A2 THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2021
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LOCAL, STATE & NATION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
COVID-19 data for Monday, May 31:
Deschutes County cases: 9,666 (17 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 79 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 1,201 (zero new cases)
Crook County deaths: 22 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 2,312 (zero new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 38 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 201,475 (220 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,671 (3 new deaths)
129 new cases
(Jan. 1)
103 new cases
(April 23)
120
110
100
90
74 new cases
80
(April 10)
50
new
cases
70
60
(Feb. 17)
50
(Nov. 14)
(Oct. 31)
16 new cases
(July 16)
30
(Sept. 19)
9 new cases
ONLINE
40
*State data
unavailable
for Jan. 31
31 new cases
28 new cases
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
EMAIL
(May 8)
7-day
average
(Nov. 27)
130
115 new
cases
47 new cases
541-382-1811
bulletin@bendbulletin.com
(April 29)
108 new cases
90
new
cases
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
125 new cases
(Dec. 4)
Vaccines are available.
Find a list of vaccination
sites and other information
about the COVID-19
vaccines online:
centraloregoncovidvaccine.com
If you have questions, call
541-382-4321.
GENERAL
INFORMATION
www.bendbulletin.com
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
March 2020
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December January 2021 February
March
April
May
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When adjusted for vaccinations,
U.S. case and death rates remain high
Average new daily cases per 100,000 residents
Rate, all residents
Rate adjusted for vaccinations
WASHINGTON
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The unseen risk for unvaccinated people
Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
BY DAN KEATING AND LESLIE SHAPIRO
The Washington Post
The country’s declining COVID-19 case rates pres-
ent an unrealistically optimistic perspective for half of
the nation — the half that is still not vaccinated.
As more people receive vaccines, COVID-19 cases
are occurring mostly in the increasingly narrow slice
of the unprotected population. So The Washington
Post adjusted its case, death and hospitalization rates
to account for that — and found that in some places,
the virus continues to rage among those who haven’t
received a shot.
The rosy national figures showing declining case
numbers led the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention to loosen mask recommendations recently
and President Joe Biden to advise people to take off
their masks and smile.
But adjustments for vaccinations show the rate among
susceptible, unvaccinated people is 73% higher than the
standard figures being publicized. With that adjustment,
the national death rate is roughly the same as it was two
months ago and is barely inching down. The adjusted
hospitalization rate is as high as it was three months ago.
The case rate is still declining after the adjustment.
Unvaccinated people are getting the wrong mes-
sage, experts said.
“They think it’s safe to take off the mask. It’s not,” said
Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School
of Public Health at George Washington University. “It
looks like fewer numbers, looks like it’s getting better, but
it’s not necessarily better for those who aren’t vaccinated.”
States with high case rates
The adjusted rates in several states show the pan-
demic is spreading as fast among the unvaccinated
as it did during the winter surge. Maine, Colo-
rado, Rhode Island and Washington state all have
COVID-19 case spikes among the unvaccinated, with
adjusted rates about double the adjusted national rate.
The adjusted rates of Wyoming, West Virginia, Ore-
gon, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania are slightly
lower than the highest states.
Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia
have adjusted rates below the national average. Before
vaccines, Black people were about one third of new
COVID-19 patients in Maryland and half in D.C. In
COLORADO
60
60
40
May 5
40
Jan. 26
20
0
Adjusted U.S. rate
20
Dec. 14
May 26
0
Dec. 14
May 26
MAINE
OREGON
60
60
40
40
May 10
May 12
20
0
20
Dec. 14
May 26
0
Dec. 14
May 26
The Washington Post
the latest data, Black people are just under half of the
new cases in Maryland and more than 80% in D.C.
Oregon’s current surge is driven in part by a
COVID-19 variant known as B.1.1.7, which is 50%
more contagious, said Tom Jeanne, a deputy state epide-
miologist and a senior health adviser, in an interview.
It is characterized by outbreaks traced to social
gatherings with unvaccinated people and no masks.
“They’re at very high risk for infection,” Jeanne said.
Washington state officials say they are caught be-
tween applauding the optimism that comes with vac-
cination and warning everyone who isn’t vaccinated
that it’s still dangerous.
“Things are getting safer for those who are vacci-
nated,” the state’s secretary of health, Umair A. Shah,
told the Post. “For those who are unvaccinated, they
remain at risk. We have to make sure that nuanced
message is getting to our community.”
States with high death rates
In addition to cases, several states still have rela-
tively high death rates.
Coronavirus vaccines are virtually perfect in pre-
venting deaths, so the decline in deaths nationally
hides the steady COVID-19 death rate among unvac-
cinated people.
Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maine, Florida
and Illinois all have adjusted death rates about 50%
higher than the national adjusted rate.
Looking at the death rate is not a good measure of
the current spread of the pandemic, experts said, be-
cause it is a “lagging indicator” — people dying are
usually infected at least a month earlier, which means
deaths don’t reflect current community spread of the
disease. The steady adjusted death rate, however, shows
that unvaccinated people are not yet getting safer.
More likely to end up in the hospital
Experts often point to hospitalization rates as a
critical measure of the pandemic, because they re-
flect people getting very sick and aren’t dependent on
how much coronavirus testing a community is doing.
When current hospitalizations are spread across only
the unvaccinated population, Washington, D.C., and
Michigan have rates about twice as high as the ad-
justed national rate. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida
and Rhode Island have rates about 50% higher than
the adjusted national hospitalization rate.
Tale of two societies
Washington state has been publicizing the extreme
threat of hospitalization for unvaccinated people. It
said unvaccinated seniors are 11 times as likely to get
hospitalized than seniors who got the shot. For unvac-
cinated people age 45 to 64, the chance of COVID-19
hospitalization is 18 times higher.
Shah, the state secretary of health, worries people are
being left behind while others feel the pandemic is past.
“I hope this does not become a tale of two societies,”
he said. “The people who are vaccinated and are pro-
tected can resume their lives, taking off their masks.
“The people who are not vaccinated are the ones who
are not wearing a mask or washing their hands. Those
are the very people who often times will socialize and
be around similar like-minded people. You’re going to
have the pandemic continue in those clusters.”
About this report
The Post adjusted COVID-19 rates for cases, deaths
and hospitalization over time by combining CDC data
on cases, hospitalization and vaccinations. The Post
used a rolling seven-day average of daily cases, deaths
and hospitalization. For vaccination, the Post used the
number of people who had received at least one shot
as of each date.
LOCAL & STATE BRIEFING
Bend man arrested after
two-county crime spree
him we wanted our tip money
back. We work hard for that.”
The man drove off toward
Crook County sheriff’s
Prineville with the gas cap re-
deputies arrested a man who
moved from his vehicle, Clark
allegedly stole a bicycle and
said.
pickup, drove people off the
After leaving the store, the
road and stole cash from a tip
man drove through a fence to
jar at the Powell Butte County
get around a locked gate, the
Store on Saturday.
sheriff’s report said. At a ranch
Jacob Austin Schunke, 42, of in Powell Butte, the man al-
Bend, faces charges of
legedly burglarized the
theft, burglary, crimi-
ranch and rammed a
nal mischief, criminal
building to gain access
trespass and reckless
to the contents of the
driving, according to
building, the sheriff’s
a Crook County Sher-
department said.
iff’s Office statement.
After two high
The sheriff’s office
speed chases with
Schunke
said the crime spree
Prineville Police and
began with the theft
the Crook County
of a bicycle and then a Ford
Sheriff’s Office on Highway
pickup in the early morning
126, near the roundabout on
hours Saturday in Bend, then
Tom McCall Road and later
continued in Redmond and
on SW Williams Road, dep-
ended in Crook County. The
uties arrested Schunke about
sheriff’s office said that while
12:32 p.m. after he crashed
on state Highway 126 in Crook the truck at the dead end of
County, a driver was reported
Wampler Lane, officials said.
to be running people off the
“It could have been a lot
road before stopping at the
worse,” said Clark, who has
Powell Butte Country Store.
worked at the store for two
Anna Clark, a shift manager years. “We had customers in
at the Powell Butte store, was in the store. He could have had a
the back room when a man en- gun or something.”
tered the store and tried to pay
for items. She said he had tried Climber dies after fall
to get gas as well, but the hose
at Mount Hood on Sunday
wouldn’t reach around to his
A 63-year-old man died
gas tank. He then grabbed the
money from the tip jar and left Sunday morning after fall-
ing 500 feet while descending
the store.
Mount Hood, the Clackamas
“All I heard is that he stole
County Sheriff’s Office re-
our tip money,” Clark said on
Monday. “I ran outside and told ported.
The man, whose name has
not yet been released, had been
climbing with his adult son
when he fell at the 10,500-foot
level on the Old Chute Route,
deputies said.
Rescue teams navigated
what deputies said was a diffi-
cult terrain and hazards from
hydrogen sulfide and other
toxic gases venting from fuma-
roles along the route as they
made their way to the accident
scene.
They saw the fallen climber,
who was unmoving, then made
their way down to the fallen
climber by setting up rope sys-
tems. The man was dead when
rescuers reached him.
Teams loaded the body
onto a skiable rescue litter
basket. At 4:20 p.m., they be-
gan making their way down
the mountain to Timberline
Lodge.
The climber’s name will be
released after his family is noti-
fied, deputies said.
— Bulletin staff and wire reports