On what basis did Governor Brown hold a presser on hospital capacity? The dashboards on COVID-19 by Oregon Health Authority do not appear to reveal a compelling reason.

The Governor already held a press conference on the previous Friday where she announced a two week pause, restricting five Counties. She added another four counties on Monday. Did the data indicate a dire surge in hospitalizations? A quick glance shows the hospitalizations and emergency department admissions for COVID Like Illness or CLI visits remain flat.

In the press conference on Tuesday, OHA updated us with the fact that 285 people across Oregon with a positive test are in the hospital. There was no distinguishing whether or not those had tested positive once admitted for other causes, just that ICU and ventilator use is remains flat. Region 1 as reported doesn’t show increase in ICU or ventilator usage. Perhaps since influenza testing and reporting have flatlined, patients have other health conditions they are now finally seeking care for.

The numbers haven’t changed significantly for eight months and we currently have 146 ICU adult beds available and 135 pediatric ICU beds available, as reassured by Dr. Hargunani, Chief Medical Officer at Oregon Health Authority. In fact, her tone was surprisingly positive compared to the Governor, when she highlighted, that due to the previous Swine Flu Pandemic in 2009, Oregon was in a good shape with regards to PPE and hospital capacity. The interesting difference between today and the Swine Flu Pandemic, was that the H1N1 of 2009 was forecasted to be much worse than COVID-19.

Furthermore, the only two emergency orders declared by then Governor Kulongoski, merely gave the Public Health Director the authority to respond actively to the H1N1 pandemic. Two executive orders. That’s it. Nothing like the more than two dozen sweeping emergency orders we have seen from Kate Brown such as statewide school closures or mask mandates and criminal and civil penalties.

In addition, normally OHA uses plain numbers when reporting daily case counts. You will not hear them use percentages such as “.05% of all Oregonians have tested positive,” testing accuracy aside, because it paints a much different picture. So why did they switch to percentages yesterday? If there are two patients in the hospital and then there are 6, you can create more alarm by saying there has been a 200% increase.

Governor Brown was frequently unavailable in the earlier months so she does not hold press conferences without calculation. As if her previous 28 orders weren’t catastrophic enough it is fair to speculate if perhaps she is laying the groundwork for further declaratory action.


--Nicole DeGraff

Post Date: 2020-11-12 11:51:47

Last Update: 2020-11-12 12:25:43