Governor Kate Brown turned around twice last week when older people in Oregon could get the coronavirus vaccine.

On January 15, Governor Kate Brown said goodbye to the retirement of the Trump administration. She condemned the decision to raise the COVID-19 vaccine for older Oregons and then back again because the federal government was unable to provide the promised vaccine stockpile.

Three days ago, the governor moved the elderly to the forefront of vaccines. She changed her plans again when she learned that no more vaccines were coming: the older Oregons had to wait another three weeks.

“I want to be clear, this is a national deception,” she said at a press conference on January 15. “I was shocked and appalled by the federal government setting expectations on Americans who knew they couldn’t deliver and having such serious consequences.”

The reversal has high stakes, even though other states have already begun vaccination of the elderly. People over the age of 80 account for more than half of Oregon’s deaths from COVID-19, and people over the age of 60 account for 90% of deaths.

Currently, Oregons over the age of 80 are eligible to be vaccinated from February 8th after being vaccinated by health care workers, firefighters and school teachers. The state then lowers the age group every week until everyone over the age of 65 qualifies.

This is Brown’s last chance to blame Trump and maintain public confidence in Oregon’s unstable vaccine deployment.

Brown’s double reversal represents the immense pressure the governor faces to bring life back to normal as soon as possible from COVID-19. But it also reveals a hole in Brown’s plan to put the vaccine in the Oregonian arm.

Her decision on which group to prioritize vaccines is last-minute, imposing sudden demands on hospitals and threatening to undermine public patience for seemingly arbitrary choices.

Most notably, Brown is urging students to return to school classrooms by February 15. And giving early priority to the vaccine eases teachers’ union concerns about the plan.

This is the approach that several other states have tried.

Courtney Campbell, director of the Ethics, Science and Environmental Program at Oregon State University, said: “Oregon is in a fairly unique position across the country in that teachers participate in Phase 1 developments.

Campbell said “health fairness” was a major consideration for vaccine deployment both in Oregon and across the country, but teachers did not appear to meet that standard. Instead, Brown and Oregon’s Vaccine Advisory Board may include additional considerations such as “save the most lives” and “prioritize fairness and transparency” to justify the choice. I can do it.

“If we’re only dealing with health fairness, it seems difficult to justify prioritizing K-12 staff,” Campbell says.

“Personally, I’m more interested in the decision-making process,” said Chunhuei Chi, a professor of public health at OSU. “When you protect your teacher, don’t forget your children. When you go home, you have parents and sometimes grandparents. Consistently, if face-to-face reopening of school is a top priority, it’s just It’s not about. Teachers, it must be parents. “

“Many school districts around the world have come up with ways to get students back into the classroom as safely as possible,” she said on January 15. “With the help of vaccines, we can do this safely as a basis for additional resources and to ensure that the working school district we are doing has the ability to test quickly. I’m sure.”
Brown said on December 23 that teachers would be vaccinated after health care workers, rescue workers and residents of nursing homes. At the same time, she announced plans to withdraw her requirement that the county reduce the prevalence of COVID-19 before reopening school, and she set a February 15 goal to bring students back to the classroom. did.

The compromise of prioritizing vaccines over teachers when reopening schools, as the virus raged, did not bother the Oregon Education Society, a powerful interest group that the governor sometimes sided with to keep schools closed. ..

“Our elected leaders should not, and cannot, allow political pressure to determine how to implement that data,” OEA President John Larson said on December 23. ..

However, older Oregons have seen politically strong special interests struck in front of them for potentially life-saving medical care.

“Given the high risk of death from COVID-19 in the elderly, we strongly recommend that Oregon residents over the age of 50 prioritize vaccination,” said AARP Oregon Volunteer State. President Edward Bruinton wrote in January. .. 11. “These individuals must be given priority access to the vaccine in addition to those receiving care in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.”

Then, on January 12, Brown seems to have divided the difference by providing vaccines to both groups. The federal government said it would open up its stockpile of vaccines, and Brown said he would vaccinate Oregons aged 65 and over from January 23, the same day as his teacher.

The Oregon Department of Health states that the Fed has predicted that it will deliver more than 135,000 doses. But the Fed never promised Oregon that number. “These were our estimates based on the information we had,” says OHA director Pat Allen.

Providing these doses to the elderly would have created enormous demand in less than two weeks to prepare. About 19% of Oregons are 65 years of age or older, and all 795,000 are eligible to be vaccinated from the same day.

Becky Hartberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Oregon Hospital Health Systems Association, said:

Not all states made such a dramatic move when the federal government promised higher doses. Utah had already begun vaccination of the elderly, but did not lower the age limit.

According to The Salt, on January 14, Governor Spencer Cox said, “Currently, the vaccines assigned to Utah do not have enough vaccines to cover people over the age of 70. Lake Tribune.

Then, on January 15, Brown returned to his former position because of the betrayal of the federal government. Older Oregons (outside nursing homes and facilities) had to wait. The teacher’s vaccine will start by January 25th.

It gives Oregon a little room for breathing. However, it is not yet clear whether teachers will be able to get both vaccines by February 15, when Brown wants to reopen school.

The hospital then noticed that the state had uneven records in previous vaccination plans.

“From the beginning, the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine was unpredictable. At 11 hours, the hospital bears most of the dose distribution burden and little external support,” Hartberg said. I am. “The fact that the stadium continues to change during a pandemic makes this task even more difficult, as our overloaded staff is responding to the surge in patients.”

With regard to reopening schools, a more contagious British variant of COVID-19 has arrived in Oregon — and with it, more outbreaks are possible. However, on January 19, the Oregon Department of Education further relaxed guidelines for reopening schools in communities, including Portland, and increased the number of cases.