Week in Review: Primary elections, Monkeypox, and booster shots

Bill Radke reviews the week’s news with Publicola's Erica Barnett, The Everett Herald's Isabella Breda, and The Seattle Times' Elise Takahama.

Primary elections across the country were held this week. And here in Washington they looked… pretty normal. That red wave democrats feared doesn’t seem to have landed here. But that doesn’t mean nothing happened.

In Snohomish a data mistake meant the county briefly misreported primary tallies. Plus, voters across the country made their voice heard on abortion access. In Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have made it far more difficult to get an abortion. Here in Washington, Democratic candidates touted their support of abortion access.

We also saw federal action on abortion access this week - the justice department has filed a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s restriction of abortion access, citing the potential impact on women in medical emergencies. President Biden also signed an executive order allowing Medicaid funds to be used for traveling out of state for abortions. Closer to home - Swedish medical considered moving OB-GYN services from Swedish Edmonds to the Providence Everett Pavilion for Women and Children. Providence is a Catholic institution that merged with Swedish in 2012.

Monkeypox has officially been declared a national health emergency in the US. But that doesn’t mean everyone will be able to get a vaccine any time soon. A report by the New York Times says that the Department of Health and Human Services failed early on to ask that bulk stocks of the vaccine it already owned be bottled for distribution. And the Washington Department of Health says they’re seeing cases double every eight to nine days. According to Public Health – Seattle & King County, 1,420 vaccine doses were delivered from the Washington state Department of Health to King County. The DOH says Washington state currently does not have the vaccine supply it needs to prevent infection. There’s also concern about how news around Monkeypox is being reported, and the potential of a rise in homophobic rhetoric or violence as the disease spreads.

Just because one national health emergency starts doesn’t mean another is finished. Covid boosters are expected to arrive in September. But hospitals are still far over capacity and facing unsustainable financial losses. Meanwhile, this week the Seattle city council voted to end hazard pay for grocery store workers.

Monday marked the end of the PNW’s record setting heat wave, but the repercussions continue. We’ve learned that the heatwave killed 10 people, and sent hundreds to the emergency room. The heat wave also didn’t stop Seattle from sweeping RVs and other vehicles as temperatures rose.

The Public Employee Relations Commission has ordered the University of to reinstate police patrols of student residence halls. The police had been replaced by unarmed “campus responders” following the 2020 George Floyd protests and growing concerns of police violence. The decision lays with the fact that the UW didn’t bargain with the campus police union prior to replacing them.