A4 The BulleTin • Friday, May 7, 2021
Doses
ity reported Thursday that just
under 37% of state residents
age 16 and older were fully vac-
cinated. Another 15% have had
one shot and have scheduled
their second dose.
The one-shot Johnson &
Johnson vaccine could speed
up the effort, but manufactur-
ing issues and a review of safety
concerns have slowed distribu-
tion to a trickle.
Just as there are states that
eagerly desire the vaccine while
others shun it, counties in Ore-
gon show the same pattern.
Vaccination rates of resi-
dents 16 and older have varied
widely across the 36 counties,
from 64% in Benton and Hood
River counties to less than 32%
in Lake, Umatilla and Malheur
counties.
That’s led to shifting more
vaccine to areas where it is in
demand, including Portland.
Umatilla County Commis-
sioner George Murdock told
the East Oregonian newspaper
that some of the reasons for the
low turnout to get shots were
political.
Though ex-President Don-
ald Trump was vaccinated,
some see vaccination refusal as
an extension of the opposition
to Brown’s orders closing busi-
nesses that angered many in
the area.
“The polling seems to show
older Republican men seem to
be the group who least likely
want to get the vaccination,”
Murdock said. “But I’m an ab-
solute contrast to that. I’m old,
I’m a Republican and I couldn’t
wait to get mine fast enough.”
Oregon has the highest rate
of “vaccine hesitancy” on the
West Coast, with 15% of res-
idents saying they are unsure
or don’t want to get the shots,
according to a report this week
from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
In contrast, California and
Washington are reporting
about 11% of the population
is unsure or doesn’t want to
be inoculated. California of-
ficials said the highest rates of
negative response were in the
northern tier of rural counties
nearest the Oregon border.
Oregon has also dealt with
what OHA Director Pat Al-
len has called “vaccine bellig-
erency,” an active opposition
to not only being inoculated,
but at times protesting those
who choose to get the vaccine.
Incidents have included the
heckling by anti-vaccination
hardliners of Bend high school
students at a school-sponsored
clinic.
Other steps are being taken
to get more “impulse vaccina-
tions” by offering shots without
appointments. Many people
across the country and in Or-
egon have expressed frustra-
tion with multiple, sometimes
clunky websites required to
make appointments. Now, it’s
possible to just show up and
roll up a sleeve.
“The Oregon Convention
Center is offering walk-in
vaccinations starting Friday,”
said Charles Boyle, a Brown
spokesman.
Both federal and state health
officials have said that they will
also increasingly find ways to
get vaccine to people instead of
people to the vaccine. This will
include mobile clinics, pop-up
sites and vaccination days at
major employers.
necks,” she said.
In response Thursday at
Summit High School, which
hosted the third vaccine
clinic, students arrived early
to support classmates getting
vaccinated and were joined by
interim Bend-La Pine Schools
Superintendent Lora Nord-
quist, Summit Principal Mi-
chael McDonald, a uniformed
Bend Police school resource
officer and local politicians.
But the protesters didn’t
show. Nor did they show up at
a similar clinic Thursday at La
Pine High School.
“I’m a little surprised we
didn’t have more (protesters),
but I’m happy to see kids out
here wanting to support each
other,” McDonald said.Sum-
mit junior, Felix Cowan, 17,
used warlike imagery to de-
scribe what dealing with an-
ti-vaccine protesters was like.
“You can feel like you’re
walking through the trenches,
with 30 adults, half of them
are armed,” he said. “It will
be nice to have familiar faces,
peers, in the crowd.”Having
school staff wait in the park-
ing lot for students on vaccine
clinic days was a pre-emptive
decision made for all schools
in this situation, Repman
said.
No one had a surefire rea-
son why protesters didn’t
materialize. Summit junior
Matthew Schrader-Patton,
17, believes online backlash
to the protesters at Mountain
View may have scared them
off.
“With the reaction this
event has garnered, I think it’s
a little typical for the protest-
ers to be a little deterred from
showing up,” he said.
Protesters or not, Bend
high schoolers are getting
vaccinated.
About 314 students re-
ceived a vaccine dose at the
Bend High and Mountain
View clinics, Repman said
— that’s about 21% of eligi-
ble Bend High students and
about 16% of eligible Moun-
tain View students.
At Summit, about 150 stu-
dents pre-registered for the
vaccine, and nearly 200 were
vaccinated Thursday Repman
said . Another 27 students
got vaccines at La Pine High
Continued from A1
With Oregon one of 12
states currently seeing an in-
crease in COVID-19 cases, the
state plans to withdraw from
the vaccine bank quickly.
“Oregon will ask for the
maximum allowed, which will
help us to get shots in arms
faster,” Gov. Kate Brown said
Tuesday.
On April 27, Oregon’s in-
fection rate had grown by 53%
over the previous two weeks,
the highest mark in the nation.
COVID-19 infections are
still rising in Oregon, but more
slowly. Cases have risen only
12% over the past two weeks.
Oregon’s 33% increase in hos-
pitalizations over the same
time is the third highest in the
nation, behind only Alaska and
Kansas.
Nationwide, the infection
rate is down 26% in the past
two weeks.
The strongest piece of pos-
itive news came at the end of
April, when Oregon recorded
its fewest COVID-19 deaths in
a month since the beginning of
the crisis in March 2020. Ore-
gon currently has the fifth low-
est death rate per 100,000 peo-
ple in the United States. Alaska,
Vermont, Hawaii and Idaho
have lower rates.
Biden’s vaccination goal
would require that 55 mil-
lion people get their first shot
by the end of the first week of
June, just four weeks from now.
The Oregon Health Author-
Clinics
Continued from A1
This frightened some stu-
dents who were worried the
protesters would eventually
step onto campus, she said.
Anti-vaccine protesters
were not as vocal outside
a clinic at Mountain View
High School on Tuesday, but
at least one protester — a
self-described “constitutional-
ist” — was openly displaying a
weapon, Repman said. “From
a school standpoint, it raises
the hair on the back of our
Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin file
Kerry Gillette, a physician assistant with Mosaic Medical, fills syringes with the Moderna vaccine during a
COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Bethlehem Inn in Bend.
Over the entire pandemic
that began in China on Dec.
31, 2019, Oregon has had the
third lowest per-capita number
of cases in the nation, at 4,432
per 100,000. Though the rise
in infections has been sharp,
Oregon’s longstanding place
near the bottom of cases and
deaths means that its per-cap-
ita number of cases pushed it
no higher than 12th place.
Oregon was among about a
half dozen states with the low-
est infection and death rates
over the course of the pan-
demic.
Just over 2,500 deaths were
reported by Oregon out of the
more than 575,000 deaths in
the United States.
Biden said Tuesday that he
hoped the more people see the
vaccine curbing COVID-19,
the more he hopes they will
change their minds and be in-
oculated, if not for themselves,
then for family and friends.
“I think at the end of the day,
most people will be convinced
by the fact that their failure
to get the vaccine may cause
other people to get sick and
possibly die,” Biden said.
There is currently no vaccine
approved for children. Pfizer
announced it will ask for fed-
eral approval for emergency
use of its vaccine on children as
young as 2.
The company told Wall
Street analysts during an earn-
ings call that the approval
could come as early as next
week.
e e
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
School Thursday.
In the state of Oregon, teens
age 15 and older can agree to
medical services — including
immunization — without pa-
rental consent, according to the
Oregon Health Authority.
These clinics come as hun-
dreds of Bend-La Pine students
have had to quarantine re-
cently due to close contact with
positive cases, resulting in the
district shrinking in-person
school hours to better support
quarantining students.
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com
SAVINGS EVENT
SAVINGSEVENT
Mattresses
Chofa
Just
$549
Recliners
Sofas
Sectionals
Bedroom Sets
Lift
Chairs
SALE
ENDS
MEMORIAL
DAY
From
$699
Dining Sets
Accessories
Swivel
Glider
Recliner
Just
$549
FREE
Foundation or
FREE Pillows
with
Purchase
FREE DELIVERY
& SPECIAL
FINANCING
AVAILABLE*
*Subject to credit approval. See store for details
2071 S. Hwy 97, Redmond 541-548-2066 • www.wilsonsofredmond.net • 63485 N. Hwy 97, Bend 541-330-5084