NORTHEASTERN OREGON
Thursday, February 10, 2022
East Oregonian
A7
Family disputes OHA COVID-19 death report
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
SALEM — The family of a
Wallowa County woman who
died in December is disputing an
Oregon Health Authority report that
COVID-19 had anything to do with
her death.
“Defi nitely not a COVID death,”
said Josh Barnett, a Salem resident,
of his mother, Theresa Malec, a
former resident of Wallowa.
Malec died at Barnett’s home in
Salem on Dec. 15, 2021, about two
weeks after being diagnosed with
liver cancer, Barnett said.
Barnett said there was a delay in
the processing of her death certif-
icate, and when he received it, he
had some suspicion that her death
might be called a COVID-19-re-
lated death.
On Jan. 27, OHA reported the
death of a 70-year-old Wallowa
County woman in its daily COVID-
19 report. It said the woman died
on Dec. 15 after a positive test on
Aug. 4.
While OHA does not provide
names on its report — and declined
to confi rm to the Chieftain if the
death it reported was indeed Malec
— Barnett said it’s not too diffi cult
to make the assumption the death in
the report was his mother.
COVID-19, though, was not
what killed her, he said, and the
death certifi cate, which he provided
to the Chieftain, shows that.
Contracted COVID-19,
but defeated it
Barnett said his mother — who
earlier in the year had defeated
breast cancer before the unexpected
liver cancer diagnosis — did indeed
have COVID-19 in early August,
but healed up only a couple days
after receiving treatment.
“She got ivermectin and the
(monoclonal antibody) infusion
therapy. She was tired for a couple,
three days,” he said.
Unprompted, Barnett also said
Malec had not been vaccinated.
“She didn’t want to be vacci-
nated, but she did fi ght it naturally.
She pulled through,” he said.
After overcoming COVID-19,
Barnett said his mom returned to
much of her normal activities and
had been driving weekly to Walla
Josh Barnett/Contributed Photo
The death certifi cate for Theresa Malec of Wallowa County lists the causes of her death. Her son, Josh Barnett
provided the certifi cate and gave the Wallowa County Chieftain permission to run the above portion of the doc-
ument. He asserts the Oregon Health Authority wrongly listed his mother as a victim of COVID-19.
this on a death certifi cate, ever,” he
said. “I had that feeling.”
His feeling was confirmed
on Jan. 27 when OHA reported
the 70-year-old Wallowa County
woman’s death, which the Chief-
tain reported later that day. Barnett
reached out the following day seek-
ing to clarify the details.
Walla for treatment of her breast
cancer before defeating it.
“They had given her the all clear
on the breast cancer,” he said.
A new diagnosis
He said his mom sounded “really
tired, winded,” in a phone conversa-
tion with her Nov. 29.
The next day, she was in the
emergency room in Enterprise,
originally given a diagnosis of
pancreatic cancer, Barnett said. An
emergency aircraft fl ew her that
night to Walla Walla, where it was
determined, instead, the diagnosis
was liver cancer.
She also initially tested posi-
tive for COVID-19 while at Walla
Walla, Barnett said, but that posi-
tive test was followed by two nega-
tive tests for the coronavirus — the
second about a week later — which
enabled Barnett to get into the
hospital to visit her.
Barnett eventually took Malec to
his Salem home where she was put
on hospice and died about a week
later.
The death certifi cate
The text on the death certifi-
cate made Barnett wonder if Malec
would be classifi ed as a COVID-19
death.
The certifi cate — Barnett gave
Seeking answers
Josh Barnett/Contributed Photo
Theresa Malec, a former Wallowa
resident, died Dec. 15, 2021. Her
family believes she is listed as a
COVID-19-related death in Wal-
lowa County, and is refuting the
Oregon Health Authority’s report.
the Chieftain permission to publish
the information in it — lists cardiac
arrest, respiratory arrest and liver
cell carcinoma as the causes of
death.
Below that, it lists anxiety and
breast cancer as signifi cant condi-
tions contributing to death.
Next to those, it states: “history
of covid 19 (2 negative tests).”
The funeral home that worked
with Barnett said it had “never seen
Barnett said OHA was not
forthcoming on details in an email
response to his brother, Ty, who also
had been seeking answers.
The OHA told the Chieftain it
could not comment specifi cally on
if Malec was listed as a COVID-19-
related death, and that it “cannot
provide any specific informa-
tion related to a person’s death or
death certifi cate,” according to Tim
Heider, OHA public information
offi cer.
That’s because Oregon restricts
access to death records for 50
years after the date of death. OHA
also reported it generally does not
discuss anyone’s personal record,
even if the agency were able to
access them.
The OHA did confirm to Ty
Barnett in an email Josh Barnett
shared with the Chieftain that it
does use the phrase “COVID-19-
related deaths” and that it could
mean a person who had COVID-19
died, but that it wasn’t necessarily
the cause.
“The deaths we report each
day include people who died with
COVID-like symptoms, which in
some cases means that a person
did not necessarily die as a result
of COVID-19. Sometimes public
health cannot determine (the) exact
cause of death, so our data focuses
on people who most likely or defi -
nitely had COVID-19 and died,
based on local reports,” the email
stated.
The OHA’s Investigative Guide-
lines state that any of the following
are considered a COVID-19-related
death:
• “Death of a confi rmed or prob-
able COVID-19 case within 60 days
of the earliest available date among
exposure to a confi rmed case, onset
of symptoms, or date of specimen
collection for the fi rst positive test;
• “Death from any cause in
a hospitalized person during
their hospital stay or in the 60
days following discharge and a
COVID-19-positive laboratory
diagnostic test at any time since 14
days prior to hospitalization; or
• “Death of someone with a
COVID-19-specifi c ICD-10 code
listed as a primary or contributing
to it.”
Josh Barnett believes the
numbers are infl ated, and points
to the fact that individuals who die
directly from COVID-19 or die of a
diff erent cause (but have COVID-
19) are counted together.
“They’ve already admitted there
is a diff erence (between) dying from
COVID and dying with COVID,” he
said. “I think they’ve been confl at-
ing the two on purpose to make the
numbers look as bad as they can.
“I don’t believe the state has been
giving the right answers for a long
time.”
As for his family, he said he
wants the truth — whatever it ends
up being.
“I just want the record straight in
terms of being honest,” he said. “...I
don’t want my family or anybody
else’s to be used, not as a pawn,
but as ‘chalk up another line to
it.’ I know that OHA is saying it’s
a COVID death when I was there
the whole time. I know that’s 100%
false.”
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