Vashon’s current COVID surge has impacted both Vashon Island Fire District (VIFR) and Vashon Island School District (VISD) with cases spiking in recent weeks.

The spike on Vashon is reflected throughout the state, and at a press conference last week, Washington’s top health officials strongly recommended a return to mask-wearing in some indoor settings but stopped short of issuing new mandates.

“This is the time to remind ourselves that this pandemic is not over,” state Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said in the Wednesday, May 25, news conference. “In indoor settings that are crowded or in confined places, we absolutely want you to wear a mask.”

At VIFR, several infections among staff members in the past month — including a bout with the virus by Chief Charles Krimmert that was discussed at a May 25 board meeting — have stretched the already thinly-staffed fire department.

At VISD, the district’s COVID dashboard currently lists 133 cases in students from May 2 to May 29, with 25 cases in staff members in the same time period. This year, only during January did the district record higher cases in students, though cases in staff were fewer at that time.

VISD stays the course, not changing current protocols

According to Public Health Seattle – King County guidelines, masks are now optional for students and staff at the school.

At a board meeting held on May 26, all the board and executive staff members of VISD present, with the exception of Superintendent Slade McSheehy, chose the option of mask-wearing.

McSheehy, at the meeting, said that the current load of cases had stressed the district, and that district staff members had, at times, been pulled from the office to make sure classrooms were covered.

The district’s COVID testing site had seen increased use by community members over the past month, he said, noting he was glad to have seen that use by islanders. Weekly meetings of safety teams in each of the district’s three schools were still regularly taking place.

Still, he did not make recommendations for any change in COVID protocols and precautions in the district.

“Overall, we are in this period where we’re not making any significant decisions over and beyond what is recommended by Public Health Seattle King County,” he said.

Public health officials, McSheehy added, were “well aware” of the transmission rate in Vashon schools, and had not made any specific recommendations to the district.

When asked by Toby Holmes, the board president, if he would follow any additional recommendations from Public Health in terms of reinstating masking requirements or other stipulations, McSheehy said he would.

VIFR reinstates masks and daily testing, for now

Current King County protocols for fire stations do not require mask-wearing within a fire station, though firefighters are still required to wear masks and other PPE while in the field. Current county protocols also no longer require daily testing by firefighters, though staff must test if they have a known exposure to the virus.

However, at a meeting on Wednesday, May 26, VIFR’s commissioners voted to exceed those protocols, and require the district’s staff to test daily as well as wear masks and distance inside the station for the next month.

An amendment to the motion also passed, stipulating that firefighter caption and union president Ben Davidson, battalion chief and safety officer Cari Coll, Chief Krimmert and Dr. James Bristow, of Vashon’s Medical Reserve Corp (MRC) would meet to discuss the local metrics and conditions which could, in the future, re-trigger masking and testing for VIRF’s staff.

The motion came after the board heard different viewpoints on the subject from Davidson, Bristow and Coll.

Coll, speaking first, said that based on a request from Commissioner Camille Staczek, she had sought information and input from Chief Charles DeSmith, at Renton Fire, who is the deputy chief of EMS and safety in that district.

Coll said that DeSmith had told her no other fire departments in King County were currently requiring masks in the station and daily testing, and she also recounted how in their conversation, DeSmith had compared COVID to the flu and said that vaccines would be needed on an annual basis.

Speaking later in the meeting, Bristow, of the MRC, pushed back on some of Coll’s statements about vaccines, which he said were still highly effective in reducing severe disease.

“Vaccination will be the key to making it more and more like flu,” he said.

Regarding a return to testing, masking and distancing at the station, Bristow said, “the key to going forward is to have flexibility, to go backward and forward on mitigation measures including masking, as cases rise and fall.”

He said that as a community, Vashon had shown flexibility in its COVID response, and as a consequence, had been able to bring its case numbers down during spikes of the disease.

“As an employer, Vashon Fire is required to do the minimum as required by King County Public Health but you are fully empowered to set your own standards, and those standards can vary depending on case rates,” he said. “I do think, with facing staffing shortages already, the last thing you want is people getting COVID and exposing others at work at a time when there is a lot of COVID on the island. So wearing an N95 at work seems like a no-brainer to me.”

Captain Davidson said that in the past month, as multiple cases cropped up in the district, he had written an email to the district’s administration, expressing his concern over this issue. When he received no responese, he said, he took his concerns to the commissioners, saying the minimum King County guidelines were not sufficient to protect the health of the district staff and the community.

McCullough pushed back on that idea, saying that if firefighters were concerned about masking and testing, they could have taken those steps voluntarily, which had not happened.

Krimmert additionally told Davidson that as a captain, he had the authority to require firefighters to mask, test and distance.

Davidson said that he did not know he had that authority and had, in fact, recently been threatened with discipline for telling a firefighter whose family member had tested positive for COVID to stay home. Currently, King County protocols allow for firefighters to return to work, even with a sick family member, if they test negative for the virus.

The day after this incident, Davidson said, the firefighter had tested positive.