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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We’ve arrived at the second Thanksgiving of the pandemic. Last year, many of you sacrificed your annual holiday traditions in order to protect your friends and family. I know how hard this was, but it saved lives at a critical point of the pandemic.
This year, as we return to seeing family and friends, I’m grateful that we now have the protection that comes with COVID-19 vaccines. Given the frustration and sadness that many of us felt this time last year, I hope this holiday weekend brings you joy and that we can all appreciate the benefits of being together again.
Prior to my time in the Legislature, I worked for Oregon Food Bank and advocated for individuals and families experiencing hunger. This holiday weekend is always a reminder to be grateful for what we have and to lend a helping hand to other Oregonians in need.
I’m also mindful of the complicated history of this holiday and the atrocities that have impacted Native American communities for centuries. This piece in the Washington Post is a helpful snapshot of that history. This week, I had an engaging conversation with members of the Portland Youth and Elders Council at NAYA, including the value of centering equity in policy making. We should always strive to do better, and I’m thankful for opportunities to have these kinds of discussions.
As we celebrate the time we have with family and friends this year, we can also acknowledge the wrongs that have taken place in the past and strive to make life better for all Oregonians.
As of this week, everyone who is 18 and older can now get a COVID-19 booster dose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel unanimously recommended Moderna and Pfizer booster doses for adults who received their second vaccine dose at least six months ago. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) then authorized pharmacies, health clinics, and other vaccine providers in the state to begin administering boosters.
This added layer of protection can help anyone whose immune response from the primary vaccine series has waned over time. I was so grateful to receive my COVID booster last week! My first shot was Johnson & Johnson, so I was eligible for a Pfizer shot. Thank you to Aya and the pharmacy team at Fred Meyer in St. Johns.
As a reminder, you can learn more about how to get your booster here, as well as these fast facts about boosters from the OHA. Unvaccinated people are five to six times more likely to be infected than vaccinated people, which The Oregonian reported here. This article also has helpful safety tips relating to air travel, rapid testing, and other important things.
The latest forecast from Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) and the weekly report from the OHA shows that our COVID-19 cases and hospitalization levels continue to decrease. Given this context, the OHA announced yesterday that it has lifted the statewide requirement for outdoor mask wearing in crowded settings. This is only possible because of the progress we’ve made against the virus.
The OHSU forecast also notes that we are not projected to get to pre-Delta hospitalization levels until February 2022 and a surge in new cases is still possible.
While it can be easy to become numb to these daily figures, we should all continue to be cautious because of the Delta variant. Oregon has the sixth-lowest COVID-19 death rate in the U.S., according to the CDC, thanks to the preventions we’ve taken. However, we also recently surpassed 5,000 deaths in the state due to COVID-19.
So, let’s embrace the gains that we’ve made in combating Delta and keep doing all we can to protect each other and stay safe.
We all see the impacts of Oregon’s housing crisis every day. That’s why I fought for $5 million to ensure a new permanent shelter and pod village in North Portland.
The new site in the Arbor Lodge neighborhood will have beds available this winter while a longer process starts to finalize a fully built-out shelter by 2023. Last Friday, the temporary 24/7 shelter opened with 70 beds total - 58 in an indoor group setting and 12 stand-alone pods in the parking lot. We need more solutions like this to address the housing crisis at the scale needed to solve it.
Thank you to the Arbor Lodge and Kenton neighbors, Multnomah County, and the City of Portland for partnering on this critical project. When we work together, we get results.
You can read more about the Arbor Lodge Shelter and its long-term future in this release from Multnomah County and this news coverage from Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful holiday weekend.
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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