COVID-19
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
A7
Everyone 16 and up eligible for vaccine at walk-in clinics April 27 through May 1
Pﬁ zer vaccines will be
given by OHA in the
fairgrounds parking lot
after they have had the second dose.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
As the state opens up access to the
COVID-19 vaccine for anyone 16
and older, the Oregon Health Author-
ity will oﬀ er free shots to those inter-
ested at ﬁ ve walk-in clinics begin-
ning April 27.
Grant County Public Health
Administrator Kimberly Lindsay
said OHA would be administering
the Pﬁ zer vaccine at these clinics
from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 27 and
April 28, from noon to 7 p.m. April
29 and April 30 and from 9 a.m. to
4 p.m. May 1 in the parking lot at
the Grant County Fairgrounds. No
appointments are necessary for the
free shots.
Lindsay said there are people in
the county who have only wanted
Pﬁ zer, and so far, that has not been
an option for them, or they’ve left the
county to get it.
“For those that haven’t received
it and want it, here it is,” she said.
EOMG ﬁ le photo
Registered nurse LeAnn Alexander ad-
ministers a dose of the Phizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccine to Yellowhawk Tribal
Health Center CEO Lisa Guzman at the
health clinic in Mission in December.
“And so I really hope that people
take advantage of it.”
She said the health department
intends to get the vaccine out to other
outlying communities in the future,
but she does not know when the
county will have access to the Pﬁ zer
vaccine again.
Lindsay said the Pﬁ zer vaccine
is a two-shot vaccine, with the sec-
ond dose being administered approxi-
mately 28 days after the ﬁ rst. Someone
is considered fully vaccinated 14 days
Lindsay said the Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Food and Drug
Administration’s decision to pause the
Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine
amid reports of blood clots in women
between the ages of 18 to 48 was
“unfortunate.” She said some people
were willing to get the vaccine as long
as they only had to do one shot. On the
other hand, she said, some people were
grateful that the government is taking it
seriously and glad to understand better
what’s going on.
Lindsay said it’s important to
remember that much is not “mapped
out” very well regarding the vaccines
and COVID-19.
“We’re writing the map as we as we
go,” she said. “And, people are upset
and they’re tired and they’re wanting
to point ﬁ ngers. It’s easy to point ﬁ n-
gers at the things that you like, and you
don’t like and so I just think patience
is key.”
She told the Eagle that it’s essen-
tial to remain thoughtful in making
informed decisions.
“I am hopeful that the J&J issue
will get resolved and be able to move
Oregon works to shrink vaccine disparity
By Suzanne Roig
Oregon Capital Bureau
The Oregon Health Author-
ity will deploy vaccination vans
to hard-to-reach communities
as a way to eliminate the dis-
parities created between those
with easy access to COVID-
19 vaccines and those facing
barriers.
This comes at a time when
daily case counts of COVID-
19 have more than doubled in
just over a month, Dr. Dean
Sidelinger, Oregon Health
Authority state epidemiol-
ogist, said Friday at a press
conference.
As of Friday, Oregon had
173,626 COVID-19 cases,
Sidelinger said. On March 6
the seven-day average number
of cases was 249, but now the
daily average is 595 cases.
COVID-19 cases have
increased more than 20% for
each of the past three weeks,
Sidelinger said. With such high
case counts, more counties
have shifted from lower risk
levels to more restrictive levels.
At the end of March, 28 coun-
ties were in the lower to mod-
erate risk tiers. On Friday there
were 22 counties listed as lower
or moderate risk.
“We’re all tired of ﬁ ghting
COVID-19,” Sidelinger said.
“Tired of wearing our masks.
Tired of missing our loved
ones. And tired of keeping our
distance. But we must all con-
tinue to ﬁ ght.”
Sidelinger highlighted three
social gatherings that caused
recent outbreaks: a multi-night
karaoke event that caused 36
people to test positive, hospi-
talized three and left one person
dead; a small indoor concert
that caused 15 people to test
positive for COVID-19; and a
backyard gathering where all
10 people who attended tested
positive for COVID-19.
Since December three
in four seniors 65 and older
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Spring
Showers
Safely
have been vaccinated. Starting
Monday anyone 16 and older
can sign up for a vaccination.
In Central Oregon they can do
that by going to centraloregon-
covidvaccine.com. In Grant
County they can email vac-
cine@ccsemail.com.
Oregon Health Authority
data highlights a vaccine dis-
parity between white Orego-
nians and Latinos in particu-
lar. About 75% of Oregonians
are white, but white people
account for 50% of COVID-
19 cases and 71% of vaccina-
tions. About 13% of Orego-
nians are Hispanic or Latino,
but they make up 25% of
COVID-19 cases account for
6% of vaccinations.
A driver in the vaccine dis-
parity is that Latinos in Ore-
gon tend to be younger and
often don’t work in the kinds
of jobs that had early access to
vaccines.
The state has sent additional
vaccines to federally quali-
ﬁ ed health centers, targeted
migrant workers and worked
with 170 community partners,
and still access hasn’t been bal-
anced, said Patrick Allen, Ore-
gon Health Authority director,
at a press conference Friday.
Because it’s not enough, vans
will be sent out to rural commu-
nities to vaccinate those inter-
ested, Allen said.
“As a state we can and need
to do better,” Allen said. “Vac-
cinations in Oregon have not
been administered as equitably
as they need to be. The num-
bers are stark and clear. For too
many people race and income
are predictors of whether you
can access a COVID-19 vac-
cine or not.”
Vaccine disparity is a
national issue that cannot rely
upon just a speedy rollout of
vaccine delivery systems such
as through the Oregon Con-
vention Center, the Salem
fairgrounds or the Deschutes
County Fair & Expo Center,
although they play an import-
ant role, Allen said. The vans
will enable the vaccines to get
to communities directly.
As of Thursday, 1.5 million
Oregonians received at least
one dose of the vaccine. But
because of concerns about rare
blot clots, the state has halted
the use of the one-dose Johnson
& Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Earlier in the week, the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention urged states to
temporarily stop using the vac-
cine given to 6.8 million people
after six women who received
the vaccine became seriously ill
and one died.
That halt means Oregon will
have 70,000 fewer vaccines
available each week, Allen said.
“We’ll continue to see tight
appointment availability in
many parts of the state for the
coming weeks at least until we
know more about the availabil-
ity of the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine,” Allen said. “How-
ever, we have enough doses to
vaccinate anyone 16 and older
before summer.”
forward,” she said.
Emails out to schools about
vaccines
Lindsay said she sent out an email
on Saturday to the schools in the
county that are still in session to see
if they might do something to get the
word out about vaccine availability
in the county. She said she hoped the
schools could send out a ﬂ yer or an
informational pamphlet or brochure
about the vaccine. So far, Lindsay said,
she had not heard back.
Cooperation with contact
tracers
Lindsay said she estimated that
roughly 40% of the people contacted
by contact tracers did not answer their
phones or call back. She said the state
lent some of its contact tracers to assist
the health department with the coun-
ty’s recent surge in cases. Lindsay said
perhaps people did not pick up the calls
because they were not from a local
number, but she said the state left mes-
sages. She said the health department
will be reaching out to those contacts
this week.
“It is disheartening,” she said. “And
I feel for the people that are working
hard to be responsible.”
Lindsay said that it impacts busi-
nesses when a county moves into
“extreme risk” metrics. She said many
like to tell one another not to get tested
or go to the doctor when they get sick.
“That’s the wrong message,” she
said. “The better message is to be pre-
ventative and proactive and get tested,
and if you’re sick, be responsible, and
if you need to quarantine be consider-
ate of the other people around you who
are impacted.”
Risk level
April 4-17, Grant County recorded
121 cases, at a rate of 1,644 per
100,000, the highest in the state and
more than double the next highest rate,
592.5 in Klamath County.
Although Grant County’s case
count would have moved it from the
low risk category to the the highest
level, extreme risk, the county will
remain in the low risk category for two
weeks because it moved down in risk
level during the last movement week
two weeks ago.
If case counts do not go down
during the next two weeks, county
businesses will face further restrictions
in a higher risk level.
Oregon waiting for ‘green light’ after
halting Johnson & Johnson vaccine
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon has “paused”
using the Johnson & John-
son one-shot COVID-19 vac-
cine, even though none of six
newly reported severe reac-
tions to the vaccine occurred
in the state, health oﬃ cials
said April 13.
The Centers for Disease
Control urged states to tem-
porarily stop using the vac-
cine given to 6.8 million
people after six women who
received the vaccine became
seriously ill and one died.
“This appears to be
extremely rare,” Dr. Paul
Cieslak, Oregon Health
Authority’s medical director
for acute and communicable
disease and immunizations,
said during an afternoon
press call.
The CDC said the six
women were aged 18 to 48.
They became ill from one to
three weeks after their vacci-
nation. The cause appeared to
be a rare blood clot disorder.
The state has given about
82,000 Johnson & John-
son shots, a tiny fraction
of the 2.3 million vaccine
doses administered since
December.
OHA said, as of April
12, 85,148 Johnson & John-
son vaccine doses have been
administered in Oregon and
213,300 doses of the John-
son & Johnson vaccine have
been delivered to about 225
vaccine sites statewide.
Cieslak said severe symp-
toms include pain in the legs
— which could indicate a
blood clot — severe head-
ache and abdominal pain.
Anyone experiencing the
symptoms should contact
their doctor or local public
health agency. Information is
also available by calling 211.
There have been no
reports of any similar severe
side eﬀ ects to the Moderna
and Pﬁ zer two-shot vaccines.
Federal health oﬃ cials
will begin meeting Wednes-
day to look at the data on
the severe cases and see if
there is a direct connection
between the vaccine and the
illnesses.
Dr. Janet Woodcock, act-
ing commissioner of the
Food and Drug Administra-
tion, said Tuesday during a
press conference in Wash-
ington, D.C., that a review
of the vaccine would likely
be “a matter of days.”
Cieslak said the state
would resume using the
one-shot vaccine as soon as
it gets “a green light” from
federal oﬃ cials.
The halt in using Johnson
& Johnson vaccines will not
change plans to open up vac-
cine eligibility to everyone
age 16 and older on Mon-
day. Availability has lagged
behind eligibility through-
out the vaccination prior-
ity phases, and the same is
expected to occur next week.
“People will have to wait
a little longer” to get vacci-
nated, Cieslak said.
Oregon oﬃ cials had
already been bracing for
a steep drop in available
doses of the vaccine due to a
botched batch of 15 million
doses that had to be destroyed
at a Baltimore facility.
Oregon received over
60,000 doses last week, but
the breakdown in the supply
chain due to the mishap in
Baltimore reduced the ﬂ ow
to 8,000 this week and down
to 2,000 next week.
OHA has estimated that
up to 3.2 million Orego-
nians are 16 and older, the
age group currently approved
as safe to vaccinate. Several
research eﬀ orts into a vac-
cine for children are under-
way, but none have been
given federal approval.
Asked if the pause would
fuel vaccine hesitancy
among Oregonians, Cieslak
said that those predisposed
to not be vaccinated will
likely latch on to the issue.
“There are some peo-
ple who are going to decline
vaccination regardless,” he
said. “If they were thinking
vaccinations were harmful
anyway, this will give them
additional fuel.”
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