SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
‘It looked ominous:’ Dori’s fact-check on upcoming state health board meeting
Jan 10, 2022, 3:03 PM | Updated: Jan 11, 2022, 7:58 am
A series of partitioned areas for patients at a Shoreline field hospital in 2020. (Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio)
(Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio)
When KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show started getting hundreds of messages last week from listeners regarding a Washington State Board of Health meeting slated for Jan. 12, it was clear people were alarmed.
On the surface, the meeting looked ominous. There were items related to quarantine centers and assigning law enforcement officials to force people into these centers. Texts and emails about this board of health agenda took off like wildfire.
Based on the agenda’s initial draft, Dori explained, “There are people out there who thought (the state) was going to snatch up COVID-positive people and involuntarily quarantine them.”
To fact-check these concerns, the Dori Monson Show reached out to state Sen. Jeff Wilson (R-Longview), the ranking Republican on the Senate State Government and Elections Committee, and a member of the state’s Senate Freedom Caucus.
“That is not going to happen,” Wilson assured listeners.
Sen. Wilson pointed to a “confusing” initial meeting announcement, and believes the board of health “put out a lazy agenda.”
“They could have clarified,” he added.
On Monday morning, days after the first agenda went viral, the state board of health did update its agenda, Dori confirmed.
Listeners who shared their concerns, Dori added, “were doing what good citizens do: being a watchdog of government.”
Wilson says he, too, is “grateful” for citizens who follow these issues. As the legislative session rolls out, the senator encourages people to watch how the state addresses questions about immunization requirements for children to attend school – including at what age, and exactly which shots a student needs to enroll. It’s a “tricky” issue that will deal with COVID, Wilson said.
While emphasizing that an addition to the list of vaccines required for students is not currently scheduled for a vote, the senator respects that “so many people got alarmed” because this issue deals with “privacy and our self-determinations for our children and our families.”
Listen to Dori’s entire interview with Sen. Wilson here:
Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
