Sen. Brad Hawkins asked for North Central Washington’s feedback on Gov. Inslee’s recent COVID mandates and received thousands of responses over the past two weeks. In addition to the thousands of individual emails and calls into his office in recent days, Hawkins distributed a survey to over 50,000 residents and received nearly 6,500 responses (Aug. 25 through Sept. 8, 2021). In addition to the “yes” or “no” responses, Hawkins also received 4,300 detailed comments in the “additional comments” portion of his survey.

Among the key questions, a strong majority of respondents (60%) believed that school district and state employees should not be required to receive a COVID vaccination as a condition of their employment. In response to both questions, 40% answered “yes” with 60% answering “no.”

With regards to school masking, 44% responded that students should be required to wear masks for at least the first half of the school year with 56% responding “no.” Survey results were closer when asked if unvaccinated people should be required to wear masks indoors, with 48% responding “yes” to 52% responding “no.”

See full responses – Sen. Hawkins’ COVID Mandate Vaccine Survey.

While not a scientific survey, Hawkins said receiving almost 6,500 survey responses and thousands of personalized comments is helpful to him as he looks ahead to the next legislative session.

“I’m very grateful to everyone who participate and provided comments. It’s clear that our region – like most of America – is split on many of the difficult questions surrounding the pandemic,” said Hawkins. “At this stage, I think it’s important for us to respect people’s differing opinions so that we can try to move forward together.

“There is no doubt that emergency powers and vaccine policies will continue to be major topics of debate in the months and years ahead. Judging by the thousands of emails and survey responses I have received, there continues to be strong interested from all sides,” added Hawkins.