A2 THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
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GENERAL
INFORMATION
LOCAL, STATE & NATION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
COVID-19 data for Monday, May 10:
Deschutes County cases: 8,759 (56 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 74 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 1,076 (3 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 20 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 2,174 (4 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 34 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 191,774 (388 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,533 (3 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at
St. Charles Bend on Monday: 39 (6 in ICU)
129 new cases
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Street .............. 320 SW Upper Terrace Drive
Suite 200
Bend, OR 97702
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Bend, OR 97708
90
new
cases
110
103 new cases
(April 23)
100
(Nov. 27)
90
74 new cases
80
(April 10)
50
new
cases
70
60
50
(Nov. 14)
(July 16)
40
*State data
unavailable
for Jan. 31
31 new cases
(Oct. 31)
16 new cases
30
(Sept. 19)
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
March 2020
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Pfizer shot cleared for young teens
BY LAURAN NEERGAARD AND CANDICE CHOI
Associated Press
COVID-19 vaccines finally are headed for more kids
as U.S. regulators on Monday expanded use of Pfizer’s
shot to those as young as 12, sparking a race to protect
middle and high school students before they head back
to class in the fall.
Shots could begin as soon as a federal vaccine ad-
visory committee issues recommendations for using
the two-dose vaccine in 12- to 15-year-olds, expected
Wednesday. Pfizer’s vaccine is being used in multiple
countries for teens as young as 16, and Canada recently
became the first to expand use to 12 and up. Parents,
school administrators and public health officials else-
where are anxiously awaiting the shot to become avail-
able to more kids.
“This is a watershed moment in our ability to fight
back the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Bill Gruber, a
Pfizer senior vice president who’s also a pediatrician .
The Food and Drug Administration declared the
Pfizer vaccine is safe and offers strong protection for
younger teens based on testing of more than 2,000 U.S.
volunteers ages 12 to 15. The study found no cases of
COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents com-
pared to 18 among kids given dummy shots. More in-
triguing, researchers found the kids developed higher
levels of virus-fighting antibodies than earlier studies
measured in young adults.
January 2021
February
March
April
May
Portland mass vaccination site closing
Portland‘s mass vaccination site is expected to
close June 19 after giving hundreds of thousands of
COVID-19 inoculations, organizers said Monday.
The All4Oregon site, which was set up by four of
the city’s major hospitals in a joint vaccination effort,
has been running since Jan. 20 at the Oregon Con-
vention Center. As of Friday, the site had adminis-
tered 465,000 shots.
The site began offering self-scheduling and walk-in
appointments for the first time last week, but organiz-
ers said a drop in volume made it clear that demand
for a mass vaccination site is waning as shots become
more widely available elsewhere. Many retail phar-
macies now offer walk-in appointments.
— Associated Press
B
120
7-day
average
(Feb. 17)
9 new cases
EMAIL
(Jan. 1)
47 new cases
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
bulletin@bendbulletin.com
130
(April 29)
108 new cases
Ways to help limit its spread: 1. Wash hands often with
soap and water for at least 20 seconds. 2. Avoid touching
your face. 3. Avoid close contact with sick people. 4. Stay
6 feet from others and wear a face covering or mask.
5. Cover a sneeze with a tissue or cough into your elbow.
6. Clean frequently touched objects and surfaces.
28 new cases
ONLINE
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
125 new cases
(Dec. 4)
What is COVID-19? A disease caused by a coronavirus.
Symptoms (including fever and shortness of breath) can
be severe, even fatal, though some cases are mild.
541-382-1811
www.bendbulletin.com
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
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Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle photos
FROM LEFT: Grant County Judge Scott Myers, county resident Rex Blackstone and County Commissioner Sam Palmer at a recent County Court meeting. Blackstone questioned Myers as
to why he could not have his sign, which included phrases like “NO More Masks” and “Down With Brown,” in the room.
GRANT COUNTY
RESIDENTS SLAM
LOCKDOWNS ...
but misinformation muddies the waters
BY STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
ensions are flaring
over COVID-19 —
and so is misinforma-
tion.
Several residents in Grant
County recently urged local
leaders to publicly proclaim the
county would not comply with
Gov. Kate Brown’s executive or-
ders designating “extreme risk”
and banning indoor dining at
restaurants and bars in multi-
ple counties, including Grant,
to slow a spike in COVID-19
infections at the April 28
county court meeting.
Letters of opposition were
sent to Brown by Republican
lawmakers, including U.S. Rep.
Cliff Bentz, state Sen. Lynn
Findley and state Rep. Mark
Owens. A letter spearheaded
by the Association of Ore-
gon Counties and the Oregon
Restaurant & Lodging Associ-
ation was signed by a group of
Oregon county commissioners,
including Deschutes Coun-
ty’s Tony DeBone and Patti
Adair and Grant County’s Sam
Palmer and Jim Hamsher.
“Respectfully, enough is
enough,” the commissioners
wrote, citing the impact on
small businesses and stating no
evidence has shown that small
businesses spread COVID-19
while following the public
safety measures.
The frustration expressed at
the county, state and national
levels was evident at the meet-
ing, presided over by County
Judge Scott Myers. Bill New-
man, of Monument, told the
county commission that if resi-
dents want to get their country
back it would need to start in
the county.
When County Court mem-
bers explained the county could
get sued if it failed to follow the
guidelines and could lose state
funding for schools, hospitals
and other programs, Newman
asked if the money was worth it.
“Somebody has got to grow
a spine and stand up,” he said.
“Regardless of whether you ex-
pect results from it or not.”
Despite echoing many of the
opinions that were expressed
in the letters to Brown, many
of the arguments made in
Grant County also relied on
misinformation.
Masks and the ‘Stanford study’
Newman said he could not
find a “solitary example” that
masks help prevent the spread
of the virus but claimed to have
seen “tamped down” studies
showing they are ineffective.
Palmer incorrectly cited a
Stanford University study, stat-
ing masks are detrimental to
long-term health.
However, according to Stan-
ford’s Senior Manager of Media
Relations Lisa Kim, the study’s
author, Baruch Vainshelboim,
had no affiliation with the
university when the journal,
dubbed “Medical Hypothesis,”
published the article.
“Stanford Medicine strongly
supports the use of face
masks to control the spread of
COVID-19,” she said.
She said Vainshelboim was
a one-term, one-year visiting
scholar in 2016 for “matters
unrelated” to the 2020 article
about face masks.
Palmer, a registered nurse,
said the study looked like medi-
cal journals he reads to stay cur-
rent with changes in medicine.
“Maybe I should have done a
little more homework,” he said.
“But I’ll own what I did.”
Palmer issued an apology
to Myers, Hamsher and Grant
County’s residents for quoting
the debunked study.
Still, as a “health care ad-
vocate,” Palmer said he does
not believe masks are the an-
swer to curbing the spread of
COVID-19.
COVID-19 vs. influenza
Newman said the pandemic
is a “ruse to gain power.”
Myers pointed out the vi-
rus had been a “deadly ruse,
for millions.” COVID-19 has
left at least four dead in Grant
County, more than 580,000
dead in the United States and
over 3.2 million dead around
the world, according to the
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
Resource Center.
Newman said there is no
question that a “bug” is making
people sick but suggested it is
on par with the common cold
or flu. However, in the U.S.,
the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention reports the
flu claims between 12,000 to a
maximum of 61,000 lives each
year.
Dr. Anthony West, a senior
research specialist at the Cali-
fornia Institute of Technology,
said in an email May 2 that a
clear indicator that COVID-19
is not like the common cold
or flu is the repeated epi-
sodes of hospitals becoming
overwhelmed by people with
COVID-19 that have severe
symptoms.
Dr. Andrew Pekosz, a lead-
ing virologist who works on
both the flu and COVID-19
at Johns Hopkins University,
said COVID-19 is much worse
than the flu “in almost every
parameter of comparison.”
He said a lack of preexisting
immunity to the virus, com-
pared to the flu, also makes
COVID-19 a more significant
burden on the population. Ad-
ditionally, the long-term effects
outpace the flu as well. Those
effects include shortness of
breath, trouble focusing and
kidney and heart problems, he
said.
Newman also suggested the
flu was being misdiagnosed
as COVID-19 and asked what
happened to the flu this year.
In 2021, health officials esti-
mate the U.S. has only seen up-
wards of 900 cases this year as
of January.
However, Eili Klein, asso-
ciate professor of emergency
medicine at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine,
said the significant decrease
in flu cases this year is proof
the safety measures to curb
COVID-19 work. In a press re-
lease, he said physical distanc-
ing, masks and hand-washing
have slowed the transmission
of the flu.
Attention Parents of 2021 Grads!
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memories!
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Class of 2021 Graduation section
on May 30 to celebrate graduating
Central Oregon high school students.
Enter a congratulatory message or a short biography
along with a photo for just $25. Your messages will be
grouped together by school and published in full color.
Call The Bulletin Advertising Dept. for more information.
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Advertising deadline: Monday, May 17