Grim Statistic: Harney County Has Highest COVID-19 Death Rate on West Coast

At the Local Candidates' forum held by the Harney County Democrats this week, none of the candidates supported Governor Kate Brown's mask mandates or mandatory vaccinations. They felt that the only legitimate role government could take was that of educator. This view was held even though, statewide, Oregon had among the lowest COVID-19 death rate in the country. It was striking that none of the candidates mentioned that their role, if elected, would be of a government leader and, as such, setting the example. One candidate, Patty Dorroh, suggested the possibility that the care administered by the hospital was the reason the death rate was so high. None suggested that politicization of the COVID-19 response or poverty was a factor. However, Pete Runnels, the current County Judge, reported that he was "beat up pretty good" for supporting the advice of public health experts, including his own Harney County Public Health Director.

Oregon Capital Chronicle ("Report: Harney County has highest Covid-19 death rate on West Coast"):
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A Poor People’s Pandemic Report 2022 shows that 36 people died in Harney County between February 2020 and this February, giving the county a death rate of 487 per 100,000 people. That’s That’s higher than any other county in Oregon, Washington or California.
Imperial County in southern California, where 860 people died over the two-year period, came next with 475 deaths per 100,000.
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Overall, Oregon, Washington and California had among the lowest Covid death rates in the country.
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The Oregon Health Authority said Oregon fared much better than many states because so many Oregonians wore masks and followed other Covid mandates. “Our Covid-19 strategy helped to save lives and kept cases and hospitalizations lower than in other states,” Rudy Owens, an agency spokesman, said in an email.

The report considered vaccination rates but said they didn’t explain variation in death rates.

“Average vaccination rates are in general higher in the highest income counties than in the middle- and low-income counties, however these differences do not explain the whole variation in death rates in the later waves of the pandemic,” the report said.

Poverty and demographics wound together as the common thread, the report said.

“Counties with the highest death rates are poorer than counties with lower death rates, with higher percentages of people of color,” the report said. “The 300+ counties with the highest death rates have a poverty rate of 45%, which is 1.5 times higher than in counties with lower death rates.”

The health authority said the pandemic made it clear that not everyone has an equal opportunity to be healthy.

“This includes people of color, people with low incomes, people who identify as LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and people who live in rural areas of the state,” Owens said. “People in these communities face considerable barriers due to inequities in the social and physical infrastructures that affect health.”

Nic Calvin, director of Harney County’s Public Health Department, said poverty could have been a factor in the county’s death rate.

“In terms of access to the vaccine, it’s completely free so we’ve tried to break down any barriers,” Calvin said. “Once a person got Covid, poverty could have been a factor” in the severity of the disease.

The report found that in Harney County, nearly 40% were living in poverty, defined as a maximum of $2,265 a month for one person and $4,625 a month for a family of four.

In Josephine County, which had the second highest death rate in the state at 354 deaths per 100,000, nearly 44% were living in poverty, the report found. In Malheur County, which had the third highest death rate at 330 deaths per 100,000 in the two-year time span, the report found that 48% were living in poverty.

Calvin said Harney County’s low population – about 7,300 people – could have skewed the numbers.

“We’re such a small population,” Calvin. “If we have an additional five people die, that puts our per-capita death rate higher.”

Other eastern Oregon counties

Other eastern Oregon counties also have low populations, and among the lowest vaccination rates in the state. Lake County has the lowest vaccination rate in the state, with 46% of adults receiving one dose, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Malheur, Grant, Gilliam and Baker come next in that order. Harney County has the sixth lowest rate: 56% of adults have had at least one dose.

“Like most eastern Oregon counties, there was some resistance to getting vaccinated due to the political nature of the vaccine,” Calvin said. “We have had vaccinations available every day basically since the vaccine came out.”
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The groups behind the report hope it will rally members of Congress and President Joe Biden to do more to help poor people.

“The findings of this report reveal neglect, and sometimes intentional decisions, to not focus on the poor,” said Bishop William Barber II, president of the nonprofit advocacy group, Repairers of the Breach. “It is further evidence why we have called for the president to meet, at the White House, with a diverse delegation of poor and low-wealth people, religious leaders and economists to put addressing poverty and low wealth front and center.”