Outdoor Mandates? DOH Doesn’t Track Outdoor Transmissions

With Gov. Jay Inslee offering his 'perks' program to many entities; from the Mariners to religious groups, from theaters to other public venues questions began to arise about outdoor COVID transmission.

Jason Rantz of AM 770 KTTH in Seattle was the first to dig into this recently. Apparently, the Washington State Department of Health doesn't (and never has) tracked COVID transmission data from the outdoors.

King County, according to Rantz, cannot pinpoint a single positive COVID test or case that could be directly traced to any outdoor activity.

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In an article published on his station's website Tuesday, May 11 Rantz brings back all those (horrible!) memories of how Inslee last year closed everything from trails to boat ramps, shut-off fishing, and outdoor recreating--including sports.

Now, it appears, all without due cause. Rantz did some more digging and found that on a global scale, and even in the U.S., less than 1 percent of all COVID cases could be directly linked to outdoor activities. Some sources say between 0.1 and 1 percent.

And yet, even with his Take It Outside campaign recently, Inslee still social distances, wore a mask during the announcement and he is fully vaccinated. Wow...

We have had seating limitations at virtually all sports, even now it's not great. Schools have had to fight to allow fans, parents and students in the stands. And yet, Rantz says DOH officials admit they don't try to track outdoor data because "It's too hard."

It now appears this admission by the WSDOH and King County at least, proves that Inslee's and the state's mandates concerning outdoor activities are like the skies around us...full of hot air.