The BulleTin • Thursday, July 29, 2021 A13
Brown weighs vaccine
mandate for state workers
BY SARA CLINE
Associated Press/
Report for America
PORTLAND — Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown is “examin-
ing” whether to require that
state workers get vaccinated,
as the highly transmissible
delta variant continues to
spread across the state and
COVID-19 cases spike.
Elsewhere, in California
and New York, officials an-
nounced state employees will
be required to be vaccinated
or undergo weekly tests for
COVID-19. In addition, the
Department of Veterans Af-
fairs on Monday became
the first federal agency to
require vaccinations, for its
health workers.
“We are examining the
actions taken this week by
California, New York City
and the VA, and determin-
ing what further actions can
be taken in Oregon,” Brown’s
deputy communications di-
rector Charles Boyle wrote in
an email on Wednesday.
As cases continue to in-
crease across the country,
the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention an-
nounced updated masking
guidelines on Tuesday, rec-
ommending that people —
vaccinated or not — return
to wearing masks indoors in
parts of the U.S. where the
delta variant is rampant.
The CDC also recom-
mended masks for all teach-
ers, staff, students and
visitors inside of schools,
regardless of vaccination
status.
The Oregon Department
of Education has not immedi-
ately required the state’s public
schools to adopt indoor mask
mandates, and it remains un-
clear whether it will do so at
all.
“The Oregon Department
of Education, Oregon Health
Authority and governor’s of-
fice are reviewing the CDC’s
guidance,” said Marc Siegel,
a spokesperson for state’s top
education agency. “Any up-
date would come only after
thorough review and consul-
tation.”
Under current guidelines
from the state’s department of
education, individual districts
can decide whether to require
students, staff and faculty
to wear masks inside school
buildings.
Portland mayor calls for vaccine, COVID-19 testing mandates
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Wednesday
he will push to require municipal workers to get
vaccinated or submit to weekly coronavirus tests,
a move that would reverse the city’s policy against
such mandates issued only days ago.
Surging COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations
nationwide have already prompted the state of
California, some large companies and cities such as
New York City and Los Angeles to create vaccine or
testing requirements for employees.
Meanwhile, Oregon health officials recom-
mended Tuesday that everyone should return to
wearing a mask when in a public, indoor space af-
ter hospitalizations caused by the virus increased
25% in a single day and new daily cases topped
1,000.
Wheeler said he does not believe he has the
same legal authority as mayors in other U.S. cities
to independently impose public health mandates
on city workers. That, he said, would require City
Council approval.
— The Oregonian
Jill Toyoshiba/AP file
A sign on the door of a hair salon informs patrons that masks are re-
quired to be in the business in Kansas City, Missouri.
Masks
Continued from A1
On Wednesday, some said
they were struggling just to
wrap their heads around the
CDC’s message. Susan Sch-
maeling, who owns a public
relations company and lives
in Houston, said she rejoiced
when she got the single-shot
Johnson & Johnson vaccine in
March. Now, she doesn’t know
what to think.
“I’m vaccinated and I’m sup-
posed to put a mask on to be in
a bookstore or wherever? What
is the CDC telling us now, that
the vaccines don’t work?” she
said. “I haven’t had COVID
and I don’t want to have
COVID, so I’ll wear a mask.
But it’s absurd.”
While the CDC recom-
mended vaccinated people
wear face masks indoors in
parts of the U.S. where the
coronavirus is surging, the Or-
egon Health Authority recom-
mended universal mask use in
public indoor settings through-
out the state.
Experts have warned for
weeks that a broad return to
masking may be necessary to
rein in delta, which CDC di-
rector Rochelle Walensky said
is “one of the most infectious
respiratory viruses we know
of.” Facing a spike in cases, Los
Angeles County became the
first major metropolitan area to
reinstate indoor mask require-
ments when officials brought
back the rules in mid-July. St.
Louis followed suit last week,
while Kansas City, Missouri,
and Savannah, Georgia, rein-
stated their mask mandates af-
ter the CDC’s announcement.
Other cities and states are hold-
ing off for now, instead issuing
voluntary recommendations.
“We need to wear masks in-
doors to control the spread of
the variant,” Scott Ratzan, a
public health expert at the City
University of New York, said
in an email. “As masking rec-
ommendations do not seem
to work as well as mask man-
dates, the cities (and county in
L.A.) are making the prudent
decision to reinstate mandates
ASAP.”
But the shifting advice from
federal health officials may
have hindered some of those
efforts, Ratzan added.
“Unfortunately, the CDC has
fumbled on the masking com-
munication — from messaging
to the policy recommenda-
tions,” he said. “This has made
it a challenge for health officials
and policymakers to get people
to remask — or make it a norm
to mask while the coronavirus
delta variant (and likely other
variants) continue to spread.”
Walensky acknowledged
this week that the decision to
issue the new guidance was a
painstaking one. Barely two
months had passed since the
agency said vaccinated individ-
uals didn’t need to wear masks
in most settings. But with delta
raging, the new guidance was
necessary, she said.
“It is not a welcome piece of
news that masking is going to
be a part of people’s lives who
have already been vaccinated,”
Walensky said. “This new guid-
ance weighs heavily on me.”
While the vaccines are
highly effective at preventing
severe illness and death, vacci-
nated people can still contract
coronavirus in what is known
as a breakthrough infection.
Walensky said people who have
these infections from the delta
variant might have as much
viral load as an unvaccinated
person, suggesting they may be
able to spread it to others.
In Nevada, the state’s Dem-
ocratic governor, Steve Sisolak,
brought back the state’s man-
date just hours after the an-
nouncement from the CDC.
Starting Friday, the state will
require face coverings be worn
indoors in public in counties
with “substantial or high trans-
mission.” Twelve of Nevada’s
17 counties — including Clark,
home to Las Vegas — fit that
criteria, the state said.
The Nevada Gaming Con-
trol Board reinforced the new
mandate, telling casinos and
other businesses it issues li-
censes to in a notice that it
would “continue to ensure that
best practices are used in the
mitigation of COVID-19.” The
board reminded casinos and
other licensees that they were
required to have signs about
where masks need to be worn.
In compliance with the man-
date, MGM Resorts, the larg-
est operator on the Las Vegas
Strip, said it would require “all
guests and visitors” to wear
masks indoors in public areas
starting Friday, a spokesman
said in an email. MGM re-
quires its employees to either
be vaccinated or be tested regu-
larly, the spokesman said.
Workers in Las Vegas, and
throughout Clark County, had
already been required to wear
masks since the county enacted
a mandate earlier this month,
which excluded patrons.
There’s widespread agree-
ment among infectious-disease
experts that masking slows the
spread of the virus by stopping
droplets carrying virus par-
ticles from traveling through
the air and infecting others. It’s
especially important indoors,
where poor ventilation and
gathering in close quarters can
facilitate the spread of the vi-
rus.
“Masks are the best policy
we have in the face of COVID.
No one wants to close busi-
nesses or schools this fall,” Julia
Raifman, a health policy expert
at Boston University.
But significant segments of
the public remain skeptical.
In Miami-Dade County,
where the mayor on Wednes-
day revived indoor mask re-
quirements at county facili-
ties, Natalia Gonzalez, 28, said
she doesn’t think the mandate
should extend to restaurants,
bars and stores.
“It’s unnecessary,” she said.
“I think it should be a personal
choice.”
Rasheed Powell, who works
at a Miami pop art store, said
he recently stopped wearing his
mask at work. Now he’s waiting
to see if his bosses require them
again. But even in light of the
delta variant, he’s tiring of what
he said were mixed signals
from officials.
“When I heard about the
delta strain, it didn’t shake me
up any more than other news
about COVID,” said Powell,
36. “I feel they are fearmonger-
ing us all the time. It’s like they
want to push an agenda.”
In Los Angeles, the first ma-
jor city to bring back its indoor
mask mandate, Bellanira Reyes
said she doesn’t like wearing
face coverings but will follow
the city’s guidelines if it means
keeping people safe. She’s aware
of the threat from the delta
variant and worries about the
virus spiking again.
“It’s uncomfortable the
mask, really uncomfortable.
But it’s something that protects
us,” the 34-year-old mother of
three said. “I don’t want to wear
it, especially when it’s too hot,
but it’s OK.”
Marcus Chavez 24, of Los
Angeles, said he too intends
Wave
The U.S. Department of Vet-
erans Affairs, as well as the states
of California and New York,
have issued requirements that
workers be either vaccinated or
face weekly testing for the vi-
rus. President Joe Biden was ex-
pected Thursday to announce
similar requirements for all fed-
eral employees.
Gov. Kate Brown’s office over
the past two days has said it was
studying actions elsewhere and
consulting with the Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion. Late Tuesday, the Oregon
Health Authority suggested resi-
dents in all counties wear masks
in public spaces indoors. But
underlined that it was not a di-
rective.
Oregon’s latest rise in cases
comes less than a month after a
celebratory announcement that
nearly all pandemic restrictions
on business and social activi-
ties in the state would be lifted
on June 30. Brown had said she
would remove the risk-level re-
strictions on all counties in the
state, regardless of infection lev-
els, if 70% of residents statewide
had received at least one shot of
vaccine.
While just short of the goal,
Brown announced that she
would give the green light to
reopen the state in time for the
“near normal” July 4th holiday
sought by President Joe Biden.
The announcement also
seemed to be a truce in the po-
litical wars over Brown’s emer-
gency orders that had been in
place since March 2020. OHA
would continue in an advisory
role, help get vaccines to centers
that wanted it, and compile re-
cords on the pandemic.
But county health officials
would now be empowered to
determine what was best for
their communities. Any actions
needed to curb the virus would
be decided by county commis-
sioners.
The blanket lifting of re-
strictions came despite a wildly
different rate of infection and
vaccinations across the state.
Several counties in the Willa-
mette Valley, Deschutes County
and some northern coastal ar-
eas were above the 70% mark.
A high vaccination rate in the
three-county Portland metro
area inflated the overall state
numbers.
Elsewhere, vaccination rates
were under 40%,especially in
Eastern and Southwest Ore-
gon. Many of the counties had
small populations, but the list
also included Umatilla County,
which includes Pendleton, and
Douglas County, which includes
Roseburg. But as some inde-
pendent epidemiologists had
forecast, the lifting of restric-
tions on counties regardless of
their individual infection and
vaccination levels created a spike
in new cases in areas where
most residents were not vacci-
nated.
The result has been an explo-
sion of cases.
Hospitals started to fill up,
with at one point just 8 of 81
intensive care unit beds east of
the Cascades unoccupied. The
number of patients on ventila-
tors in Oregon went from 16 on
to follow the rules. He’s fully
vaccinated, he said, but he un-
derstands the risks in crowded
places.
“I’m not one to tell peo-
ple what to do,” he said, “but I
strongly suggest it so, just from
a scientific point of view.”
In Salt Lake City, which
lifted its mask mandate for vac-
cinated people in May, parents
dropped their children off at a
bustling summer day camp at
Sugar House Park on Wednes-
day morning. Few wore masks
as they streamed in and out.
Megan McGee, 34, said she’s
strongly against the CDC’s new
guidance on wearing masks
indoors in public spaces, even
though COVID-19 made her
the sickest she’s ever been. Mc-
Gee said she is not vaccinated.
“People don’t know who to
listen to, or what’s good infor-
mation,” said McGee, a spe-
cial-education teacher.
Luther Creed, 72, was one
of the few people who wore a
mask as he brought his grand-
son to camp. A retired physi-
cian, Creed, 72, said he worries
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July 21 to 40 Wednesday.
The length of the current
spike isn’t yet known, but Ore-
gon, which reported more than
1,000 new cases on Tuesday, had
not reported over 1,000 cases in
a day since a brief spike in April.
While the current increase is still
forming, Oregon had not aver-
aged over 1,000 cases per day
since Jan. 21.
Brown and state health of-
ficials have said that while the
state does have ultimate author-
ity over public health, for now it
would continue the policy of lo-
cal autonomy.
Oregon Health Authority Di-
rector Pat Allen said last week
that the state did not want to
make blanket directives on the
“highly political” issue of man-
datory vaccinations and other
requirements.
The current Oregon Health
Authority count shows that
68.6% of eligible adults over the
age of 18 have had one shot of
vaccine. The state percentage is
actually somewhat higher be-
cause some federal programs ar-
en’t captured by the state count.
The new goal was set of 80%
vaccinations, or just over 2.72
million adults by Aug. 31. That
is looking unlikely at current
pace. The state needs just over
389,000 more shots to hit the
mark.
To reach the goal, OHA says
it would need to be inoculating
11,443 new people per day.
The latest 7-day average is
2,064.
e
e
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
Reporter Bryce Dole of the East Oregonian
and Editor Jayson Jacoby of The Baker
City Herald contributed to this report.
about the virus continuing to
mutate, and believes wearing
a mask is critical — including
this winter.
He agrees that the CDC has
bungled its messaging around
the vaccine. But the mindset
of putting personal freedom
ahead of the greater good will
have consequences, the retired
physician said.
“It’s all about ‘Me.’ It’s not
about protecting your neigh-
bor or your family members,”
he said. “We’re going to pay a
price.”