THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2020
Baker City, Oregon
4A
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OUR VIEW
Obscuring
public
notices
Gov. Kate Brown said when she first took office that
throughout her career she has “sought to promote trans-
parency and trust in government, working to build confi-
dence that our public dollars are spent wisely. As governor,
this will not change.”
As governor, it has changed.
She issued an executive order that allows local govern-
ments to post required public notices about their budgets
only on their own websites. That’s like the fox guarding
the henhouse.
It has nothing to do with protecting public health dur-
ing the pandemic. It’s an attack on government transpar-
ency.
You have probably seen public notices in newspapers.
They are those long, wordy, technical and dry ads usually
in the classifieds. They can make your eyes glaze over.
Public notices, though, have information that is
important to people, such as how the government plans
to spend taxes. And they are required by law. They exist
so the public knows what their government is doing, so
government is transparent and open.
Public notices are reported to have begun in English
newspapers in 1665 with what was later renamed as
The London Gazette. It published notices from the King’s
Court, from London officials and so on. The practice later
spread to the United States. Congress made it a require-
ment in 1789 for the federal government to publish
similar notices in newspapers.
So much has changed. The internet makes it much
easier to share information and to find it. State and local
governments across the country have pushed for the free-
dom to only publish such notices on their own websites.
The biggest argument for that is: It’s free. It costs
money to run legal notices in newspapers. And the Baker
City Herald is no different. This newspaper makes money
off of legal notices.
But the important issue is getting information to the
public. Where does the public look for such information?
In newspapers. Remove it from newspapers and bury it
on a website and who will see it? That precisely could be
the goal.
The internet is available almost everywhere. But as
we all know, and politicians and school officials say again
and again, not everybody has access to it. Why would the
governor make a move to secrete more information on the
wrong side of the digital divide?
The other issue is the absence of connection between
the change and the pandemic. We asked the governor’s
office about that. We were told that the change was made
at the request of local governments who were concerned
about completing their budget processes on time.
That argument just does not make sense. Publishing
legal notices is part of the routine. It’s not an onerous
requirement. Where is the danger to public health and
safety? What’s the problem? There isn’t one.
Gov. Brown has done her best during the pandemic to
balance public health, the economy and keep government
operating and open. When there’s a threat like COVID-19,
politicians can use it to make changes with less public
scrutiny. Never let a good crisis go to waste, as the saying
goes. Gov. Brown chose this crisis to undermine public
access to information about how tax dollars are spent. She
has changed.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Baker City Herald.
Columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions
of the authors and not necessarily that of the Baker City Herald.
Vaccine: Speed versus safety
If there is a silver lining to the
fl awed U.S. response to the coronavirus
pandemic, it is this: The relatively high
number of new cases being diagnosed
daily — upward of 20,000 — will make
it easier to test new vaccines.
To determine whether a vaccine
prevents disease, the study’s subjects
need to be exposed to the pathogen as it
circulates in the population. Reopening
the economy will likely result in faster
spread of the coronavirus and therefore
more opportunities to test a vaccine’s
effi cacy in trial subjects.
Under a proposal under discussion
by a committee set up by the National
Institutes of Health, each of four or fi ve
experimental vaccines would be tested
on about 20,000 trial participants with
a placebo group of 10,000 for each vac-
cine. Some 50 U.S. medical centers —
and perhaps an equal number overseas
— would participate in these trials.
On May 18, Moderna, the biotech
company, reported promising results in
the fi rst eight of 45 people enrolled in
an initial test of the safety and immune
responses to its vaccine. Analysts at-
tributed a 900-point jump in the Dow
that day at least partly to this very
preliminary data, so eager are investors
for any signs of progress in efforts to
control the pandemic.
Moderna is running animal and hu-
man studies simultaneously, and plans
to invest hundreds of millions of dollars
to build laboratories where the vaccine
will be produced even before it’s ap-
proved. The Food and Drug Administra-
tion on May 12 promised an accelerated
review of Moderna’s vaccine, which
works by injecting pieces of synthetic
viral RNA into the body to stimulate an
immune response to the virus.
The speed in developing vaccines for
widespread testing this summer is im-
pressive, certainly compared with the
nation’s inadequate, delayed response
to providing coronavirus testing and
PPE to health care providers.
Still, many scientists have expressed
skepticism at the breakneck timetable
put forward by some Trump adminis-
tration offi cials, who say that 100 mil-
ARTHUR ALLEN
lion doses of a vaccine could be avail-
able by November. Even the normally
sober Anthony Fauci, director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infec-
tious Diseases, told a Senate committee
on May 12 that a vaccine could have
proven safety and effi cacy by then.
Running a trial of the size and speed
contemplated by the NIH will be an
immense undertaking. Just setting up
trial locations and getting common con-
sent and data-entry forms into shape
usually takes months. Enrolling 30,000
people for a single vaccine trial is a big
challenge.
In addition, defi ning success in a
vaccine against COVID-19 will be no
simple matter. As scientists design
vaccine trials, they fi rst have to set the
“endpoints” that determine success or
failure. Death? Length of illness? Hos-
pitalization? Number of days in which a
subject is infectious?
If there is little virus circulating
where a trial is being run, even a
vast study won’t prove anything. On
the other hand, if a vaccine trial had
started in early April in New York City,
where roughly 10,000 cases a day were
reported for weeks, 30,000 partici-
pants would have been plenty to show
whether the vaccine protected against
disease.
In all likelihood, the big NIH trials
will focus on rates of infection as well
as clinical symptoms such as fever
and cough. To discover whether the
vaccine prevents severe disease, which
is relatively rare, is harder. COVID-19,
according to one account, kills about
0.6% of those it infects, while perhaps
six times that many require hospital-
ization.
People who take part in a trial will
be given clear instructions to protect
themselves against infection through
social distancing, face masks, frequent
hand-washing and so on. That will
lower the numbers of people infected
during the study.
“You’d have to ask all the people
enrolled in a trial to practice good
hygiene,” says Paul Offi t, director of the
Vaccine Education Center at Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia. “You don’t
want them to get infected — but you
do.”
When Jonas Salk announced the
successful trial of his polio vaccine in
1955, the nation celebrated a vaccine
that could virtually eliminate a deadly
infectious disease overnight. A new
coronavirus vaccine may not provide
that kind of overnight success. Instead,
it may be more akin to the fl u vaccine,
which reduces the risk or severity of
the illness but requires a new shot each
year.
Vaccinating 20,000 people in a trial
can reveal whether a vaccine is clearly
dangerous to a general population. But
when 200 million receive the same
vaccine, less common side effects could
still affect thousands. Botched batches
of polio vaccines released after Salk’s
trial permanently paralyzed 200 people
and killed 10. Early vaccines against
measles caused tens of thousands of
cases of grave illness in the 1960s.
Maurice Hilleman, the vaccine pio-
neer who developed successful vaccines
against measles, mumps, hepatitis A
and B and other diseases, once said he
never breathed a sigh of relief “until the
fi rst 3 million doses” had been deliv-
ered.
Unexpected problems naturally
bedevil quick rollouts, as this one
will almost certainly be as the nation
searches for a way to check a pandemic
that is killing tens of thousands of
Americans and paralyzing the economy.
But as Gregory Poland, the leader of
Mayo Clinic’s vaccine research, told
me, “There is an irresolvable tension of
speed versus safety.”
Arthur Allen is an editor for Kaiser
Health News, which publishes California
Healthline, an editorially independent
service of the California Health Care
Foundation. He is also the author of
“Vaccine: The Controversial Story of
Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver.”
Your views
Two questionable letters
Recently, the Herald printed two let-
ters, in two separate editions, written
by two different authors who I refer
to as the M&M’s. One of these two
letters attempted to enlighten us as
to the mental state of the President of
the United States. The other letter at-
tempted to explain why churches hold
worship services. What these two let-
ters did show us was that the M&M’s
did not have a clue as to what they
were talking about.
Sig Siefkes
Baker City
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Donald Trump: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-1414; fax 202-456-2461; to
send comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. offi ce: 313 Hart Senate Offi ce
Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753;
fax 202-228-3997. Portland offi ce: One World Trade Center, 121
S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386;
fax 503-326-2900. Baker City offi ce, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-
278-1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. offi ce: 221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce
Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-228-2717.
La Grande offi ce: 105 Fir St., No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541-
962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (2nd District): D.C. offi ce: 2182 Rayburn
Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202-
225-5774. La Grande offi ce: 1211 Washington Ave., La Grande, OR
97850; 541-624-2400, fax, 541-624-2402; walden.house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.treasurer@
ost.state.or.us; 350 Winter St. NE, Suite 100, Salem OR 97301-
3896; 503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum: Justice
Building, Salem, OR 97301-4096; 503-378-4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and information
are available online at www.leg.state.or.us.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem offi ce: 900
Court St. N.E., S-403, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen.
LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem offi ce: 900 Court
St. N.E., H-475, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep.
MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City,
OR 97814; 541-523-6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council meets
the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.
Loran Joseph, Randy Schiewe, Lynette Perry, Arvid Andersen, Larry
Morrison, Jason Spriet and Doni Bruland.
Baker City administration: 541-523-6541. Fred Warner Jr.,
city manager; Ray Duman, police chief; Sean Lee, interim fi re chief;
Michelle Owen, public works director.
Baker County Commission: Baker County Courthouse 1995
3rd St., Baker City, OR 97814; 541-523-8200. Meets the fi rst and
third Wednesdays at 9 a.m.; Bill Harvey (chair), Mark Bennett,
Bruce Nichols.
Baker County departments: 541-523-8200. Travis Ash,
sheriff; Noodle Perkins, roadmaster; Greg Baxter, district attorney;
Alice Durfl inger, county treasurer; Stefanie Kirby, county clerk; Kerry
Savage, county assessor.
Baker School District: 2090 4th Street, Baker City, OR 97814;
541-524-2260; fax 541-524-2564. Superintendent: Mark Witty.
Board meets the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. Council
Chambers, Baker City Hall,1655 First St.; Andrew Bryan, Kevin
Cassidy, Chris Hawkins, Katie Lamb and Julie Huntington.