EIGHT - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Governor Brown ‘diverts’ 600 COVID
vaccines away from Morrow County
‘It is becoming apparent some Oregonians are more
equal than others’
By David Sykes
Emotions ran high last
week during a meeting
of local government of-
ficials after two planned
COVID-19 vaccination
events were cancelled when
Governor Kate Brown di-
verted 600 vaccine doses
away from Morrow County
to use in the Portland area.
Morrow was one of nine
counties that received little
or no vaccines after Brown
decided to send 32,000 total
additional doses to the met-
ro area instead of the rural
counties.
COVID-19 vaccines
are allocated to counties
on a weekly basis. Morrow
County has not received
any vaccines two out of the
past three weeks county of-
ficials say. They requested
600 vaccines the previous
week and were told their
allotment was approved.
The county scrambled to
set up the two vaccinating
“events” for Boardman on
Friday Feb. 5 and Hep-
pner on Friday Jan. 29. On
Wednesday, Jan. 27 the
county received word the
vaccines had been ‘divert-
ed’ and so no additional
vaccines were coming to
Morrow County. Conse-
quently, both vaccinating
events were cancelled.
According to the Gov-
ernor’s office the vaccines
were diverted because Mor-
row County had enough
vaccines to inoculate its
health care workers and
phase 1a individuals, so
the vaccine was being sent
to the metro area which
had still not vaccinated
this high-risk group. Teach-
ers and school staff were
recently added into the
high-risk group to receive
vaccinations first. Morrow
County’s two vaccination
events were for next tier
risk level of older people.
Oregon is reportedly the
only state that has moved
teachers and school staff to
its high-risk category.
Whatever the reason,
last Thursday’s meeting
was attended not only by
the three Morrow County
commissioners, but also by
Umatilla County Commis-
sioner George Murdock and
State Representative Greg
Smith and emotions ran
high. “We need to get this
decision making back into
the hands of the local au-
thorities or the association
of Oregon counties and let
some adults lead this damn
discussion,” said Commis-
sioner Jim Doherty at the
start of the meeting. “When
you look at the map on who
is getting the vaccine there
is nobody that has been
more afflicted than Morrow
and Umatilla counties,” he
said of the state-wide infec-
tion rates.
Across the state Mor-
row County is rated number
three and Umatilla number
four in rates of infection
in their populations, and
commissioners felt COVID
“hot spots” like this should
at least get their fair share
of vaccines. Morrow Coun-
ty’s high COVID infection
rates are concentrated in
the Boardman area among
the Latino population, and
the workers at the process-
ing plants there. “Nobody
has the per capita essential
workers that Morrow and
Umatilla have,” Doherty
pointed out, adding that
Morrow County has the
highest percentage minori-
ty population in the state
of Oregon, a point others
at the meeting hit on too.
“We have been a year at this
dealing with high numbers
of positive numbers,” Com-
missioner Melissa Lindsay
said.
Malheur, Umatilla and
Morrow counties are con-
sistently in the top tier of
infections percentages in
the state, and Lindsay says
the reason is the high num-
ber of essential workers
in these counties process-
ing food and “feeding the
world.” She wondered why,
if these counties are so high
on the infection list, they
are not higher on the list for
receiving vaccines, adding
that they don’t want more
than their fair share, “We
just want equity. We want
our fair share. We are not
only not getting our fair
share, but the word we are
getting (from the state) is
we are diverting your share
somewhere else.”
How the 600 doses of
vaccine would have been
distributed within the coun-
ty if delivered, was not
discussed at the meeting.
And whether Boardman,
with its much higher rates
of infection, would get
higher numbers of vaccines
than the south county area
in the future, was also not
discussed.
Ana Laura Pineyro,
Communicable Disease and
Emergency Preparedness
Coordinator for the county,
and an outreach person for
the county to the Latino
community, said the state
should realize that minori-
ty populations are being
underserved in inequitable
vaccine distribution. “We
have 970 cases in Morrow
County and 550 of those are
in the Hispanic population.
Seventy percent of the cas-
es in just 40 percent of the
population. That is how bad
it is in our community,” she
said of how hard the pan-
demic has hit the Boardman
Hispanic population. Piney-
ro said the state should send
the vaccine where it is most
needed.
Umatilla County Com-
missioner George Murdock
was also in attendance at
the meeting and was upset
with the state’s actions. “It
is just so wrong. It’s uncon-
scionable. We have tried to
be good soldiers following
the guidelines from the
governor, and every step
of the way we seem to be
in some different catego-
ry,” Murdock said. “We
are the highest in terms of
infections and the lowest
in terms of vaccinations.
We can vaccinate three
thousand a week,” he said.
Murdock said every-
one at the state level keeps
talking about equity of dis-
tribution. “We keep hearing
that the state is looking
at everything through an
equity lens, but I see no
evidence of equity,” he said.
“I am told that we are all in
this together and that we are
all equal, but I am reminded
of George Orwell’s book,
it’s become apparent some
Oregonians are more equal
than others,” Murdock said.
Local pharmacist John
Murray was also at the
meeting and said Morrow
County doesn’t need a lot
of help, they just need the
vaccine. “We need the vac-
cines. Public health has
done a fantastic job. The
Morrow County Health
District is all ready to help,
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the pharmacy is ready to go.
We have registered to give
the shots; all the leg work
has been done. It is truly
just the vaccine,” Murray
says. “Give it to us; we will
treat our own. We don’t
need the national guard, we
can take care of our own,”
he urged.
State Representative
Greg Smith was also at
the meeting and said there
comes a time when “enough
is enough.” “We try to keep
politics out of health care,
but it gets involved with
everything and sadly it’s
involved with this,” Smith
said of the decision to divert
the vaccine doses. “Some-
times you have to stand up
and say enough is enough
and let people know what
you stand for and more
importantly what you won’t
stand for. We need to make
sure our voices are heard
loud enough,” he said.
Commissioner Don
Russell was also frustrated
by how the vaccine dis-
tribution had become po-
liticized. “I try to not let
politics get personal, but
we are talking about get-
ting an equitable share of
a lifesaving vaccine and it
is hard not to be personal
when we are talking about
a lifesaving vaccine for
friends and relatives,” he
told the meeting. “To quote
Dr. Fauci, the data doesn’t
lie. Russell says he looks
at state data on the state
website daily and sees who
is getting vaccinated and
who isn’t. “Morrow and
Umatilla county by OHA
(Oregon Health Authority)
data is on the lower end of
vaccines per 10,000 people,
and we are at the high end
of positive COVID cases
per 10,000 people,” Russell
points out. He says it is
“super frustrating that we
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Two COVID-19 vaccination events, one in Boardman and one
at the Fairgrounds in Heppner were cancelled last week when
the vaccine doses were ‘diverted’ somewhere else.
play by the rules in Mor-
row County and now we
are being penalized for it.”
Russell said he thought the
distribution process had be-
come so politicized that the
Governor’s special interest
groups were assured of
getting the vaccine before
other more rural areas of
the state.
However, after an hour-
long meeting commission-
ers did not seem any closer
to finding a solution to what
they feel is an inequitable
distribution system by state
government of the COVID
vaccine. Smith had said
he would try and help the
commissioners arrange a
meeting with the governor.
Smith was in Salem as the
legislature was in session
at the time, and later that
day he did write a letter to
Governor Brown asking for
a meeting. “I would like to
formally request a virtual
meeting with Governor
Brown, myself, and the
county commissioners of
both Morrow and Umatil-
la counties. The purpose
of this meeting will be to
discuss vaccine distribu-
tion throughout District
57, focusing on Morrow
and Umatilla counties,”
he wrote. However, as of
Tuesday, Feb. 2 no meeting
had as yet been set up.
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