A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022
LOCAL & NATION
EOU reports surge in COVID cases
Most of the increase is
among students who
live off campus
pus students. By the end of January,
that total rose to 40. The rate among
employees at Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity saw a similar mild increase,
rising from 22 to 45.
BY DAVIS CARBAUGH
Cases among off-campus students
saw a significant rise in the same
The (La Grande) Observer
LA GRANDE — Like any other
time frame, jumping from 44 cases
entity in Oregon, Eastern Oregon
to 152.
University has not been immune
The university had several high
to the sharp increase in COVID-19 points in January, mirroring na-
cases caused by the omicron variant. tional and statewide trends as the
The university saw a significant
emergence of the omicron variant
rise in off-campus cases in January, led to an increase in cases. Eastern
while its numbers among on-cam-
recorded a record-high case count
pus individuals stayed rather steady. for a single day on Jan. 4, tallying 23
Eastern Oregon University has to- positive cases. The school recorded
taled 251 total positive COVID-19
21 cases on Jan. 10 and 14 on Jan.
cases this academic year, since the
25, all three of which are the high-
school began tracking data at the
est single days since Eastern started
start of July 2021. Of that total, 152 tracking its COVID-19 data this
positive tests came from off-campus school year.
students, 45 positive tests accounted
The previous single-day high was
for employees and 40 positive tests
seven cases on Sept. 13, 2021.
were from on-campus students.
Eastern’s testing has continually
From Dec. 6, 2021, to Jan. 1, 2022, increased throughout the 2021-22
there were 16 cases among on-cam- school year, reaching 2,425 total
Pfizer requests FDA
approval for COVID-19
vaccine for kids under 5
committee. If the FDA clears
vaccinations for these young-
sters, “that’s going to be really
important because all of those
hospitalizations and deaths es-
sentially are preventable.”
For kids under 5, Pfizer’s
study is giving participants
two shots three weeks apart,
followed by a third dose at
least two months later. The
company is testing whether
the youngsters produce an-
tibody levels similar to those
known to protect teens and
young adults.
In December, Pfizer an-
nounced that children under
2 looked to be protected but
that the antibody response
was too low in 2- to 4-year-
olds. It’s not clear why, but
one possibility is that the ex-
tra-low dose was a little too
low for the preschoolers.
Since the preliminary re-
sults showed the shots were
safe, Pfizer added a third dose
to the testing in hopes of im-
proving protection.
Given how well boosters are
working for older age groups,
“it makes some sense” that
younger children could bene-
fit from a third shot, O’Leary
said. “I certainly can under-
stand where both the com-
pany and the FDA are coming
from in terms of wanting to
move this along, anticipating
that there’s going to be a third
dose down the line.”
BY ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Seven years
after Oregon voters legal-
ized the regulated produc-
tion and use of recreational
marijuana, the state Legisla-
ture is set to consider a raft
of measures to crack down
on an explosion of illegal
pot farms.
Underscoring the indus-
trial-size scale of the illegal
marijuana farms, the Rogue
Area Drug Enforcement,
or RADE, announced this
week it seized 52 tons of il-
legal marijuana last year.
That was in southern Ore-
gon alone.
The amount of pot seized
was greater than previous
years, Grants Pass Police
Department Detective Sgt.
Doni Hamilton, a member
of the RADE team, said in
an email.
Many of the growers are
claiming to be legal hemp
farmers but are instead
cultivating plants with il-
legal amounts of THC,
the component that cre-
ates the “high,” according
to the Oregon Liquor and
Cannabis Commission.
“A lot of people have
been using hemp as a
cover,” OLCC spokesper-
son Mark Pettinger said in
an interview last year.
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One of the bills put for-
ward for Oregon’s five-week
legislative session that be-
gan Tuesday, Feb. 1, aims
to financially punish those
who are operating under the
guise of growing hemp. In-
dustrial hemp was legalized
nationally by Congress in
the 2018 Farm Bill.
Under a bill sponsored
by Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath-
ena, and Rep. Lily Morgan,
R-Grants Pass, a building or
other premises used for un-
lawful growing or handling
of hemp would be subjected
to lien and could be sold to
pay all fines and costs.
Another bill authorizes
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture to refuse to is-
sue industrial hemp grower
licenses, based on supply
and demand for the prod-
uct.
Meanwhile, a bill spon-
sored by Sen. Tim Knopp,
leader of the minority Re-
publicans in the Senate,
would have the Oregon State
Police establish a unit to as-
sist overwhelmed county
sheriffs’ offices in uprooting
the illegal pot farms.
The state police would
ensure that each county
sheriff ’s office receives at
least $500,000 annually
for the offensive on illegal
pot growers, with more re-
sources going to sheriffs
who demonstrate a greater
need. The Oregon Depart-
ment of Revenue would
transfer funds to the state
police for these purposes.
During this year’s short
legislative session, lawmak-
ers have numerous bills to
push through committees
and send to both the House
and Senate for approval.
Many will die along the way
in the limited time period,
especially those that haven’t
been fine-tuned yet, leaders
of the majority Democratic
caucus said Tuesday.
But Senate President Peter
Courtney has said he’s very
concerned about the surge
in illegal marijuana farms
in southern Oregon, and
even suggested the Oregon
National Guard be sent in
to help, and so might favor
legislation aimed at tackling
the problem.
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WASHINGTON— Pfizer on
Tuesday, Feb. 1, asked the U.S.
to authorize extra-low doses of
its COVID-19 vaccine for chil-
dren under 5, potentially open-
ing the way for the very young-
est Americans to start receiving
shots as early as March.
In an extraordinary move,
the Food and Drug Adminis-
tration had urged Pfizer and
its partner BioNTech to apply
earlier than the companies
had planned.
The nation’s 19 million
children under 5 are the only
group not yet eligible for vacci-
nation against the coronavirus.
Many parents have been push-
ing for an expansion of shots
to toddlers and preschoolers,
especially as the omicron wave
sent record numbers of young-
sters to the hospital.
If the FDA agrees, Pfizer
shots containing just one-tenth
of the dose given to adults
could be dispensed to chil-
dren as young as 6 months.
Pfizer said on Feb. 1 that it had
started submitting its data to
the FDA and expects to com-
plete the process in a few days.
An open question is how
many shots those youngsters
will need. Pfizer is testing three
shots after two of the extra-low
doses turned out to be strong
enough for babies but not for
preschoolers, and the final
data from the study isn’t ex-
pected until late March.
That means the FDA may
consider whether to autho-
rize two shots for now, with
potentially a third shot being
cleared later if the study sup-
ports it.
The FDA said on Feb. 1 that
it will convene a panel of in-
dependent researchers and
physicians in mid-February
to help review the Pfizer data.
The agency isn’t required to
follow the panelists’ advice
but their input is a key step in
publicly vetting vaccine safety
and effectiveness.
The FDA’s ultimate deci-
sion could come within the
month but that isn’t the only
hurdle. The Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention
also has to sign off.
The Biden administration
has been trying to speed the
authorization of COVID-19
shots for children, contend-
ing vaccinations are critical
for opening schools and day
care centers and keeping them
open, and for freeing up par-
ents from child care duties so
they can go back to work.
Yet vaccination rates have
been lower among children
than in other age groups. As of
last week, just 20% of kids ages
5 to 11 and just over half of
12- to 17-year-olds were fully
vaccinated, according to the
American Academy of Pediat-
rics. Nearly three-quarters of
adults are fully vaccinated.
While young children are
far less likely than adults to get
severely ill from the coronavi-
rus, it can happen, and pediat-
ric COVID-19 infections are
higher than at any other point
in the pandemic.
“What we’re seeing right
now is still a lot of hospitaliza-
tions and unfortunately some
deaths in this age group,” said
Dr. Sean O’Leary of the Uni-
versity of Colorado, who is on
the AAP’s infectious disease
Eastern Oregon University/Contributed Photo
Students walk to class at Eastern Oregon University in this undated photo.
Oregon lawmakers take aim at
explosion of illegal pot farms
RD
BY LAURAN NEERGAARD AND
MATTHEW PERRONE
Associated Press
tests through Feb. 1. The 251 total
positive tests result in a 10.4% pos-
itivity rate. The measurement had
stayed steady around 5% through
most of the fall, peaking toward the
end of January and into February.
The university tracks its off-cam-
pus isolations and quarantines, a
number that has stayed relatively
low. The schools tracked three
off-campus quarantines from Jan.
4-9 and two from Jan. 12-18.
Eastern has 50 isolation rooms
available on campus in case of in-
fection, but the university has never
come close to running out of space
in that regard. From Jan. 5-10, 45
out of the 50 spaces were available,
the lowest mark that Eastern has
reached since the dashboard started
tracking data at the start of July.
The vaccination rate among
on-campus students stands at
75.7%, with a 24.2% exemption rate.
For on-campus employees, 80.1%
are vaccinated and 17.7% received
an exemption.
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