UPDATE: Some West Seattle coffee shops, restaurants, supermarkets revive masks-for-all policy

1:52 PM: From King County’s public-health officer Dr. Jeff Duchin to Gov. Inslee, many officials are “strongly recommending” that everyone go back to wearing masks indoors, to try to stop what the governor said Wednesday could become a “fifth wave” of COVID-19. For fully vaccinated people, that remains a recommendation, not a mandate (except for K-12 schools). But businesses and other venues are free to make their own decisions whether to require masks for vaccinated customers – and some are doing that. In a spot check, we’ve so far found at least four West Seattle establishments announcing they’re returning to requiring customers to mask up indoors unless actively eating/drinking. Here’s how Youngstown Coffee in Morgan Junction announced it: “Let’s keep our kids and our vulnerable communities safe from all variants of COVID-19.” At The Westy in Sunrise Heights, the announcement notes, “We like having you all back in, sitting at the bar top and at our tables, and want to protect our ability to continue to offer it.” Il Nido on Alki simply says they’re reinstating the mask requirement because “We are committed to the safety of our guests and staff.” Cupcake Royale in The Junction, and the chain’s other locations, explains its decision, “This is in effort to protect our staff, families, and guests, many of whom fall below the vaccination age.” We’ll add any place else we find.

9:32 PM: Thanks to commenter Jeff for pointing out that West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) has reinstituted its mask policy too, as confirmed by this sign we photographed outside the entrance tonight:

PCC is now asking that everyone wear masks, too.

ADDED FRIDAY: Mashiko also is requiring masks.

ADDED SATURDAY: Nos Nos Coffee House, too.

77 Replies to "UPDATE: Some West Seattle coffee shops, restaurants, supermarkets revive masks-for-all policy"

  • Adam July 29, 2021 (2:03 pm)

    Great, the anti-vaxxers won. 

    • Bill July 30, 2021 (12:47 am)

      How about some evidence? In the highly sophisticated and prosperous WS environment — I thought we had an extremely high vax rate?  What am I missing?  

      I personally do not know any “anti-vaxers”! — Do YOU?

      • KM July 30, 2021 (7:27 am)

        I do, and they run a local business to boot (I haven’t gone back.) The variant might not be as strong in our heavily-vaxxed neighborhood as elsewhere, but a response to a global health crisis extends outside our neighborhood. We are not as isolated as people think or act.

  • Justadumbguy July 29, 2021 (2:11 pm)

    I feel for the folks this is going to put some in some difficult situations trying to deal with those who don’t wish to / refuse to comply. 

    • anonyme July 29, 2021 (2:46 pm)

      Too right, Notsodumbguy!  The rules just get more and more confusing.  I’ve gone into businesses recently that had “Masks Required” signs on the door, only to find that no one inside was masked, including the employees.  Well, except for me, not only because I tend to follow rules in general but also because I don’t think Covid is done with us yet.  Wearing a mask doesn’t harm anyone, but the alternative still poses a risk that is fairly easy to avoid.

  • ES July 29, 2021 (2:21 pm)

    I am totally supportive of these moves and just hope that customers are respectful of businesses’ right to set policies and don’t give the staff a hard time. Some local spots like Opal Nail Studio never even dropped the masking requirement, out of respect for the health of their employees. We are all navigating uncertainty together and doing the best we can. Hope we can get through this next phase of unpredictability at least being gracious to each other. 

    • WSMadness July 30, 2021 (10:49 am)

      Out of respect for the health of their employees? Are they all un-vaccinated? They do know that the purpose of a mask is not to protect yourself, but control the spread, right?I am finding that too many people are not getting that the mask offers you no protection or close to it, so if we are going down this route of everyone masks up, let’s start closing indoor dining and shutting stuff down. It is the only way to keep everyone safe, right?

  • Mj July 29, 2021 (2:57 pm)

    How about a no vaccine no service for all people elegible to be vaccinated policy?  People who have gotten vaccinated have already done their Civic duty and it’s time to put the heat on those that have not!

    • T July 29, 2021 (3:15 pm)

      You want local businesses that have survived this far into the pandemic to turn away customers if they can’t show papers?

      • Jort July 29, 2021 (3:37 pm)

        Yes. It’s happening everywhere in Europe, it can happen here, too. Get the vaccine and get over yourselves. You do not have the right to deliberately prolong a global pandemic to “own the libs.” The burden of these actions should fall on the people responsible, perhaps the party of “personal responsibility,” and not everyone else who is doing the right thing. Show your papers or else stay home and cry on Facebook about “freedom.”

        • Cat July 29, 2021 (8:46 pm)

          What should be done about people who are vaccinated but caught Covid anyway? This happened to my neighbor. Full vaccinated and got sick anyway. Under your plan, he would be able to go in all the places but could be getting other people sick. Would that be ok with you?

        • Cat July 30, 2021 (7:39 am)

          Delta Variant Spreads as Easily as Chickenpox say CDC and is more prone to breakthrough in vaccinated individuals. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-cdc-internal-report-says-061723248-120240369.html

      • JS July 29, 2021 (4:04 pm)

        Yes. It is time to start making life inconvenient for the anti-vaxxers that are prolonging this pandemic.

    • Jeepney July 29, 2021 (3:27 pm)

      Agreed!  It’s disappointing that the anti vaxxers are prolonging this pandemic.  This is why we can’t have nice things……

    • AJP July 29, 2021 (4:56 pm)

      Southgate Roller Rink just announced that for people going into the back bar. 

  • Laura July 29, 2021 (3:16 pm)

    Cupcake Royale employs people under 12?🤔

    • CatGirl July 29, 2021 (3:38 pm)

      No, but they do have customers under 12 and probably have employees, who have children under 12 or employees that live with someone who is immunocompromised and unable to get vaccinated. Vaccinated people can still spread covid, especially the delta variant, which is more highly contagious than earlier strains. Put on a mask if you want a cupcake, it might save a life. Wearing a mask won’t hurt anyone, but not wearing one could kill someone. 

    • Ken July 29, 2021 (3:43 pm)

      @ Laura – It might be prudent to read the entire sentence rather than just picking and choosing which words you feel would be relevant to any potential point you were attempting to make. 

      IE: “This is in effort to protect our staff, families, and guests, many of whom fall below the vaccination age.”  

      It would appear that they’re actually concerned about guests that might be below the current allowed vaccination age.

      • Laura July 29, 2021 (4:31 pm)

        a) It was a joke, obviously I do not think cupcake royale is violating child labor laws.b) grammatically speaking, this sentence is poorly constructed and if read as written does in fact imply that their employees are under vaccination agec) if you’re interested in further reading on how grammar mistakes can be funny, I suggest the book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. Have a wonderful day!

        • datamuse July 29, 2021 (7:07 pm)

          If you’re gonna get pedanic about punctuation, you might wanna get the title of that book right. It’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

          • robb July 30, 2021 (7:15 am)

            Pedantic

          • drah July 30, 2021 (9:06 am)

            Me smart two.

    • Thistlemist July 29, 2021 (3:48 pm)

      Their annoucement said “Staff, families, and guests”. Not that unbelivable that a cupcake shop is visited by kids under the age of 12 or that employees have family members in that age group. 

  • Steve July 29, 2021 (3:24 pm)

    I fully support businesses rules and regulations as they see fit. It doesn’t mean they will see me there. The onus should be on restricting the non vaxxed patrons. See you when you stop masking

  • Gebus July 29, 2021 (3:29 pm)

    IMHO – The CDC should never have changed the mask policy in the first place. All the anti-masker-vaxer-science-reality-common-sense people took it as a sign to do so also

    @MJ – if only that would fly, sadly too many “patriots” (insert eye roll) wouldn’t allow you to take away their freedumb!

    @Laura – even vaccinated people can spread and I have a child under 12 and wear a mask everywhere – until everyone else can get vaccinated this is reality. Customers can bring it in and spread to staff who spread it to kids or kids that are customers. . .

  • Derek July 29, 2021 (3:35 pm)

    Good! Businesses have to step up where government is lagging. Good on them. 

  • Jort July 29, 2021 (3:35 pm)

    If you don’t like putting a mask on again, then you can thank certain neighbors’ skewed ideology regarding “freedom.” These people, almost always politically motivated, think they deserve the “freedom” to continue a pandemic that plagues the entire planet by refusing to get vaccinated. Because they seem to think they own what “freedom” means, it will result in the rest of responsible, non-sociopathic society to go out of our way to protect them. Thanks, selfish, inconsiderate monsters. Thanks for dragging this on forever. I sure hope you’re proud. Dying to “own the libs.” Thanks for restricting everybody else’s actual freedom so that you can do performative anti-vaccination virtue signaling. The time for mandatory vaccinations was yesterday. We, as a civil society, need to stop socializing the costs and actions of people who are willfully, intentionally and nihilistically prolonging the pandemic. We need separate insurance for anti-vaxx people. We need separate prioritization in hospitals (the bottom, behind people who care for others and not themselves). Need to go to ICU? Shoulda got the vaccine. Too late now. People who are doing the right thing should not bear the responsibility of taking care of insolent, anti-social crybabies. Get the vaccine and get over yourselves. Now.

    • Barb Z July 30, 2021 (2:06 am)

      Jort:  I agree.  People who choose not to be vaccinated should not be allowed to go to hospitals to endanger the lives of those who have been working so hard these past 18+ months.  If you get sick because of your own selfish choices, you’re on your own.

    • Jimmy Nimbles July 30, 2021 (4:02 am)

      “We need separate prioritization in hospitals (the bottom, behind people who care for others and not themselves). Need to go to ICU? Shoulda got the vaccine. Too late now. People who are doing the right thing should not bear the responsibility of taking care of insolent”Jort proposes lifestyle based segregation. Should we also de-prioritize obese people in hospitals because they “shoulda worked out and eaten better…too late now”. Your argument might stand against the pre-covid anti-vax causes autism crowd, given the hoards of research that negated that narrative. But given the lack of time test on this specific vaccine and it’s non-FDA approved status, it’s prudent for people to make risk/reward decisions. For example, pregnant people in their 30s. Statistically that age range had a less than 0.5% death rate (look at the CDC numbers not the news). No doctor/researcher has any opinion on the risk of pregnancy and the vaccine — every single periodical comes to a buyer beware conclusion. So that uncertainty doesn’t combined with the inherently low death rate for that age has a terrible risk/reward profile. Should someone making such a rational decision be de-prioritized at a hospital? Even for non-pregnant people this holds true — if your age range and demographics has extremely low death rates, the risk/reward doesn’t foot out. And don’t you dare try to say “it’s to protect others” because you already flushed your humanity card down the toilet when you suggested that people who aren’t as good as you don’t deserve the same treatment as you. That my friend, is virtue signaling. Pot, meet the black kettle. 

    • Joel July 30, 2021 (4:52 pm)

      Never thought it would happen but I agree with Jort 100%

  • Jeff July 29, 2021 (3:37 pm)

    I think you can add Thriftway in the Morgan Junction to your list of businesses requiring masks.  I stopped by the store yesterday and there are signs on the door that says, “We’re back” with a picture of a mask.  All the staff and most of the patrons were masked up.  I’m 100% vaccinated and 100% A-OK with businesses requiring masks.  Remember, if you’re irritated by all of this, we need to direct our energy (ire?) toward those friends and family who are unvaccinated, not the business owners nor their employees.  

    • WSB July 29, 2021 (5:11 pm)

      Thanks for the update. On our regular shopping morning earlier this week we noticed 90 percent of staff and customers there were wearing masks even without signage.

      • psps July 30, 2021 (12:23 am)

        I am happy to hear this. I stopped going to Thriftway because of their silly decision to pretend there was no pandemic anymore.  I took their staff’s lack of masks as a sign of disrespect. I’ll check them out again tomorrow and hope to see that they’ve returned to reality.

  • Promask July 29, 2021 (4:23 pm)

    @Susan perhaps you should read before commenting Cupcake Royale stated staff AND guests! A large percentage of their customers are families whose children are too young ( under 12) to be vaccinated. @Steve the onus is already on these businesses most of whom are significantly understaffed due to many staff not returning to their service jobs to do what they can to keep staff and customers safe.  You now  expect their staff to review everyone’s vaccination card, weed out the fake ones, argue with those who “ forgot”  theirs and all other aspects of placing this among every other protocol they still need to follow on their staff is just beyond comprehension. For the life of me I simply do not understand how a simple piece of fabric you wear to cover your face temporarily while you are in closed spaces with others to protect everyone has become so polarizing/politicized! Why can’t everyone just grow up and do the right thing get a vaccination if you’re eligible and medically able to, where a mask when around others in a closed space…… it just seems so ridiculously simple at this point what needs to happen but yet here we are again same old argument same old ignorance! 

    • Pessoa July 29, 2021 (10:18 pm)

      G:  This is the tried and true fallacy of oversimplification argument. To wit, express disbelief in the superficial layer of a contentious topic, and pretend there are no deeper, problematic concerns. Yes, there are repercussons to requiring a society to wear masks – even the vaccinated, who are not at risk of serious complications, nor pose a threat to other vaccinated. As I had said before, there are no free lunches in life, and the price will be felt mostly by children who are spending formative years surrounded by uncertainty and anxiety. Not good. 

      • Brian July 30, 2021 (9:18 am)

        It’s better than spending your formative years laboring to breathe. 

  • DeeJay July 29, 2021 (4:28 pm)

    its time for people to fend for themselves.   close/open/close/open/mask/noMask/mask/up/down/left/right…ugh.   If you are vaxed, no mask, period.  Anyone that is compromised due to their own health, or their own ignorance can simply stay home or pay the piper.  I’m all for showing my vax card

  • Promask July 29, 2021 (4:29 pm)

    @Laura perhaps you should read before commenting Cupcake Royale stated staff AND guests! A large percentage of their customers are families whose children are too young ( under 12) to be vaccinated. @Steve the onus is already on these businesses most of whom are significantly understaffed due to many staff not returning to their service jobs to do what they can to keep staff and customers safe.  You now  expect their staff to review everyone’s vaccination card, weed out the fake ones, argue with those who “ forgot”  theirs and all other aspects of placing this among every other protocol they still need to follow on their staff is just beyond comprehension. For the life of me I simply do not understand how a simple piece of fabric you wear to cover your face temporarily while you are in closed spaces with others to protect everyone has become so polarizing/politicized! Why can’t everyone just grow up and do the right thing get a vaccination if you’re eligible and medically able to, where a mask when around others in a closed space…… it just seems so ridiculously simple at this point what needs to happen but yet here we are again same old argument same old ignorance! 

  • Benjamin July 29, 2021 (4:43 pm)

    I am vaccinated,  and believe everyone should be.  And that if restaurants wanted to protect staff,  they would need to require all eligible guests are vaccinated.  This of course would be time consuming and would aggravate some potential guests. BUT! If you are going to allow people to come in and eat and drink, what is the point of asking them to mask up while they walk to the table?  it makes no sense to have people masked for 5% of the time they are in the establishment.     I know breakthrough infections are rising,  and it is the fault of the unvaccinated and irresponsible.  It’s a shame we have to share out city with people that won’t do their part.   

  • Vee July 29, 2021 (4:56 pm)

    Unfortunate  that the selfish ignorance of those not getting vaccinated  is hurting everyone Do they not want to get back to normal I’m concerned  we may go backward if it doesn’t  get under control 

  • AJP July 29, 2021 (4:57 pm)

    I’ve been so grateful to live in this area where most people get it, and care about their neighbors. 

  • Mr J July 29, 2021 (5:25 pm)

    Even if you are vaccinated you can still be infected by the Delta variant. If an employee of a small business tests positive for Covid, the business owner has to close their store and have the space professionally sanitized before reopening to ensure the safety of employees and customers alike. Store closures greatly affect both business owners and their employees. It is incredulous that such a scenario has to be explained in detail to customers who prize their individual needs over the greater good. It boggles the mind that individuals have to be told to do something as simple as wearing a mask in indoor spaces for the health and safety of everyone. Even if said individuals are vaccinated. What is wrong with people that they are so selfish as to not wear a mask for a brief period of time.

    • Pessoa July 29, 2021 (9:37 pm)

      Mr. J: Where are all these “selfish” people? Last time I checked nearly every person was followimg mask mandates – which they removed when advised it was save to do so. Now, most will follow the wishes of businesses, or take their business elsewhere as the case may be. 

    • Laura B July 30, 2021 (4:08 am)

      Do you know a single grocery store that closed down during covid? No. There weren’t any. Cause when employees there got covid and outbreaks happened the stores kept operating and there was no shut down for deep cleaning or time for the staff to take 2 weeks off to quarantine. And most people that work at those places can’t afford to take that much time off work anyways. And I can attest to working at a place that deals with the public that had several employees test positive this past year and our company certainly didn’t shut down. Not every company ‘does the right thing’.

  • Carole July 29, 2021 (5:35 pm)

    Perhaps insurance companies should limit coverage payouts for non vaxxers who get sick.  Or raise premiums for those who refuse to vax if they are eligible. I’m vaxxed and will mask as required. This isn’t over folks. Children are being hospitalized in parts of the south. And in addition to original covid 19 and variant strains Delta and Lambda, there is now a 4th in Colombia which has appeared in the US.  Name’s just a string of numbers/letters pending assignment of a Greek name like the others.

    • Bill July 30, 2021 (1:12 am)

      And that yet un-Greek letter named variant in Columbia will be imported here tout-suite!

  • Mj July 29, 2021 (6:17 pm)

    Governor Inslee you want fully vaccinated people to wear a mask inside, but you continue to allow tax dollars and require insurers to pay the medical costs of adults who get Covid that chose not to get vaccinated?  I say it’s time to put the full onus on the adults that choose not to get vaccinated.  

    • July 29, 2021 (9:50 pm)

      The federal CARES Act, under Health and Human Services,  provides funding for care of those hospitalized with COVID, as well as free testing for everyone, not the governor. HHS extends the declaration of COVID as emergency for periods of 90 days, most recently on July 19, but at some point it will expire. 

    • Brian July 30, 2021 (9:20 am)

      This is absolute fascist psycho babble. Be a human being. 

  • G July 29, 2021 (7:36 pm)

    I wanted cupcakes so bad but was worried about the no mask or masks and now that I know it’s masking again for all, I’ll be there and I’ll also always tip as always and possibly a bit more each time out of appreciation for the required care for other humans and masking for all.You can absolutely still get and unknowingly pass Covid to others even if fully vaccinated as well as unknowingly sicken or cause a few deaths and at best these vaccines will keep you from becoming critically ill or dying but these vaccines most definitely aren’t here to prevent the spread but hopefully from dying. I honestly hope masks are here to stay a long time going forward and should have never ended. I also don’t like my food breathed on if it’s a good day but this is a ongoing very deadly germs pandemic. Thanks Cupcake Royal and Thriftway. Steve, it is very much appreciated that you will not be visiting The Royal, because that means more cupcakes for me. No right to the freedom to spread or risk spreading Covid to anyone.

  • Pessoa July 29, 2021 (9:03 pm)

    Following the pattern for most viruses, all indications are that the Delta variant is less dangerous than the original strain, and your symptoms will be very mild if you are vaccinated and subsequently infected. This information is readily available online to anyone who is interested. So, this leaves us back at where we were originally: If you are vaccinated you are protected, much like a flu shot  is not 100% effective against infection, but prevents serious complications. Children are at extremely low risk, borne out by multiple studies.Businesses are put in a difficult position which is reregrettable but I can’t participate in an eerie masked ball that will have greater and greater deleterious consequences on society the longer it continues. 

    • Lamont July 31, 2021 (11:28 pm)

      The idea that viruses necessarily evolve to become less virulent is known as the “avirulence” hypothesis, which was falsified back in the 90s. It is right up there with “eating carrots improves your eyesight” levels of incorrect.

      What replaced that is the “tradeoff” hypothesis which is simply that transmissibility and virulence tend to be correlated, most often its considered via the mechanism of increasing viral loads.  That theory also is incomplete but it isn’t wrong.  In this case it most likely applies since what we’re seeing is mutations to the spike that enhance things like fusogenicity and increase viral loads.

      See for example:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01658.x

      And this appears to be what we’re seeing with SARS-CoV-2 and delta which is that viral loads are higher, transmissibility is higher and its virulence/lethality is higher.  A study from scotland has found that after adjusting for age, sex, deprivation, comorbidities, etc that delta is twice as likely to result in hospitalization and death across all age ranges (with it being even worse for those with 5 or more comorbidities):

      https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01358-1/fulltext

      Since we are reaching levels of >50% vaccinated or recovered the virus cannot spread with the original wild-type R0 of 3.0, so there becomes a large selection pressure for the virus to increase its basic reproduction number and become more transmissible.   By becoming more transmissible it is very highly likely to become more lethal (all other things equal).

      What will cause the virus to become less lethal in the very short term is the evolution of our own immune system as we become vaccinated or recover.   The virus itself is acting against that, AND WHICH IS WHY DELAYING VACCINATION IS A VERY POOR IDEA.

      In the long-run the virus will likely start to face more costly choices between actual immune escape and transmissibility / virulence (a “bad” version of SARS-CoV-2 that has an R0 of 1.5 but which nobody has neutralizing antibodies for can be selected for and can outcompete this delta strain once everyone has enough antibodies, but that’s the long run 5+ years from now or so).

  • Still masking July 29, 2021 (10:07 pm)

    No change here.

  • Mark B July 29, 2021 (10:22 pm)

    Are any of these restaurants also increasing distancing or reducing capacity? 

    • S.A. July 30, 2021 (10:14 am)

      Hopefully not because the whole “social distancing” thing is based on a now-disproven hypothesis that the virus was spread by droplets. We now know it’s airborne.

  • Scubafrog July 29, 2021 (11:04 pm)

    Right wing media’s anti-mask/anti-vaccine agenda is disgraceful.  Biden has got to mandate vaccines  in red states and red counties.  Trump’s black vans and kidnappings were war crimes.  Biden has a chance to save republican lives, they don’t know any better, and their decision to not vax is killing Americans.

  • Laura B July 30, 2021 (3:58 am)

    I’m vaccinated so I shouldn’t have to wear a mask. I’d be happy to show my vaccine proof to anyone who asks to see it. If you are now telling me I have to wear a mask then you are basically telling me the vaccine was pointless. Why did Joe Biden tell the country that if you are fully vaccinated you no longer have to wear a mask? Now he’s making mandates that vaccinated people have to wear them. They used to have staff at the entrance of stores checking to make sure customers were wearing masks and keeping counts on capacity limits. Some places were even taking customer’s temperatures. Why don’t stores use that same staff to now check for vaccine cards or require a mask if you don’t have your card? Also, with this new mask policy, what decides when it will end? Will it be forever? Cause no one has explained what we have to do to make it go away. Before they said more people needed to get vaccinated and we could stop wearing masks. So more people got vaccinated but then they said we still had to wear the masks anyways. When will it end? 

    • Tim G July 31, 2021 (10:40 pm)

      Joe Biden didn’t make any such mandate.  The CDC didn’t either.  They did, however, make a recommendation that people wear masks in certain areas.  Governor Inslee didn’t make a mandate either – he also suggested that masks be worn indoors.  Businesses are free to do whatever they choose – it seems most are going back to masking per the CDC’s recommendation – they aren’t, however, required to.  As a customer, we ARE required to abide by a businesses request to wear a mask.  Simple as that.

  • anonyme July 30, 2021 (6:45 am)

    I never stopped masking, as I was pretty sure Covid wasn’t done with  us.  But reading the stories about people hospitalized with Covid and then begging to be vaccinated just highlights for me how ignorant the anti-vaxxers are.  Even a child knows that a vaccine is not a cure, but a preventative.  Regardless of your political leanings, this is just basic education; the conspiracy theories come later.  Unfortunately, the concept of pulling together and acting for the common good has been lost.

  • M July 30, 2021 (7:00 am)

    Just learned that my 30 something vaccinated daughter has Covid – with symptoms. I am so angry at her coworker, unvaccinated, who didn’t wear a mask and didn’t share that information. And I wish she’d been masking indoors. PLEASE, everyone, just wear a mask again. She has symptoms and of course I’m worried. Hoping the vaccine protects her from the worst of it. I’m sick of people who don’t follow science or care about others or who are simply ridiculous about this very serious disease!!

  • Pessoa July 30, 2021 (7:10 am)

    The lowbrow, punitive, vitriol directed towards the non vaccinated and even the vaccinated makes me rethink those around me who are my neighbors. Many have seized on a slight risk in order to vomit out self-righteous bile. Make the non-vaccinate pay? Should we then apply this philosophy to other non emergency medical procedures that arise from voluntary decisions? How do we judge the purported irrationality of anti-vaxxers against the the irrationality of masking small kids who have nearly zero chance of serious complications, who want their child and demand your child live in fear? 

    • Chicago July 30, 2021 (11:12 am)

      Well said. I find the vitriol in these comments, directed toward the unvaccinated, more frightening than the actual virus. 

    • Anon_42 July 30, 2021 (2:55 pm)

      At this point the non-vaccinated have no excuses, and their wacko rhetoric and conspiracy theories are spreading disinformation and costing lives. At this point the vitriol the non-vaccinated receive is well deserved.

  • Chicago July 30, 2021 (7:25 am)

    Can someone remind me how many people in King County died of Covid in the last 10 days?

    • Brian July 30, 2021 (9:22 am)

      It’s truly wild how folks just look at death count as if that’s the only way a respiratory virus can mess you up. 

  • Brian Hughes July 30, 2021 (7:42 am)

    The King County public health dashboard says that as of today nearly 82% of eligible residents of King County have had at least one dose and 76% are fully vaccinated, including the vast majority of vulnerable populations.  It’s very rare for a fully vaccinated person to get seriously ill.  My vaccinated neighbors tested positive recently and reported very mild symptoms.  I expect to get the virus at some point – I think it is inevitable.  I was really frustrated by the new sign at Thriftway.  Most of us have done our part.  I support anyone wearing a mask if they wish – in fact, it’s kind of a good look on some people.  But for the first time I’m feeling like it’s a burden being forced on me/us – largely due to disingenuous politics and irrational individuals.  It’s time for the responsibility of managing COVID19 risk to shift from the many to the few.

    • Pessoa July 30, 2021 (12:05 pm)

      Thank you, Brian Hughes, for a rare moment of sanity midst the frightening groupthink. 

    • Anon_42 July 30, 2021 (2:56 pm)

      Exactly!

  • Lentil Sabado July 30, 2021 (9:18 am)

    It’s Friday ! 

  • RD23 July 30, 2021 (12:42 pm)

    Daily COVID-19 outbreak summary dashboard – King Countyrecently updated 

  • CAM July 31, 2021 (1:38 pm)

    WSB – What is the policy on “fake news” related to COVID in these comment sections? I’m seeing a lot of comments that are verifiably false or extremely misleading and if made on another site (Twitter or Facebook) would get taken down as false or dangerous related to COVID. Thanks. 

    • WSB July 31, 2021 (3:44 pm)

      We do our best to truth-squad. However, we do not have billions of dollars and tens of thousands of staffers like the companies you mention. If you see something demonstrably false that goes unchallenged, call it out and/or send us a note.

    • Pessoa July 31, 2021 (10:09 pm)

      CAM: Why don’t you spent more  debunking these alleged “demonstrably false” statements – if you can – and less time asking the publisher to shut down the exchange of ideas? Are Facebook and Twitter now the gatekeepers who should decide what is regarded as acceptable speech? Maybe we should let Facebook assign “social scores” to those who obediently and docilely parrot the official line – when someone actually knows what that is. Good god.

      • CAM July 31, 2021 (11:39 pm)

        Pessoa I have many other things that are more valuable to me to spend my time on than to argue with you. Simply put, the statements you make on blog articles related to masks and COVID are easily proven to be false with a simple Google search based on currently published and freely available statistics and reporting. Making intentionally false claims about a deadly virus puts your neighbors’ lives, and their homes and businesses and livelihoods, in jeopardy and your lack of concern for that in pursuing whatever goal is motivating your claims is disturbing. The reason social networks and other internet based businesses have made an effort to prevent false news from being proliferated on their networks is because people who are sharing that information are creating harm. It isn’t about being obedient or docile or a sheep and your association of concern for the health and future of society with some kind of plot to control you speaks volumes about how people should interpret the motivations underlying your posts. 

        • Pessoa August 1, 2021 (9:19 pm)

          CAM: Prove it. Which of course will mean fashioning some sort of an argument, instead of engaging in tiresome circular reasoning (“I am right, because you are wrong”) and straw man arguments. Contrary to what you say, you seem to have plenty of time for both.  

          • Brian August 2, 2021 (8:00 pm)

            For one, you keep talking about all kinds of vague knock-on effects of wearing masks without ever once citing what evidence there is for this claim beyond the fact that you like seeing people smile. 

  • Anon_100 August 15, 2021 (9:54 pm)

    Thank you for this information, would appreciate updates if other businesses join. As a parent of young children who cannot yet be vaccinated, and with the CDC’s release of data showing high viral loads of delta in vaccinated individuals, we and many of our friends with kids are very interested to know which west seattle eateries are requiring masks especially of employees (we are only using take out/delivery). 

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