A4 THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021
Weather
Continued from A1
The record high tempera-
ture for the month was 76
degrees on Feb. 28, 1923, ac-
cording to weather service
data.
Low temperatures last
month in Bend averaged 24.4
degrees, which was 0.2 de-
grees above normal. The low-
est was 6 degrees on Feb. 13,
which was much warmer than
the record low temperatures
of minus 26 degrees on Feb. 9,
1933, according to the data.
A total of 22 days last
month in Bend had low tem-
peratures below 32 degrees.
On Feb. 13, the high tempera-
ture stayed below 32 degrees.
February precipitation in
Bend totaled 1.12 inches,
which was 0.03 inches above
normal. Measurable precip-
itation of at least 0.01 inch
was recorded on 10 days. The
heaviest precipitation was
0.35 inches on Feb. 12.
Bend had 8.6 inches of
snowfall in February. At least
1 inch of snow fell on three
days.
The heaviest snowfall was
3.5 inches on Feb. 12. The
deepest snow depth on the
ground was 2 inches on Feb.
16.
The outlook for March
calls for below normal tem-
peratures and near normal
precipitation. The first week
of March is forecast to have
warm temperatures of 50 and
60 degrees, but those could
cool down the following
week, according to weather
service meteorologist Jim
Smith.
“It does look like it’s cool-
ing down,” Smith said. “The
trend is a little cooler than the
upper 50s and near 60s this
week. There is colder air mov-
ing in on Sunday and it looks
like it’s sticking around for
much of next week.”
Normal high temperatures
for March in Bend rise from
48 degrees at the start of the
month to 54 degrees at the end.
Normal lows temperatures rise
from 25 degrees to 29 degrees
throughout the month.
The normal March precipi-
tation in Bend is 0.73 inches.
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7820,
kspurr@bendbulletin.com
Tensions over vaccine equity pit rural against urban America
BY TRAVIS LOLLER, JONATHAN
MATTISE AND GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Rita
Fentress was worried she might
get lost as she traveled down
the unfamiliar forested, one-
lane road in rural Tennessee in
search of a coronavirus vaccine.
Then the trees cleared and the
Hickman County Agricultural
Pavilion appeared.
The 74-year-old woman
wasn’t eligible to be vaccinated
in Nashville, where she lives,
because there were so many
health care workers to vacci-
nate there. But a neighbor told
her the state’s rural counties
had already moved to younger
age groups and she found an
appointment 60 miles away.
“I felt kind of guilty about
it,” she said. “I thought maybe
I was taking it from someone
else.” But late that February
day, she said there were still five
openings for the next morning.
The U.S. vaccine campaign
has heightened tensions be-
tween rural and urban Amer-
ica, where from Oregon to
Tennessee to upstate New York
complaints are surfacing of a
real — or perceived — inequity
in vaccine allocation.
In some cases, recrimina-
tions over how scarce vaccines
are distributed have taken on
partisan tones, with rural Re-
publican lawmakers in Demo-
crat-led states complaining of
“picking winners and losers,”
and urbanites traveling hours
to rural GOP-leaning commu-
nities to score COVID-19 shots
when there are none in their
city.
In Oregon, state GOP law-
makers walked out of a legis-
lative session last week over
the Democratic governor’s
vaccine plans, citing rural vac-
cine distribution among their
concerns. In upstate New York,
public health officials in rural
counties have complained of
disparities in vaccine allocation
and in North Carolina, rural
lawmakers say too many doses
were going to mass vaccine
centers in big cities.
In Tennessee, Missouri and
Alabama, a dearth of shots in
urban areas with the greatest
number of health care workers
has led senior citizens to snap
up appointments hours from
their homes. The result is a
hodgepodge of approaches that
can look like the exact oppo-
site of equity, where those most
Oregon to receive 34,000 doses of new COVID-19 vaccine
Oregon health officials said Monday they expect
to receive 34,000 doses of, the recently approved,
Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine this week.
Currently the two vaccines that Oregon has —
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — both have reported
efficacy rates around 95%, require two doses and
need ultra-cold storage. Johnson & Johnson’s is a sin-
gle-dose vaccine and can be stored in a refrigerator
for months, but has a lower efficacy rate.
“Having access to a third highly effective COVID-19
vaccine is a game changing development for Orego-
nians,’ said Paul Cieslak, the medical director for com-
municable diseases and immunization for the Oregon
Health Authority. “We believe this vaccine is effective
likely to be vaccinated are peo-
ple with the savvy and means to
search out a shot and travel to
wherever it is.
“It’s really, really flawed,” said
Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar
at the Johns Hopkins Center
for Health Security, who noted
there are even vaccine hunters
who will find a dose for money.
“Ideally, allocations would meet
the population’s needs.”
With little more than gen-
eral guidance from the federal
government, states have taken
it upon themselves to decide
what it means to distribute the
vaccine fairly and reach vulner-
against the virus, and a one-dose regimen will allow
us to vaccinate more Oregonians more quickly.”
While officials say they are excited for the John-
son & Johnson doses, they anticipate that less will be
available in the next few weeks following this week’s
initial allocation.
So far, more a cumulative total of more than
986,000 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines
have been administered to Oregonians.
As of Monday, people who are 65 years and older be-
came eligible to receive doses of the vaccine — joining
other elderly residents, people in long-term care facilities,
adults in custody, educators and health care workers.
able populations.
Tennessee, like many states,
has divvied up doses based pri-
marily on county population,
not on how many residents be-
long to eligible groups — such
as health care workers. The
Tennessee health commis-
sioner has defended the alloca-
tion as the “most equitable,” but
the approach has also exposed
yet another layer of haves and
have-nots as the vaccine rollout
accelerates.
In Oregon, the issue led state
officials to pause dose deliv-
eries in some rural areas that
had finished inoculating their
— The Associated Press
health care workers while clin-
ics elsewhere, including the
Portland metro area, caught
up. The dust-up last month
prompted an angry response,
with some state GOP lawmak-
ers accusing Democratic Gov.
Kate Brown of playing favorites
with the urban dwellers who
elected her.
Public health leaders in Mor-
row County, which has one of
the highest COVID-19 infec-
tion rates, said they had to de-
lay two vaccine clinics because
of the state’s decision. Other
rural counties delayed vaccines
for seniors.
States face plenty of chal-
lenges. Rural counties are less
likely to have the deep-freeze
equipment necessary to store
Pfizer vaccines. Health care
workers are often concentrated
in big cities. And rural counties
were particularly hard hit by
COVID-19 in many states, but
their residents are among the
most likely to say they’re “defi-
nitely not” going to get vacci-
nated, according to recent Kai-
ser Family Foundation polling.
Adalja said most of these
complications were foreseeable
and could have been avoided
with proper planning and
funding.
“There are people who
know how to do this,” he said.
“They’re just not in charge of it.”
OBITUARY
Bennie Edward Oatman
July 17, 1932 - February 19, 2021
Av er a rich, full life, Bennie Edward Oatman passed
away of natural causes at the age of 88.
Fairgrounds
Continued from A1
“In an ideal world, we would
have gotten to deliberate on
that,” Chang said.
Chang said there are good
reasons to try the pop-up clinic
model. Several residents have
been asking for the county to
bring more vaccinations out to
more rural parts of the county
to serve more vulnerable res-
idents who may have a hard
time getting to the fairgrounds.
He also said he knows the
fairgrounds as a department
was one of the worst hit finan-
cially due to the pandemic, and
understands the need to make
up for lost event revenue.
In this instance, Chang said
he doesn’t think “it’s a terrible
thing” to do pop-up clinics be-
cause the county is receiving
so few vaccines from the state.
But he worries about the long
term once the county begins to
receive more vaccines again.
“I’m concerned we will have
created an expectation to bring
vaccinations to all the corners
of the county, and that could
inhibit our ability to keep our
vaccination clinic staying put at
the fairgrounds,” Chang said.
Geoff Hinds, director of the
Deschutes County Fair & Expo
Center, said the fairgrounds
from the start of the mass vac-
cination clinic has shared with
public health specific dates
when the fairgrounds may not
be able to make accommoda-
tions unless “absolutely neces-
sary.” He said the Sportsmen’s
Show was one of those events.
Hinds said vaccination clin-
ics remain a priority, and that
the fairgrounds can work with
the public health department
to ensure the health and safety
of the community along with
working with and honoring
longstanding events.
“I certainly understand the
concerns, and we’re very un-
derstanding of the concern
for public health in our com-
munity,” Hinds said Monday.
“We’re proud of the role we’ve
been able to play thus far and
will continue to play, and that
will always remain our prior-
ity.”
When asked whether there
were any other future events
that could result in moving the
vaccination clinic, Hinds said
the fairgrounds was working
with public health to accom-
modate clinics to the “utmost
extent possible into the future.”
e e
Reporter: 541-633-2160,
bvisser@bendbulletin.com
George “Art” A. Barker
III of Sisters, OR
July 26, 1954 - Feb 17,
2021
Arrangements:
Autumn Funerals of Red-
mond is honored to serve
the family. 541-504-9485
Memories and condolenc-
es may be expressed to
the family on our website
at www.autumnfunerals.net
Services:
A celebration of life will be
announced at a later date.
Contributions may be
made to: St. Charles Hos-
pice, 2275 NE Doctors Dr
Bend, OR 97701
Sharron Lea Allman
of Powell Butte, OR
November 30, 1931 -
February 21, 2021
Arrangements:
Autumn Funerals,
Redmond 541-504-9485
www.autumnfunerals.net
Services:
A Gathering will be held at
a later date.
OBITUARY DEADLINE
Call to ask about our deadlines
541-385-5809
Monday-Friday 10am-3pm
Email: obits@bendbulletin.com
Bennie was born July 17, 1932 in the Texas
Panhandle to Sallie and I.H. Oatman. His family
moved to Bend Oregon when he was a child.
Married to Eileen June Oatman for 63 years, Bennie
was a family man, devo} ng his } me and energy to
crea} ng an exci} ng environment for his wife and
three children.
Joining the Air Force in 1950, Bennie was sta} oned
in New Mexico (with the Nuclear Commission).
Av er his Air Force duty, Bennie worked various
jobs in construc} on and mills and working on a
logging train in North-Central Oregon. He built
planes at Boeing in Washington, as well as working
to construct Round But e Dam in Central Oregon.
He û nished his career in a job at the Bend School
District where he did plumbing and hea} ng.
In recent years, Bennie could be heard saying <we
played with the kids!= And Bennie & Eileen did
just that. His children were privileged to grow up
in a family that did everything together: Camping,
water skiing, trips to the Oregon Coast.
His crea} ve energy led to a life} me of memories
and achievements. Building kites, whistles from
green willow branches, and s} lts for us to play with
together. He built solar panels before most people
had ever heard of them. He created a system where
house water was heated by a wood stove. When he
was building a woodshed out of lodgepole pine, he
went to the extraordinary step of spliý ng his own
shakes for the roof.
Bennie and Eileen re} red in their û v ies, traveling in
a motorhome to all the con} nental states, except
Maine. They spent decades on the road - Bennie
would sing the Johnny Cash song: <I9ve been
everywhere, man...= - and he had.
Bennie lived his Chris} an faith. Bap} zing believers
in a creek; his faith seen in ac} on, seý ng an
example for those around him.
Preceding Bennie in death was his wife Eileen,
brothers Jerry and Joe, and sister Wanda. Bennie
is survived by his son Nick and wife Carol, daughter
Roxie and husband Ray, son Neal and wife Linda,
sisters Ginger and Sherry, four grandchildren, and
two great-grandchildren.