In the Media

You can get from Seattle to Bellingham, Wash., by driving 90 miles straight up the interstate, but you shouldn’t. The best route to this small city tucked where the mighty Cascade mountain range meets the sea can be more scenic and pleasurable. Veer off Interstate 5 about 15 miles south of Bellingham to make the final approach via Chuckanut Drive, one of the state’s more than 20 official Scenic Byways.

Another terrific place to meander is Western Washington University. The hilltop campus, with expansive views of Bellingham Bay, was founded in 1893 and is now home to 15,000 students. It also hosts 70 species of trees and a world-class outdoor sculpture collection. You can’t miss the bright red, 27-foot-tall steel creation, by Mark di Suvero, or giant tipped cube by Isamu Noguchi, but there are many other works by artists, including Richard Serra and Beverly Pepper. Washington State takes its trees seriously and the university offers online tree tours so you can learn about the campus flora, including the umbrella tree with its 20-inch leaves. One of the largest Giant Sequoias in the state stands there at 120 feet.

All of us who had a little trouble sleeping in the hot, still air during this recent heat wave can collectively thank the Pacific Ocean for the blast of natural air conditioning that came overnight.

Thank you, Pacific Ocean!

That cool marine air means Tuesday’s high temperature will be around 23 degrees lower than Monday’s. Monday’s high temperature at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was 91 degrees, according to the National Weather Service of Seattle. Tuesday’s high will be around 68 degrees, said meteorologist Dustin Guy.

A Whatcom County health official downplayed recent reports of yet another COVID-19 subvariant but advised county residents not to let their guard down.

New medical research says the latest versions of the omicron variant, called BA.4 and BA.5, should become the dominant COVID-19 strains in the U.S. and Europe this summer, according to a CNN report. The two subvariants are on the rise because they can evade the immunities people develop through either vaccination or prior exposure to the virus.

Omicron hit Whatcom County hard but has since subsided. More than half of Whatcom County's COVID-19 cases were recorded after omicron started peaking in late December 2021. And while people who fell ill with COVID-19 this winter or spring might feel confident they won't get sick again, the latest studies indicate that people who have already been infected with omicron remain at risk from the latest subvariants.

Dr. Greg Thompson, co-health officer for the Whatcom County Health Department, said recent COVID-19 trends suggest the public shouldn’t worry too much about BA.4 and BA.5.

“We are always concerned about new variants, but the data we have so far suggests we don’t need to be overly alarmed about BA.4/5 at this time,” Thompson said in an email.

COVID-19 infection rates continued to drop in Whatcom County last week, as the state reported 435 new cases within the county.

Whatcom County has now had a total of 42,603 COVID cases during the pandemic, according to the latest report Friday, June 24, by the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard, including 37,275 confirmed cases and 5,328 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test.

The county’s 435 cases were down from the 480 reported by state a week earlier.

Whatcom’s weekly COVID-19 infection rate dropped, though it still remained elevated at 207 new cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from June 9 to 15. That was down from the county’s rate of 267 one week earlier (June 2-8). St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 12 COVID-related patients on Monday, June 27. Over the past week, the hospital’s daily snapshot has averaged 9.9 COVID-related patients per day, which is down from 18.3 one week earlier (June 14-20) and represents 3.9% of the hospital’s 252 inpatient beds.

Whatcom County’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic earned good marks for swift action to save lives, according to a preliminary version of a report commissioned to examine how local officials performed in a major crisis, the first global health threat in a century.

But Whatcom Unified Command, the multi-governmental agency that handled the emergency response, was criticized for logistical inefficiencies and a lack of transparency and responsiveness to the public. Part of that friction was linked to a lack of training in emergency management among some county employees, differences in organizational structure and an internal power struggle between the Health Department and Whatcom Unified Command early in the pandemic, according to the 56-page report prepared by Berk Consulting in collaboration with Eric Holdeman and Associates.

The County Council budgeted $100,000 for the report in September 2021. Nevertheless, the report cites successes such as a COVID-19 mortality rate that was among the lowest in Washington state; a collaborative effort on U.S.-Canada trade; addressing homelessness; helping local businesses affected by closures and stay-home orders; and a program to collect and distribute donations from the public.

It’s one of the scariest things about testing positive for COVID-19: What if the symptoms persist for months?

Most people with COVID start feeling better within a few days to a few weeks. But for some, a wide range of symptoms can persist for more than a month after the initial infection. These post-COVID conditions, which are often called long COVID, can be debilitating.

And unfortunately, it’s not that rare.

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s ongoing Household Pulse Survey shows that nearly one-third of Washington adults who tested positive for COVID experienced symptoms for three months or longer. The survey was conducted from June 1 to 13, and was completed by roughly 63,000 respondents nationally.

According to the data, an estimated 2.1 million Washingtonians age 18 and older have tested positive for the coronavirus or been diagnosed with COVID by a health care provider. Of those, about 31%, an estimated 662,000, had symptoms that persisted for several months or more.

U.S. health authorities are facing a critical decision: whether to offer new COVID-19 booster shots this fall that are modified to better match recent changes of the shape-shifting coronavirus.

Moderna and Pfizer have tested updated shots against the super-contagious omicron variant, and advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will debate Tuesday if it’s time to make a switch — setting the stage for similar moves by other countries.

“This is science at its toughest,” FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks told The Associated Press, adding that a final decision is expected within days of the advisory panel’s recommendation.

Current COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives around the world in just their first year of use. And the Moderna and Pfizer shots still offer strong protection against the worst outcomes -- severe illness and death — especially after a booster dose.

But those vaccines target the original coronavirus strain and between waning immunity and a relentless barrage of variants, protection against infections has dropped markedly. The challenge is deciding if tweaked boosters offer a good chance of blunting another surge when there’s no way to predict which mutant will be the main threat.

The Western Washington University volleyball team's incoming recruiting class is making head coach Diane Flick-Williams feel old.

Western’s fresh batch of players includes 2022 Meridian High School graduate Finnley Claeys, whose mom, Shannon Claeys (Rowland), was a volleyball standout for the Vikings from 1999-2002 and played for Flick-Williams.

At Meridian, Finnley set program career records with 215 aces, 776 kills and 1,218 digs in her four years. She was also named to the Class 1A All-State team her senior year following a 19-3 record and third-place finish at the state tournament.

Finnley said following the same path and playing under the same coach as her mom is surreal.

“It’s so weird to think about. The program that Diane [Flick-Williams] has built — she’s been there for so long and I’m really excited to play for her because I really admire her and like the culture she’s built at Western. It’s cool to follow my mom in that way,” she said. 

Fourth of July is right around the corner and fireworks are now on sale in parts of Whatcom County, but there are location and date restrictions on their use.

You can buy legal fireworks in Whatcom County at any Washington state-licensed and Whatcom County-permitted stand. Illegal fireworks may not be made properly and could be dangerous. When shopping for fireworks, look for a license or permit displayed at the stand.

In the state of Washington, fireworks sales and use are only allowed around the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve. Whatcom County only allows fireworks to be used from 6-11 p.m. on July 3 and July 5, and from 6 p.m. to midnight on the Fourth of July. Whatcom County cities have varying rules and regulations on lighting fireworks.

The city of Bellingham bans the use of all fireworks within city limits. This includes sparklers, fountains, smokeballs, ground-spinning fireworks, rockets, aerial missiles and all projectile fireworks. All other explosive devices such as cherry bombs or M-80s are also illegal. Anyone who violates the fireworks ban is subject to a civil infraction with a fine between $250-$1,000.

Whatcom County remained in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “medium” community COVID-19 risk level for a third straight week, while infection and hospitalizations rates in two regions within the county would earn “high” rankings, where masking is recommended for everyone.

Though its weekly COVID infection rate dropped below 200 new cases per 100,000 residents last week, the CDC gave Whatcom the “medium” community level rating when new data was released Thursday, June 16, based on an increase in the county’s hospitalization rate. That means masking is recommended for those who are at high risk of serious complications from COVID and those who could expose those at high risk. It marked the fourth time in the past five weeks that Whatcom has received the “medium” ranking.

Though it dropped in to the “low” community level, the Blaine region was the only region within the county to see its weekly number of new cases per 100,000 residents climb last week, The Herald found. The other six saw their rates decrease, and weekly infection rates in the Lynden and Meridian regions are close to dropping below 100.