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Wednesday, January 20, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
Using state mandates to fight the pandemic
By Mitchell Luftig
Columnist
Governor Kate Brown
of Oregon has relied upon a
combination of public edu-
cation and executive orders
to fight the coronavirus
pandemic.
In contrast, Governor
Kristi Noem of South
Dakota told the Wall Street
Journal, December 7, 2020,
that:
<Rather than follow-
ing the pack and mandating
harsh rules, South Dakota
provides our residents with
information about what is
happening on the ground in
our state 4 the science, facts
and data. Then, we ask all
South Dakotans to take per-
sonal responsibility for their
health, the health of their
loved ones, and 4 in turn
4 the health of our com-
munities. The state hasn9t
issued lockdowns or mask
mandates. We haven9t shut
down businesses or closed
churches. In fact, our state
has never even defined what
an 8essential business9 is.
That isn9t the government9s
role.=
Which approach works
best?
To draw a compari-
son between a state with a
population of 4.22 million
and a state with a popula-
tion of 855,000 we need to
use a common metric4the
number of cases, deaths
or hospitalizations from
COVID-19 per 100,000 pop-
ulation (100K population).
According to the Center
for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) COVID
Data Tracker:
" Since January 21,
Oregon has had a total of
3,002 cases of COVID-19
per 100,000 population.
Over the same period, South
Dakota had a total of 11,669
cases of COVID-19 per 100,
000.
South Dakota has had
3.89 times the number of
COVID-19 cases as Oregon.
" Since January 21,
Oregon has had 38 deaths
from COVID 19 per 100,000
population. South Dakota
experienced 179 deaths from
COVID-19 per 100,000
population.
South Dakota has had
4.71 times the number
of COVID-19 deaths per
100,000 population as
Oregon.
According to the COVID
ActNow Tracker, over the
past seven days (ending
January 11):
" Oregon has had an aver-
age of 27.6 daily new cases
per 100,000 population,
compared to South Dakota9s
average of 46.1 daily new
cases of COVID-19 per
100,000 population. Both
of these figures fall into the
<dangerous number of new
cases= range.
" COVID is still
spreading in each state, but
slowly.
" Oregon had a positive
test rate of 8.5, which indi-
cates an adequate number of
tests are being performed,
while South Dakota9s posi-
tive test rate of 11.2 indicates
that an inadequate number of
tests are being performed.
" Oregon, with its 67
percent ICU capacity, and
South Dakota with its 61
percent ICU capacity, are
likely to be able to handle
a surge in COVID hospital-
izations. (However, accord-
ing to newspaper accounts,
Governor Noem inflated
ICU capacity by including
neonatal-intensive-care units
in her figures.)
" Neither state has hired
sufficient tracers to identify
and isolate sources of dis-
ease spread fast enough to
prevent new outbreaks.
A chief concern for slow-
ing the spread of COVID-
19 infections is to prevent a
surge in patients with severe
illnesses that would exceed
area hospital capacity.
December 4, 2020, www.
argusleader.com:
<The strain of a months-
long surge in coronavirus
cases has reduced hospital
capacity to care for those
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with severe symptoms, mak-
ing it increasingly uncertain
whether the sickest South
Dakotans will be able to get
treatment in the state, health
providers say. Meanwhile,
ICU space is quickly evapo-
rating in neighboring states
as well.=
According to The
Atlantic9s COVID-19 Data
Tracker Project:
South Dakota currently
has 28 patients hospitalized
for COVID-19 per 100,000
population, which is 11 per-
cent fewer than it had the
previous week. Oregon cur-
rently has 11 patients hos-
pitalized for COVID-19 per
100,000 population, which
is 13 percent lower than the
previous week.
Readers are invited to
use a chart provided by the
Washington Post, www.
washingtonpost.com/
graphics/2020/national/
coronavirus-us-cases-
deaths/, to compare U.S. and
state-level hospitalization
rates for COVID-19 since
the start of the pandemic.
South Dakota has more
than twice as many patients
currently hospitalized for
COVID-19 compared to
Oregon.
While it9s not a per-
fect comparison, Governor
Brown9s reliance on state
mandates, along with public
education, has led to fewer
cases of COVID-19, fewer
deaths from COVID-19, and
fewer COVID hospitaliza-
tions compared to Governor
Noem9s approach that places
the burden of fighting the
coronavirus pandemic
squarely on the shoulders of
each resident in her state.
Scan with a
smartphone to view chart.
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