As rural Washington shoulders fifth COVID-19 wave, anger over masks, vaccines marks politics of the pandemic

Demonstrators shutting down a school board meeting by refusing to wear masks. Protesters picketing the hospital campus against the vaccine mandate for health care workers. Hospital patients suspicious about the new shots — or over the very fact that they have COVID-19.

The scenes playing out in Wenatchee are familiar across Washington in recent months.

The backlash to vaccine and masking requirements hit perhaps a new high: thousands of people protesting in Olympia and Spokane. Government meetings shut down by demonstrators in Sequim, Tri-Cities, Walla Walla and elsewhere. Schools put on lockdown in Vancouver after protests there.