4A
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2020
Baker City, Oregon
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news@bakercityherald.com
EDITORIAL
Pitch a
tent, park
a trailer
The gradual reopening of Oregon’s economy has
also included, to a limited extent, outdoor recreation,
as both state and federal agencies have opened some
parks, boat launches, trailheads, day-use areas and
other sites over the past few weeks.
But a notable exception is campgrounds.
This should change — and it can change, in a way
that preserves the precautions that medical experts
say have helped stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Campgrounds at local state parks, including Fare-
well Bend and Unity Lake, are closed, although day-
use areas in those parks are open.
Forest Service campgrounds, including Union Creek
and other sites at Phillips Lake and in the Sumpter
area, are also closed.
But Baker County’s Hewitt and Holcomb parks, on
Brownlee Reservoir near Richland, opened last week,
and on Wednesday the state opened the campground
at the Elkhorn Wildlife Area west of North Powder.
Both the county and the state request campers comply
with social distancing.
And that’s the key point.
It’s easier to keep your distance at campgrounds
than at many other places. Campgrounds are outdoors,
most notably. And campsites are designed to separate
each group of campers, since most campers prefer not
to crawl out of their tent or step from their camper and
step on somebody who’s sleeping.
There are potential challenges, but they’re hardly
insurmountable ones.
Campgrounds have restrooms and in some cases
other buildings where visitors can potentially get closer
than 6 feet. But that’s the case in plenty of other places,
including businesses, that are open.
Some people might worry that opening campgrounds
would entice people to travel from outside the area.
That’s true, to an extent. But it’s not as if anything is
preventing people from visiting now.
Moreover, even though offi cial campgrounds have
been closed for two months, both the Forest Service
and the BLM have continued to allow “dispersed camp-
ing” — pitching a tent or parking a trailer wherever
you can fi nd a suitably fl at spot.
The difference is that those dispersed campsites lack
restrooms. And although many trailers have toilets,
smaller ones don’t. Neither do tents. Dispersed camp-
sites also lack fi re rings, so the danger of a fi re escaping
is higher.
The camping season is just getting started. As June
arrives and temperatures warm, more people will want
to get out town to enjoy their public — and uncrowded
— lands. State and federal offi cials should start to open
campgrounds, albeit with specifi c, and conspicuously
signed, recommendations for social distancing, and
with more robust restroom sanitizing protocols.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Your views
Speculation about Trump’s
mental fi tness not out of order
The Rienks and Carnahan letters to
the editor (May 16) chastise Marshall
McComb for his letter to the editor
(May 7).
I’m well acquainted with Marshall
McComb. He is one of the wisest and
most compassionate persons I have
ever had the pleasure of knowing.
In his letter McComb acknowledges
that he is not a psychologist or a psy-
chiatrist, but believes that the defi ni-
tion of a sociopath fi ts Trump.
McComb lists behaviors of a so-
ciopath, which he believes President
Trump exhibits: glibness and superfi -
cial charm; manipulative and conning,
never recognizing the rights of others
and seeing his self-serving behavior
as permissible; grandiose sense of self;
pathological lying; lack of remorse,
shame, or guilt; shallow emotions;
incapacity for love.
Many psychiatrists have expressed
similar views about Trump’s behavior.
(If the reader Googles “Is Trump men-
tally ill?” he/she will fi nd that many
renowned psychiatrists say that Trump
is so mentally unstable that he’s unfi t
for offi ce.)
In their letters Rienks and Carna-
han address not one of the character-
istics that defi ne a sociopath. They
express no opinion pro or con about
whether Trump exhibits any of the
characteristics McComb lists.
Instead, their letters contain benign
platitudes about how we should “be
more considerate” and engage in “ma-
ture dialog.”
Rienks concludes his letter criticizing
McComb this way: “We don’t need to
waste time and ink on those who bring
nothing of substance to the discussion.”
Exactly my opinion about the let-
ters penned by Rick Rienks and Jim
Carnahan.
Gary Dielman
Baker City
Waiting for a ‘united we
stand’ pandemic moment
Thank you to the cashiers, the
healthcare workers, the truck driv-
ers, the mail carriers, and all workers
keeping our community functioning
through this pandemic. I am grateful
for your courage. Thank you to those
who are practicing social distancing
and have given me space on the street
or in the aisle. Thank you for wearing a
mask even though it may feel strange.
Thanks for making sacrifi ces to your
daily lives so we may protect the most
vulnerable and honor the common
good. United we stand.
I was a freshman in high school in
2001 when the Twin Towers fell. I grew
up 3 hours from New York. I will never
forget the national feeling of unity
that followed the horrifi c event. Fire
departments from across the U.S. drove
to NYC to dig through the rubble.
Americans of all types dawned NYPD
and FDNY gear to show support. It
was a “united we stand” moment. My
twin brother lives in New York. As of
May 15, the CDC reported over 87,000
American deaths from COVID-19. I
want that feeling of unity to return to
our community and country, but sadly
I’m still waiting.
Recently our county commissioner,
Bill Harvey, complained about the high
school track being closed. This week he
joined a lawsuit suing our Governor.
Commissioner Harvey, united we stand
and divided we fall. Your comments
about the track were negligent and
entitled. Your support of a lawsuit
that views public health guidelines as
“fearmongering” is dangerous. I’m sorry
this virus has harmed your business.
However, many have had to pay the
ultimate price. A prosperous future lies
in working together and supporting
one another. In a time of national crisis
and death, please stop picking petty
fi ghts. We need leadership that can
bring people together.
Ethan Wolston
Baker City
Don’t risk our health under
guise of religious freedom
I was gonna just let it go. I would
turn the other cheek. Daily it would
pop into my head. I would do my best
to ignore it. Alas I couldn’t take it. It
was not going away and my only rem-
edy was to respond. I am talking about
the group of churches, pastors and con-
gregants that fi led a lawsuit against
the Governor, citing unconstitutional
restrictions due to the coronavirus. The
fi rst word that popped into my head
was “selfi sh.”
I have yet to hear of a church or pas-
tor collapsing into bankruptcy. Mean-
while many of our small businesses
will never recover from this horrendous
virus. The effect on these churches’
pocketbooks is not mentioned in the
lawsuit but methinks it is a huge issue
in pulling the old “religious freedom”
lawsuit card. If you can’t assemble you
can’t pass the basket, you can’t have
the fundraisers etc. yet I can’t believe
they would throw their fellow man un-
der the bus because they “know” when
it’s safe to start gathering in crowds of
25 or more.
Just guessing but pretty sure our
Governor didn’t pull these rules and
restrictions out of a hat. Just maybe
they were put together by a team
of top professionals and advisers to
keep everyone as safe as possible, not
specifi cally designed to infl ict harm or
damage on churches.
They say there is only one true God
but it seems like money is continuously
hanging around trying to sneak its
way in, always a close second. When I
read about churches suing our Gover-
nor over rules implemented to protect
everyone I asked myself “What would
Jesus do?”
This thing will be over soon and
church services, fundraisers, social
gatherings will again be in full swing.
For the short term I’m confi dent we can
all handle our own spiritual fulfi llment.
If a support group of like minded souls
is a necessity in your life then by all
means reach out via phone or com-
puter. Please don’t endanger my life
under the guise of religious freedom.
Peace to all.
Mike Meyer
Baker City
The challenge of overcoming vaccine skeptics
By Mariel Garza
Convincing vaccine skeptics to
trust any future COVID-19 vaccine is
going to be a tough job, even if there
are mountains of data from clinical
trials showing that it is safe and
effective.
It’s going to be harder still if there
is any reason for them to doubt the
motives or the method behind the
vaccine.
With that in mind, I can see two
potential trouble spots with Opera-
tion Warp Speed, President Donald
Trump’s effort to leverage the full
force of military, pharmaceutical
industry and government resources
to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 by
the end of the year.
According to news reports, Trump
has tapped Moncef Slaoui, a former
executive with giant pharmaceutical
company GlaxoSmithKline, along
with a top Army general, Gustave F.
Perna, to lead the effort.
Slaoui clearly has the pedigree and
connections for such a job. He has a
doctorate in molecular biology and
immunology and ran the vaccine de-
velopment program for GlaxoSmith-
Kline, where he worked for 30 years.
But he’s also a venture capitalist who
sits on a number of pharmaceutical
company boards, including those of
two vaccine makers, SutroVax and
Moderna.
Slaoui reportedly intends to step
down from the boards to participate
in Warp Speed, but that won’t erase a
career spent deeply embedded in, and
enriched by, the pharmaceutical in-
dustry. Putting him in charge of this
effort gives ammunition to vaccine
opponents to shoot holes in the public
health campaign that will be needed
to successfully immunize the public
against the coronavirus.
One of the most durable myths
trafficked by so-called anti-vaxxers is
that vaccines are scams developed by
greedy pharmaceutical companies,
abetted by a corrupt government, to
make money from substances that do
more harm than good.
These claims have been repeatedly
debunked, and studies show that vac-
cines are safe and effective. It’s also
well documented that vaccines have
saved untold numbers of humans
from suffering and death from dis-
ease. Nevertheless, the fiction spread
by anti-vaxxers continues to circulate
and take hold among well-meaning,
if gullible, people. The disinformation
campaigns have done real harm, too,
helping drive down rates of childhood
immunizations and leading to the
recent resurgence of measles in the
U.S. and other countries.
And lord help us if anything goes
wrong with the COVID-19 vaccine
itself.
Although vaccines have been pro-
tecting people from deadly infectious
diseases such as smallpox and influ-
enza for centuries, they aren’t always
benign and sometimes harm people
they are intended to protect. The rush
to develop a vaccine against polio
in the 1950s had disastrous conse-
quences. Some batches of the vaccine
were found to be defective, but only
after they had been rolled out in a
mass immunization campaign. The
bad batches caused 40,000 cases of
polio, killing 10 children, leaving doz-
ens more paralyzed and justifiably
scaring the public about the safety of
future vaccines.
That incident led to much tighter
regulation for vaccines, but it should
stand as a good reminder that expe-
diting vaccine development comes
with risks. And the facts that the
White House is calling the effort Op-
eration Warp Speed, not Operation
Save Lives, and aiming to produce
100 million doses by November sug-
gest that the motivation is meeting
an artificial deadline rather than
developing a safe way to protect the
public against the coronavirus.
Mariel Garza is an editorial writer for
the Los Angeles Times.