2B
Saturday, April 10, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BIKE SALES HAVE RISEN BY MORE THAN 40% DURING PANDEMIC
The bicycling boom
■ Health experts hope this trend, which brings fitness benefits to riders, will persist
Michael Precker
American Heart Association News
It doesn’t seem right to put
“silver lining” and “pandemic”
in the same sentence. But the
past year of COVID-19 has
been a boon for bicycling, an
indisputably healthy activity.
“Bikes have been one of
those bright spots, as we’ve
been getting through this last
year,” Secretary of Transpor-
tation Pete Buttigieg told
the National Bike Summit
in early March. “People have
been rediscovering how we
get around, to the extent we
still can.”
The numbers bear that out.
Bike sales rose by more
than 40%, according to the
National Bike Dealers Asso-
ciation, and stores around the
country still report shortages.
Two surveys during the year
by the advocacy group People-
ForBikes indicated that 10%
of adults in the U.S. hopped
on a bike for the fi rst time in
at least a year because of the
pandemic.
“Everyone was genuinely
shocked,” said Jenn Dice,
president and CEO of People-
ForBikes, based in Boulder,
Colorado. “Bike counter num-
bers, both in urban and rural
recreation areas, were off the
charts. It was, ‘Holy smokes.
People are riding bikes like
crazy.’”
Experts cite several factors
for the surge. With gyms
closed, people wanting to
exercise went outside. People
hesitant to ride buses or
subways used bikes instead.
Many cities took steps to
make streets more bike-
friendly.
“One of the positive out-
comes of this unfortunate
situation is this return to the
outdoors,” said Bill Strick-
there is a drop, but it rarely
returns to the level it was
before,” he said.
One cloud hanging over
the optimism is the ongoing
shortage of new bikes amid
soaring demand. Heather Ma-
son, president of the National
Bike Dealers Association, said
manufacturers are stepping
up production, but are being
hampered by lack of parts.
“Overall demand is not
going to keep up with supply
this year,” she said. “We think
we’re going to be in a short-
age at least until 2023.”
The lesson for consumers,
she said, is threefold: get to a
Brad Horrigan/Tribune News Service store quickly, be patient, and
A bicyclist makes use of a bike lane.
consider buying a used bike.
“There will be bikes,”
land, whose offi cial title at the 54,000 people over 20 years
Mason said. “But it’s a little
helm of Bicycling magazine is and found that regular
different buying experience
rider-in-chief. “With so many cyclists had an 11% to 18%
these days.”
people at home with their
lower risk of cardiovascular
In the long term, Strick-
kids, they said, ‘Let’s go ride
disease than noncyclists.
land and Dice agreed better
our bikes.’”
“We don’t need a bunch
infrastructure will help keep
Whatever the reason, it’s a more research about whether the bike boom going. Dice
healthy choice.
physical activity improves
said the pandemic has ac-
“We know physical activity health,” Gibbs said. “We just
celerated the trend toward
is good for us,” said Bethany
have to fi gure out how to get creating more protected bike
Barone Gibbs, associate pro- more people to do it.”
lanes in cities and rural bike
fessor of health and physical
So, as the pandemic
paths that could eventually
activity at the University of
subsides and life returns to
grow into a national network.
Pittsburgh. “It’s very clear
normal, health experts and
“I really believe we’re just
that regular physical activ-
bike advocates alike ask the
transforming as a country,”
ity enhances cardiovascular
same question: Will the trend Strickland said. “Cycling
health and overall physical
roll on?
is going to be a bigger and
and mental health. We call it
“We’re cautiously optimistic bigger part of how we get
the magic pill. Literally, there that Americans will keep rid- around.”
is almost no health condition ing,” Dice said. “They’re telling
At the bike summit, But-
that physical activity doesn’t us they’re having fun, they’ve tigieg — who was recently
improve.”
been forming good habits, for spotted biking home from
To cite just two examples, a recreation and for health, and work in Washington, D.C. —
2017 BMJ study in England they want to stick with it.”
promised to help.
encompassing more than
Strickland said the country
“We can defi nitely be more
263,000 people showed those has seen bike booms before,
of a bicycling country,” he
who biked to work had less
“going back all the way to the said. “Whether it’s hard re-
cardiovascular disease and
(1973) gas crisis, when Greg
sources or whether it’s moral
cancer. A 2016 Danish study LeMond won the Tour de
support, you’re going to see a
published in the American
France (in the 1980s) and the lot of energy coming from my
Heart Association’s journal
Lance Armstrong years.”
offi ce and my team to help
Circulation tracked nearly
“We see a spike and then
move things along.”
More than half a million people enroll
under special health insurance offer
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar for fi nancial assistance.
Associated Press
Those sweeteners are
WASHINGTON — More
available the rest of this year
than a half million Americans and through the end of 2022.
have taken advantage of the Consumers who were already
Biden administration’s spe-
covered by the health law at
cial health insurance sign-up the beginning of this year are
window keyed to the COV-
also entitled to the increased
ID-19 pandemic, the govern- fi nancial aid, but will have
ment announced Wednesday, to go online or call to update
April 7 in anticipation that
their plan. People on average
even more consumers will
could save $50 a month, the
gain coverage in the coming
government says.
months.
The numbers released
The reason offi cials expect Wednesday by the Centers
sign-ups to keep growing
for Medicare and Medicaid
is that millions of people
Services show that 528,005
became eligible effective Apr. people newly signed up
1 for pumped-up subsidies
for government-sponsored
toward their premiums
private plans from Feb. 15 to
under President Joe Biden’s Mar. 31.
coronavirus relief legislation.
But those fi gures are in-
The special sign-up opportu- complete because they cover
nity for Affordable Care Act
only the 36 states served by
plans will be available until
the federal HealthCare.gov
Aug. 15.
insurance market. National
Biden campaigned on
enrollment will be higher
a strategy of building on
when totals are factored in
the Obama-era health law
later on from states such as
to push the United States
California and New York
toward coverage for all. As
that run their own insurance
president, he’s wasted no
websites.
time.
The new report also
With the number of
showed that more than
uninsured Americans rising 870,000 people who went to
during the pandemic, Biden
the HealthCare.gov website
reopened the law’s heath
or reached out to the call
insurance markets as a
center were found to be
backstop. Then, the virus aid eligible for Medicaid, the
package essentially delivered federal-state health program
a health insurance price cut
for low-income people.
by making taxpayer subsidies
Although President Don-
more generous, while also al- ald Trump spared no effort to
lowing more people to qualify overturn the Obama-era law,
more than 20 million people
remained covered under it
at the end of Trump’s term.
That number combines those
with HealthCare.gov plans
as well as low-income adults
covered through expanded
Medicaid. But with the econ-
omy shedding jobs because
of coronavirus shutdowns,
the number of uninsured
Americans has been on the
rise. Biden sought to stop
the erosion, and hopes to
ultimately reverse it.
Among the states showing
strong gains in enrollment
are several big ones that
went for Trump in last No-
vember’s election, including
Florida, Texas, and North
Carolina. Florida recorded
the biggest gain, with more
than 146,000 sign-ups.
The nonpartisan Congres-
sional Budget Offi ce esti-
mates that about 33 million
Americans are uninsured.
That’s still less than when
President Barack Obama’s
health care law was passed,
but it is a reversal from prior
years in which the unin-
sured rate steadily declined.
The CBO estimates about
3 million people lost cover-
age as a result of the pan-
demic. Some private experts
estimate higher numbers, in
the range of 5 million to 10
million.
Republicans say expand-
ing the health law is the
wrong way to go, but they
have been unable to coalesce
around a health care vision
of their own. That’s left the
political fi eld to Biden, who
is maneuvering with nar-
row Democratic margins in
Congress to try to execute
an ambitious health agenda,
including a new “public op-
tion” plan as an alternative
to private insurance, and
granting Medicare the power
to directly negotiate prescrip-
tion drug prices.
Let Your
Oregon balks at
cellphone app to
track virus spread
By Andrew Theen
The Oregonian/OregonLive
Oregon said Tuesday, April 6 that it won’t approve
widely adopted technology that would allow smartphone
users to be notified if they are potentially exposed to
COVID-19, saying the health authority has “all available
resources” assigned to vaccine management.
The announcement ended suspense over a project first
announced six months ago but repeatedly delayed, with
limited explanation. Oregon is one of just four states along
or west of the Continental Divide that hasn’t adopted the
technology.
The state for months had said it was studying the
program’s efficacy after a pilot project at Oregon State
University, but officials were initially unable to produce
documentation of their analysis.
In a news release Tuesday, April 6, the health author-
ity said it “decided to pause the ongoing planning” for the
application to “focus on vaccinations and other priority
efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Officials wrote that discussions with public health de-
partments and other community groups highlighted the
benefits and costs of the notification app.
But they opted not to move forward, citing “the inten-
sive efforts state and local health officials would need to
undertake to promote the app and address likely gaps in
its adoption across Oregon’s diverse communities, as well
as the added contact tracing demands full adoption would
place on county public health staff.”
After announcing it would “pause” its plans Tuesday,
the state did provide a two-page document to The Orego-
nian/OregonLive in response to a public records request.
“The OSU pilot was not able to collect data to either
prove or disprove its effectiveness for Oregon citizens,” the
undated document reads, adding: “Given current resource
constraints and the focus on the vaccination effort, the
recommendation is to discontinue the effort at this time.”
Nearly 12,500 students and staff at Oregon State
downloaded or activated the exposure notification system,
which the state said was a 20% adoption rate out of
40,000 people.
But it’s unclear if that rate is reflective of the situation,
as the university reported enrollment of only 23,000 at
its Corvallis campus this fall – and some portion of those
students were learning remotely.
In fact, there were no instances where a student or staff
member received a notification for potential COVID-19
exposure because there were a “relatively small number
of people on campus,” and “relatively few cases detected
on campus” during the pilot because “most students were
taking classes online,” according to the two-page report.
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