Opinion: Are Oregon COVID Hospitalizations Surging, or Has Governor Brown Just Reduced Bed Counts?

While other states continue to open and show a decrease in hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases, like Texas has demonstrated so clearly, the Oregon state Governor, Kate Brown, met with county officials on Friday to prepare them for a possible new, three-week lockdown, despite the minimal COVID impact Oregon has seen when measured against other state case and fatality data nationwide.

The “two weeks to flatten the curve” lockdown measures she announced in 2020 were meant to help our healthcare systems get through an additional surge. Yet Governor Brown announced Friday to statewide county commissioners that she may put 15 counties back into the “extreme high risk” category for COVID-19.

She claims that hospitals are beginning to overflow once again with COVID patients. But is that really true?

According to the Oregon Health Authority, as of April 23rd, 2021, out of approximately 3.8 million residents, there are only 305 Oregonians currently hospitalized due to COVID, with 543 Adult non-ICU beds and 149 Adult ICU beds still available specifically for COVID patients.

This is a far cry from the winter peak of COVID hospitalizations on December 14th, 2020, where 601 Oregonians were hospitalized due to COVID, while an additional 739 Adult non-ICU beds and 149 Adult ICU beds remained available for COVID patients.

So what does this mean for the residents of Oregon?

 In other words, on December 14th, 2020, there were 1,489 total hospital beds allocated for COVID patients, but that by April 23rd, 2021, that number had been reduced to only 997 hospital beds.

Governor Brown oversaw the reduction of 492 available hospital beds for COVID during a supposed emergency that she presides over, without any ability to have her executive authority challenged.

We can all agree that, if this is still an emergency situation—something a growing number of citizens, medical professionals, and attorneys are openly challenging in live event forums like this one taking place on Wednesday—hospital bed counts should be maintained at 1,489 until the crisis is over. But that’s not what has been happening, according to School Superintendent Marc Theilman, of the Alsea School District, who has been in weekly contact with hospitals to stay abreast of the situation after concluding he could not rely exclusively on OHA data.

“You know, it’s been interesting because the information I’ve been getting from hospital staff hasn’t been that the situation is getting worse again, despite the concern over variants, a lack of preventative nutritional guidance issued or access to available medical treatments known to be effective that are separate from the vaccine rollout,” shared Thielman. “And, despite what Brown’s Friday meeting tried to paint a picture of, the current situation is not about those who are choosing to forgo receiving an experimental vaccine—the reality is that hospitals are removing available beds for COVID-19 patients, as it’s not economically feasible to keep so many beds empty. However, this is an easy data point to manipulate to use to tell the public that hospital capacity is getting maxed out,” he added. “In fact, I just spoke with a ranking member of the Oregon Nurses Association who gave me advanced warning about the political narrative being set forth,” said Theilman, “As one contact put it, ‘the reality is that bed use continues to dramatically decline’ and he told me, don’t believe the spin—he actually said we should be celebrating at the waning of this pandemic.”

“What hospital staff have been sharing with me is that they have been reducing their COVID bed counts due to lack of public need so they could make those beds available for people who actually are in need with other conditions,” Thielman noted. “I was told point blank that they’ve been in discussions with representatives from Governor Brown’s office and that she’s fully aware of these reductions. Personally, I think this is good news and should be openly discussed, not be a reason to consider going back into lockdowns,” he added. “Since there seems to be federal money for this very purpose, we should just increase bed counts again if necessary, without disrupting the lives of countless Oregonians, who have been great throughout this—that would make the most sense to me.”

It appears to be, then, that what Governor Brown may not be telling the public is that she authorized the reduction in COVID bed counts, or that Oregon has previously also been given federal funds specifically for these types of emergencies and handling of hospitalization surges.

As Governor Brown announced new possible lockdowns Friday, revelations about 2008 Federal aid for “Medical Surge Capacity” as part of CDC Pandemic Planning surfaced.

In 2008, and quite possibly during other years as well, Oregon received Federal grants specifically to help build pandemic preparedness. Quoted from page two of 12 pages published in July of 2008 in an Oregon DHS report, “Public Health Division Update Report on Public Health Emergency Preparedness in Oregon,” [note that this was under the jurisdiction of the DHS in 2008 because the OHA did not yet exist]:

“Hospital Preparedness Program Grant Application

• Oregon is slated to receive approximately $4.98 million in HPP funding in fiscal year 2008.
• The program has set 25 objectives for 2008 in the following areas: [which included]
• Work with the federal regional emergency coordinator to refine plans for alternate care sites
• Demonstrate medical surge capacity as part of the CDC pandemic influenza planning and response.”

And here is a another newsletter statement, describing additional federal grant money:

“Multnomah County Health Department will receive $1,034,066 to develop a system to ensure delivery of essential health services if a pandemic occurs.”

In other words, available funds can and should be used to do exactly what School Superintendent Theilman is proposing. But we are left with several questions.

Why would Governor Brown authorize hospitals to reduce available hospital bed counts by 33%, during a supposed emergency, and after receiving federal funds in at least 2008 and 2020 for hospitals for such an emergency as this?

With any previous federal funds and the billions in new federal aid she has received over the last year, Governor Brown can simply support hospitals financially, in the isolated counties where hospitalizations may be rising slightly, to increase their available bed counts once again, as needed, while trying to prevent any further unnessary collateral damage, suicide and economic devestation related to such harsh and limiting policies.

And let’s not forget, even many third world countries without robust healthcare systems, like Nicaraugua, are open with minimal impact from COVID-19 at this point, and they did not employ mask mandates or lockdowns, as reported on by investigative journalist Ben Swann. Yet Governor Brown wants to push for more lockdowns, when a growing body of evidence, alongside updated recommendations from the World Health Organization, directly point to an unbalanced risk-reward measurement due to the massive amount of collateral damage, food insecurities and related poor outcomes that lockdown policies inevitably cause, coupled with clear data that show they do not equate to better COVID-19 outcomes.

In October of 2020, Dr. David Nabarro, the World Health Organization’s special envoy on COVID-19, actually urged world leaders to stop “using lockdowns as your primary control method” of the global health crisis as the WHO backtracked on the earlier advice, as was reported on by The Express and other media outlets in the UK. Nabarro warned that the main thing lockdowns achieve is poverty, with no mention of potential lives they can save. He said, “Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.”

Considering the financial strain and general hardship Oregon families and individuals are already facing from previous lockdown measures, it seems that additional lockdown restrictions across nearly half of all Oregon counties would be ill-advised, even by the WHO. Nabarro also said in that same discussion that, “We in the World Health Organisation do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus. … Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world. Look what’s happening to poverty levels. … It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year.”

If Oregon does not head backwards into a new lockdown, that also means that children can safely stay in school for valuable in-person learning, and small businesses can stay open, preventing further disruption and financial ruin. At this point, that would seem to help move Oregon toward continued positive progress for nearly all who live in the state.

Oregonians will definitely have to continue to pick up the pieces created not just by COVID, but by abysmal public health policies that sometimes create an illusion of responsible action, but in fact only hurt healthy residents ready to get on with their lives.

The saying, “when we know better, we do better,” should be the egoless approach for all involved in policy making as new information is learned and the past 14 months worth of data collected can be reviewed since the onset of COVID-19. The data reported by the OHA about hospital beds point to this pandemic waning here in Oregon. Let’s just hope that Governor Brown can indeed heed the old adage before putting our state at further risk for irreparable harm from further lockdowns.