A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
A future for the
city’s ambulances
T
here was some welcome optimism last week in the
issue about ambulance service in Baker City and more
than half of the rest of Baker County.
Th e Baker County Commissioners, who by Oregon
law are responsible for choosing the ambulance provider,
off ered to contribute $150,000 from county coff ers to the
Baker City Fire Department, the current ambulance opera-
tor, for the fi scal year that starts July 1, 2022. Th at’s $50,000
more than the county budgeted for the current fi scal year.
Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten and Councilors
Dean Guyer and Johnny Waggoner Sr. expressed hope that
city and county offi cials can forge an agreement that both
maintains the city as the ambulance provider for at least the
coming fi scal year, and at least begins to address the fi nan-
cial problems the city has incurred as a result of operating
ambulances.
Th at’s what should happen.
And based on the city’s budget, it can happen.
Yet City Manager Jonathan Cannon seems resigned to
ending ambulance service. In his April 8 weekly newslet-
ter, Cannon wrote that he and Fire Chief Sean Lee have
met with county offi cials to discuss the “transition of the
ambulance service.”
Although the county would have to fi nd a diff erent
provider were the city to cease ambulance service Sept.
30, 2022, the date listed in a notice the City Council vot-
ed to send to the county on March 22, both city council-
ors and county commissioners have said they prefer to
have the city fi re department continue the role it has had
for several decades.
Th at’s vital not only with regard to ambulance service.
Were the city to stop operating ambulances, the loss of
revenue — projected at about $1 million for the current
fi scal year — would force the city to slash its fi refi ghting
staff . Th at’s not acceptable.
A million bucks is a signifi cant sum, to be sure. But that
represents only about half the amount the city actually bills
for ambulance runs. And the percentage of billing the city
has collected has risen from 32.7% in calendar year 2019,
according to the city.
Th e problem is that most of those ambulance bills go
to people who are covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
And those federal programs pay only about 20% of what
the city bills.
Th is is not a new issue. Nor is it one that city and county
offi cials have missed. Th ey have talked about the fi nancial
challenges of operating ambulances for several years. It is
true that neither the city nor the county has made funda-
mental changes needed to deal with the situation in the
long run. In the absence of a major revision in how the
federal government reimburses ambulance providers —
something that doesn’t appear to be pending — the money
will have to come from local sources. A levy that boosts
property taxes throughout the ambulance service area —
both inside Baker City and outside — seems to be the most
plausible, if not politically palatable, option. Ultimately the
county will need to put that question to voters.
In the meantime, though, there is the Sept. 30 ultimatum
that the City Council has tossed down. Th e question, then,
is whether the city, with the $150,000 from the county, can
continue to operate ambulances — and avoid severe cuts to
its fi re department staff — for fi scal year starting July 1.
Based on the city’s budget for the past few years, includ-
ing the current fi scal year, the answer seems to be that it is
indeed possible.
If the ambulance billing crisis had become so severe that
gutting the fi re department is necessary, then it’s reason-
able to wonder whether the city has been plundering other
parts of the general fund to try in vain to stanch the fi nan-
cial bleeding in the fi re department. But that’s not the case.
Indeed, the most expensive department in the general fund
— police — has had its budget grow by about 26% over the
past three fi scal years.
Th at’s not to suggest that the city can continue to oper-
ate ambulances with a comparatively paltry contribution
from the county and the residents outside the city who
benefi t from the service. But there’s nothing in the city’s
recent budget history to suggest that maintaining the
status quo for another fi scal year — a status quo that, to
reiterate, has not wreaked havoc on the general fund —
would suddenly eviscerate that fund.
Th e greater risk is to cease ambulance service Sept. 30
with the resulting layoff s in the fi re department. Running
ambulances is expensive, and because of the meager
federal reimbursements, that service can never break
even. But subsidizing the city’s ambulance service also
makes possible a bigger and more capable fi re depart-
ment. We’ve been fortunate to have both of these services
for decades. We can surely have them for at least another
year while city and county offi cials investigate possible
long-term solutions.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
COLUMN
Time to end the COVID emergency
president nor his brain trust has of-
fered any eradication strategies.
Much has changed since Presi-
Going forward, the better policy
dent Donald Trump invoked emer-
path is for the administration to ac-
gency powers to combat the spread
knowledge that it cannot eradicate
of COVID-19. Immunity, whether
COVID-19, that it has likely joined the
natural or acquired through vaccines, ranks of diseases with which we coexist.
is much more widespread, and break-
Living with COVID-19 is not sur-
through treatments are available.
rendering to the pathogen. It is gov-
While the disease may never be
ernment accepting reality and surren-
completely eradicated, it’s time to re- dering the extraordinary control it has
turn to a public health policy that
exercised over the lives of 330 million
prizes individual liberty over govern- Americans.
ment authority. Unfortunately, Pres-
The Biden administration should
ident Joe Biden remains unwilling to begin by making it clear that the reali-
relinquish the emergency powers he
ties of March 2022 are nothing like the
has wielded since taking office.
nightmare of March 2020.
Granted, he has eased some
The coronavirus is no longer novel.
COVID-related restrictions, urging
Thanks to medical innovations and
a return to workplaces, schools and
natural immunity, many of our bodies
public gatherings. And the Centers for can now recognize the pathogen and
Disease Control has agreed that most are far better positioned to combat it.
communities can drop indoor mask- As of mid-March, nearly 217 million
ing requirements.
Americans were fully vaccinated, 96.2
But the Transportation Safety Ad- million had received boosters and an
ministration still retains the mask
estimated 140 million people — some
mandate for air transportation,
of whom also were immunized — had
and the administration is seeking
recovered from the virus.
yet another round of “emergency”
Our statistical analysis indicates that
COVID-19 funding. It also has ex-
those who decide to get vaccinated are
tended both the HHS public health
at much lower risk of severe cases of
emergency and a presidentially de-
COVID-19 than are the unvaccinated.
clared national emergency. And CDC Fully vaccinated people under the age
continues to call on state and local
of 50 are two to 40 times more likely to
officials to adopt “layered preven-
die from a homicide than COVID-19.
tion strategies” — including mask
When fully vaccinated, even older
mandates — based on the agency’s
Americans — those aged 65 and up —
assessment of “COVID-19 commu-
are at much lower risk of dying from
nity levels.”
COVID-19 than from other ailments,
This approach to the pandemic is
including heart disease, cancer and
rooted in the administration’s unreal- chronic illnesses.
istic “zero COVID” policy goal. The
For those who opt not to get vacci-
only virus that was ever truly eradi-
nated, widely available antivirals are
cated was smallpox — and that took
highly effective in preventing severe ill-
nearly 200 years.
ness and hospitalizations. One of these
It is now clear that lockdowns and
products, an oral medication called
mandates have failed to shut down the Paxlovid, is 88 percent effective at pre-
virus either here or abroad. Nor have venting severe disease. Under the ad-
vaccines. So what will? Neither the
ministration’s “test to treat” initiative,
BY DOUG BADGER AND
KEVIN DAYARATNA
people who test positive for COVID-19
at certain pharmacies will take the
medicine home with them.
And for those who have already
had COVID-19, natural immunity is
as robust, if not more so, than immu-
nity conferred from vaccines, accord-
ing to CDC.
We can live with a virus whose worst
effects are muted by immunity and
antivirals, just as we live with other
diseases that pose substantial threats
to the elderly and medically vulner-
able. None of that was true two years
ago when the Trump administration
initially issued the emergency declara-
tions. Today, there is no need for those
declarations to remain in force.
Rescinding them will have collateral
effects. Higher Medicaid payments to
states, for example, are linked to the
emergency. State coffers are overflow-
ing, and the tens of billions in addi-
tional spending is contributing to infla-
tion. These payments should cease.
Other temporary provisions linked
to the emergency, like telemedicine,
should be extended. First widely de-
ployed as an expedient when the gov-
ernment restricted non-emergent
medical care, telemedicine has proved
enormously popular. Congress should
permanently authorize it.
Temporary policies linked to
the emergency declarations should
stand or fall on their own merits, but
the states of emergency themselves
should expire.
We can — and must — learn to live
with COVID-19. And our president
must learn to live with letting go of
emergency powers that are no longer
necessary or appropriate.
Doug Badger is a senior fellow for
domestic policy studies at The Heritage
Foundation. Data scientist and Research
Fellow Kevin Dayaratna is the think
tank’s principal statistician.
OTHER VIEWS
Evidence mounting of Russian war crimes
Editorial from The St. Louis Post-
Dispatch:
Evidence of war crimes has mounted
daily since Russian President Vladimir
Putin launched his invasion to “de-
nazify” Ukraine. Russian forces car-
rying out Putin’s orders targeted civil-
ian areas and bombed clearly marked
shelters. Convoys of non-combatants
fleeing the fighting were hit with artil-
lery — even after Russia had agreed
to honor a safety corridor so refugees
could leave. Video footage of civilian
apartment buildings being blasted by
tank fire eliminated any question of
civilians merely being victims of collat-
eral damage.
Now comes the hardcore evidence
from the formerly Russian-occupied
town of Bucha of people shot dead
with their hands tied behind their
backs. Even in the unlikely event that
the dead were Ukrainian fighters taken
prisoner by Russian troops, the execu-
tion-style killings would still constitute
war crimes. Russia is a signatory to the
Geneva Conventions, even though Pu-
tin in 2019 ordained that his country
would no longer recognize protocols
requiring the protection of non-com-
batants in international conflicts.
That’s no excuse for the atrocities
occurring as Russian troops withdraw
from Ukrainian urban centers. Inter-
national investigators have a moun-
tainous trove of photos, videos and
other evidence distributed worldwide
on television news and social media.
“They shot and killed women out-
side their houses when they just
tried to call someone who is alive,”
Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelen-
skyy told the U.N. Security Council on
Tuesday. “They killed entire families,
adults and children, and they tried to
burn the bodies. I am addressing you
on behalf of the people who honor the
memory of the deceased every single
day and the memory of the civilians
who died. They were shot … in the
back of their head after being tortured.
Some of them were shot on the streets.”
Despite overwhelming evidence,
prosecuting such war crimes in the
International Criminal Court would
be no simple task, mainly because nei-
ther Russia nor Ukraine is a member
of the court or recognizes its authority.
The United States, which is also not a
member, has repeatedly scoffed at ef-
forts to put top American officials on
trial. But the mere issuance of a com-
plaint, such as one involving then-De-
fense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for
his approval of waterboarding and
other torture tactics against post-9/11
detainees, was enough to raise his con-
cerns about travel in Europe for fear
of being arrested the way former Chil-
ean President Augusto Pinochet was
in 1998.
Putin already is reluctant to travel
abroad, and as long as he stays in
Russia, prosecution would be nearly
impossible. But his country at least
deserves expulsion from the U.N. Hu-
man Rights Council, and tightening
international sanctions on Russian pe-
troleum exports would help deny Pu-
tin the revenue he needs to pay for his
Ukraine fiasco.
If he hasn’t gotten the message al-
ready, perhaps the image of prisoner
Saddam Hussein emerging from his
underground mud hovel near Tikrit,
Iraq, would serve to remind Putin: You
can run, but you can’t hide.