EDITORIAL: Embracing a bright outlook

Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Two years ago, COVID-19 had yet to arrive, officially, in Baker County.

But its effects certainly had.

The county’s first confirmed case of the virus didn’t happen until May 6, 2020. Only three of Oregon’s 36 counties had their first case later than Baker County’s.

Yet even as we waited, through March and April, for the inevitable confirmation that a resident had been infected — undoubtedly the virus was here earlier — we were being affected much as other counties were.

Events were canceled.

Restaurants were limited to takeout meals.

Students attended classes via computer screens in their homes rather than in classrooms.

We hoped at that time that this societal upheaval, unprecedented for so many residents, would end relatively soon.

And although some of the restrictions did either ease or go away altogether over the ensuing months, the specter of the pandemic persisted.

After the relatively brief period of tranquility in the late spring and early summer of 2021, the delta variant drove case totals and infection rates to then-record highs during September.

There was another lull for much of the autumn and early winter, before the omicron variant — much more contagious but also considerably less dangerous — broke delta’s records during January.

But today the outlook is much brighter than it has been since the beginning of the pandemic.

The omicron surge peaked almost two months ago.

Baker County’s weekly case count has dropped for seven straight weeks, plunging by 96% over that period. The county reported seven cases for the week March 6-12 — the fewest since July 18-24, 2021.

But the situation is even more promising than those statistics suggest.

The number of people, locally and elsewhere, who have significant protection from becoming seriously ill with COVID-19, through vaccination or natural infection, is higher than ever before.

This prompted Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and other officials to make the reasonable decision to end mask requirements.

(Masks are still required in some settings, including hospitals, where the added layer of protection is sensible.)

Some people will choose to continue donning a mask in some situations. We should respect that decision, which is of course a personal matter and one that doesn’t affect others.

As we look forward to a spring and summer that should be much more normal than the 2020 and 2021 versions, there are still steps some of us can take to further strengthen the barriers thwarting the virus.

If you haven’t been vaccinated but are eligible (everyone 5 and older), consider doing so. Although some experts, including vaccine proponent and inventor Dr. Paul Offit from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, haven’t endorsed booster shots for children and young adults based on the negligible benefits for those groups who are at low risk for serious consequences from COVID-19, they continue to strongly support two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

Baker County has a regrettably low rate of vaccination — 55.7% of residents 18 and older have had at least one dose, according to the Oregon Health Authority. That’s the fifth-lowest rate among Oregon’s 36 counties.

Vaccines haven’t been as effective at preventing omicron infection, to be sure. But the statistics are clear — people who are vaccinated are less likely to contract COVID-19, and substantially less likely to get severely ill or die. From July 2021 through February 2021, of the 3,761 COVID-19-related deaths reported in Oregon, 74% were in unvaccinated residents.

— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor