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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 20, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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GUEST COLUMN
Unvaccinated Oregonians don’t trust Brown
U
nvaccinated Oregonians don’t
trust Gov. Kate Brown’s
advice. But new research
shows they also lack faith in COVID-
19 messaging from almost anyone else,
whether talk radio, Fox News, MSNBC
or religious leaders.
Brown’s lack of credibility among
the unvaccinated is no surprise. She
consistently polls among the most
polarizing governors
in our polarized coun-
try. Brown is to Oregon
Republicans as former
President Donald Trump
is to Democrats.
As researcher Benja-
min Clark told me, “It
DICK
doesn’t appear to us that
HUGHES
Gov. Brown is the best
messenger for the popu-
lation that isn’t vaccinated.”
Clark is co-executive director at the
University of Oregon’s Institute for
Policy Research and Engagement. The
survey developed by him and colleague
Robert Parker was conducted May 21
to June 26 and involved 351 urban Ore-
gonians and 335 rural residents.
The survey found rural Oregonians
are less likely to consider COVID-19 a
serious threat, to get vaccinated and to
embrace public health measures such
as physical distancing and facemasks.
Those fi ndings track with other surveys
and data from other states.
“This combination of higher risk
behaviors in rural areas is likely to cre-
ate a longer-lasting and more impact-
ful pandemic in Oregon. This combina-
tion of factors could create a breeding
ground for new variants to emerge that
will threaten not just rural Oregon, but
the whole state,” Clark and Parker write
in their report, “Achieving COVID-19
Herd Immunity in Oregon: Progress &
Challenges.”
They add, “It will be vital to con-
tinue fi nding ways to persuade, entice
and encourage residents everywhere,
and rural Oregonians in particular, to
get vaccinated.”
Local doctors and other health care
providers provide one answer. Patients
trust them — as long as they’re not
viewed as government agents. The
report recommends against handing
out materials published by the Oregon
Health Authority or local public health
agencies. Instead, health care should
give materials to health care providers
that they can brand as their own.
These fi ndings seem like com-
mon sense. They correlate with Gov.
John Kitzhaber’s March 2020 letter to
Brown in which he advised her to take
advantage of existing local networks of
people.
I checked with a couple of Oregon
experts to get their perspective. It turns
out that Brown’s situation is not unique.
“The governor’s issue is not just her
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Most new coronavirus cases involve people who have not been vaccinated against the virus.
‘THE WAY TO MAINTAIN CREDIBILITY IS TO STOP
BEING A GREEK CHORUS OF CHEERLEADERS
AND TO BE MORE LIKE ANTHONY FAUCI,
WHO WHEN HE WAS STANDING NEXT TO THE
PRESIDENT, WOULD COME TO THE MICROPHONE
AND DISAGREE OR POINT OUT, ‘HERE’S THE
REAL SCIENTIFIC WAY TO THINK ABOUT THIS.’
EVERYTHING IS SO PARTISAN RIGHT NOW THAT BY
BEING A CHEERLEADER, YOU LOSE CREDIBILITY.’
Jim Moore | a political scientist at Pacifi c University
issue,” political scientist Jim Moore
said. “The governors in states have
become lightning rods for everything.”
However, Brown doesn’t gain any-
thing by her press conferences in which
state offi cials and others laud her lead-
ership and repeat her talking points ad
nauseam .
“The way to maintain credibility is
to stop being a Greek chorus of cheer-
leaders and to be more like Anthony
Fauci, who when he was standing next
to the president, would come to the
microphone and disagree or point out,
‘Here’s the real scientifi c way to think
about this,’” said Moore, a professor
at Pacifi c University. “Everything is
so partisan right now that by being a
cheerleader, you lose credibility.”
Fauci directs the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and
is chief medical adviser to President
Joe Biden. By the way, the UO research
found Biden is more trusted among
unvaccinated Oregonians than Brown
or national media.
Portland-based pollster John Hor-
vick, who was not involved in the
study, said it’s diffi cult to fi nd spokes-
people who will appeal to unvaccinated
young adults in the Portland area yet
not repel rural conservatives. And vice
versa.
“There just are very few messengers
that cut across demographic or vot-
ing groups that aren’t going to alienate
some other group,” Horvick told me.
“Vaccine rates are very partisan and
they’re also very age dependent.”
Liberals and conservatives alike
do tend to trust their doctor, he said,
whereas most Oregonians pay little
heed to politicians.
As for Brown, she’ll keep on keep-
ing on. Her deputy press secretary,
Charles Boyle, sent this response to my
questions about the UO study:
“The g overnor will continue to pro-
vide updates and explain her decisions
to Oregonians during a pandemic —
including sharing information about
the vital importance of safe and eff ec-
tive vaccines. Giving regular statewide
press updates to the media is not the
same thing as being a sole or primary
messenger for vaccines.
“Given the political polarization we
have seen during the pandemic, it is
no surprise that the researchers’ survey
shows that elected leaders, cable news
and local newspapers are also among
the least trusted messengers for unvac-
cinated Oregonians, especially those
who are most skeptical about vaccina-
tion. …”
The health authority echoed that
statement.
“The strategies highlighted in the
UO report are consistent with our own
research, and they’ve been the founda-
tion of our vaccination campaigns since
the outset,” spokesperson Rudy Owens
said by email.
“Getting vaccinated is a personal
choice, and we have been focused on
acknowledging the questions peo-
ple have asked and providing accu-
rate answers about the safe and eff ec-
tive COVID-19 vaccines. We’ve run
targeted and extensive campaigns that
give voice to doctors, nurses and other
medical experts, as well as real peo-
ple who’ve shared their vaccination sto-
ries with people in their own communi-
ties. …”
However, the UO research indicated
that only 29% of unvaccinated Ore-
gonians had moderate or total trust in
the health authority . The report stated:
“Concerns about the effi cacy, side
eff ects and speed of vaccine develop-
ment are keeping many from getting the
vaccine. Known strategies for commu-
nicating these public health measures
exist and need to be funded and dissem-
inated widely around the state.”
I’ll close with a few intriguing tid-
bits from the study and my conversa-
tion with UO researcher Clark:
The health authority’s public data
on COVID-19 cases and deaths should
diff erentiate between vaccinated and
unvaccinated individuals. Currently,
that information is updated once a
month and is not easily found online. In
June, 92% of cases and 94% of deaths
were among unvaccinated Oregonians.
Monetary incentives do little to
sway people. However, $100 cash pay-
ments would be more eff ective than the
$1 million vaccine lottery prize that
Brown awarded last week. The $100
could potentially change the minds of
20% of those who said they would not
vaccinate and 33% of those who might
vaccinate.
Merely 9% of unvaccinated Orego-
nians expressed moderate or total trust
in Brown. Still, that number was higher
than for talk radio, social media news
stories, general county government and
big corporations.
“Your doctor” and “Your family
members” each had 43% trust; “Your
friends,” 35%; and “Your religious or
faith leader,” 23%.
Dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
From the jungles of Vietnam to rural forests
A
t 75, Ken Palmrose, who was born
and raised in Seaside, is the author
of “Out of the Blue: A Young
Man’s Journey from the Palms of Vietnam
to the Pine Forest of the West.”
In an interview, Palmrose spoke about
his life in Seaside, writing and Vietnam.
Q: Tell us about your time in Seaside.
Were you raised here?
A: My family has lived in the area since
the early 1900s with Palmrose Dairy owned
by my Finnish-immigrant grandmother and
helped run by my father. My father and his
brothers were well known athletes in their
youth.
Our family was all over
the Seaside- Astoria area.
My parents lived in the area
until their deaths and I still
have one brother, Ernie, in
the area. My family, chil-
dren and grandchildren
R.J.
have visited Seaside fam-
MARX
ily and friends quite often
over the past 50 some years
since I left.
I was born and raised in Seaside and
graduated from Seaside Union High School
in 1963 and then went to Clatsop Com-
munity College for an associate’s degree
in forestry technology. I went to work for
the U.S. Forest Service beginning in East-
ern Oregon as a forestry aide, ending up
36 years later as the regional media offi -
cer for the U.S. Forest Service southwest-
ern region.
Q: Have you always been a writer?
A: This is from my publisher’s public-
ity page: ‘ Ken Palmrose, for many years
during his Forest
Service career, was
a writer- editor and
later was a con-
tributing editor for
an extensive Ari-
zona wildfi re story
titled ‘The Mon-
ster Reared His
Ugly Head.’ He has
written numerous
news and web sto-
ries, special fea-
ture articles and
additionally is an
accomplished pho-
tographer having
traveled to over 25
countries around
the world.’
So in one form
or another the
answer is ‘yes,’ I
have always been
interested in writ-
ing. I was a writ-
er- editor for six
years, lots of forest plan-type documents.
I was also a public aff airs offi cer for 20
years.
Q: Did you serve in Vietnam, like the
character in your book?
A: I was drafted within fi ve months of
starting my new career with the Forest Ser-
vice and ended up after basic training going
to military intelligence school at Fort Hola-
bird, Maryland. Seems like they noticed I
received good grades in photogrammetry
at Clatsop Community College and I ended
up being trained as
an imagery inter-
preter, much of
which I already
studied.
I was assigned
to the 519th MI
battalion and we
worked in an
air-conditioned,
secure building
near Tan Son Nhut
Air Base but were
bus ed every day
from 6 kilometers
southeast to our
compound, which
then was out at the
far edge of the fur-
thest reaches of
rural Saigon.
We looked for
the enemy on pho-
tos and infrared
imagery and plot-
ted bombing runs,
B-52 missions,
napalm strikes, you name it and other air-
strikes. We also did tactical terrain studies
to help our troops on the ground fi nd ways
to get safely cross country either on foot or
in tracked vehicles.
I watched the air base get hit during the
Tet O ff ensive, while a few of us were sent
up on the roof of the building for guard
duty as the air base perimeter was only
a couple hundred meters distant and was
under constant attack in all areas. The May
Off ensive — Ho Chi Minh’s birthday —
was worse for us as much of the entire
areas around our barracks and motor pool
were destroyed, but for some reason, they
didn’t hit our compound, which was only
a few acres in size and held over 1,000
people.
Basically, it was a tale of two tours.
S even months before Tet, we could go
into Saigon and see the sights, eat and
buy local, and seven months after Tet, the
war was with us every day from then on. I
arrived in June of 1967 and left in August
of 1968, 14 months.
Q: What’s the origin and concept of
this book?
A: Originally I wanted to write a screen-
play, nonfi ction, but I decided I didn’t, at
that time, have the patience. So, I started
writing a novel based upon a crew of young
men from all over the U.S. coming together
in one of the most rural forest settings in
the West.
As I was about halfway through, I
started remembering things about my time
in Vietnam and thought, why not fi ctional-
ize those as memories in the main charac-
ter? So I rewrote the whole thing and that’s
how it ended up. Fiction based loosely on
some real events.
Q: Will you be back in the area in the
near future?
A: I plan on being back in Seaside in
September, as it is my understanding there
is going to be some type of formal cere-
mony for the Vietnam veterans monument
at the Cove.
R.J. Marx is the South County reporter
for The Astorian and editor of the Seaside
Signal.