Kate Brown’s Government Introduces Oregon National Guard to begin vaccination efforts starting this weekend in Salem

In response to widespread criticism of a slow vaccination drive COVID-19, Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced today that she will be deploying the Oregon National Guard to assist in the administration of 12,000 vaccinations per day, in an effort to do everything on deck. ‘

The governor said guards would only attend the Salem Health vaccination event at the Oregon State Fairgrounds on Saturday, Jan. 9, to provide logistics and nursing support.

But by Friday afternoon, her office had cleared out and announced another delay: National Guard officers would only be available on Tuesday, January 12th.

The state wants to reach its goal of 12,000 a day by the end of next week. This weekend, the goal is to administer 250 vaccinations per hour with the help of the National Guard.

Brown said she’s with Oregon National Guard Brig. Gen. William J. Prendergast IV and he agreed to deploy guards.

“We continue to look at how we can use every tool we have to vaccinate Oregonians quickly,” Brown said in a press release. “In this spirit, I have asked Gen. Prendergast to support and coordinate dissemination efforts with local public health. We are putting in place the national guard to provide vaccination support.”

What will the guard do? Major Stephen Bomar tells WW that the deployed guard members are trained medical providers and medics who will administer the vaccines themselves. They will provide support by keeping track of the number of vaccinations given to humans and keeping the doses in the refrigerator.

The Oregon Health Authority coordinates with various groups to achieve the daily vaccination goal, Brown said, as well as the Oregon Health & Science University, which locates hard-to-reach health care professionals, such as home health workers. behavioral health specialists and respond first.

Patrick Allen, director of OHA, added: “As of January 6, Oregon has a cumulative total of 128,700 doses of Pfizer vaccine and 121,400 doses of Moderna vaccine for a total of 250,100 doses. As of yesterday, Oregon has a total of 73,286 vaccinated. health workers, first responders and others, as well as staff and residents at competent nursing homes. ”

Nationally, Oregon is currently at the center of the package for residents who are vaccinated per capita, with 1.5% of the population being vaccinated. This is ahead of California at 1.3%, but behind Washington at 1.6%. (The state performs much less well in an analysis of the amount of vaccine it has used, and is the third largest in the country.)

Allen says because Oregon’s infection rate is lower than many other states, Oregon is more susceptible to another increase that could result in more hospitalizations and deaths, so it’s important for the state to get vaccinations faster.

“These partnerships and creative thinking are how we do it in Oregon,” says Government Brown. “This is how we are going to achieve this critical mass immunity of the community that we need.”