The Oregon coronavirus vaccine shareholding group will meet today in secret to assess the group’s work last month after the state closed public access after weeks of open meetings.
The Oregon Vaccine Advisory Committee was tasked with recommending who should be vaccinated after the governor’s priority groups, with an emphasis on tackling health disparities stemming from “structural racism”. But the group’s final recommendations last week seemed hasty and some committee members expressed frustration with the process.
A spokesman for the health authority defended the decision to ban the media or members of the public from attending today’s meeting at 5:30 pm, saying the group had fulfilled its original function in Thursday’s session.
The committee “completed its official functions and fulfilled its purpose of making recommendations” about the vaccination order for the Oregon Health Authority, spokesman Rudy Owens said by email on Tuesday. “OHA is working on planning to implement the committee’s recommendations. OHA will conduct an assessment with the VAC members of the committee process. “
The committee met publicly eight times, including a meeting and greeting on January 5, which was open to the public and recorded for public viewing.
The advisory group recommended on January 28 that people with underlying illnesses, frontline workers, people in custody and people living in low-income homes and the elderly should be vaccinated next.
With about 1.2 million, or 28% of Oregon’s population, the committee’s final list covers far more people than current vaccine supplies can accommodate in the near future.
State and local authorities are likely to have the final say on who among the group’s priority populations will be vaccinated when, indicated the state’s director of public health, Rachael Banks, during the last meeting.
The Oregon Health Authority said last week that the team would review the operation and the legal dimensions of the recommendations before forwarding them to Governor Kate Brown.
“The committee has an optional meeting on February 2 to discuss implementation issues,” the health official announced in a press release on Friday.
But state official now says this is not the intended subject of Tuesday’s meeting. An agenda for the 17:30 session lists only “interrogation and evaluation”. The state will release a summary of Tuesday’s discussion, a spokesman for a health official said.
The group had already suggested that blacks, indigenous people and others be vaccinated after the governor’s priority groups. But last week, health officials said the agency could not allocate resources based solely on race or ethnicity, so the committee removed those groups from the priority ranking.
The recommendations included a declaration of intent “recognizing structural racism and pressure from systems that are not ready to focus this truth on the ways in which structural racism affects the health of black, indigenous and colored communities”.
– Fedor Zarkhin; [email protected]; 503-294-7674