Subject: [Tweeters] News story about Skagit group
Date: Sat Mar 28 10:29:51 PDT 2020
From: Marv Breece - marvbreece at q.com

Whether your position is stay at home or bird safely, it is important to understand just how contagious this coronavirus is. Please take a moment to read the message below that Janeanne Houston and Mark Ahlness sent to Tweeters yesterday.

For those of you who believe this whole virus thing is a hoax, I urge you to think again. If not for yourself, then for the ones you love.
For those of you who feel you can bird safely, make damn sure you do!

Marv Breece
Tukwila, WA
marvbreece at q.com


From: "Mark Ahlness" <mahlness at gmail.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2020 9:08:01 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] News story about Skagit group
Because the area is such a popular birding destination, sending this on.... From the NY Times yesterday, about an incident in Skagit County on March 10:


March 26, 2020, 6:15 p.m. ETMarch 26, 2020
March 26, 2020
By [ https://www.nytimes.com/by/mike-baker | Mike Baker ]

[ https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/coronavirus-usa-03-26#a-choir-group-had-60-people-show-up-for-practice-now-45-are-sick | A choir group had 60 people show up for practice. Now 45
are sick. ]

Before social distancing requirements were in place in Washington State earlier this month, members of a choir group took their own coronavirus precautions. They told singers not to attend practice if they had even a hint of illness.

Yet the virus has devastated the Skagit Valley Chorale, based in the rural valley north of Seattle that is famous for its tulip production. Of the 60 people who attended a March 10 practice, 45 have developed symptoms and 27 so far have tested positive, officials said. One of the group's members has died, another has been hospitalized and others have struggled to overcome their illness.

Polly Dubbel, the communicable disease and environmental health manager at Skagit County Public Health, said the case was a disturbing example of how contagious coronavirus can be and how it can spread among groups even when no one is symptomatic.

"It's really too high risk for people to gather close together," Ms. Dubbel said. "This just really illustrates that."

Ruth Backlund, a co-president at the Skagit Valley Chorale, said the group was monitoring public health guidelines at the time of the practice and had asked people to stay home if they showed even minor signs of illness. The group gathered in rows facing a piano and a choir director. They were all in individual chairs and had space to keep separated. Ms. Backlund had made sure there were extra soap dispensers in the bathrooms for people to wash their hands.

"Nobody was sick. Nobody touched anybody. Nobody shook hands. Nobody hugged everybody like you might do in a group. There was none of that," Ms. Backlund said.
--
Mark Ahlness
[ mailto:mahlness at gmail.com | mahlness at gmail.com ]
Seattle, WA

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