LOCAL & STATE
6A — BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
Federal ‘runaround’ frustrates
state plan to expand virus testing
■ Public records show state officials facing bureaucratic obstacles in quest for the swabs needed for testing
By Nick Budnick
Oregon Capital Bureau
If Oregon pandemic offi cials
had a TV show these last two
months, it could be called “In
Search of Swabs” — and just
about every episode would be
deeply unsatisfying.
Public records show that
over the last six weeks, state
offi cials have battled repeated
bureaucratic obstacles in
trying to obtain needed swabs
and other coronavirus test-
ing supplies from the fed-
eral government and private
manufacturers, contributing
to Oregon’s low per-capita
testing rates.
Oregon’s lack of success is
highly signifi cant. Gov. Kate
Brown has made testing a
central feature in her plans
for reopening a state economy
that has been battered by the
pandemic.
To combat the problem, the
state recently hired a new
state testing director to focus
on the problem. Meanwhile,
Brown has asked hospitals
around the state, which do the
bulk of testing, to commit to
contributing 18,000 tests per
week to a statewide strategy
to reopen the economy.
The success of those plans,
Oregon Health Author-
ity Director Pat Allen said,
depends on whether the global
supply chain can provide the
swabs and other test supplies
necessary to implement them.
The problem is national and
even global, with authorities
in places like France, Califor-
nia and elsewhere blaming
insuffi cient testing on the lack
of swabs to collect samples,
as well as other test supply
shortages.
“These supply chain glitches
are going to be the biggest bar-
rier to our being able to scale
testing up further than we
already have,” Allen said.
And Oregon, with a small
population and fewer people
reported killed by COVID-19
than many states, faces par-
ticular challenges.
“What we’ve been led to
believe is that, because we
just don’t have very much
disease in Oregon, we’re very
low priority for receiving any
of those supplies,” Allen said
of the state’s diffi culties. He
added that it “almost feels pu-
nitive. ... We think we’ve been
doing a good job managing our
resources and reactions so we
don’t have very much disease.
And that means we can’t get
Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times
Coronavirus testing.
“These supply chain glitches are going to be the biggest
barrier to our being able to scale testing up further
than we already have.”
— Pat Allen, director, Oregon Health Authority
supplies.”
Trump-hyped machines
idle in Oregon
About a month ago, Presi-
dent Donald Trump unveiled
rapid coronavirus-testing
machines to great fanfare, say-
ing the devices manufactured
by Abbott Laboratories would
create “a whole new ballgame”
in fi ghting the disease.
The newly released public
records show that what’s hap-
pened in Oregon since then is
a story of frustration.
The federal government
sent 15 of the Abbott ma-
chines to Oregon in early
April. Today, however, the bulk
of them remain effectively on
the shelf — with no supplies
to operate them.
When the Abbott rapid-test-
ing machines were delivered
to Oregon, they came with
only 124 test kits, causing the
state to distribute only three
of the 15 machines. To help
rural Oregon, they were sent
to Curry, Lake and Morrow
counties.
The machines require a
special Abbott-made test-kit
to operate. So, according to the
emails, state offi cials reached
out to Abbott to buy some.
Abbott, however, said Or-
egon could only order from the
federal government.
State offi cials ordered 5,000
more test kits from the federal
government — the Interna-
tional Reagent Resource offi ce
GRADUATION
Continued from Page 1A
BHS principal Greg Mitchell said
Friday that discussions began even
earlier. After Gov. Kate Brown an-
nounced in early April that schools
would remain closed for the rest of
the academic year, more than 200
school administrators throughout
the state began brainstorming how
to handle this year’s graduation
ceremonies, meeting each Thursday.
“It was quite a process, actually,”
Mitchell said.
Parents and students were
behind the push to offer a drive-thru
diploma handoff in many schools
around the state, he said. His staff
leadership team and senior class
offi cers began discussing how that
would work at Baker High School.
Next, seniors were surveyed about
their preferences on not only gradu-
ation, but also on how to handle the
senior awards night, senior assem-
bly and senior party.
Through that process, students
agreed that they would also like to
include a citywide procession of ve-
hicles carrying graduates and their
families through Baker City. (One
graduate will be allowed per vehicle,
and the car will be driven by a par-
ent or guardian to ensure safety and
to avoid distracted driving).
Here are preliminary plans for
operated by the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Pre-
vention.
When the shipment arrived
however, it fell short — 4,996
test kits short.
“We went through the
CDC-IRR ordering process as
we had been told and we were
only able to get four Abbott
kits out of the 5,000 that we
ordered,” wrote Akiko Saito,
an Oregon Health Authority
offi cial, to federal offi cials on
April 11. “Can you please as-
sist us in fi guring out how we
can get closer to a requested
amount? At this point we have
devices but no test kits to run
any tests.”
Two days later, in a call
with CDC, came the word: The
federal government “is not
accepting large orders because
the tests are in short sup-
ply,” wrote John Fontana, the
Oregon Health Authority lab
director, in an April 13 email.
Rather, he was told, states
should look to Abbott for sup-
plies, contrary to what records
show Oregon was told by Ab-
bott just a week before.
On April 16, David Csernak,
an offi cial with Health and
Human Services, emailed
state offi cials confi rming that
the availability of additional
Abbott cartridges to boost test-
ing would not be happening.
“At this time there is a criti-
cal shortage on the Abbott test
kits and the ability to acquire
more is very diffi cult and
how it will be organized:
Graduates and their families will
meet in vehicles at a staging area at
the Baker Sports Complex parking
lot at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 7. They
will proceed south on Fifth Street to
the bus lane in front of BHS where
Mitchell, wearing a mask and gloves
for the students’ protection, will
award diplomas to graduates, who
are expected to be seated in the pas-
senger side of their vehicles.
Graduates will wear their caps
and gowns, cords and medals. Ve-
hicles can be decorated.
BHS and Baker Technical Insti-
tute staff members will be encour-
aged to line the sidewalk to greet
and congratulate students as they
drive by.
The diploma presentations will be
live-streamed on the internet and
recorded for posting later as well.
Valedictorian and other keynote
speeches will be pre-recorded with
Elkhorn Media and posted online
for viewing during the parade.
Mitchell said the seniors chose Sum-
mer Curry, a member of the BHS
maintenance staff and a military
veteran who served tours of duty in
Afghanistan and Iraq, to speak at
this year’s graduation.
Mitchell said he expects to award
diplomas to 110 BHS graduates and
15 students from Eagle Cap Innova-
tive High School who are joining
competitive at the moment,”
he wrote.
Csernak added that he
would be happy to assist with
a new strategy to help rural
areas boost testing, “since Ab-
bott kits don’t seem to be the
answer.”
The federal offi cial’s pes-
simistic take on Abbott has
proven true. On April 21,
Shirley Smith, a contract-
ing analyst with the state
Department of Administrative
Services, wrote to other state
offi cials involved in getting
test supplies saying she hadn’t
heard back from Abbott: “My
apologies for not being able
to obtain these test kits, I am
trying!”
Smith sent another Abbott
update the next day, saying “I
have not heard from them and
unlikely I will, sadly.”
According to Pat Allen of
the Oregon Health Authority,
state offi cials did fi nally get
Abbott offi cials on the phone,
and the company said they
won’t fi ll orders directly from
the state.
“This has been the mad-
dening thing,” he said. “We’re
getting the runaround.”
Allen likened the federal
government’s sending of the
15 Abbott machines to “giving
us a printer with no ink.”
A recent study questioned
the Abbott machine’s accu-
racy, though the company has
defended its product.
Trump administration
spotlights Oregon
problems
Two other rapid-test ven-
dors, Cepheid and Biomerieux,
similarly told Smith that they
would not sell Oregon any
this year’s BHS ceremony rather
than having their own as they have
in the past because of the logistics
involved in the planning process.
As the ceremony continues, and
the vehicles pass through the bus
lane, they will gather in the student
parking lot to prepare for the pa-
rade through town.
City Manager Fred Warner Jr.
said Friday that the city is coor-
dinating plans to lead the proces-
sion and to control traffi c through
intersections as the vehicles make
their way from the high school to
Main Street.
Warner said the city did not
believe the Oregon Department of
Transportation would allow the
streets to be closed during the pan-
demic and the city did not believe a
closure was needed.
A police cruiser will lead the
procession, he said. The plan calls
for vehicles to make their way from
the parking lot and travel west on
E Street to 10th Street and then to
turn south on 10th and then east
onto Broadway, traveling to Second
Street and again turning south.
The procession will then travel to
Auburn Avenue and travel east to
Main Street where it will proceed
north before dispersing in the area
of Main and Madison streets.
Warner said either two police
cars, or one police vehicle and one
tests. Rather, the state would
have to go through the federal
government, according to pub-
lic records.
Federal offi cials have
stressed to Oregon and other
states that they have to “tri-
age” requests for help based
on certain criteria, including
need. Supplies, including for
testing, are allocated based on
state population size as well as
the severity of the COVID-19
outbreak there.
Nevertheless, Oregon
was one of three states to
be mentioned in an April 17
White House press briefi ng
about lack of testing and tout-
ing the Trump administra-
tion’s efforts to help states. A
prominent adviser to Donald
Trump, Deborah Birx, sug-
gested it was the states’ fault
and said the administration
was “working on building
capacity” in Oregon, Montana
and Maine.
Allen said of Birx’s com-
ment, “it was really annoying
to have the White House call
us out ... for low testing capac-
ity, in the face of them making
decisions that don’t get us
the supplies that would let us
have more testing capacity.”
The statement by Birx
appeared to reinforce the
criticism that Oregon offi cials
have received for limiting the
amount of testing done, in
order to conserve supplies.
The newly released emails,
however, show the federal
government has encouraged
Oregon to take that approach.
Two days before Birx’s
comment, a federal offi cial
assigned to the Oregon State
Emergency Coordination
Center told state offi cials
in an email that the federal
government wanted them to
prioritize their testing location
needs and limit the state’s
urgent requests to the federal
government for more supplies.
The offi cial explicitly
acknowledged that the federal
guidance “may reduce overall
capacity” for testing in Oregon.
“There is a nationwide
shortage on all testing
supplies,” wrote Csernak of
Health and Human Services.
“In order to avoid reaching
a point where supplies are
depleted and testing has
to shut down, it is critical
that each state strategically
prioritize their labs and test-
ing locations. While this may
reduce overall capacity in the
short term, it will allow vital
fi re department vehicle, will travel
behind the procession.
“We believe we’ll probably have
some volunteers at the lights on
10th and Broadway and Main
streets to stop traffi c as the proces-
sion is going by,” Warner said. “We
won’t allow cross traffi c.”
Some public works employees
probably will be asked to help con-
trol traffi c at Auburn Avenue and
Main Street to provide extra help
with vehicles coming in from the
freeway and Highway 7, he said.
“It will be a Sunday afternoon, so
traffi c should be light,” Warner said.
City offi cials will work with the
downtown association to maintain
social distancing on the sidewalks
for those who want to line the
streets to honor the graduates.
Although the ceremony is more
than a month away, Warner expects
some kind of social distancing to
remain in force by June 7.
“I don’t know how many people
will come out,” he said. “I think it’s
doable with the social distancing
we have now. I think people will
respect the celebration.”
The traditional graduation night
party has been canceled, but the
senior parent organization is plan-
ning to host a “Virtual Senior Party,”
Mitchell said. Prizes and gifts that
seniors receive during the party will
be available to be picked up at the
resources to be concentrated
at key locations and maintain
testing capability.”
Some tests arrive
The next day, the state was
informed that 10,000 testing
kits had been approved for
Oregon by the federal govern-
ment — a more general-use
kind, not the kind that can
only be used in Abbott ma-
chines.
But Oregon was forced to
wait before ordering any more
of the kits. Under federal
government rules, it cannot
order additional kits until the
previous shipment arrives,
according to the emails.
Allen said the bulk of the
10,000 kits were shipped out
to county public health agen-
cies. And despite the latest
shipment, the state’s testing
problem doesn’t look to be
solved anytime soon.
That’s because Oregon
offi cials hope to ramp up the
overall statewide testing rate
to 15,000 to 25,000 tests a
week.
“Do the math on that:
10,000 collection kits is not
much,” Allen said.
In March and April, The
Oregonian revealed that an
earlier claim by Gov. Kate
Brown that the state had
contracted with Quest Diag-
nostics for 20,000 new test
kits was false and overstated,
and that in reality the state
had contracted with the lab
company to process 10,000
tests, not provide the supplies
needed to collect samples,
such as swabs.
Allen said that contract is
not the answer. In addition to
the lack of collection supplies,
the speed of the Quest testing
turnaround is not as good as
what Oregon hospitals have
developed since the contract
was inked.
Currently most of the test-
ing happening in Oregon is
processed by hospitals and
private labs, some of whom
have established relation-
ships with their own suppli-
ers.
In contrast, the testing
overseen by the state public
health lab is reserved for
people who are a signifi cant
risk to others, such as health
care providers.
After weeks of diffi culties
in securing supplies, the state
appears ready to increase its
reliance on hospitals to take
on the job.
front of BHS the morning of June 8,
he said.
Another aspect of the recognition
that goes to seniors each year prior
to graduation, the traditional Senior
Awards Night, also has been can-
celed, Mitchell said. The event will
be replaced with a “Virtual Senior
Awards Ceremony,” to be recorded
by District staff with District per-
sonnel announcing the recipients of
scholarships and other awards. The
ceremony will be posted online the
night it originally had been sched-
uled: Wednesday, May 27.
A virtual senior assembly featur-
ing the traditional senior slide pro-
gram is scheduled for June 3. It also
will be live-streamed and recorded.
The senior parent group also
is working with area businesses
to honor the Class of 2020 with
window displays featuring students’
yearbook photos.
Lawn signs are being created by
the District print shop for display on
front lawns of the seniors’ homes. A
survey is being conducted to deter-
mine if some families would prefer
to opt out of that program.
More information is available by
calling Witty at the District Offi ce at
541-524-2260 or by emailing him at
mark.witty@bakersd.org. Mitchell is
available by calling BHS at 541-524-
2600 or by email at greg.mitchell@
bakersd.org