An extreme form of denialism is spreading across the county at the same time as the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke said earlier this week.

“We are at a real crucial period right now in the pandemic,” Locke told county commissioners during their regular COVID-19 update briefing Monday.

Medical authorities have long predicted that the number of coronavirus cases would peak during the fall, as more people are confined indoors and holiday gatherings are held. 

Locke said the rise is cases may last until March or April.

“This risk is going to go up and up for the next three months at least,” he said. 

“We’re trying to manage a pandemic in the context of a bitterly divided country,” Locke added.

On one side, those who accept the science behind the COVID response.

On the other, Locke said, those who are “anti-science.”

“The science group is saying we need to do what we’re doing now, even more of it,” Locke said. Those mitigation measures include wearing face masks, social distancing, hand hygiene, and testing, tracing and quarantine efforts. 

Taking those measures will protect hospitals from exceeding their capacity to treat patients, and not just those with the coronavirus. It also helps conserve stocks of personal protective equipment, which Locke noted are still in short supply.

Abiding by such mitigation measures also mean essential services can be maintained, and schools and businesses can stay open as much as possible.

The “anti-science” approach, Locke said, has people believing “none of this is even happening. It’s all a hoax and the science data is fake, and doctors are being paid to put COVID on death certificates because they get more money,” he said.

“The anti-science forces are in the driver’s seat nationally right now, where there’s much to suggest, at least, agencies in the federal government have given up on testing and suppression.”

The federal government, he said, is concentrating on vaccines and therapeutics.

That approach is also being used at a state level, Locke said. Our neighboring state of Idaho is taking a “let it ride” approach.

Hospitals in Idaho are close to capacity, and will likely need to divert patients to Seattle and Portland.

Locke said the “herd immunity” argument, that the pandemic will eventually come to an end if left to run its course, is actually true.

“But the cost is catastrophic, in deaths and prolonged disability. And exceeding our medical capacity so we don’t have the capacity to take care of other people who have hospital needs that have nothing to do with COVID.”

Locke’s concerns come as the nation has passed 9 million COVID cases.

There are roughly 80,000 new cases of coronavirus every day in the U.S., he said.

“That is an astronomical number compared to most other countries,” Locke said.

The third wave of COVID-19 has prompted a 45 percent increase in cases over the last two weeks.

“That’s a very steep climb,” Locke said.

Deaths from the disease are averaging 800 a day.

In some of the hardest hit states, hospital capacity has been stretched. Field hospitals have been set up in Wisconsin and Texas, Locke noted.

Washington state is faring well, comparatively.

The number of COVID-19 infections has risen by 20 percent in the past two weeks, along with a slight increase in deaths and hospitalizations.

Almost 2,500 have died in Washington from the coronavirus.

“We believe that to be an undercount,” Locke said.

Stateside, the number of coronavirus cases was 108,315 through Saturday, Oct. 31.

In Jefferson County, the total COVID-19 case number was 89 Monday.

Jefferson County is one of the few places in the state where schools have reopened, Locke noted, but that has not led to any positive COVID tests.

Mitigation efforts — masks, social distancing, hygiene — make schools a safe place.

“It’s bearing out our theory that schools are not a very good place for COVID transmission,” Locke said.

The coronavirus cases found in Jefferson County have been linked to visitors and social gatherings. A relative comes from out of state, or a student comes home for the weekend from college, unwittingly infected with coronavirus.

“This is very much a disease of outbreaks,” Locke said. “It’s social gatherings and it’s visitors. That’s where we’re seeing the outbreak activity.”