“This is the worst condition our hospitals have seen--ever."

COVID is out of control in Jackson County, Oregon. My home.

I live in a hotspot.

My local Newspaper delivered today

     

"Oregon’s single-day record for new coronavirus cases included more than 400 from Jackson County, nearly double the number of any other county."

       Portland's newspaper: The Oregonian

The actual number in Jackson County is 416, according to the county. "We have surpassed anything we've seen before in terms of this disease," Jackson County Health Officer Dr. Jim Shames said. Of those hospitalized, there are 41 COVID patients in the Intensive Care Unit and 13 on a ventilator. The hospital is canceling scheduled surgeries--350 so far--to make room for COVID patients. Jackson County requested the Oregon Health Authority and the Office of Emergency Management send a field hospital, medical personnel, ventilators, and other equipment to try to handle the crisis. Hospitals warn that if someone has a heart attack or a vehicle crash, there may simply be no room for them.

Tanya Phillips, the health promotion manager for Jackson County Public Health said, "The majority of cases that we're seeing in Oregon are related to the Delta variant — we know it's more contagious, it's more serious. . . .We have so many cases and not enough staff. . .. So these next few days, we will set records again."

Some things are predictable. The county operated a potential super-spreader event four weeks ago: the County Fair. The county website still shows the promotion. "We're bringing back the fun in 21!," they write. 

GREAT NEWS! The 2021 Jackson County Fair will operate at FULL CAPACITY again! 

Helen Funk, the Fair manager said, “What an ENORMOUS response from Southern Oregonians this year at the annual county fair." She said over 70,000 people attended. "Commercial vendors raved over the fair attendance." Sure, it was crowded, but it was mostly outdoors. Who needs a mask? Why social distance?

Was the Fair a cause of the current explosion of new cases? We don't know, of course. But the timing is right to have ramped up infections, and the non-verbal message from the county was an "all-clear." Happy days are here again. 

The spokespeople for hospitals and health departments have a message of crisis, and a plea to get vaccinated. Ninety-five percent of people being hospitalized with COVID are un-vaccinated, according to an Asante spokesperson. 

Only 50% of Jackson County residents are vaccinated, and only 60% of the population over age 18, a rate far below that of Oregon's populous counties around Portland. Our local vaccination rate is predictable given our demographics and political bent. Jackson County has a significant population of rural Republicans--the archetype Fair-goers. They have heard a message of vaccine risk more than of COVID risk. Why let nanny, over-wrought Democrats talk you into getting a vaccination?

Less predictable is the fact that one reason the hospitals are short-staffed is that so many employees are out sick with COVID. Spokesperson Lauren Van Sickle told local TV station KDRV that only 64% of Asante employees were vaccinated for COVID.

Say what? Only sixty-four percent? That is essentially the same rate as the county as a whole, and Asante employees work indoors in a setting filled with COVID-infected people, and hear the message of vaccination from inside their own workplace. If over a third of Asante's own health care workers don't get vaccinated, no wonder there is a vast pool of unvaccinated people here. 

The low vaccination rate of health care workers is an indication of the broader reality policy-makers need to integrate into their thinking. A great many people--for reasons of their own based on people and information they trust--do not want the vaccine--regardless of their workplace risk and workplace message. There it is. Something to consider.

The Jackson County Commissioners, who oversee both the Fair and the Public Health Department, have been on the side of the Fair. They have made news in their attempt to slow the governor's effort to enforce masking, social distancing, or pushing vaccination requirements. The Commissioners reflect national leadership and messaging: People should "decide for themselves" whether they want to risk getting or spreading COVID. They hear a debate over whether people want to risk an unproven Democratic vaccine, or whether to stand courageously against the tyranny of socialist over-reach. People inside that political envelope get the real message. Spreading COVID is nobody's business but yours.

Masks mostly protect others, but N-95 and K-95 masks give some incomplete protection to the wearer. Breakthrough cases happen. In a hotspot, the prudent rule for the COVID-concerned is to be vaccinated, to mask up, and to avoid close contact with others. COVID is endemic here.