The coronavirus vaccine group in Oregon will meet in secret today to evaluate the group’s work over the past month after the state shut down public access after next weeks’ public meetings.
Oregon’s vaccine advisory committee has been advised to recommend who should be vaccinated to the governor’s priority groups, with an emphasis on addressing health inequalities stemming from ‘structural racism’. But the group’s final recommendations rushed last week and some committee members expressed frustration over the process.
A health authority spokesman defended the decision to ban media or members of the public from viewing today’s meeting at 5.30pm and said the group had fulfilled its original function during its Thursday session.
The committee “has fulfilled its official duties and fulfilled its purpose of making recommendations” on the vaccination order to the Oregon Health Authority, spokeswoman Rudy Owens said in an email Tuesday. “OHA is now working on the planning for the implementation of the committee’s recommendations. OHA will conduct an evaluation with the VAC members of the committee process. ”
The committee met eight times in public, including a January 5 meeting and greeting that was open to the public and recorded for public viewing.
The advisory group on January 28 recommended that people with underlying conditions, front-line workers, people in detention and people living in low-income and senior housing groups should be vaccinated next.
At about 1.2 million, or 28% of the Oregon population, the committee’s final list contains far more people than the current vaccine supply could accommodate in the near future.
Civil servants and local officials are likely to have the final say on who will be vaccinated among the group’s leading population, Public Health Director Rachael Banks said at the last meeting.
The Oregon Health Authority said last week staff would review the operation and legal dimensions of the recommendations before referring to Kate Brown’s governments.
“The committee has an optional meeting on February 2 to discuss implementation issues,” the health authority announced in a news release on Friday.
But the civil servant now says this is not the proposed topic of Tuesday’s meeting. An agenda for the session at 5:30 pm contains only ‘outline and evaluation’. The state will release a summary of the Tuesday discussion, a health authority spokesman said.
The group had earlier suggested that blacks, indigenous peoples and other people should be vaccinated to the governor’s priority groups. Last week, health officials said the agency could not allocate resources based solely on race or ethnicity, and therefore the committee removed these groups from the priority rankings.
The recommendations did contain a statement of intent “recognizing structural racism and pressure from systems that are not ready to center this truth on the way structural racism affects the health of black, indigenous and people of color communities.” “
– Fedor Zarkhin; [email protected]; 503-294-7674