BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2022 A5
OREGON
Oregon spent $2.4M on a digital
COVID-19 vaccine card few using
BY FEDOR ZARKHIN
The Oregonian
Oregonians have used the
state’s $2.4 million digital
COVID-19 vaccine card pro-
gram only about 50,000 times,
far less than people in Wash-
ington used their state’s app
and at more than twice the
cost.
Oregon released its vac-
cine card web application in
late April, with fanfare, pro-
viding Oregonians with a
method to obtain digital proof
that they’ve been vaccinated
against COVID-19 in the
form of a scannable QR code.
In theory, that meant peo-
ple didn’t have to fear losing
their paper vaccine card or fret
about forgetting it at home,
while businesses would have
an easy and efficient way to
confirm patrons’ vaccination
status.
But whether Oregonians
have decided they don’t need
the digital card or simply ha-
ven’t heard it is available, it’s
clear relatively few are opting
to use it.
As of June 30, about 45,000
Oregonians had downloaded
QR codes showing proof of
vaccination a total of 50,730
times, with 6,000 repeat us-
ers. That amounts to one
download for every approx-
imately 83 Oregonians, and
one download for every 63
Oregonians who have re-
ceived at least one shot of the
COVID-19 vaccine.
That rate is nearly 11 times
smaller than what Washington
achieved about three months
after it made digital vaccine
cards available in October.
The difference in timing may
have made all the difference.
By the time Oregon made
the vaccine card web appli-
cation available April 25,
COVID-19 restrictions were
already being lifted and the
state and country were moving
psychologically past the pan-
demic. That, said one national
expert on immunization infor-
mation tech systems, may ex-
plain why so few people went
on to download a QR code.
“There was a little more of a
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin file
Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations sit on a tray ready to be administered during a COVID-19 vaccination clinic at
the Downtown Bend Public Library.
COVID focus in the fall and a
little bit less in early 2022,” said
Mary Beth Kurilo, a senior di-
rector at the American Immu-
nization Registry Association.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity, which is responsible for
the state’s application, agreed.
Washington launched its vac-
cine card application during
a surge in cases while Oregon
did not, spokesperson Rudy
Owens said in an email. The
states also had different vac-
cine requirements when the
tools launched.
Oregon officials say how
many people actually use a
state-issued digital vaccine
card is not what matters most.
“The download rate isn’t
something we are measuring
as indicative of project suc-
cess,” Owens said in an email.
Instead, Owens said, the
agency focused on making
the application accessible to
as broad a swath of the popu-
lation as possible, “intention-
ally” launching it slower than
neighboring states as Oregon
consulted with the community
on how to make the roll out
equitable and accessible.
Kurilo praised Oregon’s ap-
proach, saying it serves as a
model for the kind of health
equity focus other states
should have. While it may
have taken longer to get off the
ground than vaccine cards in
other states, the work Oregon
put into making a digital vac-
cine card accessible to all puts
the state in a good position
if future COVID-19 surges
prompt more restrictions or
vaccine requirements.
“The solution Oregon built
is a lasting one,” Kurilo said.
But if raw uptake is a mea-
sure of success, then Oregon’s
program has performed abys-
mally compared to its neigh-
bors to the north and south.
About three months after
Washington’s October launch,
the digital vaccine cards were
downloaded 1 million times,
or once for roughly every 7.7
residents of the state. As of July
1, Washingtonians had down-
loaded cards 1,250,000 times.
“I feel that having over 1
million downloads in less
than a year speaks to suc-
cess,” Washington Depart-
ment of Health official Chris
Baumgartner said in an
emailed statement.
In California, 8.2 million
people have so far downloaded
QR codes proving vaccination
status, out of a total population
Nationwide mental health
crisis line, 988, launches
BY JAMIE PARFITT
AND PAT DOORIS
KGW News
PORTLAND — July 16
marked the launch of 988, the
three-digit hotline for getting
help in a mental health crisis
— meaning that these calls will
soon be accessible in the same
way that emergency services are
through 911.
The big lingering concern is
whether Oregon is prepared for
what could be a surge in calls
prompted by the greater acces-
sibility of the resource. Stake-
holders say that the state should
be on the right track. Hotlines
have been working to hire more
call takers, and the initial bump
in call volume is expected to
level off soon before following
a steadier upward trajectory in
the next few years.
In June, KGW’s Pat Doo-
ris spoke with Dwight Holton,
head of Lines for Life. Call tak-
ers at the Portland-based non-
profit help 37,000 people per
year with a variety of issues in-
volving mental health and drug
abuse. The current phone num-
ber, 800-273-8255, is 10 digits
long. As of July 16, they can be
reached by simply dialing 988.
“Really excited. 988 is gonna
be a new service, a new way to
reach help when you’re in crisis,”
said Holton.
As CEO of Lines for Life,
Holton offered ideas during the
development of the new nation-
wide plan. He believes that the
simple number will make a big
difference.
“We’ve had, for many years,
the National Suicide Prevention
Lifeline,” Holton said. “What
988 is gonna do is transform
that by making it super easy to
get help when you’re in crisis or
when you see someone else in
crisis. Just like we have 911 for
when you have a police or fire
emergency, we’ll have 988 for
when there’s a mental health
crisis.”
One of the things Holton
mentioned is key — the ho-
tline will also be available to call
when someone else is in cri-
sis, not just the caller. The 988
number will allow you to report
when people seem to be strug-
gling, and when things work as
intended, a mental health spe-
cialist will respond .
The idea, similar to Portland
Street Response, is to take some
of the load from police and
emergency dispatchers — not
just in big cities but in any com-
munity in the U.S.
“We believe there’s a real op-
portunity here to take some of
that need and bring it to 988,
because lots of the folks that
are calling 911 are really call-
ing about a mental health chal-
lenge,” Holton said. “And that’s
not an appropriate law enforce-
ment role — that’s not what
they’re trained to do and it can
be dangerous.”
It remains to be seen how this
part of the program will work
at the outset, when these kinds
of crisis response programs are
still in their infancy — if they
exist at all — in many areas of
the country.
But Oregon may be ahead of
the curve compared to many
other states. Portland Street
Response is expanding, if over-
whelmed by the number of calls
for service. Meanwhile, its Eu-
gene-area forerunner practically
set the standard that other na-
scent crisis response programs
aspire to.
of 39 million. The state was
among the earliest to launch a
digital vaccine card, first made
available in June 2021. It made
the code supporting the web
application available to other
states for free.
“The rapid development
and launch of (the vaccine
card) was significant in in-
creasing vaccination rates and
kickstarting economic activ-
ity,” a spokesperson for Cali-
fornia’s health agency said in
an email.
To be sure, Oregon’s web
app has been available less
than three months, compared
to the full year California’s has
been open to the public and
eight months Washington’s
app has been available.
Oregonians to vote on
gun control measure
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon voters will decide
Nov. 8 whether to require
firearms training and ban
high-capacity ammunition
magazines.
The Oregon Elections Di-
vision said a ballot initiative
to do so has qualified for the
general election. The state val-
idated 131,671 of the 160,498
petition signatures (82%)
submitted by sponsors. The
number was more than the
112,020 required, based on
6% of the votes cast for gov-
ernor in the 2018 election, a
standard fixed by the Oregon
Constitution.
Voters will see a total of
four measures on the general
election ballot, two initiatives
that qualified by petition and
two constitutional amend-
ments referred by the Legis-
lature.
This measure would limit
ammunition magazines to 10
rounds each. In addition to
the limit, the measure would
require people to undergo
classroom and live-fire train-
ing before they obtain a fire-
arms permit, and complete
background checks. (Current
law allows a purchaser to ob-
tain a gun even if the check is
incomplete after three days;
the measure would compel
the check to be completed.)
Lift Every Voice Oregon,
the movement that sponsored
it and a second potential mea-
sure, was way behind at the
end of May when an initial
round of 2,500 signatures was
submitted.
But two mass shootings
outside Oregon resulted in a
surge of petition volunteers
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and signatures before the
July 8 deadline.
Ten Black people were shot
dead May 14 in a supermar-
ket in Buffalo, and 19 chil-
dren and two teachers died 10
days later at Robb Elementary
School in Uvalde, Texas.
The Rev. Dr. W.J. Mark
Knutson, pastor of Augustana
Lutheran Church in Portland,
said those events helped pro-
duced more than 1,000 new
volunteers and 150,000 more
signatures.
“People were saying they
could not sit anymore, so we
had 1,000 new volunteers
come forward to join the 500,”
Knutson said in an interview
earlier in July. “A lot were
parents with children — it
was pretty amazing. They are
learning about democracy.
“The process is as import-
ant as the result — demo-
cratic action by the people. In
this nation right now, we need
to see democracy at work.”
Movement leaders shelved
a second ballot measure that
would have banned some as-
sault weapons. Knutson said
leaders hope to present it as
a bill to the 2023 Legislature,
which opens Jan. 9.
The measure joins three
others on the general election
ballot.
The other initiative, which
has already qualified, would
bar lawmakers from seeking
re-election if they have 10 or
more absences not excused by
the House speaker or Senate
president. That initiative was
put forth by public employee
unions and others in response
to walkouts by Republican
legislative minorities in 2019,
2020 and 2021.
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