OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2021
VA will mandate vaccines for its health workers in Oregon
By AMELIA TEMPLETON, KATE
DAVIDSON and ROB MANNING
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — The U.S.
Department of Veterans
Aff airs announced it will
require COVID-19 vac-
cinations for its front-line
health care employees,
including doctors, nurses
and dentists.
Employees will have
eight weeks to be fully vac-
cinated and can get the shot
for free at any VA facility.
It makes the VA the
fi rst health care system in
Oregon to require the vac-
cination; state law gener-
ally prevents such man-
dates for health care
workers.
Nationwide, many
health care systems are
making COVID-19 vac-
cines mandatory for their
workforces, as vaccina-
tion rates have stalled and
the delta variant is leading
to yet another surge in
COVID-19 infections and
hospitalizations.
Oregon is the only state
in the nation that prohibits
employers from requiring
health care workers to be
vaccinated.
“Virtually any employer
in Oregon can require
employees to be vacci-
nated, but hospitals are pro-
hibited from doing so,” said
Michael Cox, vice presi-
Alan Sylvestre/Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. Department of Veterans Aff airs announced it will require COVID-19 vaccinations for its front-line
health care employees, including those who work at the Portland VA Medical Center shown here. It makes
the VA the fi rst health care system in Oregon to require the vaccination; state law generally prevents such
mandates for health care workers.
dent of public aff airs for
the Oregon Association of
Hospitals and Health Sys-
tems. “We’re urging state
policymakers to lift the
prohibition.”
Of about 120,000
licensed health workers
statewide, 70% are vacci-
nated, according to data
collected by state licensing
boards.
The VA operates med-
ical centers in Portland,
Roseburg and White City,
as well as 20 smaller health
clinics scattered across the
state.
Separately, Oregon’s
state veterans agency, the
Oregon Department of Vet-
erans Aff airs, runs two
nursing homes that suff ered
deadly outbreaks during
the pandemic. In March
2020, a veterans home in
Lebanon had 38 people test
positive for the virus, and
nine people die. In October,
an outbreak at a home in
The Dalles aff ected 52
people and killed four —
and that nursing home
reported a new outbreak,
infecting seven people, just
this month. But as state,
rather than federal facili-
ties, it’s not clear whether
they will be directly
aff ected by the new federal
mandate.
The national man-
date followed the recent
deaths from COVID-19
of four unvaccinated VA
employees, and an out-
break at a VA law enforce-
ment training center.
“We’re mandating
vaccines for Title 38
employees because it’s the
best way to keep veterans
safe, especially as the delta
variant spreads across the
country,” Department of
Veterans Aff airs Secretary
Dennis McDonough said in
Voting split aligns with vaccination rates
BY AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian
SALEM — What’s true
across the nation appears
to be true in Oregon: If
you’re a Republican, you’re
less likely to be vaccinated
against COVID-19.
The Oregonian looked at
the county-by-county sta-
tistics of Oregonians inoc-
ulated against the coro-
navirus and saw a clear
correlation: The 10 counties
with the lowest percentages
of residents vaccinated all
voted — by a landslide —
for Donald Trump in the last
presidential election. That’s
Lake, Malheur, Umatilla,
Grant, Harney, Gilliam,
Morrow, Union, Douglas
and Baker counties.
Eight of the 10 coun-
ties with the highest vac-
cination rates voted over-
whelmingly for Joseph
Biden. That’s Wash-
ington, Hood River, Mult-
nomah, Benton, Lin-
coln, Deschutes, Lane and
Clackamas.
Polk and Tillamook —
where Trump beat Biden
by slim margins of less
than 2 percentage points
— also made Oregon’s
top 10 list of
most-immu-
nized counties.
Another
way to look at
it? Compare
Murdock
the most-Re-
publican
county in the
state — Lake
— with the
most-Demo-
cratic — Mult-
nomah. Eight
Williams
out of 10 voters
in Lake County voted for
Trump in November 2020,
and 35% of residents 16
and older in the county had
received at least one shot
of COVID-19 vaccine as of
early July.
Conversely, nearly 8 out
of 10 voters in Multnomah
County chose Biden, and
73% of residents 16 and
older — more than double
the fi gure in Lake County
— had received at least one
jab.
Asked about Lake
County’s low inocula-
tion rate, James Wil-
liams, chairman of the
Lake County Commission,
bristled at the correla-
tion between voting and
vaccinations.
“If you are looking
to attack or degrade the
majority (or any part) of
Lake County’s population,
based around their polit-
ical affi liation and/or their
medical choices,” Wil-
liams wrote in an email, “I
would say that it not only
shows a shameful personal
bias on your part, but pos-
sibly the need to fi nd a new
profession.”
Meanwhile, George
Murdock, chair of the Uma-
tilla County Commission,
said he’s a Republican
and got vaccinated on the
fi rst day he was eligible.
“Mind-boggling” is how
he describes the Republi-
can-Democrat divide.
“It just doesn’t make
any sense to me,” Murdock
said. “There’s absolutely no
reason for it to be polarized
between political parties.”
Umatilla County, where
64% voted for Trump,
has the third lowest vac-
cination rate in the state
with just over 41% of resi-
dents 16 and older having
received at least one shot.
Murdock, 78, is vocal
about his vaccination
status and the story of his
daughter, 46, who is still
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partner at the labor and
employment fi rm Barran
Liebman LLP, said the VA
would have made its policy
using authority granted to
it by federal law.
“There is a very good
likelihood that the federal
law and the federal require-
ment would supersede
Oregon state law,” she said.
Barran said, to her
knowledge, Oregon’s law
prohibiting the manda-
tory vaccination of health
care workers has never
been tested. Melissa Healy,
a partner in the labor and
employment group at Stoel
Rives LLP in Portland, said
the same.
And on federal land,
Healy said, federal rules
apply.
“The VA is federal prop-
erty and we’ve seen prece-
dent of federal institutions
being able to have height-
ened requirements, even
when they aren’t consistent
with state law,” she said.
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a COVID-19 long-hauler
seven months after she
came down with the virus.
In Oregon, it’s also
worth noting that the
counties with the highest
rates of vaccine hesitancy
or resistance are gener-
ally the smallest and most
rural in the state. Some
observers say that might
contribute to lower vac-
cination rates: Residents
don’t perceive COVID-19
as a signifi cant threat.
a prepared statement.
Medical groups —
including the American
Hospital Association,
American Nurses Associa-
tion, and American College
of Physicians — issued a
joint statement Monday,
July 26, urging health
care employers to require
vaccination.
They called it the logical
fulfi llment of their respon-
sibility to put the health of
patients and long-term care
residents fi rst.
In Oregon, a state law
bars most employers from
requiring that health care
workers get vaccinations,
including the COVID-19
shot. But that prohibition
doesn’t apply to vaccina-
tions required by federal or
state law, rule or regulation.
Two Oregon experts in
employment law said the
new federal requirement
would probably trump that
state law, if tested in court.
Paula Barran, founding
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