Beginning Friday, August 27th, an outdoor mask mandate by Oregon Governor Kate Brown went into effect, mandating that masks will be required in most public outdoor settings, regardless of vaccination status, where physical distancing is not possible.
All around the state, as well as the nation, and indeed the world, public resistance to these and other restrictive actions taken by government officials are becoming more prevalent.
Surrounding county bodies, officials and several Oregon county Sheriffs, have made public declarations of their intent to not enforce what are being described as “over-reach” or what “many consider unconstitutional” mandates in open letters released to the public recently by many Oregon Sheriff’s and county officials while public demonstrations were attended by hundreds at local hospitals in support of individual and ‘medical freedom’.
As county Sheriff’s and officials question mandates and restrictions to individual constitutional rights, businesses, restaurants and schools have not only been forced to navigate a minefield of legal acrobatics and logistics to keep business viable, but also have been put in the unenviable position of enforcing government restrictions and policies, not to mention dealing with an equally divided public.
After state leaders mirrored national vaccination measures to reach 70% vaccination of U.S. citizens by July, 2021, vaccination rates have stalled at less than 1% growth per week and now sits at 71.9% in the final days of August as questions and concerns begin to rise regarding the efficacy of any actions taken to curb the spread of COVID infections.
With two thirds of all Oregonians fully vaccinated as of Friday, July 2nd, Governor Brown celebrated the reaching of her vaccination goals by lifting COVID restrictions in one of the most restrictive states in the country.
According to the Oregon Health Authority, at the beginning of July, 2021, over 303,000 Oregonians had tested positive for COVID. Today, eight weeks later, Oregon now has 377,916 individuals who have tested positive. Within that same 8 week time frame, new variants such as the ‘Delta’ variant and ‘Breakthrough’ cases were introduced into records.
In the past eight weeks, after 18 months of COVID restrictions, vaccine lotteries, give-aways and promotions, 74,886 individuals were infected with COVID. Of that, according to the Oregon Health Authority, 1,331 individuals have been infected with the ‘Delta’ variant and approximately 1,956 individuals have been the victim of a ‘Breakthrough’ cases in that 8 week period.
On July 10th, the Oregon Health Authority had reported a total of 14 cases of the ‘Delta’ variant in the state with the first two cases discovered April 11th, 2021. The Oregon Health Authority, assured Oregonians Friday, July 17th, that the fully vaccinated were well protected from COVID, including the Delta variant.
Today, August 28th, Delta variant cases have averaged 166 cases per week and approximately 1,331 cases have been reported to date. Also, ‘breakthrough’ cases, or instances in which an individual received a positive COVID-19 test result at least 14 days following the completion of any COVID-19 vaccine series continue to grow, and now account for 17.4% of all cases since early July and now sits at approximately 9,539 cases within that same 8 week window.
As hysteria grows over infection rates caused by the more infectious ‘Delta’ variant, these numbers provided by the Oregon Health Authority reveal that less than 1% of all COVID infections in the past 8 weeks could be attributed to ‘Delta’ variant cases and ‘Breakthrough’ cases combined. This brings into question whether or not any actions, including vaccine and mask mandates and community shutdowns taken to curb infection have resulted in less infection.
