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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2020
Baker City, Oregon
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news@bakercityherald.com
EDITORIAL
Legislature:
Pass Ezra’s
law this year
The Oregon Legislature’s session that started
Monday is limited to 35 days, but lawmakers should
be able to fi nd time to pass Ezra’s Law.
That’s the unoffi cial name for House Bill 4122.
It would make it more likely that people who
physically harm their victims to the extent that the
damage is permanent will be punished appropriately.
The bill’s namesake is Ezra Jerome Thomas, a
4-year-old boy from Madras. When Ezra was 2, his
mother’s then-boyfriend, Josue Jair Mendoza-Melo,
beat Ezra, leaving the toddler unable to breathe on
his own and reliant on a wheelchair.
Mendoza-Melo was convicted of attempted murder
and criminal mistreatment and sentenced in Sep-
tember 2019 to 12 years in prison, with the possibil-
ity of parole.
Ezra’s Law would include the potential imposition
of a penalty more commensurate with the kind of
life-altering crime that Mendoza-Melo committed —
non-reversible effects that in Ezra’s case could last
for the better part of a century.
The law would call for a 25-year prison sentence,
with no parole, for a person convicted of committing
assault or attempted murder that causes permanent
physical damage.
The idea is similar, but not identical, to Oregon’s
Measure 11, a law passed by voters in 1995. Measure
11 sets mandatory minimum prison sentences for
certain felonies, including murder and other violent
crimes.
Ezra’s Law, unlike Measure 11, would give judges
some discretion in sentencing. Judges could eschew
the 25-year sentence, for instance, for defendants
who haven’t been previously convicted of a similar
crime, or if there are signifi cant mitigating factors.
Judges could also allow for the possibility of parole.
That’s a reasonable amount of latitude to give a
judge.
But Ezra’s Law also would make it possible for a
judge to punish criminals such as Mendoza-Melo in a
more appropriate way. The reality that he’s likely to
be freed from prison before Ezra graduates from high
school, is an affront to the concept of justice.
It’s understandable that we generally reserve the
most severe penalties for people who take someone’s
life. But Ezra’s Law recognizes the unfortunate real-
ity that sometimes victims, even though they survive,
can never recover some of what was taken from
them.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Flu: Worse than coronavirus
The new coronavirus outbreak is
dominating headlines. More than 7,700
people have contracted the pneumonia-
like illness since it was fi rst reported
last month, and more than 170 have
died. China has imposed a quarantine
for over 50 million people. The U.S. has
confi rmed fi ve cases, all among travel-
ers, and the State Department has
issued advisories that warn against
travel to China.
While government institutions
mobilize to contain the spread of this
new disease, Americans should keep
in mind that there is a virus right here
in our country that will sicken and kill
many more people this year: infl uenza.
The infl uenza virus causes the
disease commonly known as the fl u.
This winter, it has already affected at
least 15 million Americans and led to
140,000 hospitalizations. The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
estimates that 8,200 Americans have
died this fl u season. That number is
expected to rise much higher before
winter ends. During some recent years,
nearly eight times that number, up to
61,000 Americans, have died from the
fl u.
Concerns about coronavirus bring to
mind the spread of SARS two decades
ago. In the early 2000s, SARS caused
worldwide panic as it spread to over
26 countries. But compare the number
of deaths from fl u to the much-feared
SARS, caused by a coronavirus that
is related to the one implicated in this
new outbreak. In all, SARS resulted in
at least 8,000 illnesses and 774 deaths.
The fl u affects up to 5 million people
and kills 650,000 around the world
each year.
LEANA S. WEN
Much of the concern around SARS
was its contagious potential: One
person could spread the virus to two
to four others. The new coronavirus is
believed to have a similar contagion
pattern so far. While this necessitates
strict adherence to infection control
protocols, it’s important to keep in mind
that other viruses also have a high
potential for rapid spread. One person
with measles will spread it to an aver-
age of 18 to 20 people, while someone
with infl uenza could spread the virus
to someone six feet away through direct
contact or by coughing and sneezing.
Unlike for the new coronavirus, there
are proven vaccines against the fl u and
measles. The seasonal fl u vaccine is
safe and protects against the types of
infl uenza viruses that are predicted to
be most common during each season.
Most years, the vaccine is effective
against up to 60% of infl uenza strains.
The CDC recommends that every
person over 6 months old receive the
fl u vaccine, unless they have specifi c
medical reasons not to.
Yet vaccination rates remain low.
Less than half of Americans receive
it, with rates in some recent years
dipping to less than 40%. One survey
found that one in four people report not
getting the vaccine because they think
they are unlikely to get sick from the
fl u. The rise of the anti-vaccine move-
ment has also resulted in the highest
number of cases of measles in the U.S.
since 1992.
As new information is uncovered
about the recent coronavirus outbreak,
we can take steps to avoid the diseases
that we can prevent. It’s not too late
to get the fl u vaccine. (Make sure to
update other vaccines too.) Encour-
age family, friends and peers to get
vaccinated, as well. While infl uenza
is deadliest among children, older
adults, pregnant women and people
with weakened immune systems, no
one is protected from the virus without
vaccination. Take simple measures,
including cleaning communal surfaces;
avoiding touching your nose, mouth
and eyes; and washing your hands
frequently with soap and warm water.
None of this is meant to make light
of emerging diseases. SARS would have
been much worse without the vigorous
efforts of the international community.
Governments need to do much more to
understand and control the new coro-
navirus outbreak. Americans should
continue to heed travel advisories and
guidance from public health offi cials.
But we should also call attention to
a pathogen that will cause many more
illnesses and deaths this year. After all,
what will sicken us and our loved ones
is much less likely to be the novel virus
from afar than the disease that spreads
among us already, year after year.
Dr. Leana S. Wen is a Visiting Professor
of Health Policy and Management at the
George Washington University Milken
Institute of Public Health, where she is
also a Distinguished Fellow at the Mullan
Institute for Health Workforce Equity. She
was the former Baltimore City Health
Commissioner and has also served as the
president of Planned Parenthood. Twitter
@DrLeanaWen.
GUEST EDITORIAL
Disinformation can affect voters of all stripes
Editorial from The Sacramen-
to Bee:
Jon Favreau and Melissa Melen-
dez have little in common.
He’s a former speechwriter for
President Barack Obama and
co-hosts the staunchly anti-Trump
“Pod Save America.” She’s a
Trump-supporting Republican As-
semblymember.
But they found some common
ground in 2020. Both helped
spread falsehoods about Califor-
nia’s primary election on Twitter.
We recently criticized Melen-
dez for spreading a rumor that
California is stripping voters
of their rights. A fact check by
The Sacramento Bee found that
Melendez was “echoing inaccurate
sentiments spread within con-
servative circles across the state
that California elected offi cials are
purposefully disenfranchising Re-
publican voters by switching them
to no party preference without
consent.”
After heated criticism, Melendez
seemed to abandon her crusade
against the nonexistent conspiracy.
But Favreau inadvertently helped
revive a version of it last week.
On Thursday, he shared these
sentences with his 1.2 million
Twitter followers:
“California is purging 5 mil-
lion voters from the rolls” and
“You can’t vote in the California
Democratic primary unless you’re
a registered Democrat.”
Both claims, made in a tweet by
Peter Miller, a researcher for the
“Pod Save America” HBO show,
are inaccurate. The state does
remove inactive voters from the
rolls — including dead people,
nonvoters and non-California
residents — but the lack of context
gave a misimpression. In addition,
non-Democrats can vote in the
Democratic primary.
Miller’s tweet, retweeted by Fa-
vreau, racked up over 400 shares
and likes. Enter Sam Mahood, 29,
the press secretary for California’s
secretary of state. He immediately
rebutted Miller.
“Neither of these things are
true,” tweeted Mahood. “Please
delete this tweet, it’s just spread-
ing misinformation.”
Fighting misinformation has
become a full-time job for Mahood.
“It’s one of the biggest problems
we face in our election in 2020,”
said Mahood. “Things are height-
ened because of the presidential
primary.”
Some of the confusion stems
from the process by which “no par-
ty preference” voters can vote in
party primaries. NPP voters must
take the extra step of requesting
party ballots. The state is making
efforts to ensure NPP voters know
how to do so.
And since the Republican Party
has barred NPP voters from par-
ticipating in its primary, anyone
wishing to vote Republican must
register as a Republican.
Some voters have expressed
surprise at fi nding out they are
registered as NPP, but there’s zero
evidence of malfeasance. These
voters likely declined to designate
a party preference when reregis-
tering to vote and then forgot. The
changes may also be due to cleri-
cal errors or other easily fi xable
mistakes.
Main point: California encour-
ages all voters to participate in
elections and you can even register
to vote, or switch parties, on Elec-
tion Day.
On Twitter, Miller tried to de-
fend his claims but received fi erce
pushback from journalists, voting
experts and state offi cials. He
fi nally relented, deleting his tweet.
This caused it to disappear from
Favreau’s infl uential page, but
neither made immediate attempts
to set the record straight.
In an interview, Favreau said
he retweeted Miller then got on
a plane to Iowa that didn’t have
WiFi. By the time he landed,
Miller’s tweet had been deleted.
“Clearly, Peter made a mistake,”
said Favreau.
Asked whether he should is-
sue a correction, as a newspaper
would, Favreau demurred. Shortly
afterward, Miller tweeted a cor-
rection: “Yesterday I tweeted that
CA was purging millions of voters
... CA SOS pointed out that it was
misleading, so I deleted the tweet.
Sorry about that!”
The muck up came during the
launch of Vote Save America, a na-
tional effort to register and engage
voters. It’s a laudable program, but
it will take more than voter reg-
istration links to protect election
integrity in 2020. All of us must
guard against misinformation,
and anyone who spreads it should
issue a public correction, as Miller
fi nally did.
“If you’re not sure about some-
thing, ask questions,” said Ma-
hood. “Elections people are here to
help. If you’re confused by some-
thing, don’t jump to conspiracy
theories.”
All voters, regardless of political
party, should heed this advice.