Editorial: Keeping it safe at Strawberry Festival
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 13, 2022
What a joyous occasion, to be outside at our Strawberry Festival again, spending quality time with friends and neighbors!
Here at The Beachcomber, we also want it to be a safe festival for all. And so, of course, we asked our partners at VashonBePrepared to offer up some sage advice to islanders on COVID precautions during the festival.
They suggested that islanders stay aware of their surroundings and consider their personal risks.
Outdoors is good, for sure — way less risky than any indoor event. But “way less risky” is not zero risk. A peer-reviewed study of two music festivals in Spain showed that attendees were twice as likely to contract COVID compared to a control group of the general population (The Lancet medical journal, bit.ly/FestivalStudy).
The potential for COVID spread has particular importance now because the virus has been evolving to get past the immunity defenses that we’ve acquired from vaccination and from having had COVID. The currently dominant subvariants (BA.4 and BA.5) are much more contagious than the virus was a year ago, or even six months ago.
These questions can help you plan for the weekend:
What’s my personal and household risk level? Are you immunocompromised? Is someone in your household at greater risk due to age or health challenges? What steps can you take to reduce the risk of bringing COVID home from the festival?
How crowded is it? Will you be jam-packed together at a festival event, whether outdoors or indoors? How will you maintain a safe distance from others in the crowd?
What are those people doing? Assess the risk of the festival activity. Is it a cheering and singing and dancing crowd? The more forcefully an infected person breathes, the larger the invisible plume of virus-laden droplets that this person exhales.
How long will I be exposed? The more time you spend with folks outside your household, the greater the risk you will catch COVID. Shared air increases risk, and this risk grows the longer you spend near others, even if it’s outdoors. So, strolling the highway where you would have fleeting exposures has a lower risk than sitting in a packed audience for a couple of hours.
How strong is my immunity? Protection acquired from vaccinations or from having had COVID wanes over time. If you had COVID a year ago, you have less protection than someone who had it a month ago. Similarly, if your last booster shot was more than a few months ago, it will not protect you as much as it did initially. And, keep in mind that even the strongest immunity is never 100%.
Do I have COVID right now? Even a little sniffle could be a clue as you think about your festival plans. Free home test kits can help you figure out if you have COVID. With the recent Omicron variants, however, many people are not testing positive for COVID until three or four days after the onset of symptoms. So if you have symptoms that could be COVID, stay home and test several times through day four or five. Because of its sensitivity, a PCR test (or other molecular/NAAT test) is a good alternative to repetitive home tests. Strawberry Festival will not be so joyous if our island has a big spike, so please do whatever you can to avoid sharing the virus with your neighbors.
Is it really fully outdoors? Being in a tent or booth at the festival is not the same as being fully outdoors in the fresh air. Anything that reduces the breeze or ventilation will increase your risk of exposure.
Who are all these people? Many folks who live on the mainland come to Vashon for the festival. Mainland King County has twice the infection rate of our island. And Pierce County just moved up a notch into the CDC’s Orange/High-Risk category.
Who’s looking out for you? It’s easy to get into the spirit of a festive moment and find yourself in a risky situation. Make an agreement with family or friends to remind each other to keep distance, wear masks, etc.
Do you have a mask in your pocket or purse? Masks can make a huge difference. As you roam the festival, if you find yourself in a situation where you are at risk — going indoors to a restroom, entering a store, restaurant or bar — have that N95 mask handy and slip it on. Better yet, just wear it even when outdoors. When you take your mask off to eat or drink, try to dine outdoors, and step away from the crowd.
Now that we’ve gotten this important conversation out of the way, thumb through our Strawberry Festival guide and enjoy the weekend!
