Customers who want to go into a bar or restaurant in Jefferson County will need to show proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting Saturday.
Jefferson County Public Health Officer …
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Customers who want to go into a bar or restaurant in Jefferson County will need to show proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting Saturday.
Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry issued a public health order adopting the new requirement Thursday, Sept. 2.
“Indoor bars and restaurants are known to pose a high risk for COVID-19 transmission, as they encourage unmasking of large groups of people indoors,” Berry said in Thursday's announcement.
“Our goal is to make these safer places to be and to reduce transmission in our communities, allowing our hospitals to keep functioning and our schools to open more safely this fall,” she added.
The new rule will also cover restaurants and bars in Clallam County, where Berry is also the public health officer.
It takes effect Sept. 4.
The mandate does not include children under 12 who cannot be vaccinated.
Public health officials said acceptable forms of proof of vaccination include a completed vaccination card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a Washington State Department of Health certificate of COVID-19 vaccination; a printed copy of a state Department of Health vaccine record; a photograph of any of those documents; or an app-based vaccine passport.
Some local businesses have already adopted the requirement to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
The Keg and I in Chimacum started requiring proof of COVID vaccination on Thursday, July 29.
According to Barry's order, there have been 495 COVID-19 outbreaks that have been traced to bars and restaurants in Washington state.
"Localized transmission of COVID-19 and outbreaks related to restaurants and bars have been documented in Jefferson County," Barry noted in the order. "Indoor bars and restaurants are known to pose a high risk for COVID-19 transmission as they encourage unmasking of large groups of people indoors."
Health officials said there had been "several" COVID outbreaks in Jefferson and Clallam counties, according to data that local officials had received from the state Department of Health.
Health officials said a person is considered fully vaccinated when they have received all the required doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 and two weeks have passed since the final dose. Two doses are required for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, while one is required for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The new restriction does not mandate that restaurant and bar employees who wear masks to provide proof of vaccination.
Berry said the new rule would be less costly to businesses than limiting the number of indoor patrons.
“Given the ability of the Delta variant to spread beyond 6 feet when people are unmasked indoors, we believe that a vaccine requirement will be more effective and less costly than the capacity limitations we saw last year,” Berry said.
“We want to keep businesses open while protecting the public. This is how we do it,” she added.
Health officials reported 713 total cases of COVID-19 in Jefferson County Wednesday, an increase of 18 cases from the day before.
Since Monday, Aug. 31, Jefferson County Public Health has reported 45 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county.
Health officials noted that 94 percent of the people in Washington state who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 have been unvaccinated, and 92 percent of the deaths in Washington due to the coronavirus have involved unvaccinated people.
In Jefferson County, a total of 48 people have been hospitalized due to the disease, with three of those hospitalizations being reported Wednesday.
Four people in Jefferson County have died from COVID-19.
Statewide, there have been 6,611 deaths and 31,106 hospitalizations because of the coronavirus.
Berry stressed Thursday that people who have not been vaccinated should get jabbed.
"With hospitals around our region stretched to the breaking point, we need to do everything we can to keep our communities safe” Berry said. “Getting vaccinated with this incredible vaccine, which is safe, effective, free and life-saving, is simply the right thing to do.”
19 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
MargeS
Good Move! Thanks Dr. Berry.
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Report this
Krysalist
This is a brave and a smart move, and infinitely preferable to shutting down again. Thanks Dr. Berry!
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Report this
chermena
100% behind this idea.
If you don’t want to be vaccinated….stay home.
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Report this
ecorep
Hey, Do bouncers make good money,.....and do restaurants even have bouncers. This decision should have been made by our duly elected representatives on the recommendation of the Public Health official. I could be wrong but I think our public health official is appointed. And if so is not directly accountable to the people. I would hope out county commissioners , mayor and city council would have the guts to sign off on this mandate and if not we should be able to hold them accountable.
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Report this
Charley
NEEDLE PRIDE! "STAY HOME" WEEEEEEE
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Report this
sandrajtallarico
So, one doesn't have the right to tell someone whether or not to have an abortion because of bodily autonomy. BUT, one has the right to insist people get injected with questionable non-proven chemicals. NOT bodily autonomy.
I see...
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Report this
Guyjayess
Pregnancy is not an infectious disease. These are not comparable situations. If an illness, like shingles, is not transmissible to others then whether you get a vaccination is your business. The equation changes when you can make someone else sick.
Thursday, September 2, 2021 Report this
Sonny Flores
last night we were in Seattle ,went to a very good restaurant "Putple Cafe" and they were requiring proof of vaccinations, we did not know that was in place, all worked out, sat us outside, perfect weather very few outside tables, all worked out, way to crowded inside. restaurant was veey firm about allowing only customers who had proof, hey keeps us all safe, no different than the law that says "you must wear a seatbelt " no ine aeems to feel that is infringing on our rights..
Friday, September 3, 2021 Report this
Thomas Camfield
Anyone else lost contact (including phone) with their 'Seattle Times carrier?
Friday, September 3, 2021 Report this
sdakota2
Er... I don't quite get it. Patrons must show that they've been vaccinated, but staff do not? So how, exactly, does that work?
Saturday, September 4, 2021 Report this
solmaker
Legal challenges to vaccine papers order
Dear Health Officer Berry,
Please immediately withdraw your Sep. 2 public health order requiring indoor restaurant/bar patrons to produce vaccination papers, pending legal review of yesterday's repeal of a similar order by New York State's Department of Health.
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/ny-health-commissioner-mask-mandate-federal-lawsuit-william-ouweleen/
New York State was forced to repeal its own order discriminating against those not providing vaccination papers, after being successfully challenged on multiple grounds including constitutionality, equal protection, prohibitions against mandating experimental treatments, and.not being justified by the science given the CDC's recent confirmation that CV vaccines do not prevent transmission of SARS CoV-2.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html
Your Sep. 2 order is vulnerable to legal challenge on the above grounds as well as several others:
https://jeffersoncountypublichealth.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=778
https://jeffersoncountypublichealth.org/DocumentCenter/View/12542/2021-92-Jefferson-Bar-and-Restaurant-Vaccination-HO-Order-Signed
1) The order is founded on perpetual self-claimed executive emergency powers, whose lawfulness is highly questionable and has been found to be unconstitutional in California and other states.
https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/breaking-court-declares-gov-newsoms-abuse-of-power-unconstitutional/
2) This chronic emergency condition is falsely claimed for a county that has experienced near-zero actual CV deaths in two years:
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2021/06/02/new-wrinkle-in-jefferson-countys-fourth-covid-death/
3) The claimed enforcement authority to issue the order is inapplicably based on WAC 246-100-040, which gives narrow emergency detention powers for up to 10 days over infected persons posing serious and imminent risk, but only after a long series of provisions and recourses have been exhausted - none of which pertains to or authorizes this open-ended restaurant/bar regulation.
https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=246-100-040&pdf=true
4) The order requires businesses to act as enforcement agents demanding vaccination papers, despite Jefferson Healthcare itself emailing that "Health information such as whether a patient ... received a Covid 19 vaccine is protected health information ... under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) patient privacy laws."
5) The Background supporting the order contains multiple demonstrably false statements, most glaringly that "COVID vaccines are safe" and "serious safety problems and long-term side effects are rare", despite the underreported VAERS database linking CV vaccines with an astounding 650,077 adverse events and 13,911 deaths, more in half a year than all other vaccines combined throughout VAERS' 31-year history (which normally shows only 100-200 deaths per year from all vaccines).
https://www.medalerts.org/vaersdb/findfield.php?TABLE=ON&GROUP1=AGE&EVENTS=ON&VAX=COVID19&DIED=Yes
http://solmaker.com/public/VAERSdeaths210501.PNG
6) The order's Background falsely states that "Given ... how COVID-19 spreads, including by asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic persons, masks are an essential defense to the spread of COVID-19." To the contrary, "screening in nearly ten million residents of Wuhan, China" found "there was no evidence of transmission from asymptomatic positive persons ... samples from asymptomatic positive cases ... found no viable SARS-CoV-2 virus." Dr. Fauci definitively declared "in all the history of respiratory-borne viruses of any type, asymptomatic transmission has never been the driver of outbreaks." The only large randomized community-based trial "to assess whether recommending surgical mask use outside the home reduces wearers' risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection" concluded "the difference observed was not statistically significant" between the masked and control groups.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19802-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSHIpx60nr4&feature=emb_title
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817
7) The order's Background falsely states "COVID-19 vaccines are effective in reducing infection" despite widespread media reporting of CDC data "showing that vaccinated individuals infected with delta may be able to transmit the virus as easily as those who are unvaccinated" and have "measurable viral loads similar to those who are unvaccinated". CV vaccines are proving to be pitifully ineffective over time, with waning antibody levels in 2-3 months used to justify twice-yearly booster re-vaccination. By contrast, natural immunity following CV infection is broad and enduring against all variants.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/29/cdc-mask-guidance/
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/jul/vaccine-antibody-levels-start-wane-around-2-3-months
https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/natural-immunity-after-covid-19-found-durable-and-robust
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1.full.pdf
Saturday, September 4, 2021 Report this
Conrad
Great. Unelected officials calling the shots. Hey Kelly, how about researching credentials for Dr. Allison Berry? What's her area of expertise? Is she qualified to recommend this? Does she have the authority to do this? Just because you have a "Dr." before your name doesn't mean that much. I'm going to reference "Dr. Jill Biden" for example.
Saturday, September 4, 2021 Report this
Dage Corvish
With a very short search you could find out she graduated from Johns Hopkins with a medical doctorate and a masters in epidemiology and biostatistics. Is that qualified enough or you only interested in stirring up a conspiracy theory?
Saturday, September 4, 2021 Report this
Conrad
I would like to apologize to anybody who might get offended for me possibly using the wrong gender pronoun when I spoke of Dr Berry. There's no telling these days, and it is prudent to CYA when posting these forums. I'm going to reference Rachel L. Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health, for example. I apologize now, profusely, from the bottom of my heart.
Saturday, September 4, 2021 Report this
Charley
Papers please you little fleas, get your shots or eat in the barn with the ox. And the hormone injected chickens, to keep you all sickened, like the green eggs and ham, that only ate man. Needles are our thing, many sizes no sting. You can get them for free, same place you test for STD. Plenty to go around, which is why you see them on the ground. If you get infected with staph, hospital staff will laugh. They'll wait for you to die, lie and ask you why. Why did you share needles, you did it yourself? If I had a dollar for every free needle I'd have much wealth. No need to share but you do not care. To hell with your needles and last two remaining Beatles. Send your private security, blackwater doesn't bother me. My country too, free elephants from the zoo! See through the glass, stop trying to nazi me ass, breaking through breaking out, I don't even want to eat out. - only you can't prevent wildfires -skateistan
Saturday, September 4, 2021 Report this
MargeS
There STIs not STDs Sexually Transmitted Infections. They are not diseases.
Saturday, September 4, 2021 Report this
Dcc
I'm curious as to what the follow up will be for places that refuse to abide by the mandate. A Mexican restaurant in Hadlock has stated that they will not follow this, which seems to only prolong the issue at hand. Maybe they should do what several other places are doing, and revert to take-out only if they want to be part of the solution.
Wednesday, September 8, 2021 Report this
timvanhorn
"Occam's razor" may apply here. Those that may not be familiar with this theory can easily find many references online. I consistently see that more than 90% of healthcare professionals support masks with groups indoors and vaccinations for the virus. That means many thousands of these educated individuals generally agree that these are necessary steps to bring the virus to it's knees. And if there were collusion between drug companies and the mass of these individuals it would have surfaced long ago. It should be a simple decision to go with the medical flow and get vaccinated and continue to wear a mask indoors in groups. Frankly, I couldn't care less about our rights on this issue. There are so many actions that we accept for the common good of society (stop signs, stop lights, speed limits, building construction standards, etc.) that it's obviously more about politics than a true concern about rights. It may also be that many thousands of poorly educated, ignorant people find comfort knowing that there are thousands like them that find it overwhelming to understand complex issues.
Thursday, September 9, 2021 Report this
Dage Corvish
So, our proud patriots are now sending death threats to Dr. Berry, according to kuow report. 9/14
Thinking they are protecting our freedoms, they haven't yet realized the actual freedom fighters are already vaccinated and would be happy to accept them into the ranks, but no, it's all a great conspiracy to deprive us of our rights when the actual deprivation is at their hands.
Tuesday, September 14, 2021 Report this