As Oregon’s COVID-19 case counts continue to rise, the state is prepping for a massive vaccination effort to begin later this month.
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) will report 1,611 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing Oregon’s total case count since the pandemic began above 90,000. According to Dean Sidelinger, Oregon's state epidemiologist, 576 Oregonians are currently hospitalized with the virus, and as of yesterday, 127 of them in intensive care. That means hospitalization has risen 70 percent since last month.
Sidelinger noted that while daily new case counts now consistently top 1,000, Oregon has not seen the worst-case scenario, post-Thanksgiving sharp spike that OHA officials worried might occur.
“We’re not yet seeing the rapidly rising case counts we feared, and that’s good news,” Sidelinger said at a press conference Friday.
As hospitals continue to delay elective procedures to maintain enough beds for COVID-19 patients, the state is now turning its focus to a new effort: what Oregon Gov. Kate Brown called Friday “the vaccine campaign of our lifetimes.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is getting closing to approving Pfizer’s vaccine for use in the United States, and is expected to soon approve a vaccine from Moderna as well. Oregon expects to receive 140,000 first doses of COVID-19 vaccines (from both Pfizer and Moderna) this month, and to have vaccinated at least 100,000 people before the end of the year. Those first vaccines will be given to people who work in medical facilities, as well as residents and staff at longterm care centers.
OHA director Patrick Allen said that based on the federal government’s current projections, the vaccine should be available for Oregon’s general population by June—but noted that supply chain challenges could delay that timeline.
“It’s impossible for us to put a specific timeline on it,” Allen said.
The vaccine will initially be distributed at hospitals, before expanding to doctor’s offices, community clinics, nonprofits, and other administering sites.
“We have the policies and programs in place to vaccinate all Oregonians, and we’re pulling every one of those levers,” Brown said. “The challenge we have now is that we have more people that want to take vaccines than we have vaccines.”
But that won’t be the only challenge to face Oregon’s vaccination rate. Oregon is home to a high volume of people with anti-vaccination sentiments, and has one of the lowest youth vaccination rates in the country. Brown and OHA officials said it will be difficult to convince these vaccine-skeptical Oregonians—as well as Oregonians of color who have seen the medical establishment harm their communities—to take the COVID-19 vaccine. (There are no plans for a statewide vaccination mandate.) Brown said this effort will be further complicated by political “polarization” amplified by the Trump administration.
“We have our work cut out for us,” she said.
The state plans to convene a vaccine advisory committee with “a diverse range of community voices,” Brown said, to gain trust with different groups. OHA will also be working with Oregon-based communications companies to build a vaccine education campaign.
“Vaccine hesitancy or skepticism is a huge issue in Oregon,” Sidelinger said. “People are concerned…I want to ensure people this vaccine is safe and effective.”
It may take until the second half of 2021 for the majority of Oregonians to be vaccinated.
In the meantime, Oregon’s rental eviction moratorium is scheduled to end at the end of the year. Brown said she’s hoping to reach a bipartisan solution to prevent evictions with members of the Oregon Legislature. But if that doesn’t work, it’s likely she will extend her executive order instead of letting the moratorium expire.
Friday’s press conference included a statement from Darrah Isaacson, a 40-year-old Portland resident who contracted COVID-19 in March. Ten months later, Isaacson is still experiencing severe side effects in her lungs, heart, and brain. Isaacson, who said she loves to hike and bike with her husband and 5-year-old daughter, said she now sometimes lacks enough energy to stand up in the shower.
Isaacson asked Oregonians to continue taking health precautions while waiting to get vaccinated.
“I realize how hard this has been for all of us, for so many reasons,” she said. “But I can tell you that the alternative is way more exhausting.”
