Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, February 13, 2015
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expanded the previous list
of directives to require prop-
er ventilation at “all stores,
bakeries, restaurants, meat
markets, rooming houses,
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galleries and studios and oth-
er places of business where
people are in the habit of
assembling for the purchase
of supplies or transaction of
business.” Library patrons
could check out books, but
couldn’t linger to read. Resi-
dents were ordered to remain
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to quell the epidemic, were
open to novel approaches.
They heard that the town
of Brawley, California, had
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days after disinfecting city
streets with a sheep dip solu-
tion. The compound of insec-
ticide and fungicide is nor-
mally used to protect sheep
from external parasites such
as ticks and lice. The mea-
sure, said the story, was an
“effort to get the best of the
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ing to put the entire town on
the shelf.” On Dec. 27, the
town’s street sweeper crew
spread the solution at a rate
of three gallons per block.
The strategy made the
town smell like a sheep
camp, but didn’t reduce the
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es. Oddly, the worst hit were
seemingly healthy individu-
als in their twenties and thir-
ties. James Ankeny, of Reith,
died at age 22 at St. Anthony
Hospital. Mrs. P.D. Ellis, 34,
died at her Main Street home.
Pendleton attorney Clarence
White, 39, died on Dec. 21.
By the end of the siege, a to-
tal of 38 mostly young peo-
ple were dead.
As desperation grew, city
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and waiters and other people
who served the public wore
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stationed at store entrances
to limit the numbers of peo-
ple who could go inside at
one time. Movie goers were
required to sit in every other
seat, with every other row
vacant.
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in the state,” the article said.
“Conditions are not so good,
however, in other parts of the
county, but with the ban ex-
tended over the county, it is
thought there is a chance to
stamp the malady out entire-
ly.”
The next pandemic is
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Sharon Waldern, clinic su-
pervisor for Umatilla County
Public Health, said pandemic
planning doesn’t center on
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spread disease. They got a
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AP Photo/National Museum of Health
Influenza victims crowd into an emergency hospital killed in higher numbers than
near Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918. The Spanish flu pan- expected.
demic killed 40-100 million people worldwide and
As the disease headed this
officials say that if the next pandemic resembles the ZD\KHDOWKRI¿FLDOVKDGWLPH
birdlike 1918 Spanish flu, up to 1.9 million Americans to urge people to get vacci-
could die.
nated. Even so, three Uma-
came down in early January measures stayed in place for tilla County residents who
had underlying medical con-
1919 at the home of Mrs. a while.
Grover Pead on West Alta
³,QÀXHQ]D FRQGLWLRQV LQ ditions died from the disease.
Umatilla County Pub-
$YHQXH %XW ZLWK LQÀXHQ]D Pendleton are probably bet-
VWLOOSUHVHQWLQWKHFRXQW\ÀX ter today than any other town lic Health Administrator
Meghan DeBolt called the
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takes some comfort in know-
ing that “modern epidemiol-
ogy had not yet taken hold in
1918. The understanding of
hygiene in general is much
better now” and information
spreads much faster.
“If the CDC sends out
anything, we have it within
minutes,” she said.
Both Debolt and Waldern
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vaccination rate. They’ve
heard the excuses — some
say they believe the vaccine
will make them sick or that
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not true, they said.
Pendletonians of 1918
didn’t have a choice, but one
has to believe they would
have protected themselves
from the deadly virus if they
did.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
FUNDING: ARS got an 8 percent
budget cut across the board last year
Continued from 1A
“I cannot think of
$911,000 out of its annual
a greater return on
operating budget, Long said,
taxpayer dollars
which is currently funded at
$1.91 million. The station
than what has been
would lose its soil chemist,
realized through
hydrologist and soil phys-
decreased erosion
icist with the loss of pro-
grams.
and increased pro-
“That important research
ductivity
through the
is going to come to a dead
halt, if this budget is passed,”
efforts of the Pacific
Long said.
Established in 1970, CP- Northwest agricultur-
&5&RI¿FHVDQGODERUDWRULHV
al research system.”
are located on Tubbs Ranch
Road just north of Pendle-
ton. The building is shared
with Oregon State Univer-
sity’s Columbia Basin Ag-
ricultural Research Center,
which also focuses on exper-
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Funding woes actual-
ly started a year ago, Long
said, in the wake of the
federal government’s bud-
get sequestration. When a
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the ARS experienced an 8
percent cut across the board,
which dropped $152,000 out
of CPCRC’s discretionary
funds.
The ARS gave $90,000
back to the station and Long
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way to recovery when the
proposed 2016 budget was
released.
“I honestly thought we
were pretty safe,” Long
said. “Looking at this now,
it boiled down to the presi-
dent’s high priority items ...
In order for the agency to
fund those initiatives, they
had to take money from oth-
er places.”
Jerry Zahl, a crop con-
sultant from College Place,
Washington, serves as chair-
man of the liaison committee
for the combined ARS and
OSU agricultural stations,
which met on Tuesday. He
said the growers haven’t
— Jerry Zahl,
chairman of the liaison
committee for the ARS and
OSU agricultural stations
started campaigning yet,
but plan to get in touch with
their leaders in Washington,
D.C. to stress the importance
of the work being done in
Pendleton.
“I cannot think of a great-
er return on taxpayer dollars
than what has been realized
through decreased erosion
and increased productivity
through the efforts of the Pa-
FL¿F 1RUWKZHVW DJULFXOWXUDO
research system,” Zahl said.
The CPCRC also has the
support of the Oregon Wheat
Growers League, which val-
XHVWKHLQ¿HOGZRUNGRQHRQ
behalf of the wheat industry.
“It’s a very serious po-
tential loss to the facility out
there,” said Blake Rowe,
wheat league CEO. “We’re
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Other research at the sta-
tion includes developing
cropping systems and rota-
tional crops for both food
and fuel, as well as the use
of unmanned drones as an
agricultural tool.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4547.
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