Guest Column: We have a special obligation to the most vulnerable

Published 12:30 am Saturday, August 28, 2021

On Tuesday, the Astoria City Council considered at length, and then unanimously approved, a requirement for city employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

I’d like to share the reasoning that went into what was a difficult decision ultimately focused on prioritizing the health of our community and our local health care system.

The No. 1 purpose of vaccinations has always been to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed, by slowing the spread of the virus and by reducing the number of hospitalizations occurring among those who do get sick.

Unfortunately, although infections were at the lowest point in 2021 only two months ago, Oregon hospitals are now overwhelmed.

Our own Columbia Memorial Hospital and its caregivers have had to cancel elective surgeries until hospital capacity is restored. The ability to transfer critical patients with other conditions to other hospitals throughout our region is severely constrained as well, and in fact, some patients have died because they could not be transferred from Columbia Memorial for specialized care.

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our caregivers. The best way to repay this debt is to reduce the burden of the pandemic on them. Now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a COVID-19 vaccine, I ask all unvaccinated persons to consider helping our health care providers by getting vaccinated now. Unless, of course, your doctor recommends against it due to a medical condition.

We have a special obligation to the most vulnerable among us, who cannot get the vaccine, to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The city operates a prekindergarten child care and we have a responsibility to ensure we are doing everything reasonable to protect the health of the children in our care. When one of our child care providers recently tested positive for COVID-19, we had to close our child care for two weeks, taking away a vitally needed resource for working parents.

The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that vaccine effectiveness has dropped from 91% to 66% with the delta variant. So, yes, vaccinated people can still get infected, but at a much lower rate than unvaccinated people. Most importantly, vaccinated people are exponentially less likely to require hospitalization.

And, the fewer people are vaccinated, the more the virus circulates and the more opportunity it has to continue to transform into new variants, whose effect we don’t know, and which could extend the pandemic further.

Increasing the vaccination rate, along with mask wearing when in close proximity to others, are the keys to controlling the pandemic, protecting the capacity of our health care system to care for the sick and enabling economic recovery.

The decision to mandate vaccines for city employees — with religious and medical exemptions — was not an easy one. It required balancing rights and responsibilities. I’ve always believed much of what makes America great is the pact we make with our community that in exchange for enjoying certain rights, we also have responsibilities to take reasonable steps to avoid inflicting harm on others.

A constituent challenged me that mandates are unconstitutional. I first swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution in October 1983. Shortly thereafter, a military corpsman gave me an armful of needles for every kind of vaccination imaginable. So I’ve never had a problem reconciling being a patriot ready to defend the Constitution, with vaccine mandates, or, a requirement to register my automobile, surrender my driver’s license on demand, get my kids vaccinated before starting public school or show proof of taking a hunter safety course prior to obtaining a hunting license.

Thank you all for the sacrifices you have made and hardships you have endured over the past year and a half of the pandemic. Like you, I wish it were over, but unfortunately we cannot wish the virus away. Vaccinating more of our population, together with following the other public health guidelines, will reduce the virus spread, reduce the burden on our health care community and help us all get back to normal sooner.

Please stay safe, and thank you for your patience, your kindness to others and your understanding.