Rising COVID-19 case counts, increasing hospitalizations and the return of masks may feel like 2020 all over again. Oregonians are rehashing familiar arguments over pandemic restrictions while businesses draw and redraw plans for bringing employees back to the office. Meanwhile, parents nervously await the start of the school year, worried that the surge in cases will prompt schools to abandon in-person instruction for another disastrous year of remote learning and social isolation.
But at the risk of stating the obvious, this isn’t 2020. While COVID-19 is far from over, the circumstances of the pandemic have changed entirely from a year ago. The broad availability of a safe and effective vaccine has dramatically shrunk the risk for the 2.3 million Oregonians who have already been fully immunized -- and it could do the same for the remaining population that has yet to be vaccinated. Instead of last year’s mentality of fear and shutdowns, navigating this year’s reality requires something markedly different – the confidence and commitment to stay the course.
Staying the course means continuing the slow, painstaking work of increasing our vaccination rate by providing information, access, opportunity and support. Instead of mass vaccination clinics that drew thousands in a day, state and local health officials are working with pharmacies, community groups, businesses and others just to deliver a few dozen at a time – or even less. They have held weekly vaccine clinics at a shopping mall serving the Latino community in Jackson County; provided cash incentives in Multnomah County; and sponsored mini lottery and scholarship payouts in Washington County. They have held listening sessions to answer questions of those skeptical of the vaccine, provided information in multiple languages to reach immigrant communities and arranged for in-home visits to provide shots to those who are unable or reluctant to go out on their own.
But the obligation to encourage vaccinations extends beyond our health officials to all of us across the state. In today’s hyper-polarized climate, many people who mistrust government, mainstream media and medical associations may be more willing to listen to the counsel of their own legislative representative, a trusted local pastor or a friend or family member who received the vaccine. What does not help? Scorn. Our goal as a community is to grow the number of people who are vaccinated. That happens by providing information of the research and testing that went into vaccine development; explaining the dangers of contracting COVID; sharing personal experiences of getting the vaccine; showing the lopsided risk that nonvaccinated people bear of hospitalization and death; and reminding people of the goal we all share of returning to a pre-pandemic reality.
Staying the course also means reopening libraries, community centers and other services as soon as possible, with schools as the number one priority. Oregon students were among the last in the country to return to in-person instruction earlier this year, a distinction that should embarrass a state that boasts of its resilience and ability to find innovative solutions to problems. Research and Oregon’s own experience show that schools have not been a significant source of spread. With vaccines available for students 12 years and older and masks for all in school, as Gov. Kate Brown recently directed, schools have the tools they need to provide in-person instruction safely.
Districts should also develop policies that keep disruptions to a minimum. For example, they should look to limit quarantines for students who come in contact with a positive COVID case, such as allowing a return if the student tests negative or has been vaccinated. Pediatricians, educators and others throughout the pandemic have noted the toll this past year has taken on students’ well-being – academically, physically, emotionally and socially. After more than a year of sacrificing students’ needs, Oregon cannot fold in the face of adversity again.
Certainly, we should be willing to adopt common sense precautions to protect those unable to be vaccinated and help limit our rising hospitalization rate. The country is still at least several weeks away before children under 12 may be eligible for a vaccine. The governor’s recommendation to mask indoors – as well as her mandate for masks in schools – both make sense as small inconveniences that are necessary for a more important objective. And even though vaccinated Oregonians account for a very small percentage of cases – and even fewer hospitalizations or deaths – they can still get sick and pass on the virus to others. Rather than debate the merits of face coverings at this time, Oregonians should mask up and move on.
Similarly, regular testing of employees who are not vaccinated, as Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is proposing for city workers, makes sense. Our city and governmental agencies cannot reliably provide services without a healthy workforce and they should not be subjecting the public to greater risk.
What we cannot do, however, is retreat into fears and strategies that deny the progress we’ve made or delay the safe resumption of public life. We’ve lived with COVID for a year and a half and will need to live with it for some time to come. Our only way through this is forward.
-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board