Resources available to identify and address COVID-19
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have put together a useful website to support people during the coronavirus pandemic. It includes a list of possible symptoms to watch out for, such as fever, coughing, fatigue, and shortness of breath. View the site here.
The website shares how anyone can have mild to severe symptoms, but that older adults and people who have severe underlying medical conditions like heart or lung disease or diabetes seem to be at higher risk. Additional symptoms can include:
- Muscle or body aches
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Congestion or runny nose
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
To better support employee health and well-being, Regence BlueShield and Kaiser Permanente have also developed resources for members. Regence has put together a COVID-19 website and symptom tracker tool. Both can be viewed here. Kaiser Permanente has put together a COVID-19 website, which can be viewed here.
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A message from the Exec: Let’s keep working together to make it right
On Sunday, following his Friday message to County employees, Executive Constantine shared this message on Twitter with the people of King County:
A message from the Exec
(Preface: I’m sorry for the many people who gathered to peacefully, earnestly protest injustice – an act of civic responsibility of the highest order – only to have the day & message hijacked by violent opportunists. This isn’t about the rioters.)
We all know what we saw in Minneapolis. A court will make the legal determination, but we all saw black man’s life – George Floyd’s life – slowly and painfully ended, without justification, and in the name of the state – on our behalf.
And we all recognize that it likely would not have happened that way if he was white. And that it’s not an isolated outrage, and not limited to law enforcement, and not confined to any one corner of this country. You see that. I see that.
I also see my friends, relatives, employees of color in pain. In fear. Afraid of their own country, and its deep, unresolved problems with race.
The deep-seated racial bias woven through virtually every institution in our society will take an extraordinary, united, sustained toil to extract and destroy.
Generations have tried. And though in some ways consciousness has never been greater, the past few years have been a period of retrenchment for America.
We must keep trying, keep working. In King County, we strive to be racially just. It’s one of the core values we work towards every day.
Our values define the way we act, what’s important to us, and our expectations for ourselves and one another.
I know I’m not alone in feeling I haven’t always been loud enough. For white people, it can feel awkward – like you’re trying too hard.
But if we care about our nation, and about people, then we’ll have to risk saying the wrong thing sometimes.
And just say it. Say that we see the injustice.
I see it. Let’s keep working together to make it right.
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White folks being anti-racist: How do we become useful?
Written by Richard Gelb, Environmental Public Health Planner, Department of Public Health, ProTech17
The systems of whiteness and racism in society have been more greatly revealed through the COVID-19 emergency. We see the historic and ongoing racial differences in the quality, affordability, and access to housing, health care, jobs, education, transportation, and technology resulting in disproportionately higher risk of infections for people of color.
Pictured: Author Richard Gelb, bottom left, with other members of the Antiracist White Action Group (ARWAG).
King County’s Antiracist White Action Group (ARWAG), one of several official Employee Resource Groups, helps white employees train themselves away from harmful behaviors and become more poised to constructively engage in change.
My experience as a member of ARWAG has allowed me to become involved in working to change systems of oppression that benefit white people. This work has shown me that antiracist behavior is about interrupting – seeing and countering momentum of racial inequity in real time – or follow-up steps. It can be hard to do, but my skills and ability have been enhanced by joining white colleagues that want to advance racial justice.
This includes seeing systems of whiteness, that are revealed in ourselves and others, and learning, through role play, how to respond in the moment to support more equitable access for, and treatment of colleagues, customers, and residents who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color. We learn and practice together – and implement a work program focused on white culture change that is guided by other Affinity Groups.
By working on equity and social justice and being part of ARWAG, I now see the system of “whiteness” showing up in both obvious and subtle ways, for example:
- during hiring panels, as comments like ‘they seem like a good fit’ – meaning this candidate will not rock the boat
- when contributions from those lacking “professional” or “standard” English are discounted
- when ‘fair’ means serving the first in line, while ignoring how the line is formed
- when available resources are ‘spread like peanut butter evenly across the toast’, regardless of how need is distributed
In this period of traumatic disruption from COVID-19, it can be difficult to deal with the feelings of grief brought on by the harmful failings in our unfair systems. Empathy and compassion should drive our satisfaction in building toward racial justice.
I am grateful to have an employer and union that support anti-racism and equity as a core elements of my routine work. My experience with anti-racism efforts in King County have been uncomfortable, challenging, hopeful, and even healing. I invite and encourage my white colleagues to join me at ARWAG meetings and become part our shared work toward racial justice at King County.
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Tech Tip: Intentional email from KCIT vendor KnowBe4 featured security tips for phishing scams
On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, all King County email users received the first email from authorized King County vendor KnowBe4.com about phishing scams, titled “KnowBe4 Security Tips – Social Engineering Red Flags #1: Sender.”
King County Information Technology (KCIT) has partnered with KnowBe4.com to regularly provide information and training to employees about phishing scams and other email red flags. KnowBe4.com is a leading industry expert in security awareness training. Its mission is to help employees to make smarter security decisions, every day, and keep the County’s and employees’ information secure.
Employees are encouraged to read through the helpful information in each email and review the security tips presented. For this first email, the tips include analyzing who and where the email came from. Employees can also rest assured the email comes from a verified source, and is not spam, as it does not feature the external email notice, seen below.
For questions or more information, contact the KCIT Helpdesk or call 206-263-4357 (3-HELP).
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Featured Job: Paramedic Intern
Salary: $21.02 Hourly
Location: Various Locations throughout King County, WA
Job Type: Career Service, Full Time, 40 hrs/week
Department: DPH – Public Health
Job Number: 2020NH11380
Division: Emergency Medical Svcs
Closing: 6/30/2020 11:59 PM Pacific
Learn more about this position or view all available positions.
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PeopleSoft system is available now
The PeopleSoft system is available now. Thank you for your patience!
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PeopleSoft Emergency Outage today starting at 10:30 a.m.
An emergency outage of the PeopleSoft system is required this morning. The outage will last for approximately one hour. We will send a follow up notice advising when the system is available.
Thank you for your patience.
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Phishing attempts around unemployment claims
State cybersecurity experts report recent phishing attempts that use official-looking messages allegedly from the state Employment Security Department to try and acquire employee account credentials. To the left is an example. Click here to view it larger.
As the state Office of Cybersecurity says: “Phishing emails are increasingly sophisticated and hard to detect. They may appear to be from people or organizations you know and trust. They may even contain information from previous emails threads so that it appears to be part of a continuing conversation.”
The state warns:
- Be suspicious of any emails that urge you to take action and try to create a sense of urgency.
- Never click on links or open attachments until you have verified the email is legitimate.
- Call the sender by looking up their phone number independently.
- Never call a phone number included in a suspicious email or reply to the sender.
Thank you for your help and cooperation. For help with security questions, technical issues or problems, contact the KCIT Helpdesk or call 206-263-4357 (3-HELP).
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Public Health publishes new COVID-19 key indicators dashboard
Crossposted from Public Health Insider
Our latest dashboard, Key Indicators of COVID-19 Activity in King County, Washington, provides a snapshot of several useful indicators, or metrics, related to COVID-19 activity in our community and the impact on our health and our hospitals. We talked to Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County to learn more about what these indicators mean.
Why are these indicators useful?
JD: The key indicators provide an overview of how we are doing in several important areas: disease activity, testing (specifically, PCR testing), and healthcare system status. The information indicated by these key metrics along with other data and recommendations are provided by Public Health to policy makers when they make decisions about whether current activity restrictions, recommendations and precautions to prevent COVID-19 are adequate, need to be strengthened or might be carefully relaxed.
Read more from Public Health Insider
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King County buildings open Monday, June 1
King County buildings will be open to employees on Monday, June 1. We will notify you if activities today alter this plan. All employees who are currently telecommuting should continue to do say per prior guidance. Our guidance remains the same for first responders and mission-critical employees for the Executive Branch.
The following entrances incurred some superficial damage during the weekend’s protests and will be closed tomorrow for repair work:
- King County Courthouse – 3rd Avenue Entrance – CLOSED. Access the building via 4th Avenue Entrance or the tunnel from the Administration Building.
- Administration Building – 5th Avenue Entrance – CLOSED. Access the building via the 4th Avenue Entrance or the tunnel from the Chinook Building.
King County Metro continues to provide service on a reduced schedule to slow the spread of COVID-19.
As a reminder, the City of Seattle curfew will remain in effect from 5 p.m. Sunday, May 31, until 5 a.m. Monday, June 1. A curfew is in effect in the City of Bellevue from 5:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
As always, let safety be your guide when making commute decisions, and continue to follow Public Health guidance.
Employee News 
