Dear Friends:

Today’s update includes information about King County’s “Stand Together, Stay Apart” educational campaign, the Auburn Food Bank’s Drive by Food Drive, as well as an update on the impact of social distancing measures in our community, new protections for high-risk workers and King County’s “Project C.A.R.E.”

Seattle Athletes Join Stand Together, Stay Apart Campaign

Russell Wilson, Sue Bird, Nicolás Lodeiro and Megan Rapinoe have joined Public Health’s COVID-19 public education campaign to encourage King County residents to “Stand Together, Stay Apart.” These athletes are appearing in ads showing that the most important actions to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect our healthcare system are to stay home and stay six feet away from others when you must go out, such as for an essential job or to buy groceries.


I am grateful for the leadership of Russell Wilson and other athletes in our community as we stand together to blunt the spread of COVID-19.

The campaign is funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is running on digital and social media platforms as well as TV and radio spots donated by regional business partners including Windermere, Puget Sound Energy, Washington State Association of Broadcasters, Microsoft, Washington Roundtable and Facebook.



Auburn Food Bank Drive By Food Drive

On Saturday, April 18th from noon – 3:00 p.m. the Auburn Food Bank will be hosting a Drive by Food Drive at the Auburn Outlet Collection (near Burlington and Bed & Bath). The Food Bank is encouraging community members to come by, pop open their trunk and have volunteers collect their items. They will also be accepting cash, credit and checks.

King County Launches Project C.A.R.E.

On March 24th, the King County Council passed a motion calling for the creation of Project C.A.R.E., a program aimed at creating a clearinghouse where members of the public could be connected with ways to donate, volunteer and serve their community. If you are interested in finding out more information about how you can help address the many different agencies facing the County, please click here.

Social Distancing Reducing Mobility

Researchers studied four US cities, including the Seattle metro-area, looking at the relationship between public policies encouraging social distancing and changes in mobility. They published the findings today in the scholarly journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

They found that public policies encouraging social distancing practices were correlated with a reduction in mobility in all four cities. In our community, people are heeding the public health directives to stay home. According to Seattle – King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin, the spread of COVID-19 is slowing; however, we need to further decrease the transmission rate and improve widespread testing availability before distancing measures begin to be relaxed.

New Protections for High-Risk Workers

Gov. Jay Inslee issued a proclamation Monday giving high-risk workers the right to protect themselves from COVID-19 without jeopardizing their employment status or loss of income.

The proclamation provides older workers and those with underlying health conditions a series of rights and protections, including:

• The choice of an alternative work assignment, including telework, alternative or remote work locations if feasible, and social distancing measures.

• The ability to use any accrued leave or unemployment benefits if an alternative work assignment is not feasible and the employee is unable to safely work. Employers must maintain health insurance benefits while high risk employees are off the job.

• Employers are prohibited from permanently replacing high-risk employees.

High-risk individuals are defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and specifically include people 65 years of age or older and people of all ages with underlying medical conditions. You can read the full proclamation here.

Paraprosdokians are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected, usually in a humorous way. In fact, Sir Winston Churchill loved them. I am including some of these figures of speech in my updates, so we can all keep our minds sharp, and hopefully find some humor as well.

Stay In. Stay Healthy. Social Distance. Stay Strong.

Pete von Reichbauer
King County Councilmember