by Jim Scarantino | Feb 2, 2021 | General
Several months ago Stephen Schumacher wrote to Dr. Thomas Locke, Jefferson County’s Health Officer, regarding questions and concerns he had about protocols being used in tests for COVID-19. He did not receive a response. After Port Townsend Free Press published several of his articles, (on masks, on how Jefferson County may still have no deaths from COVID, and a ticker-tape of news on resistance to COVID lockdowns and questions about vaccines) as well as an article by Annette Huencke based on information obtained from a public records request to Jefferson Healthcare that raised questions about the validity of COVID test results, he has now received a response. Both gentlemen copied Port Townsend Free Press in their correspondence, that also went to County Commissioners and other public officials.
Mr. Schumacher initiated the exchange with the following correspondence to the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners:
February 1, 2021
Dear Jefferson County Commissioners,
Watching the Zoom of this morning’s BoCC meeting, I noted that Dr.
Locke did not answer or even address any of my questions at bottom,
so they are all still on the table. I’m mystified by his
mischaracterization of well-documented concerns over 90% false
positive rates at high cycle counts as “nitpicky” and his
easily-refuted opinion that PCR tests are “highly accurate”.
Philip Morley observed that Jefferson Healthcare handles only a small
percentage of our county’s PCR testing, with most conducted by UW and
others. If so, that raises the additional question:
7) What Cycle Threshold is used by each organization performing PCR
testing in our county, and approximately what percentage of testing
is done by each organization?
Because of the critical importance of the cycle count in evaluating
the significance of a positive PCR test result, both pieces of
information need to be reported to individuals as well as in overall
county statistics.
Dr. Locke’s report began by warning about a tripling of cases with 26
new ones last week if I heard correctly. But what are the cycle
counts of these new cases? It makes a huge difference whether they
were found positive after 20 amplification cycles or after 45 cycles.
My interest is getting at the truth, not politics. But today’s
meeting seemed concerned about county cases showing percentage
improvements before a Feb. 14 deadline One way to achieve that in a
hurry might be to re-examine recent cases and reclassify any that
were incorrectly counted due to amplification cycles higher than 33,
then continue using that rule for new cases. Not only would that be
the right thing to do, it might achieve the “negative cases” Greg
ruefully joked are needed!
Yours truly,
Stephen Schumacher
— Pubic Comment sent 8:28 PM 1/31/2021 —
Dear Jefferson County Commissioners,
On September 2, 2020, I sent the following Public Comment to the
Jefferson County Board of Health and Health Officer Dr. Tom Locke:
“Per the August 29 New York Times report [of 90% false positives at
40-cycle threshold], I’m concerned about the criteria used to
determine confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Jefferson County. Do all
these cases exhibit symptoms, or are “cases” being equated to
positive test results? If the latter, what percentage of cases
exhibit symptoms? Are positive test results being recorded using PCR
tests, and if so, what is the Cycle Threshold value used for these tests?”
I never received any answers to these questions nor have seen them
addressed by Dr. Locke in the press.
Last week the Port Townsend Free Press reported that Jefferson
Healthcare is “using a PCR assay with a 45-cycle threshold, well
beyond the outer limits of reliability.”
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/2021/01/25/is-jefferson-county-health-department-overstating-covid-case-numbers/
This revelation raises various accountability issues, including:
1) Why did our county have to wait nearly 4 months to learn about its
45-cycle threshold from a fortuitous Public Records Request?
2) Since Dr. Locke was also Clallam Health Officer until recently, is
this same unreliable 45 Ct test also in use throughout Clallam County?
3) Was the choice to use this 45 Ct test ever discussed and approved
by the Jefferson County Board of Health or County Commissioners? If
not, was it ever even reported and its significance explained to them?
4) Does Dr. Locke or anybody else keep statistical track of
cumulative cycle counts for positive tests and resulting cases in our
county, or is this info unavailable or being ignored? Could this
information be regularly published in the media, or at least be made
available upon request?
5) Does our county always order a second test following a positive
PCR result, and if not, how often and on what basis? Are all
positive tests treated as COVID-19 cases regardless of symptoms, and
if not, how often has high cycle count been used to discard extremely
weak positive test results?
6) How many county residents have been reported as cases,
quarantined, and contact-traced based on cycle counts above 33, when
the CDC shows “it is extremely difficult to detect any live virus in
a sample above a threshold of 33 cycles”?
/s/ Stephen Schumacher
Today Dr. Locke responded:
Mr. Schumacher,
Cycle threshold values on PCR tests performed to detect SARS-CoV-2 are not routinely reported by laboratories to health departments or the person ordering the test. The Washington State Department of Health establishes standards for what is considered a positive PCR test and is reportable as a notifiable condition. The local health officer has nothing to do with establishing CT parameters or any other diagnostic lab parameter. If you have an issue with CT values you should take it up with Washington DOH or the FDA. Jefferson County Public Health does case investigations and contact tracing of all positive tests reported to Washington State and available to us through a confidential on-line registry known as WEDSS.
The fact that a thermal cycler can perform up to 45 amplification cycles does not mean that ALL tests are amplified to that degree. Samples are cycled until a signal is detected or they have undergone the maximum amplification of the testing protocol. Samples can have high CT values for many reasons — poor sample quality, degradation of the sample during transport, low viral levels in the person being tested, and testing late in illness when fragments of non-replicating virus can be detected. And it is certainly true that high CT values correlate with lower transmission risk (assuming adequate sample collection and specimen transport). Setting standards for FDA approved diagnostic tests is a federal regulatory function. States set standards for notifiable conditions such as SARS-CoV-2 infection. County health officers, local boards of health, county boards of commissioners, and public hospital district commissioners have nothing to do with these decisions.
Again, if you have grave concerns that the Washington State Department of Health is using scientifically indefensible criteria for determining which COVID-19 PCR tests are positive, please share your expertise and concerns with them. These criteria are not set by county health officers or local hospital districts. Nor do we manufacture or license the PCR machines that are used to test diagnostic specimens for SARS-CoV-2. We rely on these tools along with our case investigations (looking at exposure risk, symptom onset, and other risk factors) in assessing cases. False positive tests can occur with any diagnostic technology. They appear to be quite infrequent with PCR testing, especially when a person has a COVID-like illness or a recent exposure to a confirmed case. If your goal is to support the pandemic denialism that Ms. Huenke promotes in the “Port Townsend Free Press” article you reference, I could not disagree more. With the spread of more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2, the social cost of pandemic denialism is increasing. If sizeable numbers of people indulge in the wishful thinking that attempts to control COVID-19 transmission are unnecessary, it is only a matter of time before variant strains become predominant. We still have time to avert this future or at least slow it enough to allow widespread vaccine deployment. I urge you to join the community fight against COVID-19 and stop attacking those who are working long hours trying to protect their community from the worst public health emergency in the last 100 years.
Sincerely,
Thomas Locke, MD, MPH
Jefferson County Health Officer
by Jim Scarantino | Jan 12, 2021 | General
Port Townsend Free Press is going quiet for several months. The editor, Jim Scarantino, as in 2019, has to get to work on business responsibilities here and on the East Coast. Due to the COVID lockdowns, there’s a significant backlog needing attention. Plus, he’s going to to be doing a little traveling and enjoying those states within driving distance where one can dine and drink inside a bar and restaurant.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to our humble effort at citizen journalism during 2020: Brett Nunn, Craig Durgan, Gabrielle Guthrie, Gene Farr, Z Cerveney, Steve Schumacher, T.J, Kalas and our “Concerned Citizen of Port Townsend,” whose incisive commentaries we agreed to publish anonymously because she feared retaliation. Your articles were widely read. You made a real contribution to the dialogue in Jefferson County.
And thanks enormously to our readers–those who openly followed our work by commenting, sharing our stuff, or “liking” or “following” on Facebook–and the many more who regularly read our work but don’t want others in Port Townsend to know. Thanks for letting us know you’re out there. Our numbers soared this past year, and it was all because of all of you.
The lawsuit Jim Scarantino filed against Jefferson County for the way it censors and stifles speech in its on-line public forum, its official Facebook page, is proceeding, regardless of other commitments.
See you in a bit. Thanks for your understanding.
by Jim Scarantino | Jan 9, 2021 | General
A community partnership between retired law enforcement officers and civilians has been educating seniors and property owners about scams and crime prevention, bringing cheer to those needing a little love, and helping active-duty deputies do their jobs safely. The Jefferson County Sheriffs Foundation was created in 2003 by former Sheriff Mike Brasfield to provide financial support for programs and activities beyond the reach of public funding. As local governments face sharply reduced revenue, the Foundation finds it is needed more than ever.
Ken Przygocki is the Foundation’s new President. He is a former Washington State Patrol sergeant and Detroit policeman. He has two sons in law enforcement, including Brandon, a sergeant with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The new Vice President is Ryan Lammers, manager of Hadlock Building Supply. They sat down for an interview with Port Townsend Free Press to explain what the Foundation does and its goals for the coming year.
The Foundation is not nearly as well known as other Jefferson County charities. “That’s one of our biggest faults,” says Lammers. “It’s not out there enough.” But its activities are well known to the people it has been helping for nearly two decades.
Educating Seniors and Crime Prevention
The Foundation provides a training entitled, “Introduction to Crime and Fraud Prevention for Senior Citizens.” The program is sponsored by Kitsap Bank. Seniors too easily fall victim to fraud schemes, ranging from scam calls for fake charities to shakedowns that exploit fear of the IRS. One scam that recently surfaced in Jefferson County involves communications to seniors purporting to be from someone they know in which the caller asks that gift cards be purchased and sent them as a favor or to get them out of an emergency. Another scam targeting seniors is a call or email telling them that a warrant has been issued and they will be arrested unless they pay a certain amount of money.
“If there really is a warrant for you,” Przygocki said, “you can’t buy your way out. If it’s really bad, you won’t get an email. You will get a knock on your door.”
Another scam that targets seniors is an email or call that their grandson has been arrested and funds are needed to get him out of jail. The Foundation stays abreast of the latest scams and covers them in its trainings.
Sadly, seniors and the disabled fall victim to care givers who manipulate them into providing powers of attorney that lead to their assets being cleaned out. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Foundation seminar teaches the warning signs and steps to take before a vulnerable person finds themselves the victim of crime by someone they thought they could trust.
The Foundation will also provide on-site crime prevention assessments for private residences and businesses. For example, they performed this service for the SKP mobile home park on Anderson Lake Road. A team of four people fully inspected the property and the housing units and advised on placement of cameras, security for windows, removal of shrubbery, placement of signage, formation of a neighborhood watch and other measures.
Crime is sadly increasing in our community, particularly burglaries. On the morning of this interview, a burglary followed by a pursuit in the Tri-Community Area ended only for law enforcement to be called to another burglary and pursuit at Cape George. This comes on the heels of perhaps an unprecedented number of break-ins and thefts from Port Townsend to Fat Smitty’s at the bottom of Discovery Bay. Some of the criminals have been locals, but a large number are from outside the county. Law enforcement sources tell Port Townsend Free Press that Jefferson County has become the target for criminals based in Kitsap County who see this area as easy pickings with less risk of apprehension.
The seminars are provided at no charge. They are offered to any kind of organization, including homeowner and business groups. To arrange one, see the contact information at the end of this article.
Holiday Cheer
Jefferson County deputies dug into their own pockets to help a family that had just lost their father. They reached out to Ken Przygocki to act as Santa Claus to deliver the gifts.
This is something the Foundation hopes to do more of in the coming year. The Sheriff’s Office cannot accept donations, but the Foundation, as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, can and the donor may get the benefit of a tax deduction. A generous woman recently donated a motor home which the Foundation auctioned for a nice sum of money.
Helping more families enjoy bright moments in dark times is one of the Foundation’s major goals for the coming year.
Helping Deputies Do Their Jobs and Stay Healthy
The Sheriff’s Office operates under a budget set by the Board of County Commissioners. Those funds do not cover nearly enough. The Foundation has provided ammunition so deputies can maintain proficiency with their firearms. It has provided Tac Vests that go over body armor and relieve the stress on spinal columns and back muscles caused by the heavy weight of the gear deputies carry on their belts.
A deputy’s job puts a lot of wear and tear on their bodies. They have to lift people, run through woods, and subdue those who resist arrest or attempt to harm others. The Foundation was able to provide the Sheriff’s Office with fitness equipment to keep those critical bodies strong and fit. They have also provided deputies with a handbook on Washington state law that can be carried with them on patrol.
“Deputies constantly need something,” Przygocki says. “Things break, wear out. The Foundation can help chip in when the need arises and budgets are limited.”
Individuals wanting to target their donations to addressing a particular need or program may do so, Lammers says.
The best way to contact the Foundation is through their Facebook Page at “Jefferson County Sheriff’s Foundation.” Their website is currently undergoing some work.
by Jim Scarantino | Jan 6, 2021 | Local Businesses
“Let’s do this!” says Michelle West, owner of Evergreen Fitness in the Glen Cove area south of Port Townsend. “Starting 5:30 a.m. Monday January 11, we are open.”
Under the guidelines for fitness establishments announced by Governor Inslee on January 5, Evergreen Fitness may have up to 22 people at a time in its cavernous, multi-level facility. The rules require 500 square feet for each athlete (yes, if you’re 82 years old and you’re in the gym, you are an athlete). Also, exercise classes will be permitted to resume in groups of no more than five people. Just dropping by is not permitted. Members must make appointments to get the blood flowing again and start working off those extra COVID lock-down pounds. Each session may last up to 45 minutes.
West was already launching the “Jefferson County Health and Fitness Challenge” on January 11. That will be an eight-week program, with Zoom meetings, personal attention from a NASM accredited trainer, weekly challenges, and instructional materials. Participants may also enroll in beginner or intermediate guided walks or a special fitness assessment with two fitness routines customized for their home equipment. Registration starts at $39.
As part of the challenge, participants can win 20% of the fees collected, with 5% awarded to first and second runners-up.
Reopening means six employees getting back to work. In addition to its sprawling main floor with free weights, work-out equipment and cardio machines, Evergreen has an upstairs exercise floor and two sizable studios. Its large size will allow it to take full benefit of the Governor’s provisions for reopening.
And there’s a massage studio and tanning rooms that have remained in business the whole time, in compliance with the Governor’s guidelines. The juice bar will also reopen.
“I’m so grateful,” says West, “to members who jumped with us through all the changing hoops and rules and continued to be supportive and encouraging.”
No one has lost time off their contracts. West is extending all existing contracts to add on the days when the gym was closed. Evergreen is accepting new members.
For more information, call 360-302-1132 or click evergreenfitness.net. Members may begin reserving their workout and class time by logging on to myiclubonline.com. Spots in the gym areas may be reserved up to ten days in advance and up to eight days in advance for classes. The classes will include live senior group fitness leaders and virtual Les Mills instructors. Reservations may be made now.
West has been resourceful in keeping her business alive. It has been hard. She’s seen membership renewals drop and revenues plummet. She’s kept her building dark and cold and taken other steps in her business and personal life to save money. But she’s kept busy, promoting health and fitness and keeping members updated with regular email communications. She has worked closely with local government and health authorities to seek clarification on sometimes vague guidelines and bring her facility into compliance with all that is required of her. She has talked with many members personally to encourage them, not just to be patient, but also to take care of themselves and not let their health suffer.
Just as she’s encouraged members, they’ve also encouraged her. Now with the clouds lifting, the lights will be coming on in Evergreen Fitness.
by Jim Scarantino | Dec 21, 2020 | General
Unimaginable horrors taught my grandfather the power of Christmas. Vincenzo Scarantino was 18 years old in 1915 when police swept through his remote Sicilian village rounding up conscripts to throw against Austrian fortifications. He spent the rest of his youth in muddy or frozen trenches in a war waged so Italy could seize the port city of Trieste.
A million men were killed or wounded where my grandfather fought. The fighting along the Austrian front was almost continuous for three years. The Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo alone cost 280,000 dead, wounded or missing. My grandfather was there.
That photo above was taken during the war on the Carso Plateau, another place where my grandfather fought. My wife and I hiked the area and saw an exposed slope, ten stories high, where my grandfather’s battalion tried for years to take heights defended by machine guns and flame throwers. Trenches cut by hand into solid rock over a century ago are still up there. Rusted barbed wire will trip you. You can find air vents for bunkers under your feet. There’s a trail through the old battlefield marked with blood red paint splashed on limestone.
Mussolini built a memorial to the Isonzo’s war dead. He called it La Redipuglia. It cascades in massive concrete and marble steps down that ten-story slope. It holds the bones of over 100,000 soldiers, more than 60,000 of them unidentified.
Vincenzo told us once–my father translating to English from mountain Sicilian–of charging through smoke and artillery fire and noticing that the waves of men to his left and right had disappeared. Thinking he had fallen behind, he ran faster to catch up to the soldiers ahead. He discovered they were the remnants of another company. All the men he had started with had been mowed down by flanking fire.
My grandfather talked about being gassed. He had just enough time to fit a mask over his face. Slower reflexes and notoriously shoddy equipment doomed his comrades. Then the Austrians came. My grandfather pulled bodies of friends over himself. He held his breath as Austrians bayoneted his protective blanket of corpses.
He spoke of a lieutenant who always had a fancy cigarette holder between his teeth and was always eager to spend his men’s lives. This officer recklessly exposed himself above the earthworks. Waving his pistol, he demanded another headlong rush into machine gun fire. A sniper’s bullet knocked the cigarette holder–and the lieutenant’s teeth–out of his mouth. My grandfather smiled when he told that story. A single shot saved hundreds of lives that day.
Italian dead carpet an Isonzo battlefield after a failed attack
My grandfather said the world had gone crazy. He used the Sicilian word, “matto,” which translates roughly to “deranged” or “criminally insane.”
What some may view as the craziest incident in this meaningless war was the only thing that made any sense to my grandfather.
One Christmas day the guns fell silent.
Unlike the 1914 Christmas truce in France, no formal cease-fire had been negotiated on the Italian-Austrian front. Men just stopped killing each other. My grandfather and his buddies nervously crawled out of their trenches, then stood up and walked unarmed in No Man’s Land.
The soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire also took the risk that Christmas morning. Adversaries met in the open. The Sicilians didn’t speak German, or Magyar, Czech, Serbian, Croat, Albanian, Slovenian or Polish. Many didn’t even speak Italian. But both sides knew the melodies of Christmas carols. Words in the languages of a polyglot empire matched lyrics that sounded more Arabic than Latin. Men raised their voices to celebrate an equally crazy idea, that God stepped into our deranged, broken world as a helpless baby and that His incarnation through human birth could mean the world’s peace and salvation.
The soldiers shared cigarettes. They embraced and wished each other well. As dusk fell they returned to their slits in the ground. The next day generals ordered them to get back to killing each other. The men had to fight. Italian officers enforced discipline with the Roman practice of decimation: They shot every tenth man in reluctant units.
That order to resume the killing may have done more damage to my grandfather than anything else he experienced in the war. Miraculously, he was never seriously physically injured. But I remember him in the middle of the night screaming, sweating, and shaking. My father saw the same things when he was a boy. He says my grandfather never got over being forced to kill men he had hours before embraced as his Christian brothers.
Vincenzo later worked in Pennsylvania’s coal mines. Men again died around him. He had survived bullets and bombs and phosgene gas, followed by cave-ins and fires, to be killed by tiny particles of coal dust in his lungs.
In helping me research my grandfather’s story, my father dug out Vincenzo’s Bible (in Italian, not a word of English). Between the pages of the Gospels telling us about Christ’s birth he found prescriptions for laudanum, a potent opiate once used to numb “shell shock,” what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder.
I’ve been wondering why my grandfather filed unused prescriptions in his Bible. I imagine him studying slips of paper promising temporary relief from the horrors in his head. Then I see him opening his Bible and tucking prescriptions he knew offered no real cure among pages telling an eternal story of hope arriving in a most unexpected form.
I like to think that my grandfather found peace among those worn pages, and in the memory of one sane moment in a world gone mad.
Merry Christmas. Peace on Earth. Or, as Vincenzo Scarantino would say, “Buon Natale!”
[Another version of this story, “Haunted by a Battlefield Christmas,” was published by The Albuquerque Journal, December 25, 2008.]
