Why these Oregons are willing to lose their jobs by rejecting the COVID-19 vaccine

They are state soldiers, nurses, doctors, school bus drivers, teachers, high school football coaches, and state records show that the Oregon Department of Health is responsible for fighting pandemics. There are even employees.

Is there one thing that all have in common?They are against getting vaccinated COVID-19 (New Coronavirus Infection)Healthcare workers and educators from kindergarten to high school are fully vaccinated, despite the impending deadline on Monday and the need for hundreds of thousands of state government employees. ..

These holdouts make up an unknown, but perhaps small, part of about 800,000 adults who have not yet been shot at least once throughout the state.

Governor Kate Brown reiterated what top public health experts in Oregon and across the country said when announcing her mission in August. Vaccinations are safe and very effective in preventing hospitalization and death.

“The only way to permanently stop the spread of COVID-19 is by vaccination,” she said.

Some who oppose vaccination obligations have received religious or medical exceptions. But others are at risk of losing their jobs or have already left them.

Oregonian / OregonLive interviewed three such workers. Here is their story.

“It feels like communism”

17-year-old dental hygienist Lyubov Orlov-Ganchenko was “surprised and stunned” when Brown announced his vaccination obligations.

As a result, Salem residents said they quit their $ 80,000 a year job, sold their homes, and left with their husbands. My husband was also on duty as a maintenance worker in the clinic.

They have driven to Florida for the past two weeks. In Florida, both are unemployed and live in a newly purchased camper van to save money.

She said the idea that the government would tell her what to do reminds her of why she and her family emigrated from the former Soviet Union to the United States when she was 18.

“It feels like communism here,” said 48-year-old Orlov-Ganchenko. Everything is pressed against me. PTSD is back. “

Orlov-Ganchenko said he is now planning to work in another profession because his Oregon hygienist license is not good in Florida and he does not want to re-enroll in class and take the board exam. Also.

The couple chose Florida because her husband’s cousin lives in Florida, she said. But she also said they were keenly aware of a more unobtrusive, more practical approach to the Florida pandemic.Governor Ron DeSantis Very aloud rejected Vaccine passports, mask obligations, blockades, and more recently vaccine obligations announced by President Biden.

“I thought,’We’re going to a place of freedom,'” said Orlov Ganchenko.

This move meant leaving behind two grown-up daughters, 23 and 24 years old. One lived in Seattle and the other lived with Orlov-Ganchenko, but now he couchsurfs daily with relatives and friends.

Orlov-Ganchenko admitted that she might have been able to stay in Oregon and tried to continue her work by seeking exceptions to her mission. However, Orlov-Ganchenko said he would not lie, claiming that vaccination was against her religion. And she suspected she was eligible for medical exemption.

Pfizer-The mRNA technology used to develop the BioNTech and Moderna vaccines Decades agoOrlov-Ganchenko said he was uncomfortable with the first COVID-19 vaccine being given to the first study recipient more than 18 months ago. Public health officials argue that 850 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been given only in the United States and Europe, with far fewer side effects.

Orlov-Ganchenko also questions the effectiveness of the vaccine and states that it does not prevent everyone from becoming infected. In Oregon 20% to 27% of recently identified cases I am vaccinated.However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Points for research Showing that you are fully vaccinated reduces your chances of getting infected by one-eighth and your chances of being hospitalized or dying from an illness by one-fifth.

Orlov-Ganchenko, who said he has asthma and autoimmune diseases, hopes it will take longer to prove the safety of the vaccine over the long term. She said she was allergic to 32 things, had developed respiratory problems after being vaccinated against the flu, and does not believe public health officials have announced the extent of side effects and deaths.

“I always tell people that I should be infected with COVID rather than a vaccine,” she said. “I’m aware that COVID can kill me, but I’d rather follow a natural path.”

“Kick the face”

The frustration of Jay Hicks’ voice is obvious.

He believes the development of the COVID-19 vaccine is in a hurry and opposes Brown’s mission to be fully vaccinated as a correctional officer at the Snake River Correctional Facility in eastern Oregon.Everything in the state 4,500 prison staff It meets the requirements.

Hicks, a 23-year-old employee, will work on Tuesday, the first day the mission goes into effect, but is waiting for a response from the Oregon Corrections Bureau as to whether he should report on his duties.

“I give 23 years of my life, and now it’s’by?’. And now I have nothing?” Hicks, 54 years old. “it hurts.”

He now hopes that the religious exception just submitted will be approved. He refused to share details of his religious objections with The Oregonian / Oregon Live.

COVID-19 (New Coronavirus Infection) Attacked the prison Especially difficult nationwide. In Oregon, 44 prisoners and 3 employees were killed. Online dashboard.. It is known that more than one in four prisoners and staff are infected, generally more than three times as high as Oregons. Hicks is one of them, but his application for medical exemption was rejected.

“I got COVID because of my work,” Hicks said. “And now I have antibodies, and I’m perfect for my job, and am I punished?”

The reality of whether innate immunity from infection provides humans with adequate protection against reinfection remains controversial in the scientific world. Hicks is one of six plaintiffs in a federal proceeding filed last month by an Oregon worker who had previously been infected with COVID-19 and claimed to be. They should not be targeted Obligation to vaccinate the governor.

NS Israeli study What was done last summer when the delta variant was predominant seems to indicate that innate immunity may provide better protection than complete vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.But the public health authorities Some studies Immunity to natural infections varies widely from person to person, indicating a dramatic decline 6 months to 1 year after infection.

If Hicks was fired, he said he didn’t know what to do to make a living. He lives in Vale, a town of about 2,000 near Ontario, and has little prospect of work. Hicks said he might be hired by the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office, which does not meet the state’s vaccination obligations.

But confronting this requirement is about the freedom to make personal medical decisions, he said.

“It’s just a facial kick,” Hicks said. “But hey, I’m tough …. this is a lot bigger than my job.”

The vaccine feels like “hocus pocus”

Kathleen Sanders, a pharmacist for over 25 years, has two hurdles in front of her.

She doesn’t want a vaccine for herself. And she doesn’t manage the shots to others.

Both mean she is virtually out of work.

Hood River’s Wal-Mart took her unpaid leave in April when she didn’t inoculate customers, she said. She believes the government hasn’t announced the actual number of side effects because the vaccine was developed too early.

“For me, when’hocus pocus’was a magic wand, I can simply believe that it works … it’s a huge professional red flag,” Sanders, 50.

Sanders said she had natural immunity from previous infections.But she also has Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines Tested on fetal cell line The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was made using adenovirus that was propagated using cells that date back to the foetation. None of the vaccines contain fetal cells.

Sanders is Catholic and Vatican is “Morally accepted” She personally disagrees to get the vaccine.

Six months after unpaid leave, Hood River’s fifth intern, Sanders, is actively looking for an online job as a pharmacist. She said she would rather work face-to-face with the patient and previously oversee the staff of six pharmacy employees.

She also talks to her financial adviser about the possibility of immersing her in retirement savings to achieve her goals.

“I’ve been in school for a long time,” said Sanders, part of another proceeding that challenges Oregon’s vaccination requirements. “I love patients. I love the staff.”

Sanders said 76% of adults live in fully vaccinated counties, the second highest in the state, and heard from friends and acquaintances who disagree with her decision on vaccination. increase.

“I’m on the border of bullying,” she said.

She asked them to be less critical if people agreed with her and other health care workers who worked at the forefront of the pandemic but were not vaccinated.

“I went to work every day, so I was a hero in 2020,” Sanders said. “And now in 2021, have I been driven to the curb? That’s what I honestly feel.”

-Amy Green; [email protected]; @o_aimee