SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL
PHARMACY
COVID
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Musser was referring to
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown,
who in August announced
an executive order requir-
ing most health care work-
ers, including pharmacy
employees, to be vaccinated
or to receive a medical or re-
ligious exception by Oct. 18.
It’s not clear how much
the vaccination mandate
has contributed to staffing
shortages at local phar-
macies. The Herald has
not received responses to
its requests for comment
from the company that
owns both Safeway and
Albertsons stores, or from
Rite Aid.
Donna Coble, who was
waiting at Rite Aid Thurs-
day, said she has used
the store’s pharmacy for
years. She’s been waiting
more than a week for her
prescriptions.
“I think we’re going to be
hurting for a good phar-
macy,” Coble said.
At Safeway, Ruth Wil-
litts stood in line waiting
to fill a prescription for her
son. She said this was her
first experience waiting in
line at the pharmacy.
Willitts said she has
transferred her own pre-
scriptions from Bi Mart to
Albertsons.
“We were at Bi Mart
but we went to Albertsons,”
Willitts said. “I have not
been over there to pick up
anything so I don’t know if
it’s just the same situation
as here. But this is quite an
experience. We’re just not
used to it.”
Janet Van Diepen, who
was waiting in the line at
Safeway, contends poor
management is one of
the reasons for the longer
waits.
“Obviously, they’re
completely overwhelmed,”
she said. “They don’t have
enough staff to even open
the drive-thru which seems
like they should pull some
from some other part of the
fully vaccinated — continue to
account for about one in every
four cases.
More people older than 70
— who have by far the high-
est vaccination rates in the
county — are being infected
compared with late summer
and early fall.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity (OHA) reported on Thurs-
day, Nov. 4 Baker County’s first
COVID-19-related death in
more than two weeks.
A 66-year-old woman, who
tested positive on Oct. 22, died
on Oct. 28 at her home, accord-
ing to OHA. The presence of
underlying conditions has not
been confirmed.
“The Health Department
offers our condolences for their
family and friends, we are so
sorry,” said Nancy Staten, direc-
tor of the Baker County Health
Department. “This leaves a big
impact in our county.”
The woman’s death is the
30th in Baker County during
the pandemic, and the first
since Oct. 19.
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
Customers lined up at the Safeway pharmacy on Thursday, Nov. 4.
store maybe to get at least
the drive thru open so then
we don’t have a line,” said
VanDiepen.
She said she had been
waiting for an hour and it
was the second time she
was in that predicament
this week.
“I called in the day be-
fore to get all my prescrip-
tions filled so I would only
have to do this once, got
up there and they hadn’t
even filled them yet,” she
said. “So I had to come back
again, stand in line again.
I don’t know what they can
do.”
“It’s frustrating because
no matter when you come,
day or night, they’re always
behind,” said Tami Carpen-
ter, who was also in line at
Safeway.
Carpenter said she had
called from her home in
Halfway to see if her pre-
scriptions were ready, and
although she was told to
expect to wait 20 minutes,
the prescriptions were still
not filled.
“I feel for them; they’re
short staffed, nobody wants
to work, but poor manage-
ment. Definitely poor man-
agement,” Carpenter said.
Van Diepen noted that
although Bi Mart has been
transferring prescriptions
from its Baker City store
— which had processed
about 1,500 prescriptions
per week — it’s not actually
closed yet.
“So what’s this going
to be when they close and
all of their stuff comes
into the three places that
are left?” Van Diepen said.
“It’s bordering on a crisis,
definitely.”
Back on the other side of
Campbell Street, at the Al-
bertsons store, Jan O’Grady
waited in a much shorter
line. She transferred her
prescriptions from Bi Mart.
O’Grady said she’s angry
about the deal between
Walgreens and Bi Mart in
which the former company
bought Bi Mart’s phar-
macy business, but which
is resulting in 56 Bi Mart
pharmacies to close.
“I will never use Wal-
greens no matter what,”
O’Grady said. “It’s one
thing in big towns where
there is a Walgreens but I
really don’t foresee them
opening a Walgreens here
in the next six months. So,
they’ve kind of screwed us
out of Bi Mart and Bi Mart
has always been really
wonderful.”
Jason Yencopal, Baker
County’s emergency man-
agement director, has been
talking with state officials
about the possibility of
getting temporary workers
to help with the pharmacy
situation.
There were no specific
plans as of Friday, Nov. 5.
Nancy Staten, director
of the Baker County Health
Department, said on Friday
morning that the pharmacy
situation “is a crisis.”
The staffing shortage is
affecting the pharmacies’
ability to give vaccinations,
both for COVID-19 and for
the flu, Staten said.
That has led some peo-
ple to seek help from the
Health Department, which
also administers vaccines
but has limited capacity.
“When people don’t
know who to call they call
us,” Staten said. “It’s having
an impact on us.”
VACCINE
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Jess Defrees, who has
taught science at Baker
Middle School and is the
Talented and Gifted pro-
gram coordinator for Baker
elementary schools, said the
pandemic, and the creation
of the vaccines, has been an
educational experience.
“It’s been pretty excit-
ing to see science at work,”
Defrees said. “I understand
how vaccines work. We’ve
done our due diligence as a
scientific community to make
sure (the vaccines) are safe.”
Defrees and her husband
are, like the Swarts, both
vaccinated.
Jess Defrees said having
Sloan vaccinated is valuable
both in protecting her and
others.
Her younger daughter,
Roslyn, is two, and thus not
eligible to be vaccinated. Jess
Defrees is also pregnant with
the couple’s third child.
She said she has talked
with Sloan about vaccines —
how they work, and how they
help protect her and others.
“It’s really important that
we do our part to protect
them and the rest of our
community,” Defrees said.
“(Sloan) has been telling
everybody that she’s getting
her COVID shot today.”
Defrees said she’s grateful
that the Health Department
was able to get doses in time
for kids to be fully vaccinated
— they’ll get their second
shots in about three weeks
— before Christmas.
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
Royce Peterson of the Baker County Health
Department, left, administers a COVID-19 vaccine dose
to Gwen Swart, 5, as she sits on her mom Anna’s lap
Friday morning, Nov. 5.
“Just a little poke,” Defrees
tells Sloan.
Peterson tells Sloan that
he’ll count to three, and that
she should cough when he
calls out the last number.
She coughs.
“Did that hurt?” Peterson
asks.
Sloan shakes her head.
“You’re done,” her mom
says.
Peterson puts a bandage
on Sloan’s thigh — she’s small
enough that she was inocu-
lated in her leg rather than
her shoulder — and asks her
Getting the shot
Royce Peterson leans over where she wants the yellow
Sloan with a needle, trying to sticker proclaiming that she
has had her COVID-19 vac-
ease her anxiety.
cine.
“Does it hurt?” Sloan
Sloan points to her shirt,
asks her mom, who’s sitting
and Peterson presses the
beside her, with Roslyn on
sticker into place.
her lap.
Back in the waiting room,
where the just-vaccinated wait
for 15 minutes just in case
they have a reaction, Sloan
tells Anna Swart that “it hurts
a little.”
School superintendent glad
vaccine available
Mark Witty, superinten-
dent of the Baker School
District, said on Friday morn-
ing, Nov. 5, that he’s pleased a
COVID-19 vaccine is available
for children five to 11.
“I recognize it’s a family
choice, but it’s another tool
families could use to protect
children and close family
members,” Witty said.
He said he hopes the
availability of the vaccine
for elementary age students
will help keep Baker schools
Weekly cases dropping
For the week of Oct. 24-30,
Baker County recorded 24
COVID-19 cases, the lowest
weekly total since mid-July,
after which the much more
contagious delta variant
pushed case totals and deaths
to the highest levels during the
pandemic.
For the current reporting
week, which ends today, Satur-
day, Nov. 6, the county had 15
cases for the first five days.
The county’s test positivity
rate has also dropped to its
lowest level since mid-July,
from 10.2% for Oct. 24-30 to
6.2% for the first five days of
the current week.
ing a county rate of 10.8% from
Sept. 12-18.
But in the ensuing six weeks,
the county’s breakthrough case
rate has ranged from 20.9%
(Sept. 19-25) to 25% (the weeks
of Oct. 3-9 and Oct. 24-30).
The statewide breakthrough
case rate dropped from 28.7%
from Oct. 17-23, to 24.6% from
Oct. 24-30.
Age breakdown in infections
The infection rate among
county residents 70 and older
increased during the second
half of October.
There were no cases re-
ported in that age range for the
first half of the month. During
September that age group
accounted for 12.5% of the
county’s cases, and in August for
11.5%.
But during the second
half of October, 21.3% of the
county’s cases were in resi-
dents 70 and older.
The rest of the age break-
down for the period Oct. 16-31:
• Ages 60 to 69 — 15%
• Ages 50 to 59 — 13.8%
• Ages 30 to 39 — 13.8%
• Ages 10 to 19 — 13.8%
• Ages 20 to 29 — 10%
• Ages 40 to 49 — 8.8%
• Ages 5 to 9 — 1.3%
• Ages 4 and under — 2.5%
Vaccination rates
Baker County’s vaccination
rate of 53% of residents 18 and
older is the fifth-lowest among
Oregon’s 36 counties.
The four counties with a
lower rate are Lake, 43.6%;
Malheur, 46.9%; Grant, 48.8%;
and Gilliam, 48.9%.
The number of vaccine doses
administered in the county has
risen substantially over the past
few weeks, largely due to people
getting booster doses.
The running seven-day daily
average has jumped from 12
doses on Oct. 20 to 54 on Nov. 3.
Of the 3,240 county resi-
dents age 65 and older who
Breakthrough cases
have been vaccinated — a vac-
For the week Oct. 24-30,
six of the county’s 24 cases —
cination rate of 64% — 11.3%
25% — were in fully vaccinated have received a booster dose,
people, according to the OHA.
according to the OHA.
Up until mid-September,
Among the age group 50 to
Baker County’s breakthrough 64, of which 1,940 residents are
case rate had been well below
vaccinated (48.5%), 3.4% have
the statewide average, includ- had a booster dose.
operating in a relatively
normal fashion, as has been
the case since classes start in
late August.
The latest report from the
Oregon Health Authority
(OHA), from Nov. 3, showed no
active outbreaks in any Baker
schools.
The report, which also lists
recent cases in schools, has
two student cases at Brooklyn
Primary School, the most
recent onset Oct. 24, and two
students from Baker Middle
School, with the most recent
onset Oct. 16.
Witty said the number
of students throughout the
district who have been out of
school, either because they
tested positive or were a close
contact with someone who
tested positive, has dropped
substantially over the past
month or so, from a daily
average of 40 to 50 to around
10 to 20.
“We are really pleased that
the numbers have declined
quite a bit over the past three
or four weeks,” Witty said. “I
think we’ve demonstrated that
we can be successful at keep-
ing the virus out of school.”
Although there have
been cases confirmed in
students and staff this school
year, Witty said there’s no
evidence that the virus has
spread within schools.
He credits parents who
have kept kids home if they
felt ill, the daily health
checks that school officials
perform on students, consis-
tent mask wearing, and fre-
quent sanitation of surfaces
in schools.
Witty said he’s optimis-
tic about a proposal, under
consideration among state
education officials, that could
limit the number of students
required to quarantine by
allowing students who are
close contacts to stay in
school if they have a nega-
tive test.
ZONE
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Bennett noted that the
county does not have an
ordinance under which it
could declare a no-shooting
zone, nor have county of-
ficials had county counsel
determine whether the
county has the authority
to do so.
Commission Chairman
Bill Harvey suggested hav-
ing a listening session Jan.
12, 2022, to take public
input.
Richard Haines, a
friend of Davis who also
lives in the Pine Creek
area, said one of his
volunteer roles is with the
Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife as the
county hunter safety coor-
dinator and firearm safety
coordinator.
“I’ve been doing that for
52 years in different states
and one of the things I
wanted to just point out
to commissioners is that
since my house was built
many years ago, it hasn’t
been shot, but there’s been
a number of incidents of
firearms being discharged
in the area,” Haines said.
Most of the residents in
the area live on five-acre
parcels.
Micah Huyett, who
attended Wednesday’s
meeting online, said he is a
former Marine scout sniper.
He questioned why law
enforcement didn’t take the
incidents Davis mentioned
more seriously.
“This was not a ricochet,
it was ballistically improb-
able, almost impossible for
someone to shoot from the
north of Mr. Davis’ house
and the bullet to main-
tain enough velocity to go
through multiple exterior
walls and interior walls,”
Huyett said. “This appears
to be someone’s negligence.”
Sheriff Travis Ash said
his office investigated the
incident and spoke to the
alleged shooter, explaining
the potential consequences
of shooting in the area.
Ash said that to further
investigate the incident,
police would have had to
write a search warrant,
seize the alleged shooter’s
guns, and take them to the
State Police crime lab for
ballistics testing.
“If somebody was
injured, we would move
further with this,” Ash said.
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