Skip to main content
Last week, Gov. Kate Brown issued doctors, nurses and teachers an ultimatum: Get vaccinated or lose your job. On Aug. 19, Brown announced that Oregon will require vaccinations for health care workers and public school employees, no earlier than Oct. 18. By instructing state agencies to mandate vaccinations, Brown in essence overrode a 1989 state law that exempts health care workers from vaccine requirements. (The law gave state officials the authority to overrule it.) Brown faced swift backlash from the Oregon Nurses Association, which argues that the requirement would worsen staffing shortages. Here’s what our readers had to say:
@Shadowfax2365, via Twitter: “I would be outraged to learn my health care provider was not vaccinated. I am a retired nurse. Back when I practiced, before the anti-vaxxer movement, we were required to have certain vaccines in order to work. Hepatitis B was but one.”
Jason Collins, via Facebook: “This should have been done six months ago.”
HowardD, via wweek.com: “I am a little curious if she can even legally do that. There used to be a state law against that very thing, and probably still is.”
@kenabi, via Twitter: “Lawsuits incoming in 3…2…”
Jason Eff, via Facebook: “So, this entire thing began with ‘15 days to slow the spread’ so our hospitals and frontline health care workers could keep up with the demand…And now we’re firing doctors and nurses.”
Flabpreaker, via wweek.com: “Why not just mandate vaccination for all Oregonians then? Health care workers are not spreading the virus, and requiring the leftovers to get vaccinated by the end of October won’t help anything at the moment. Right Band-Aid, wrong appendage.”
WronkleDonkle, via wweek.com: “This is great news. If you are in health care and don’t want the vaccine, what the fuck are you doing in health care? Get the shot.”
CLUB GUNFIRE IMPACTS RESIDENTS TOO
Your article says nothing about the impact of “nightlife” on those of us who live in the neighborhood [”Hired Guns,” WW, Aug. 11, 2021]. I live on the 16th floor of the Pacific Tower Apartments, and my windows look down 4th Avenue. I can see the Hung Far Low sign from my bedroom window. Because I live on the 16th floor, bullets are less likely to reach my apartment, but what about my neighbors on the lower floors? Even if we do not end up with bullets coming through our walls or windows, the noise in the streets is really atrocious, especially for people living on lower floors. I have called 911 to report gunfire more times since the clubs have reopened than I have called it for any reason in my entire life up to this point.
You interviewed business and club owners, but you did not interview residents? Why not? I think that residents who are caught between violent clubgoers and hired guns are being ignored. The only reason I joined the board of the Old Town Community Association is because of the lack of resident representation in the neighborhood. Now I see that lack of representation in your article about our neighborhood.
Dr. Aisha Y. Musa
Old Town Community Association board member
THE HIGH COST OF TEA PARKING
At the end of Jenni Moore’s otherwise nice article about a tea shop [”All Is Full of Tea,” WW, Aug. 18, 2021], she writes, “The only thing not so ideal about the new Smith Teamaker cafe is the sometimes lengthy search for a parking spot on Northwest 23rd.”
Uh, folks, we are in a severe climate crisis. Why are your reporters driving to in-town destinations, and assuming readers do the same? A shortage of parking is a GOOD thing. Go by bike or transit, please.
Steve Cheseborough
Northeast Portland
LEtters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: mzusman@wweek.com