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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 2020)
TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020 Baker City, Oregon 4A Write a letter news@bakercityherald.com OUR VIEW State’s sluggish response What if Oregon’s Employment Department had a computer system that it didn’t have to fi ght to get people unemployment benefi ts? What if its system was fl exible enough to adapt when changes are made to unemploy- ment programs or new programs begin? Maybe then, fewer of the tens of thousands of Or- egonians would be waiting for unemployment benefi ts. Maybe it wouldn’t be a victory to get hold times down to less than an hour. That different present might exist if real progress had been made with the millions the Oregon Legislature has allocated to the department’s computer upgrade. The pandemic is a disaster that caught people fl at-footed. The department would have been seriously challenged to cope with 470,000 Oregonians fi ling for unemployment ben- efi ts since March, no matter how fancy its computers are. Other states face similar backlogs. But Oregon legislators can’t be allowed to say: Gosh, who knew the employment department’s computer system was such a mess? We spoke recently with David Gerstenfeld, the new in- terim head of the department. Many encouraging things are happening. Wait times are down. More claims are being processed. About 150 volunteers from other state agencies are help- ing the department reach out to people — to at least let people know that somebody is working on their claims. The Oregon Army National Guard is even pitching in. You can get data about unemployment in Oregon at qualityinfo.org/covid-19. As Gerstenfeld told us, one of the most frustrating things for his employees is knowing people need help and the department has fallen behind. That in no way diminishes the frustration and fi nancial problems people experience waiting for benefi ts, he said. He is under- standably reluctant to commit to a date when the backlog will be tamed. The department’s computer system is from the 1990s. It apparently can’t even handle web-based applications. Legislators began the process to upgrade the depart- ment’s computer system with $5 million in 2015. That money and more millions did not just sit around for fi ve years. Modernizing the system is complicated. This is the kind of big, technological project that goes bad. Oregon can’t afford a multimillion-dollar failure. The state has what it calls a “stage gate” process for marching through such an upgrade. One look at that fl ow chart and the memories of how tech projects have fallen fl at and you will know why things are moving slowly. Isn’t fi ve years too slow, though? It is only this year that the department has gotten to the point where it may pick a vendor? The department’s priority must be catching up on the unemployment backlog, not trying to rush into a new computer system. We get that. But is it going to be fi ve more years before the department’s system is upgraded? 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. Give docs fast access to vaccine Should doctors who are working in COVID-19 intensive care units have access for themselves to Moderna’s potential coronavirus vaccine? U.S. health care workers are infected with the virus every day. If we have a prob- able vaccine that is almost certainly reasonably safe and likely to be effec- tive, why shouldn’t doctors — who are scientifi cally trained to make these judgments — be allowed to vaccinate themselves to protect both their own lives and those they treat? Yes, it’s possible that there will be unacceptable side effects. Like other medicines, a COVID-19 vaccine may be right for some people and not oth- ers. The proposed vaccine’s Phase 1 trials — the fi rst of three specifi ed by the Food and Drug Administration — indicate that it’s probably safe and may be effective. The earliest it may be available to the public is Septem- ber, although under the standard protocols for Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials, it may not be fully validated for up to 18 months. Doctors, along with nurses and other health care professionals on the front lines, voluntarily risk exposure to the coronavirus to help save the lives of others. If we can trust anyone to make benefi t-risk decisions for themselves, it would be these brave men and women, yet they are not allowed to do so under the FDA’s precautionary stance. The agency fre- quently appears to be more concerned with the costs of using a drug that is not yet 100% proven than the costs of waiting months to treat a dangerous disease. There is, of course, a tricky balance between saving lives by ensuring the quality of drugs on the market versus losing lives by not allowing their use as quickly as possible. In law, society might allow 10 guilty people to go free rather than convict one innocent person. While we do not know the exact ratio, the FDA is more comfort- able keeping good drugs off of the market than allowing an unproven NICOLAUS TIDEMAN RICHARD WILLIAMS one (even if patients are well aware that it’s unproven). The FDA prohibition intrinsically implies that doctors are not scientifi - cally qualifi ed to make benefi t-risk decisions. But doctors make decisions about the most appropriate treat- ments for their patients every day, dealing inevitably with incomplete information. Shouldn’t a doctor be allowed to decide for themselves whether they will be injected with a safe vaccine that might be effective? Perhaps if doctors could make that decision, it would be the camel’s nose under the tent. The next thing you know, nurses want it, too. Are nurses qualifi ed to decide for themselves whether they should have the vac- cine, perhaps by consulting the doc- tors around them? And if doctors and nurses can have it, what about the orderlies — or all the people working in nurs- ing homes? They’ll point out that if they’re protected, thousands of nursing home residents’ lives might be saved. Perhaps then we’ll need to give the vaccine to police, fi re and refuse collection workers, to transit workers and grocery store clerks, to the workers in meatpacking plants and auto assembly lines. Letters to the editor We welcome letters on any issue of public interest. Letters are limited to 350 words. Writers are limited to one letter every 15 days. Writers must sign their letter and include an address and phone number (for verifi cation only). Email letters to news@ bakercityherald.com. This may be what the FDA fears, but we should remember that some doctors will also decline to accept the vaccine, and others will follow their lead. This has happened before. It famously took years for the FDA to approve the drug azidothymidine, or AZT, to treat AIDS and HIV, even though thousands of people were dying. In another case, the FDA originally rejected a drug to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The disease mostly affected young boys, causing their muscles to weaken gradually to the point where they became unable to walk and eventu- ally succumbed to respiratory or heart problems by their late teens or 20s. It took massive pressure from parents to fi nally get past the FDA’s concern that allowing the drug “would undermine the integrity of the FDA.” The 21st Century Cures Act requires the FDA to incorporate patient preferences with respect to their own benefi t-risk assessments into the drug approval process. The question is, once FDA has deter- mined that the drug is safe, should people — beginning with doctors — be able to make their own determi- nation about taking something we don’t yet know for sure is effective? Many doctors would likely shun the FDA’s precautionary stance and take a chance that a drug may work for them. This would produce faster fi nal approval, which is better for everyone. Nicolaus Tideman is a professor of economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and former senior staff economist for the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Richard Williams is a senior affi liated scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and former director for social sciences at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Your views City needs to be sure new playground is sanitized I read, with great hope, about the re- vamping of the Baker City playground. I had hoped to read the method by which the keepers will clean the equipment between uses or even 3-4 times a day; whichever is the best. Nothing in the story referred to that diffi culty. The playground looks and reads like a wonderful place for children and their parents to get out of the house while COVID is a major problem. However, would like to see how cleanliness will be maintained. Hope there is a reasonable plan. Iva Mace Baker City Together we can defend American values of equality When I was a boy my Dad and I used to hang the American fl ag out our second-story window on a long wooden pole. My Dad learned from his Dad, who served in the Pacifi c in WWII. It was a family ritual. Now my young daughter will learn from me, as we have started putting the fl ag out together. I want her to be a good American; to know the values behind the fl ag; to understand the importance of equality, justice, and liberty. For anyone still curious about the Black Lives Matter protest last Tuesday, this gath- ering was about these very values. Racial injustice exists in America today for people of color. Our society is not yet equal. Liberty has not yet been secured for all. I brought my daughter to the protest to advocate for a more just future for our country. I also want her to know that to be a true patriot you must not just hang the fl ag, but stand up for the values behind it. The Constitution is clear. It begins “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice…” Justice is the promise of fairness before the law. The protests growing across Baker County and this nation seek to form a more perfect union by ensuring that all Americans are treated equally before the law. This is an American cause. This is patriotic. To those who counter-protest against calls for racial justice: It is your right, but it is un- American. Attaching a fl ag to your truck does not make you a patriot. Nor does facing down families, high school students, and neighbors with assault rifl es. Get out of your pickup, leave the guns at home; and join us. Together we can work toward a more inclusive and just society. Together we can defend Ameri- can values and form a more perfect union. Ethan Wolston Baker City This is not a time for divisive, threatening talk With the exception of my sisters threaten- ing to hit me if I didn’t follow their com- mands, I have never really been directly threatened — until last week. Under the guise of journalistic fairness the Herald chose to print a threat to local advo- cates of racial justice. Without any basis in reality, an armed objector to the rally called the justice group “rioters.” He went on to issue the threat “They’re not going to break up anything in this town. We’ve got a lot of people who are willing to stand between them and that opportunity.” In full paranoid meltdown he went on to say the rally attend- ees, his Baker County neighbors, are trying to destroy America. Wow! Dial it back dude. What is so scary about people who believe that every life is worthy of dignity and jus- tice? Equal rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s not a pie! People willing to stand out in the rain holding signs expressing care, concern, and solidarity for the lives of people of color is the opposite of destruction. It is about strength- ening America, our country, that we all love dearly. We all benefi t when our communities acknowledge and support the rights of all. Baker City Police have strong local sup- port. They have been tasked and trained to protect people and property. Armed vigilan- tes, gathering for the ostensible purpose of preventing looting, make the work of local police more complicated and potentially more dangerous. Come on Baker City, embrace your humanity and shut down the divisive talk. We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history. It is time for us to fi nd the common ground that we share. It is time to use our voices and votes to ensure liberty and justice for all. Cynthia Roberts Baker City
