So last week Yakima was the anchor dragging down the state due to high COVID cases. Then, this morning, we wake up to being in Phase 1.5! Progress! Great news. All I have seen on my social feeds are people asking questions about what is open and how it will work with partial openings and occupancy requirements. All good questions. Phase 1.5 is a modified Phase 1. My colleague John Riggs wrote about that in detail here.

As we re-open, I have heard many use the words “Caution Fatigue”. It’s where we accept the terms of what we are dealing with, and are beginning to accept the idea that Rona may be around for awhile. Life must go on. This is where caution fatigue comes in.

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Now, I am not a betting man, but I can see 1.5, turning into Phase 4 in no time.

At the height of quarantine, traffic was light on the roads and people were scarce. After a few weeks, I noticed more cars on the road and more people out and about. It seemed like overnight, we all decided that Rona was over and things were on track to be “normal” again.

I noticed this one weekend specifically, on Friday about a month ago. We all decided Rona was over and emerged from our dwellings. Cars everywhere. People out and about. Even though we knew we could be on our way to another spike in cases.

Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Climate Of Anxiety And Changing Routines In America
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My prediction isn't mind blowing or revolutionary. It just common sense and logic. It goes like this.

Now that Gov Inslee has announced Phase 1.5, it won’t be long, those 25% occupancy requirements will be ignored. Places will open and allow indoor seating. Businesses will be operating to almost near normal levels even before we officially hit Phase 2 or 3 (which will be a blur).

I say this because we all inherently long to get back to “normal”. With that we will allow rules and guidelines to be blurred as our tolerance has been tested to it limits for the past four months. So it makes sense that we will be pushing the limits of phase requirements too.

We all long to be free and move about. Let’s just keep in mind that there are two ways to this – responsible with common sense. Or the other way. Let’s not go the other way.

To business owners, congrats and good luck on your openings. We will be visiting. masks on, soon!

All My Best,

The JimShow

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