A group of Oregonians, responsible for recommending who should be next in line for coronavirus vaccination, spent much of their first substantive meeting on Thursday to pay attention to the state’s fundamentals vaccination program and to describe how health systems have harmed minorities.
The 27-member vaccination advisory committee is responsible for advising the Oregon Health Authority on who should receive shots of the coronavirus vaccine once health workers and senior care residents and staff have been vaccinated, with the specific focus on ensuring historically marginalized groups of shots gain.
“Systems are created in such a way that it becomes completely out of touch with reality to work with people,” said Marin Arreola, committee member, head of a group that helps non-native speakers access health care. “And for me, it’s very important that we deal with the trauma and make people feel that they are not being discounted, but being appreciated.”
The Oregon Health Authority convened the group as part of its goal to “address structural racism and other forms of systemic repression” to ensure that marginalized and hard-hit communities have access to the vaccine.
Members of those communities, including Latinos, Pacific residents, Blacks and people with disabilities, took turns expressing their doubts about their health care system on Thursday, including the unwillingness among some to be vaccinated.
“This community does not rely on any system that comes from any form of government,” said Musse Olol, president of the Somali U.S. Council of Oregon. “And that’s exactly why I joined this group.”
The committee’s three-hour meeting did not yield any decisions for the appropriate vaccination order. One proposed vote, whether the group should endorse the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines, was tabled until the next meeting so that members could learn more.
Oregon still needs to vaccinate about 360,000 health workers and senior residents and staff who stand first in line. About 65,000 Oregonians have so far received at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine, state data show.
At the governor’s request, the state’s approximately 75,000 educators are likely to be next, as well as inmates who will be vaccinated to ward off a prisoner case, the Oregon health director said.
“Just wanted to be really upfront and be clear about the decisions that have been made,” Rachael Banks said, citing the committee’s the extent of his influence.
The advisory committee has no authority to direct certain decisions on health authorities, but will advise the agency on who should be vaccinated to the priority groups of the state.
The committee is expected to meet at least once a week for the next five weeks before issuing recommendations.
Patrick Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority, said his agency would follow the committee’s recommendations.
“We are going with your answers because you represent the communities most affected by the coronavirus,” Allen said during the meeting.
Allen’s agency set up the committee to ensure that some of the groups most in need are not overlooked for early access to the vaccine. Black Oregonians, for example, had more than twice as many cases per 100,000 people as whites, according to the Oregon Health Authority, and Hispanics had four times as many cases per 100,000 as non-Hispanics.
The group apparently faced something of a learning curve.
Zhenya Abbruzzese, a committee member representing the Slavic community of Oregon, wanted to determine that everyone is in favor of the coronavirus vaccine, asking if the members are ‘willing to leave our credibility behind and promote it for our communities’.
At least one member said she did not know enough about the vaccine, and the committee voted on the question until members had the opportunity to find out more.
The committee will meet again on January 14.
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– Fedor Zarkhin
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