joey governor,
going back to the supreme court decision today, and I know it's not even been
a full day,
but is there anything that gives you reticence about following up with the state
mandate? Expanding?
What you've already done, given you know,
your emphasis on making sure folks are getting vaccinated and as well as the
efficacy of your previous mandates. You know,
is there anything that's giving you pause about going forward with the plan you had
previously wanted to follow?
Well,
there's nothing in this supreme court decision that we're giving me any additional
reticence. There's nothing in there to suggest the state has
a diminished capability of protecting people in that decision. It's not based on
a constitutional premise. It doesn't say anything about the lack of states
abilities to move forward. It's simply, as I understand at the moment, was
a decision about whether the federal agency as you have the ability to do
a regulation. So there's nothing decision that has changed my thinking on this,
but there are some things obviously, you know,
that are reasons we have not to date, issued
a state requirement. One of which is that people are in
a very stress right now trying to operate their businesses and it's something that
we keep in mind. They're dealing with a lot of illness. It's kind of a chicken or
a issue. We'd like to reduce the amount of illness by getting people boosted,
but I hand employers have to deal with extreme, you know,
human Resources challenges right now and adding to this with this rule. What I'm
aware of that. I'm not unaware of that concern. So weird. We don't have any
imminent decisions to issue something like this,
but I would not eliminate it for all time from our consideration. And I listen,
I want to reread this thing about get boosters. It's just nuts to if you got the
first two,
there's no reason not to get the booster and it's really important. I am concerned
people think, well, I heard that things might have plateaued in New York,
so I just wait to sing out for another couple weeks. So be ok,
no that doesn't work. I'm kind of going to be around for quite
a period of time. After the peak goes down, you're still going to be on
a risk in the boosters so much more effective will first to shot so much more
effectively. I don't maybe two,
three times more effective in keeping you out of the hospital with
a serious illness. Yeah, you might get, you know,
flu like symptoms but it keeps you from getting debt so to speak,
to mangle english. And so really important,
if you get boucher good now and governor,
i want to just add to your message which is a booster. Some folks are saying,
well gosh if, if a micron is giving mild symptoms,
why do I need to get boosted with a reminder?
Is that you don't know who's going to have the mouse symptoms who's not,
but also you may be transmitting that virus to someone else in your community,
in your neighborhood, in your family or your workplace with who may actually have
a more serious outcome. And that's why we are really,
really wanting people to do everything they can to get their boosters. banks,
That we have ten for a couple more questions. Next question comes from
e N with cren. Go ahead again. governor and lee. I was just
wondering,
are there any plans to deploy the National guard to serve as bus drivers and school
districts where there's a shortage of drivers and also has a state received
a request from the spokane regional health district when it comes to maybe helping
with testing efforts ah, we are
a current plans for uses bus drivers. One of the issues is it takes, you know,
some period of time to train bus driver. So, you know, you can get an,
A member regard to train up in
a day or to do testing good. It takes weeks and weeks to train as
a bus driver. So as far as an immediate solution to that,
we don't think it probably can help very much. I don't believe we have any request
from that from Spokane outstanding. Dr. shar you heard anything in that regard.
lacey let me, let me. I jen, i think he was referred to spokane, i thought,
spokane regional as in the health department or the hospital. So just want to
clarify which,
which entity you're referring to. We're referring to the health district,
but I guess the hospital so that to Yeah, because remember as the governor said,
we are deploying some of the National guard to spokane
hospital side of the house. But I'm not aware of any additional request that we've
had from our local health Department in spokane,
and I will say that we continue to work with all local health departments across
the entirety of the state to be able to know what their needs are. And also we're
also encouraging them to work with their hospitals and their health Care system. So
at the local level,
the local health departments are also working with the local hospital system so
they can continue to,
to really do some important and at times innovative actions that they can take
together. So they can, you know,
help with the crunch that they're seeing in their communities. lacey,
is there anything that you know, with spokane,
No other than we're in continuous conversation with their health district,
their health Care coalitions. And if they need resources,
whether it's test sites mobile teams, staffing,
we can absolutely work to fulfill them. Last question comes from
leo with peddler colette, go ahead, leon. Thank you. Hi,
governor. I was just wondering when it comes to hiring civilians to staff long term
care facilities. What is the state going to do to,
I guess encourage people to take those jobs because they seem scary and risky and
like you can get calvin working in
a new environment. You haven't worked before and seen a jobs pay
a little bit above minimum wage. What's going to make people want to take these
jobs at this time?
Well,
or we're going to pay them to start with out of the state treasury. And you know,
for couple hundred people. So it's
a significant investment we're making. And we're hopeful that they would enjoy
helping people. What you find is people who work in these industries typically care
about people. They take,
they take enjoyment for being compassionate. And thank goodness,
we've got people who, who really love people. And you know,
sometimes it's amazing where people do express that love for each other. You know,
like when I go into our mental hospitals, you know,
I think many of us might not think of their work in
a mental hospital. When you go in
a mental hospital and you seem to care that people have in the emotional bonding
with their patients, it's it's, it's
a beautiful thing. And so I think people can find that do find that long term care
facilities. I certainly have experience with with my family, I have
a hundred four year old mother law in the people that work for her. Just the most
carrying lovey,
connecting people are just wonderful. And I think that's all over the state.
So where to find those folks who make sure the trend
Any finance company?
Yeah, I do want to add something. Someone ask
a question about why I just don't solve this guardianship issue. I do want to make
clear that I need to follow the advice of our attorney general. We got an excellent
attorney general. He's now defended me as I've been sued forty two times
a alleging that my decisions have been unlawful about this coded. And he has
prevailed forty two times and so I appreciate his talents and the attorney general
has reviewed this issue and, and believe that I'm doing what I can do. And I'm,
I need to listen to that advice. So I respect hospitals, opinions,
but I respect the attorney general's more at the moment. I think that's appropriate
. Thank listen. This can be
a tough few weeks. First wash in state and everyone's going to have some portion of
frustration in some way. We've had cancelled airplane flights. We've had cancelled,
you know, school bus routes,
on occasion. There's been some supply chain interruption. I think all of us are
going to have some ability to exercise our powers of patients here to get through
this together. And I hope that everyone will pull together as much as they can to
help us get to the other side of it. But I do believe there's
a reason why there isn't other side. It is not that far off. So I hope we're all
putting together the next few weeks with that please be well take care.