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COVID-19
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man Journal, makes no mention of COVID-19.
“COVID was never discussed with her doctors as far as
how to treat or what we would expect for her end of life,”
Melissa Pollman said. “I am very unsettled by how OHA
tracks these statistics.”
OHA officials said they cannot comment on Haley’s
death, even with the family’s permission.
What is a COVID-19 death in Oregon?
So how does Oregon define a COVID-related death?
If a resident dies of, for example, a car crash, a homicide
or a fatal disease such as Batten’s and incidentally tests
positive for COVID-19, are they added to the state’s CO-
VID-19 death toll?
OHA officials declined to answer, saying they cannot
address hypothetical situations.
Instead, they provided the state’s “surveillance case
definition” guidelines. Surveillance is a public health term
for collecting and analyzing data to track and address the
spread of disease. Under the guidelines, individuals are
added to the state’s COVID-19 death toll if a COVID-19 spe-
cific code is listed on their death certificate as causing or
contributing to the death.
Individuals also are added if they had a confirmed or
probable COVID-19 case and died of any cause within 60
days of a positive test, onset of COVID-19 symptoms or ex-
posure to a confirmed case.
And they are added if they test positive during a hospi-
talization, or up to two weeks prior to hospitalization, and
die of any cause while hospitalized or as long as 60 days
after they are discharged.
Haley was likely added to the state’s COVID-19 death toll
under the third reporting guideline.
“Having COVID-19 listed on the death certificate is not a
requirement to meet the surveillance case definition for a
COVID-19-related death,” Heider said.
Oregon is an outlier
Early in the pandemic, the federal government and
some states, including Oregon, said they counted anyone
with COVID-19 who died as a COVID-19 death, even if they
died from other causes.
Those statements sparked charges that COVID-19 death
totals were being inflated.
“Federal and state governments gradually altered such
policies over the spring and summer to say that in order for
a death to be counted as a COVID-19 death, the disease had
to have played a role,” a February 2021 article from the As-
sociation of American Medical Colleges stated.
Colorado was one of the first states to make the change.
In May 2020 it began separately reporting the number of
people whose deaths were fully or partially caused by CO-
VID-19, and those who had COVID-19 when they died of
other causes.
Other states soon followed.
In December 2021, new guidance for states was issued
by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, in
connection with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Until then, there was no standard definition for report-
ing COVID-19 associated deaths, meaning jurisdictions
counted deaths using different methods.
Under the recommended guidance, jurisdictions should
classify a death as associated COVID-19 if any of the follow-
ing applies:
h The death certificate indicates COVID-19 as one of the
causes of death.
h
h A case investigation determines COVID-19 caused or
contributed to the death.
h
h The death occurred within 30 days of a positive test
(or onset of symptoms for a probable case) and was due to
natural causes. That would exclude, for example, homi-
cides, suicides, accidents and overdoses.
This month, Massachusetts became the latest state to
change how it defines deaths from COVID-19, following the
new guidelines.
The state applied the new definition retroactively to the
start of the pandemic and removed 4,081 deaths, or rough-
ly 15% of its total, from its count.
“We are adopting the new definition because we sup-
port the need to standardize the way COVID-19-associated
deaths are counted,” Massachusetts State Epidemiologist
Dr. Catherine Brown said in a news release. “Prior to the
CSTE definition, states did not have a nationally recom-
mended definition for COVID-19 deaths and, as such, have
been using a variety of processes and definitions to count
their deaths.
On the West Coast, Oregon now is an outlier.
Washington revised its guidelines in July 2020. It
counts only those deaths in which the cause was con-
firmed or suspected to have been COVID-19. If COVID-19 is
later ruled out as the official cause of death, it removes
those deaths from the database. Unlike Oregon, it does not
count those who have tested positive for COVID-19 but died
of unrelated causes.
California revised its reporting guidelines Jan. 1 to in-
clude only deaths in which COVID-19 is listed as a contrib-
utor to the cause of death on the death certificate. Cali-
fornia’s Santa Clara County made a similar change in July
2021, reducing the number of deaths attributed to CO-
VID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic by about 22%.
Oregon has not changed its definition of a COVID-19
death, Heider said.
The state developed its COVID-19 death surveillance
definition early on in the pandemic, he said.
“At that point in time, there was not a national surveil-
lance definition in place,” he said. “Oregon’s COVID-19
death definition has remained constant throughout the
pandemic in order to consistently capture and count CO-
VID-19 deaths in the same way over time.”
But OHA has changed the way it refers to COVID-19
deaths.
For the first 11 months of the pandemic, OHA’s daily pan-
demic news releases began with the number of lives “CO-
VID-19 has claimed.”
On Jan. 12, 2021, OHA quietly changed its phrasing to
the number of “COVID-related deaths.”
Oregon ranks seventh among the 50 states for the least
COVID-19 deaths per capita, just behind Washington at No.
6. The two states have had similar mask mandates and
other restrictions.
Unconfirmed deaths not tracked
In addition to counting a broader category of deaths
than many states, Oregon also is one of the few states that
doesn’t go back and update its count based on the cause of
death listed on the death certificate.
Most states that report deaths “with COVID-19” later
compare death certificates to surveillance data to identify
those who had COVID-19 but died of an unrelated cause,
and remove them from the death tally.
In Oregon, Heider said, “deaths are not removed from
the tally as long as the surveillance case definition has
been met.”
“Public health reviews laboratory, hospitalization and
vital records information to determine if a person meets
the COVID-19 death definition. All cases who meet the CO-
VID-19 death definition are included in the death counts,”
Heider said. “It’s not up to public health to determine if CO-
VID-19 played a role in a person’s death.”
The state does not have an estimate of how many
deaths it has linked to COVID-19 where the disease did not
actually play a role in the death according to the death cer-
tificate.
Salem resident Josh Barnett says his mother, Theresa
Malec, is one of those cases.
Malec, a Wallowa County artist, tested positive for CO-
VID-19 on Aug. 4, but felt better after about a week, Barnett
said.
Nearly four months later, on Nov. 29, she was admitted
to the hospital and eventually diagnosed with liver cancer.
While there, Malec initially tested positive for COVID-19,
but two subsequent tests were negative.
In early December, Barnett brought Malec to his north-
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east Salem home where she died Dec. 15.
On Jan. 27, OHA reported that a 70-year-old Wallowa
County woman had tested positive on Aug. 4 and died Dec.
15.
Although OHA doesn’t use names in its reports, it’s un-
likely to be anyone else in the tiny county of about 7,000
residents, Barnett said.
“They won’t confirm that it’s her,” he said. “But unless
there was another 70-year-old woman that had COVID in
August and died Dec. 15, that’s her.”
Because of the four-month gap between the initial posi-
tive test and the date of death for the woman in OHA’s tally,
her death certificate would need to list COVID-19 as con-
tributing to or causing the death, according to OHA guide-
lines.
Malec’s death certificate, which Barnett shared with the
Statesman Journal, lists her cause of death as liver cancer.
It notes her two negative COVID tests.
“I don’t know how many people have fallen under this
whole deal,” Barnett said. “It seems very deceptive.”
Heider said OHA cannot comment on specific deaths.
A Batten warrior
Oregon’s COVID-19 restrictions, among the toughest in
the nation, were hard on Haley.
Batten disease attacks the brain and nervous system,
causing vision loss, seizures, language loss, dementia, hal-
lucinations and more.
During the pandemic, everything that had kept Haley’s
dying brain stimulated was shut down. There was no mu-
sic therapy, horse therapy, physical therapy or speech ther-
apy. There was no school and no socializing.
Melissa Pollman is convinced that sped up Haley’s de-
cline.
“When you have a brain that’s atrophying. when you
lose it, it doesn’t come back,” she said. “In our minds, we
thought we had maybe three more years.”
She’s angry. Oregon used spikes in its COVID-19 death
counts to justify shutdowns and restrictions. And those
counts may have been inaccurate, she said.
“There’s no accountability for all of the loss and conse-
quences that came out of the actions the state took,” she
said.
Gov. Kate Brown cited Oregon’s COVID-19 death toll as
she extended her COVID-19 state of emergency in both De-
cember 2020 and February 2021.
“We continue to lose too many Oregonians to this dead-
ly disease, including over 100 reported deaths in the last
two days,” Brown said on Dec. 17, 2020.
The family is upset, too, that just a few days after Haley
was laid to rest at Belcrest Memorial Park in Salem, their
“Batten warrior” became known instead as Oregon’s fifth
COVID-19 death in a child.
Haley was diagnosed with Batten disease in 2017, after
seeing a round of doctors for her declining eyesight.
But she didn’t let her health challenges stop her from
doing anything she wanted, her father, Dean Pollman said.
Even when she couldn’t see, she insisted on skiing and
wakeboarding. When she began having delusions, she
gave her monsters names and made up stories about them.
“She was a total inspiration to me,” Dean Pollman, said.
“She just took it in stride.”
Meanwhile, Dean and Melissa set out to learn every-
thing they could about Batten disease, and to search for
treatments.
They founded the Haley’s Heroes foundation, which
has raised more than $1 million for promising research into
prolonging the lives of children with Batten disease.
“Our goal in starting it was to save Haley,” Melissa Poll-
man said. “I think we realized pretty early we wouldn’t be
able to.”
Instead, they decided to focus on the quality, not quan-
tity, of Haley’s life.
Haley lived life fearlessly and tenaciously, her parents
said.
“There wasn’t a day that Haley didn’t have fun,” her
brother Cole said. “Everyone knew Haley. She was a rock
star.”
Tracy Loew is a reporter at the Statesman Journal. She
can be reached at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-
6779 or on Twitter at @Tracy_Loew.
Layton
good tasting coffees.” His friends, after be-
ing served this “labor of love” from Layton
and seeing his very obvious love of the
craft, encouraged him to be a barista.
His transition to coffee was solidified in
part because of being burned out by work-
ing in foster care, which he did for three
years. Once he was applying to coffee
shops, his first call back was for IKE Box
Café, which he felt drawn to in how they
supported the community, particularly
youth.
When Layton got word he secured the
job, he’s stuck with them ever since.
Continued from Page 1A
In preparation for New York, he trained
hard, partaking in “throw-downs,” which
are essentially the latte competitions but
scaled down to primarily local folks, get-
ting advice from others and simply mak-
ing more latte art.
While competing in New York, Layton
said, he didn’t really recall where his head
was, other than focusing on what was in
his cup. When competing, he just “blacks
out.”
“When you submit a pour, you get a
photo of it, then you bring it over to the
judges’ table - and I really don’t know
what happens all before that, or even to be
able to make a beautiful latte in a cup,”
Layton said, laughing. “But while I’m
there rewatching the footage, I’m just
right there - in the moment, with my cup -
and I didn’t notice any of them. In my
mind, it’s just me and the cup.”
Though Layton didn’t formally win
anything as he placed in the top 16, he’s
already thinking ahead to how he can get
to the next latte art competitions later in
the year. The next Coffee Fest is in June, in
Chicago.
“I’m gonna try my best to go to all of
them,” Layton said. “But we’ll see.”
A lot for a latte
Taking a shot
Fascinated by coffee since a friend
showed him a photo of latte art a decade
ago, Layton said he got a funny feeling
about wanting to do it, feeling it was “the
one thing for me.”
“Albeit a bit strange and unique, since
then I’ve been addicted to pouring beauti-
ful drinks,” Layton said, pausing as he del-
icately tipped his pitcher of milk over a
mug of coffee, the movements deft and in-
dicative of much practice. Once the mug
was full, he put it on the counter, revealing
a beautiful rosette atop the latte.
He originally moved to Salem to attend
Chemeketa Community College in 2014
while working in the foster care system.
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Isaac's Barista Kyle Layton pours a swan latte design. ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN
JOURNAL
He said his personal philosophy has al-
ways been “centered on serving people
and having solid community,” and his in-
terest in coffee stemmed from wanting to
serve his friends and roommates really
good coffee.
He bought a Mr. Coffee espresso ma-
chine, which was a hefty investment for
his perceived simple hobby at the time,
and started making his own syrups since
he loved flavored creations. His love of
food and drink comes from his father be-
ing a cook and caterer, who instilled in
him a “developed palate.”
“There’s something fun to me about
serving someone a drink where my cre-
ative hand was part of every step,” Layton
said. “Even up to the drink being con-
sumed.”
Layton even started buying unroasted
coffee, roasting it in his popcorn maker,
from which he actually got some “pretty
Being at IKE Box Café, Layton eventu-
ally rose through the ranks in his two
years to become inventory specialist,
which meant ordering and shopping for
ingredients and supplies. He even
brought one of his homemade syrups,
then was introducing them to the café.
You may recognize one of his earliest
creations: brown sugar bourbon syrup. It’s
now one of the top-served drinks.
“I love that drink so much because as a
drink creator, something you become
comfortable with is that you’ll never cre-
ate a drink that everyone loves,” Layton
said, chuckling. “But that drink specifical-
ly has been the closest I have gotten to al-
most loved by everyone who’s tried it.”
At Isaac’s, he’s been the lead barista
and educator. He puts together the sea-
sonal menu, creates drinks and teaches
the new hires how to make drinks.
“This entire time I’ve been at the com-
pany, they’ve been helping me improve
and become more well-rounded every
step of the way, for me to pursue my
dreams,” Layton said. “I’m pursuing latte
art competitively right now, but at the end
of the day I want my own café and run my
own coffee shop, they’re helping me reach
that goal.”
Though Layton said he’s far from being
able to get his own place now, you can
keep up with his latte art creations by
stopping by Isaac’s Downtown or follow-
ing
him
on
Instagram,
@barista_kylelayton.