My biggest worry is that if we have another Blue Wave & we will the Electoral College will let it roll over & put Trump back into the White House again & will have another 4 years of lying & stealing money from the American people. If they do this again it'll become the 6th time the Electoral College went against the will of the people by putting the loser of the popular vote in the White House.

The Electoral College also failed the county & the American people by going against their Primary Mission which is to protect the country & us against the likes of Trump.

I do not call this Democracy!

I do not belong to any political party. I vote for people after I research them & vote for those I believe will be best for our country & the people.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-12-27/the-electoral-college-doesnt-work-the-way-the-founding-fathers-intended

I'd be happy to, a couple notes first, to understand:

1) What is a cytokine storm?

“With any infection, the body’s immune system responds by attacking the foreign virus or bacteria. While this immune response can rid the body of the infection, it can also sometimes cause collateral damage in the body.

This can come in the form of an intense inflammatory response, sometimes called a “cytokine storm.” The immune cells produce cytokines to fight infection, but if too many are released, it can cause problems in the body.

“A lot of [the damage in the body during COVID-19] is due to what we would call a sepsis syndrome, which is due to complex immune reactions,” Evans said. “The infection itself can generate an intense inflammatory response in the body that can affect the function of multiple organ systems.”

From: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/heres-what-happens-to-the-body-after-contracting-the-coronavirus#Immune-system

“This "cytokine storm" can trigger a viral sepsis in coronavirus infection, where viral replication and excessive, uncontrolled systemic inflammation can lead to pneumonitis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, respiratory failure, shock, organ failure, secondary bacterial pneumonia, and potentially death.”

From: https://www.biospace.com/article/cytosorb-the-wuhan-coronavirus-and-cytokine-storm/

2) immunopathology – refers to damage caused to an organism by its own immune response, as a result of an infection.

3) “challenge” means they put the vaccinated animal in contact with the virus to see how they would respond, to see if they really were immune or not.

SOURCES FOR VACCINE CONCERN:

“previous efforts to develop a safe vaccine to protect human hosts from the SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV proved challenging. Although vaccines comprising viral peptides were able to induce potentially neutralizing antibodies, in vaccine development studies for both viruses, significant lung immunopathology was observed in test animals following viral challenge.”

From: https://www.the-rheumatologist.org/article/dont-forget-the-host-covid-19-cytokine-storm/

“These SARS-CoV vaccines all induced antibody and protection against infection with SARS-CoV. However, challenge of mice given any of the vaccines led to occurrence of Th2-type immunopathology suggesting hypersensitivity to SARS-CoV components was induced. Caution in proceeding to application of a SARS-CoV vaccine in humans is indicated.”

From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335060/

Further consider: the vaccines thus developed for similar coronaviruses, caused a cytokine storm, the very thing that appears to be most problematic for those that suffer and die from the virus. The cure could be as bad as the disease. And no one would know until next they came into contact with a wild coronavirus. And coronaviruses make up about 20% of the common cold, or approximately 200 million infections every year in the US.

Surely scientists know this? Surely they would not put us at risk? But let's consider that the fear is coming from media. They are not scientists, and while they consult with scientists, media is for profit, with a large segment of their advertising dollars coming from Big Pharma. Pharmaceuticals can be life saving, but again, the industry is for profit, a Trillion dollar industry globally and largely responsible for such atrocities as the Opiod crisis. Is this what they want? I doubt it. But consider that when shown vast piles of money, a populace fomenting for a cure, government willing to push regulatory restrictions for safety to the breaking point, and you have a perfect storm.

And already we are seeing the risk from this rush for a cure: Animal Trials were skipped. The vaccine went direct to human. Why is this a concern? For one: Using Animal models vs. humans gives insight with a shorter biological lifespan that can more quickly identify downstream ramifications that would be much slower to identify in humans.

Sure, we will innovate, I'm a sci-fi geek myself, and that stuff sounds awesome, but only if we are allowed to decide for ourselves what is considered "essential" and if government keeps its nose out of private business. Else we'll be limited to what they dictate. On that, you and I agree that we need solutions that are fair to all.

While I know the popular desire is for a vaccine, it should be noted that there is no vaccine yet. They have one in trial, as well as others being worked on (and anti-virals) but that initial human trial has nearly a year left. That is only Phase 1. There are 3 total Phases before it can be approved.

And do you really want a brand new vaccine that has been rushed through approval? COVID-19 is structurally similar to SARS and after the SARS epidemic of 2003-04, a vaccine was designed but never approved. Animal models showed antibodies developed, but when those animals were exposed to another wild coronavirus there was then a cytokine storm (severe immune reaction) that resulted in high morbidity in the animals. The vaccine was (as you can imagine) cautioned against continuing forward with any human trials.

I'm not saying that will be the case with this vaccine, but it should be noted that SARS killed a lot of people, with a higher percentage of morbidity than COVID-19 and yet development stalled.

And to put it into context, the vast majority of people that catch COVID-19 are just fine. Yes, there are some fatalities, but there are fatalities every year from some people that have compromised immune systems. 160k die every year in the form of Lower Respiratory Disease. I would not find it surprising that in the end it is found that our total deaths year over year are little changed.

All the while, doctors are finding more effective ways to treat this virus. Ignore the thought that ventilators help, most hospitals have discovered (unfortunately) that those put on ventilators have an 80% morbidity rate, compared to normal use of a ventilator having only 40-50%. Instead, a more simple oxygen treatment appears to be more beneficial.

Remember that media is for profit, and largely funded by Big Pharma. They have a conflict of interest to support one of their highest backers, and why would they want to talk about hydroxychloroquine, intravenous Vitamin C, etc. that are all dirt cheap treatments that hospitals across the country have been using with very strong results.

NextDoor does have that problem.

Most of what you say resonates, but the Inslee specific angle doesn't hold water for me personally. The response by governor's is fairly universal at this point and based in medicine. Inslee also found himself at the head of the first outbreak area and needed to do this in the fly more than others. A side effect of the order is that it interrupts campaigning yes, but it also sort of levels the playing field, especially if citizens work to follow that through. Outside of ad buying, your money can't do as much when you're sitting at home.

You mentioned you didn't have the answer, maybe it's in putting pressure on the state to standardized campaigning approaches during COVID-19? Organize a petition with a package of reforms meant to balance the advantage you see. Maybe, more stringent limits on ad spending for campaigns, a stepped approach to debate qualifying through standardized online petition platform, streamed debates from candidates individual homes with guaranteed TV time equal across all qualifiers. You can make this an opportunity to reset the system a bit and make Inslee and other incumbents campaign on issues like anyone else.

I personally think a modern leader needs to understand technology or know enough to surround themself with competent people that feed them that knowledge. So this is the wild west, we're all in the same boat. Who will rise to this occasion and turn these limitations into an advantage?

Thank you Scott, just trying to bring some light to an issue in this unprecedented time. Officials may be trying to do the best with what they know, but they're not perfect and need us citizens to be watching out for problems.

@Clifton Hill We have a similar problem here in Camas. Councilors and Mayors leave early, allowing sitting councilors to appoint their replacements. Those replacements become unelected incumbents during their next election cycle.

Terribly unfair to new candidates. Thanks for posting, Cliff.