THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2021 A3
TODAY
It’s Saturday, March 13, the 72nd
day of 2021. There are 293 days
left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
In 1933, banks in the U.S. began
to reopen after a “holiday” de-
clared by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
In 1639, New College was
renamed Harvard College for
clergyman John Harvard.
In 1781, the seventh planet of
the solar system, Uranus, was
discovered by Sir William Her-
schel.
In 1862, President Abraham
Lincoln signed a measure pro-
hibiting Union military officers
from returning fugitive slaves to
their owners.
In 1925, the Tennessee Gen-
eral Assembly approved a bill
prohibiting the teaching of the
theory of evolution. Gov. Austin
Peay signed the measure on
March 21.
In 1934, a gang that included
John Dillinger and “Baby Face”
Nelson robbed the First National
Bank in Mason City, Iowa, mak-
ing off with $52,344.
In 1938, famed attorney Clar-
ence S. Darrow died in Chicago.
In 1947, the Lerner and Loewe
musical “Brigadoon,” about a
Scottish village that magically
reappears once every hundred
years, opened on Broadway.
In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts
splashed down, ending a mis-
sion that included the successful
testing of the Lunar Module.
In 1996, a gunman burst into an
elementary school in Dunblane,
Scotland, and opened fire, killing
16 children and one teacher be-
fore killing himself.
In 2018, President Donald
Trump abruptly dumped Secre-
tary of State Rex Tillerson — via
Twitter — and moved CIA Direc-
tor Mike Pompeo from the role
of America’s spy chief to its top
diplomat.
Ten years ago: The estimated
death toll from Japan’s earth-
quake and tsunami climbed past
10,000 as authorities raced to
combat the threat of multiple
nuclear reactor meltdowns
while hundreds of thousands of
people struggled to find food
and water. The NCAA men’s
basketball selection committee
released its 68-team draw which
included a record 11 teams from
the Big East, the deepest confer-
ence in the nation.
Five years ago: A Kurdish wom-
an blew herself up in a car at a
busy transport hub in Ankara,
Turkey, killing 37 people in an at-
tack claimed by TAK, also known
as the Kurdish Freedom Falcons.
One year ago: President
Donald Trump declared the
coronavirus pandemic a national
emergency, freeing up money
and resources for state and local
governments to fight the out-
break. Stocks clawed back some
of their losses on Wall Street and
in Europe a day after the mar-
ket’s worst session in more than
three decades.
Today’s Birthdays: Jazz mu-
sician Roy Haynes is 96. Song-
writer Mike Stoller is 88. Sing-
er-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 82.
Opera singer Julia Migenes is
72. Actor William H. Macy is 71.
Comedian Robin Duke is 67. Ac-
tor Dana Delany is 65. Rock mu-
sician Adam Clayton (U2) is 61.
Jazz musician Terence Blanchard
is 59. Actor Annabeth Gish is
50. Actor Tracy Wells is 50. Rap-
per-actor Common is 49. Rapper
Khujo is 49. Actor Danny Master-
son is 45. Actor Emile Hirsch is
36. Tennis star Coco Gauff is 17.
— The Associated Press
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
COVID-19 | Pilot program in Oregon
Some centers can vaccinate anyone
BY SARA CLINE
AND GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Oregon
made national headlines when
it placed teachers ahead of its
oldest residents in the line for
a scarce supply of COVID-19
vaccine and then again when
a committee advising the gov-
ernor on vaccine equity flirted
with making race a determi-
nant for when a person could
get inoculated.
Now, three months into the
vaccine rollout, the state has
begun a pilot program that al-
lows some federally qualified
health centers to offer shots to
anyone they serve, even if that
patient does not fall into any
currently eligible categories.
These centers must still priori-
tize patients who are currently
eligible under Oregon rules,
but the pilot program gives
health care providers for the
most at-risk populations more
latitude and resolves a conflict
between federal and state pri-
orities on vaccine equity.
The Biden administration
last month began distributing
vaccine to federally qualified
health centers under a pro-
gram designed to get shots into
the arms of the most econom-
ically and socially disadvan-
taged Americans — seasonal
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/pool via AP, file
Medical professionals from Oregon Health & Science University load syringes with the Moderna COVID-19
vaccine in January at a drive-thru vaccination clinic in Portland.
and migrant farmworkers and
those Americans living in pov-
erty, for example.
But those centers in Oregon
and Washington found their
hands tied because state rules
on vaccine eligibility hadn’t yet
expanded to migrant farm-
workers, those with pre-exist-
ing conditions or other vul-
nerable groups and so they
couldn’t give them shots.
The disconnect was “incred-
ibly frustrating,” but the pilot
program in Oregon will resolve
those issues, said Lori Kelley,
senior director of quality at the
Yakima Valley Farm Workers
Clinic, which treats 180,000
patients a year in Eastern
Washington and Western Ore-
gon. About one-third of those
patients are seasonal farm-
workers, she said, and the clin-
ics offer treatment regardless of
ability to pay.
“They are living in a con-
gregate setting, four to six to
a room, head-to-toe and they
work, live, eat and sleep in co-
horts. If one person in their
cohort gets sick, then they all
miss work time,” she said.
Kelley’s organization is pe-
titioning Washington state to
create a similar pilot program.
In Oregon, those who can
get a shot now include health
care workers and first respond-
ers, teachers and early child-
hood educators and residents
over age 65. Those over age 45
with a pre-existing condition,
seasonal and migrant farm-
workers, food processors, the
homeless and those affected by
last summer’s wildfires will be-
come eligible on March 29.
Rudy Owens, a spokesper-
son for the Oregon Health Au-
thority, said the seven health
centers are scheduled to receive
a combined total of 3,700 doses
per week from the state’s vac-
cine allocation.
Owens said that the health
centers have been given the
“flexibility” to vaccinate any
individual they serve — this
includes anyone 16 and older
— but the health authority is
asking that the centers try to
use the eligibility phases as
guidelines when choosing who
to vaccinate.
The health authority and the
governor’s office will review
the outcomes from pilot proj-
ect over the next several weeks.
State releases little about vaccinated CLACKAMAS COUNTY
Oregonians who tested positive
Former principal
State cites ‘patient
privacy’ about the
4 with COVID-19
AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian
The Oregon Health Author-
ity says two of the four Orego-
nians fully vaccinated against
COVID-19 who later tested
positive did not have any of the
more contagious variants.
State officials declined to
clearly answer questions about
the other two cases, including
whether samples were analyzed
to determine if the individuals
had coronavirus variants.
State officials announced the
so-called “breakthrough cases”
during a news conference Feb.
12, saying they were thought to
be among the first identified in
the nation.
Officials ordered genomic
sequencing to determine if the
vaccinated Oregonians had
been infected with variants,
with results expected within
seven days.
But state officials in emails
last week initially declined to
answer any questions from The
Oregonian about the four cases
— including whether they had
been infected with the viral
variants first detected in the
United Kingdom or Brazil. Of-
ficials cited “patient privacy.”
The news organization dis-
agreed that doing so would
breach patient privacy and
argued that sharing informa-
tion would further the public’s
understanding of the virus’ be-
havior.
In response, agency leader-
ship met and decided to release
limited information, according
to spokesman Tim Heider. The
agency eventually said samples
from two of the individuals
had been analyzed “and there
were no variants of concern
detected.”
He did not respond to ques-
tions about the other two cases.
Heider also declined to an-
swer questions about the cir-
cumstances under which the
four Oregonians were vacci-
nated, including the amount
of time that had passed since
their second doses, if they’d
been exposed to the virus be-
fore the second dose had be-
come fully effective, and if the
virus had been in their systems
for some time.
But state epidemiologist
Dr. Dean Sidelinger had said
during the Feb. 12 news con-
ference that they had tested
positive at least two weeks after
Coming this
FRIDAY
Don’t miss
the Spring edition
of Pulse of Oregon
inside The Bulletin
this Friday,
March 19.
their second doses. Sidelinger
and Health Authority Direc-
tor Patrick Allen also said the
cases were of national interest
because they were among the
first breakthrough cases to be
reported in the nation.
Sidelinger had told report-
ers that the Health Authority
was in the process of starting
genome sequencing of sam-
ples taken from the individu-
als — indicating that scientists
wanted to know if these were
cases of the mutated virus slip-
ping past the defense systems
offered by the Pfizer or Mod-
erna vaccines, or whether this
was simply an expected, math-
ematical probability given that
the vaccines aren’t 100% effec-
tive.
Both vaccines have an effi-
cacy estimated at close to 95%.
Two of the four Oregonians
are from Yamhill County and
two are from Lane County.
They either had no symptoms
or mild symptoms — evidence,
Sidelinger had said, that the
vaccines are working to ward
off severe disease. He added
that two of the cases were re-
lated — meaning they were in-
fected from the same cluster of
infections at a single location.
State officials have not pro-
vided more information.
arrested on suspicion
of abusing students
JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
The Oregonian
A retired elementary
school principal who was
the subject of sexual abuse
lawsuit last year by a former
student was arrested Thurs-
day on suspicion of molesting
multiple children.
Jeffrey Hays was indicted
by a Clackamas County
grand jury Monday. He’s
accused of six counts of
first-degree sexual abuse
and a single count of first-de-
gree unlawful sexual pene-
tration.
His bail is set at $500,000.
Hays was the principal
of Deep Creek Elementary
School in the Gresham-Bar-
low School District from
2005 to 2009.
The agency said Hays’ vic-
tims included four former
students.
541.480.8130
louie@louiehoffman.com
“Catch My Drift”
Louie Hoffman, CCIM
Principal Broker, Licensed in Oregon
SRES, Senior Real Estate Specialist
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