In the race to stay ahead of the devastating exponential growth curve which is COVID-19 impacts on our world, local leadership and innovation will absolutely be the difference between saving thousands of lives and localized catastrophes.
Posting COVID-19 updates from WA State will, hopefully, allow people in other communities nationwide to learn from the original canary in the coal mine. As I do my part to tell stories from here, I will look at ways that we are learning key lessons from this pandemic and responding. There will be successes and failures in every community and state, including us here in Washington. Hopefully, we can start crowd source the successes and learn from each other. We’re in for a long haul, and we’ll succeed if we work together.
First some numbers in WA State. We’ve held relatively steady in WA because we’re stabilizing the number of daily new cases. The last update showed linear vs exponential growth of WA cases. within the week from March 14- March 21, WA State case counts and death counts went from 769 cases and 42 deaths to 1,793 cases and 94 deaths. We’ve also had 124 “recoveries” according to the Worldometer tracker. This “recovery” data is important, because it helps medical providers plan for the total case load that will have to be handled at any given time. Snohomish county, where I live, is showing a stable daily case increase at 30-50 cases over the last week. The last two days did have an uptick, but this is a pretty promsing graph. Each community needs to be tracking graphs like this, because there’s another factor that will continue to be the determining factor of saving lives: Hospital capacity.
Hospital capacity is determined by many factors, including beds and facilities, medical staff capacity, and medical equipment such as masks, ventilators, and medicine. Unfortunately, the federal response to this need has been to adopt a policy that will revert every community to an economy of scarcity and competition. In fact, the federal government is now outbidding local governments for the very equipment they said they should try to acquire on their own.
But if our entire nation is going to survive this, we really need to adopt an economy of abundance and cooperation. This is not just true for the West Coast and the Northeast, where the medical providers and local leaders are yelling as loudly as they can about this need. It’s true in places like Georgia and Florida and Louisiana, as well as every single state in the nation, where the need for this equipment is going to explode over night. It’s going to explode way faster than any manufacturing plan not already in place .. like yesterday.. can address. This is one of several cascading federal policy errors that will have a synergistic impact on red and blue states alike, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths. If the current administration things they can outsmart this virus for political gain, rushing to the aid of the places where they want to score the most political points, that window passed weeks ago.
So, at the risk of burying my lede, here’s the hopeful story of the day in Washington State. Hopefully you’ve made it this far, because the story is amazing. Providence hospitals issued a 100,000,000 mask challenge several days ago, asking anyone and everyone to help them meet this need for the nation. Local business leader Jeff Kaas, who owns a textile manufacturing firm specializing in furniture has risen to the challenge:
So earlier this week, he got in touch with someone he knows at Providence St. Joseph. They began collaborating. Providence came up with a blueprint for the masks. Kaas readied his team, shifting business from loveseats and lighting to getting everyone ready to make surgical masks and face shields.
“It looked like a furniture factory on Thursday and today it looks a little different.”
With a design in hand, he sent that off to a connection in Europe. From there, a digital play-by-play of how to put them together was created. Kaas says that video and the information it contains has been sent out to at least 25 states where manufacturers there can begin helping their local hospitals.
So, within 24 hours of a phone call between Kaas and Providence, they had worked with global partners to finalize a design and start making masks. In just the first two days, Kaas has deliverd 5,600 masks and 1000 face shields, and is going to add 150 VOLUNTEER workers to expand the capacity for more. Due to the cancellation of elective surgeries, materials manufacturers are providing the materials, and production has already begun. Nimble responses, actions taken by local heroes more concerned with being neighbors than making profits, and quick adoption of locally-successful initiatives are going to be the answer to this.
While Trump fiddles, perhaps he thinks parts of America that won’t support his designs on profit and power will burn. But that is not the America many of us remember, and the one, hopefully, which can rise to this historic occasion. If we remember that part of our American identify — collective action based on compassion for one another — we will not burn. We will rise to this unprecedented challenge.
