'We really need help': Coronavirus overwhelms rural Oregon

[TexasTowelie]

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Heather Griggs presses a phone to her ear in a makeshift office in the small brick courthouse that once served as a jail in rural Pendleton, a place best known for its annual rodeo.

Her assured tone masks her exhaustion when she tells the person on the other end that they may have been exposed to COVID-19. It's a call she has made thousands of times since March, but lately there has been a heightened sense of urgency.

The coronavirus has torn through the small Oregon community where farmers grow crops such as potatoes, onions and grains. In Umatilla County, where Pendleton is located, the rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 is about 16%. That's a measure of how widespread the disease is in the community, and the World Health Organization recommends it stay below 5%.

In the county with a population of 77,000, the virus has infected more than a thousand people and killed nine, overwhelming its limited resources and employees.

Read more: https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2020/jul/20/we-really-need-help-coronavirus-overwhelms-rural-oregon/527837/
(Chattanooga Times Free Press)

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Muzac to the ears of ALL traitor supporters.

They want you dead.

they want me dead, I have been saying this for 4 yrs, I hope people believe it now

[jimfields33]

2. Oregon is deep blue. I hope nobody dies.

[Kingofalldems]

3. What does 'deep blue' have to do with anything?

And by the way, I don't believe rural Oregon is blue in the first place

[jimfields33]

4. Hmmm. Have you looked up the make up of the house in Oregon?

That’s how I do thing through research.

[Kingofalldems]

5. Ahhh --No

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/24/808916891/some-oregonians-want-to-leave-and-take-part-of-the-state-to-idaho-with-them#:~:text=Some%20rural%20Oregonians%20are%20so%20frustrated%20by%20Democratic,break%20off%20and%20join%20Idaho%2C%20a%20Republican-majority%20state.

Took me 30 seconds.

And from the GOP paper of record:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/19/move-oregons-border-greater-idaho-puts-initiative-/

[Kingofalldems]

6. So it's actually republicans responsible.

Refusing to wear masks, opening anything and everything.

Trump and his pals bear full responsibility no matter how many of their internet pals claim otherwise.

[martouf]

7. Oregon is NOT deep blue outside of Portland and Salem.

Once you get outside of the metro areas it is RED Trump country.

Every one of those counties in the article went for Trump in 2016. They've gotten what they voted for.

[LizBeth]

8. These areas of Oregon did everything they could to make it tough for Gov Brown to shut down,

halt the spread and decrease covid. Yes, they are having it tough because they made sure solutions didn't happen.

[ploppy]

9. What LizBeth said.

N/t