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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
A crisis can be an opportunity for human ingenuity and acts of kindness. And, at the same time, a crisis can also result in people taking advantage of others and spreading misinformation. It’s not surprising we’re seeing both during this pandemic. Fortunately, I think more of the good stuff than the bad stuff is happening.
That said, people should be on their guard. Phone and text scammers are keeping busy. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a good page here about things to be on the lookout for. Scammers are peddling free home testing kits, promoting bogus cures, selling health insurance, and preying on virus-related fears.
Also, remember the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does NOT initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages, or social media channels to request personal or financial information. For information on tax-related scams, go here.
There is a lot of misinformation floating around about potential cures or ways to medicate against the coronavirus. On this, please trust the experts at the Oregon Poison Center.
Lastly, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has set up a rumor control page that can be found here.
When it comes to trusted sources of information, it’s particularly disheartening that local news organizations are having financial difficulties during the pandemic, primarily because advertising revenue has dried up. Today, we learned of pay cuts and furloughs at The Oregonian, one of a number of news outlets that has been doing great work reporting on the statewide impacts of this global pandemic.
As I’ve written before, I recommend supporting your local news outlets if you can afford to do so. I know I rely on this coverage to help put together this newsletter each day.
We all have more questions than answers at this point. I’ll continue to do all I can to provide as many sound answers as I can. Thank you as always for reading and please remember that we are beating this virus together!
- Governor Brown’s office said she would like to see the one-week waiting period waived for laid off workers who are applying for unemployment benefits, if the Oregon Employment Department can engineer it. The computer system used by the department is old, so there has been concern about making the change because it could actually create longer wait times in an already overburdened system. I’ll provide more information on this as it becomes available.
- The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) announced 33 more diagnosed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 1,663. Sadly, three more individuals passed away, and 58 people have died of the virus in Oregon.
Below is information we get weekly from OHA that shows reported signs and symptoms from all confirmed coronavirus cases. The most frequent symptoms are (1) cough, (2) fever over 100 degrees, (3) shortness of breath, and (4) muscle aches.
More and more direct payments have been going out this week from the federal government to Americans as part of the CARES Act. The Internal Revenue Service has developed a webpage called “Get My Payment” to be able to track your payment. Those who want to track the payment will need to enter their Social Security number, date of birth, and mailing address. You can access that site here.
Josh Lehner, an economist at the Oregon Department of Economic Analysis, published a blog post today with some informative data about how the Paycheck Protection Payment (PPP), the small business loan portion of the $2 trillion federal CARES Act, has been implemented in Oregon. Here is a section from his blog:
“The PPP is administered on a first come, first serve basis. About 70% of the PPP has already been accounted for given the strong demand from small businesses around the country. Here in Oregon about 9,500 businesses have been approved for PPP loans, totaling $2.4 billion. This means small businesses in Oregon account for just a hair under 1% of all PPP loans so far. This is somewhat low, but broadly in line with Oregon’s share of U.S. small businesses (1.6%) and small business payroll (1.3%).”
You can read Lehner’s full post here, which has further analysis of the program’s impact.
Additionally, thank you to Senator Jeff Merkley and his staff for once again updating PPP lender information, which is available here.
To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx
Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.
Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.
Best,
Tina Kotek
State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House
email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek
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