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Friday
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MORE ONLINE,
Will Tour, director of the University of
Colorado Environmental Center, will
speak on campus today as part of
Campus Sustainability Month.
Visit www.dailyemerald.com for the
complete story.
IN BRIEF
Senate approves request
The ASUO Student Senate ap
proved a special funding request
from the University Mentor Pro
gram at a meeting Wednesday night
in the EMU Board Room. The sena
tors voted unanimously to transfer
$3,245 into the group’s account to
make up for a shortfall in projected
funding and for program growth.
The request was the first for the
program, which matches students
with professionals in career fields in
which they are interested. Program
officials originally projected a carry
forward of $8,000, but personnel
and telecommunications costs
caused by service expansions ne
cessitated the change, according to
a program representative.
Senator Kevin Day commended
the group for coming forward with
its suspected carry forward and
budgeting in advance.
“To be off by $2,000 is still a good
job, considering how their budget
actually is and how much they pro
jected,” he said.
Erin O’Brien, the new director of
the ASUO Women’s Center, also in
troduced herself at the meeting.
O’Brien, who recently moved to Eu
gene from Los Angeles, said the
Women’s Center has been under
both physical and philosophical
construction, saying the program
will strive to be “truly inclusive.”
Senators also nominated mem
bers to sit on an executive hiring
committee to fill Senate 15, which
is currently empty.
— Parker Howell
Zoning: Class collaborates
Continued from page 1
He said he had never considered
the historical aspect of the targeted
neighborhood or the idea of pre
serving a buffer zone between resi
dential and commercial areas of the
neighborhood.
“What they want to do makes it
a difficult design problem,” he said,
adding that it is crucial for archi
tects to consider any concerns resi
dents might have.
The three-person Planning
Division hearing the request issued
a statement in favor of Williams
Bakery, acknowledging that the
request was indeed legitimate,
according to the new site-review
criteria. However, at the request of
Fairmont Neighborhood Associa
tion members, both sides have one
more week to submit additional
evidence and testimony to be
considered at an Oct. 27 meeting.
meghanncuniff@dailyemerald. com
^■1
Oregon faces worst shortage
of flu vaccine in 10 years
The state will supply the shot for the 12 counties with
the lowest percentage of vaccinated residents
BY RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND — Less than half of
high-risk Oregonians will be
immunized this season as the state
braces for its worst flu-vaccine
shortage in a decade, state health
officials said Wednesday.
“You can definitely call it an
‘acute’ shortage," state epidemiolo
gist Dr. Mel Kohn said.
Officials estimate that 1 million
Oregonians fall into the high-risk
category, which includes the elderly,
the sick and the very young,
according to the Atlanta, Ga.,-based
Centers for Disease Control.
In a typical flu season, only about
500,000 of those people choose to
get vaccinated. State officials are
hoping that number will not increase
this year.
A statewide assessment shows
that Oregon has received roughly
224,664 flu shots this season. State
officials believe Oregon will be
allotted another 250,000 vaccines by
private provider Aventis Pasteur, one
of the nation's two flu vaccine
providers — and the only one left
standing after British authorities shut
down the Chiron Corp.'s Liverpool
plant, causing the U.S. shortage.
A serious problem will arise if
more than the yearly average elects
to be vaccinated this year, said Dr.
Grant Higginson, Oregon public
health officer.
“My concern is that with all of
media attention and all the work
we’ve been doing to get the at-risk
folks vaccinated, that we may see
more than the average 50 percent,”
he said.
The Oregon Department of
Human Services will distribute
4,000 doses of the flu vaccine from
its own reserves to the 12 counties
that have the lowest percentage of
vaccinated people. The 12 counties,
almost all of them along the Oregon
Coast or in Eastern Oregon, have
vaccinated less than 13 percent of
theirhigh-risk residents.
No county in Oregon has
vaccinated more than 60 percent of
its population, officials said.
Moreover, the state expects to
receive an additional 20,000 doses
directly from Aventis Pasteur, part of
the 250,000 expected to arrive in the
state. The rest will be distributed
directly by the vaccine manufacturer
to private health-care providers,
including veterans’ hospitals and
long-term-care facilities.
Aventis Pasteur will release 14
million vaccines nationally within the
next eight weeks, followed by an
additional 8 million doses in January.
The current shortage is expected
to stress all levels of Oregon's public
health system.
For example, state officials have
said that doctors will be fined up to
$500 for administering a vaccine to
- 11 l—l—H—l
a patient whois outside the high
risk group.
But within that broadly defined
population, there are no guidelines
as to whom should be vaccinated
first — a pregnant woman, an infant,
a 90-year-old nursing home patient?
“If you check any one of the
boxes, we send you straight in to get
your shot. We don’t say she’s older
than you, so she should go first. Or
he's sicker than you, so he should go
first,” said Kaiser Permanente
spokesman Jim Gersbach.
Health care workers who deliver
direct care to patients are also in the
priority group, ranked no higher or
lower than their patients.
“Nursing homes are going to have
to make some tough decisions,”
Higginson said.
Kaiser Permanente, one of
Oregon's largest health care providers,
announced Wednesday that it expects
to cancel its flu-shot clinics after ex
hausting its vaccine supply.
“If demand holds steady, we expect
to go through our vaccine supply by
sometime on Friday,” said Jan Weaver,
coordinator of Kaiser Permanente’s flu
vaccination campaign.
Elbe Nelson, 68, of Milwaukie,
said she was on pins and needles un
til she was able to get her flu shot
Monday, the second day of the
Kaiser Permanente clinic in Portland.
“I feel very fortunate,” she said. “I
was indeed concerned. I’m older,
and I suffer from asthma — anything
respiratory I pick up goes very se
vere. I feel very sorry for the people
who have not been able to have
theirs,” she said.
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