Idaho View: Don't come home, Idaho legislators; stay there

Editor’s note: This was originally published Thursday in the Lewiston Tribune. The legislature adjourned Friday morning.

Idaho’s Legislature has become one of the state’s last remaining large petri dishes of coronavirus.

But the time to worry about the health of those people has passed.

They are now a potential risk to the rest of us. If allowed to return home after final adjournment, this assembly of vectors could disperse a deadly virus far and wide across the Gem State.

Why not place Idaho’s lawmakers under quarantine in Boise for at least the next two weeks? Find housing if you have to. Confine them if you must.

Does that sound harsh?

Well, it’s not as if the Legislature has been worthy of public confidence these past few days.

They’ve been deaf to the Centers for Disease Control’s advice.

The CDC calls for limiting gatherings to no more than 50 people and possibly no more than 10.

There are 105 lawmakers, staff members, lobbyists, government agency officials and members of the public.

The CDC warns against meetings that would attract people from areas with confirmed community spread. Idaho now has 11 confirmed coronavirus cases from Ada, Madison, Teton, Twin Falls and Blaine counties. In addition, three lawmakers — Reps. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, and Heather Scott, R-Blanchard — attended last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference where an individual who tested positive for coronavirus had direct contact with at least a dozen people.

The profile of the Idaho Legislature corresponds with the segment of the population most at risk — many of them are older than 60 and certainly more than a few have underlying health issues, such as obesity, diabetes, respiratory ailments or heart disease.

To be fair, Idaho is no outlier. The National Conference of State Legislatures says 18 states remain in session while 19 — including Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska — have suspended operations in light of the outbreak. But Idaho remains the only state in its immediate neighborhood still conducting regular business. Washington, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming adjourned while Montana and Nevada did not convene this year.

Why are they still there?

To pursue divisive culture wars against abortion rights and transgender people?

To shoot down must-pass budget bills as a sign of legislative indignation against other state officials, agencies and colleges and universities?

Already, two legislators — Sens. David Nelson, D-Moscow, and Maryanne Jordan, D-Boise — have said enough and left.

“I am greatly concerned about the blatant disregard for all recommended safety precautions that the CDC, White House and governments around the U.S. and the rest of the world have issued to slow the spread of the virus,” Nelson said. “We are putting the lives of people in this building at risk. The longer we stay, the more likely it is that we will also chance carrying the virus home with us when the session does finally wrap up.”

A legislative attache also resigned, telling House Speaker Scott Bedke in an email obtained by the Idaho Statesman that “I believe that leadership and the legislators do not have our best interest at heart.”

Where would he get that idea?

From House Republican Caucus Chairwoman Megan Blanksma of Hammett? When Melissa Davlin of Idaho Reports asked on Twitter about the risk lawmakers posed to the public at large, Blanksma tweeted: “OK, enough. This is not the plague. Stop treating it as if it is. Wash your hands and act like responsible humans.”

From Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley?

Here she was urging lawmakers to attend a sine die (adjournment) party Tuesday at the Basque Center in downtown Boise: “It started at 5 o’clock, so hurry down there when you get a chance to celebrate sine die.”

From Senate Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Boise?

Explaining the GOP majority’s decision to keep working, Winder said: “We’ve said all along that until someone actually in our chamber, in the building, was confirmed, we would work.”

Sometimes coronavirus carriers are asymptomatic.

Even if not, a person can be contagious for three to five days before he becomes ill.

And getting a test result is not instantaneous. Maybe that’s another day or two.

In other words, someone could spread coronavirus for a week or more before reaching Winder’s threshold for alarm.

This is Idaho legislative hubris.

They know more than the CDC, physicians, educators and even President Donald Trump.

They can ignore the risk factors for themselves and their associates.

They can disregard the decisions of their colleagues in other states.

They can tune out the actions of other large organizations — such as sports, theaters, ski areas, schools, universities, Idaho corporations, bars, restaurants and businesses.

In so doing, they now pose a unique threat. This is not a mere gathering of 105 people who have spent nearly three months in large numbers in close quarters mingling with individuals from across Idaho and throughout the United States.

Whether it’s one or a dozen, each will return home to their private lives, potentially exposing their communities to the coronavirus.

Who knows how many of them have been exposed?

Would Hammett or Stanley feel comfortable with Banksma and Moon in their midst so soon?

Maybe they’ll do the right thing and self-quarantine. But given their judgment thus far, do you really want to trust them with your health?