Washington's "urgent" COVID-19 briefing is underway

Health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy:
“At this point in time, we have the highest number of cases that we’ve ever had, and the case count is accelerating." https://twitter.com/OtherWillJames/status/1325961402092199936

Dr. Kathy Lofy says cases have been rising since September, but have accelerated the past two weeks. The rise is throughout the state, and in all age groups.

She says the rise is not a result of more testing, it's a real increase in disease.

Lofy says state officials are now worried that this trajectory will lead to an acceleration in hospitalizations, and hospitals will be overwhelmed.

She says we are back in a "flatten the curve" situation, and if we can't, the state will have to take steps that hurt the economy.

Dr. John Lynch of Harborview says that, while doctors have gotten better at treating COVID-19, people are still getting severely ill and dying.

He says there are patients in Harborview's ICU in their fifties, etc.

Deputy health secretary Lacy Fehrenbach strongly recommends finding alternatives to in-person gatherings for Thanksgiving.

She says Canadians saw a rise in cases after their Thanksgiving. “We cannot afford this in Washington state.”

Dr. Kira Mauseth on mental health: When we're under constant stress, we don't make good decisions about safety and health. We make impulsive decisions. We might want to forgo masks and meet with people to feel normal. But now is the time to marshal our resources.

This whole briefing amounts to a "last warning" - several references to the fact that, if the trajectory in cases does not change, we'll go back to restrictions.

Dr. Anthony Chen of Tacoma/Pierce County: "There's no one big event that we've been seeing... We're just seeing more cases in households, among friends. Childcare, social gatherings. Any place where people are where they're not wearing masks or maintaining physical distance."

Dr. Jeff Duchin of Seattle/King County: "COVID-19 is a viral wildfire and we are the fuel... Let's not throw more human lives on the fire."

"It hurts to run a marathon, but there will be a finish line when we can relax in the future."

Duchin says the status of the health care system is the best indicator of whether more actions will be necessary "in the coming days."

Reporter @RachelAPOly asks about the timeline of when a decision on restrictions will be made.

Dr. Kathy Lofy says state officials are talking to health care system every day, but says essentially there's no timeline. They'll know when they know.

David Postman, the governor's chief of staff, responds to a question about why Inslee hasn't imposed restrictions yet.

Amounts to: The gov believes in masks, in social distancing. He thinks there's more we can do individually before economic pain becomes necessary.

Postman says if people don't take it seriously, if they push back against masks and not gathering, further steps will be needed.

He says, in recent months, the state made a decision to trade economic restriction for individual responsibility. That's what they're counting on.

Interesting aside from @DocJeffD, who says there are at least four to five times more cases happening than we're documenting in the confirmed case count.

Dr. Anthony Chen @AChenTPCHD: "Public health is the only thing standing between us and disaster... We have to put politics aside, put personalities aside. We have to work on this together."

John Weisman @WaHealthSec, asked about the prospect of rolling back "Safe Start" re-opening plan, says nothing is off the table.

Postman again responds to the question "Why not bring back the stay-at-home order right now?"

Postman says, "People don't like it. There's a COVID fatigue... There's only so much time when people are going to listen to these things."

Again, he says if people don't do the "common sense things" talked about today, they'll have to look at restrictions.

"You and everybody has the power to avoid more onerous restriction. And the question is will people take advantage of that opportunity."

Final Q from @HannaKIROFM: "How close are to exponential growth?"

@WaHealthSec "We're much closer than we were four weeks ago, when we told people the fall surge seemed to be occurring... The slope is increasing right now to the point where we're concerned, if not alarmed."

Briefing has ended. Obviously, I did not tweet every word. More coverage this afternoon on @knkxfm.

Here's a notable statement from the beginning that I wanted to tweet but didn't have time to: https://twitter.com/theolympian/status/1326307506671513600