A4
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, MARcH 21, 2020
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
BEHIND THE NEWS
‘Our job is to make sure that people don’t get sick’
C
latsop County’s update this week
on testing for the coronavirus
was striking for the one word
that was in all capital letters.
“At the current time the Public Health
Department is NOT conducting COVID-
19 tests,” the statement said. “But many
labs, public and private, are working
hard to ramp up their capacity to test
more samples and the expectation is that
in a very short time frame there will be
a considerable expansion of access to
testing.”
The Oregon State Public Health Lab-
oratory and private labs like Quest Diag-
nostics and LabCorp have been pro-
cessing most of the tests
so far, with others, like
Providence Health &
Services, coming online.
The lack of test-
ing has left many resi-
dents frustrated. Some
worry they have the
DERRICK
virus but do not have
DePLEDGE
severe enough symptoms
to qualify for one of the
limited test kits. Others wonder how the
government can order sweeping restric-
tions on daily life when there is such a
stark data gap.
The Oregon Health Authority reports
that only about 2,550 tests have been
taken statewide.
In an interview on Thursday, Michael
McNickle, the county’s public health
director, said the county’s interest is not
the number of tests being done, but what
to do when the results are positive for the
virus.
Q: There has been a breathtak-
ing escalation in the government’s
response to the coronavirus. What
advice do you have for residents to
cope?
A: One thing is to make sure you do
follow the recommendations by the gov-
ernor, her executive orders, as well as
public health. (Oregon Health Author-
ity), on their website, as well as ours, we
have a number of things residents can do
to protect themselves from getting covid.
And, again, you can prevent yourself
from getting covid by following social
distancing, good hygiene and not going
around people who are sick.
Make sure you do things for your-
self to keep yourself in a state of mental
soundness. It’s not all doom and gloom.
There’s still lots of things that are pos-
itive in life. Try to focus on those and
public health will keep trying to combat
it on our end.
Q: What is the status of testing in
our county?
A: So, currently, we don’t do any
community testing because we just
don’t have the resources nor the test kits
available.
It is available if people want to get
their test — or has all the symptoms
— they need to contact their primary
care provider. And see if they can get it
through their primary care provider. And,
again, that’ll be on a case-by-case basis.
But, right now, we don’t have the test
kits or the availability to do community
testing.
Q: How many tests have been com-
pleted to date in the county?
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Michael McNickle is Clatsop County’s public health director.
‘SO IT’S ALMOST A PERFEcT STORM OF TWO
THINGS HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME.
INFLuENZA A PEAKING, ANd cORONAVIRuS. SO
THAT’S THE dIFFIcuLTy IN THIS SITuATION.’
A: That’s a tough question, because
we don’t know how many are being
done by private labs. So Quest and Lab-
Corp are the two labs that are taking the
private tests.
We’re not notified of how many tests
were done. We would only be notified if
one of them was positive.
Q: Has the county pressed Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital, Providence
Seaside Hospital and other health
care providers to disclose the number
of tests so we have some idea of the
scope?
A: No, we haven’t asked that
question.
Q: Why haven’t you?
A: The most important thing we’re
interested in is when we do have a pos-
itive case. That’s what we’re interested
in.
The number of tests really don’t tell
you anything other than there’s a bunch
of people who were tested. But that
doesn’t give us any information to act
on.
Q: The county’s population is about
39,000. What is the county’s working
model for how many people will get
the virus?
A: We don’t have a working model.
Our goal is to have as little community
spread of the virus as possible.
So, right now, as of the third week
of this emergency, we have no cases in
Clatsop County ... That’s our goal, is try
to keep it to the minimum. So I don’t
really have a projected model. I don’t
think anybody has actually done that
work.
Our goal used to be containment,
and now it’s mitigation. But I think the
containment piece is what we’re really
focusing on. That’s what all these emer-
gency actions are for, is really trying to
bend the curve from peaking. If we can
keep that in Clatsop County, that would
be the best outcome ever.
Q: How can the county plan when
you don’t know if you’re going to have
10 cases or 10,000?
A: We plan for medical surge. We’ve
been working with the two hospital
systems to make sure that we do have
capacity.
As soon as we get a first case — if we
get a first case — we would follow up
and determine what does that look like
on a numbers basis. How many contacts
did they have? Do we follow up with
them? And then we would see where we
would go.
But it’s really hard to predict, because
this coronavirus goes from one day it’s
two cases one place, the next day, it’s 18.
That’s really difficult to measure.
Q: The government restrictions are
a significant blow to the North Coast’s
economy. Hundreds and hundreds of
people are out of work. What do you
say to people who think the govern-
ment is overreacting?
A: As a public health employee, our
job is to make sure that people don’t get
sick. That’s what we’re trying to do.
And if you follow these social dis-
tancing activities, then those numbers
will be reduced. If we were to continue
business as usual, and allowing mass
gatherings and so forth, the inevitability
is we’d have more cases.
But the stronger action government
takes — as has been shown in other gov-
ernment agencies, around the world, in
other places — those kind of actions do
have an effect on dropping the curve.
Q: A few weeks ago, you said the
virus was no “worse than any flu
you see normally.” How would you
describe it today?
A: Well, it’s still like most flus or
other viruses. If you’re elderly, it has a
much bigger effect than it does on peo-
ple who are younger.
We’re seeing people who are 60 and
older who have comorbidity, or underly-
ing causes, the ones who are really get-
ting affected or ending up in the hospi-
tal and having to go and do some pretty
important interventions.
It does seem to have more of an effect
for those folks than the regular flu. But,
again, the regular flu is in our county
right now, and it still can have a major
effect on people who are over 60 and
immune compromised.
So it’s almost a perfect storm of two
things happening at the same time. Influ-
enza A peaking, and coronavirus. So
that’s the difficulty in this situation.
derrick dePledge is editor of The
Astorian.
PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK
Local news matters
B
y now, you’re as weary as we are
of COVID-19 dominating every
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Truth is, though, there is news every
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sions with their families on how to pro-
tect their health, find services or help their
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That’s why newspapers
are an essential service. We
have remained at work this
past week — armed with
disinfectant and social dis-
tancing — sourcing and
delivering local news,
business information and
KARI
answering your questions.
BORGEN
Our press and distribu-
tion facility prints and pre-
pares not just The Astorian, but 10 other
weekly newspapers that also need to get to
their communities in Long Beach, Wash-
ington; Seaside; Warrenton; Cannon Beach
and Manzanita; Tillamook; Lincoln City;
Clatskanie; St. Helens and Wahkiakum,
Washington.
Local news matters.
You need to know that we plan to keep
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are not mandated to close. Our postmas-
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pers for as long as they are allowed. “Until
they tell me I can’t,” said Astoria postmas-
ter Philip Padfield.
We’re in this together.
But as the events of the past week have
shown us, sometimes that decision will
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Especially in times of uncertainty,
local news matters. That’s why we’ve
announced a news partnership with Coast
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resources in print, on air and online to pro-
vide up-to-date, accurate, vetted and credi-
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KMUN local news program on our website
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Kari Borgen, the publisher of The Astorian, and Graham Nystrom, the station manager at
Coast Community Radio, have agreed to a news partnership on coronavirus coverage.
coastradio.org. Teamwork works.
You’ll find online and in print a grid
listing local businesses that are open, their
hours and services during the government
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Please patronize them. We all need to do
what we can to support one another as so
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Kari Borgen is publisher of The Astorian.