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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-2021 April 28 PHAB Minutes MINUTES Deschutes County Health Services Public Health Advisory Board (PHAB) April 28, 2021 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. via Zoom videoconferencing Facilitator Keith Winsor, Chair Staff Coordinator Tom Kuhn, Community Health Manager Scribe Ethan Laing Next Meeting June 26, 2021 - Zoom Topic and Lead Introductions and Approval of February Meeting Minutes Dr. Ross motioned, David seconded, and all board members voted to approve the March meeting minutes. Ethan Laing substituting for Lindsay Seibel Announcements and Unfinished Business - None Ed Keith is the county forester – works on wildfire preparedness Sarah Hudson Presenting on the Central Oregon Vaccine Collation – working on improving confidence in the area Tom presented an update on the Commissioner meeting. The annual meeting for priorities was missed last year due to COVID. Keith and Dave will give updates on their sections. Tom believes it was well received. Keith agrees that it went well. Keith was talking a lot about supporting COVID vaccinations. Commissioner Adair mentioned that we may have funds to put forward towards a billboard to advertise for the COVID vaccine. Boost Oregon presentation last month was very impressive and offered a great partner for this area. More on that with Sarah’s presentation. David thought the meeting was good. His emphasis was on wearing masks correctly. Numbers are escalating, nearly over the limit from last Winter. People should not forgo their normal medical visits (doctors, dentist, optometrist, etc). The AFIX program is set to reach out to parents to help get children up to date on vaccinations. Worried about those numbers dropping. Currently trying to find funding for that. Rebekah’s section was around planned pregnancies and STI/STDs (from the 2020 report). Also provided information around teen pregnancies and how it affects completing/furthering education. Impressed with how engaged the commissioners were, but they were very focused “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22 on COVIDs impact. They definitely wanted the input. We would like to make more recommendations in the future, and looking for more guidance from the commissioners. Tom thinks Commissioner Chang will be a good resource to reach out to in the future, though all of the commissioners seemed engaged in what PHAB had to say. Public Health has been really focused for the Commissioners, and have been meeting with George Conway and Nahad ~ weekly. One silver lining for COVID is that Public Health has really been propped up. PHAB wants to be more relevant and feels optimistic that we are getting there. Wildfire Season Update – Ed Keith, Deschutes County Forester Where we’re at – hard to predict right now. st Northwest Coordination center puts out a report every month leading up to fire season (Jan 1 st to March 31). Temperature has been mostly normal, slightly elevated. Currently in drought conditions – well below average precipitation. Snowpack has been close to 100% in the upper elevations, but lower elevations and water basins are well below normal. Generally, with some st outliers, we’re low all around. We were already in doubt as of Dec 1 2020, and continued to th worsen as of Mar 30 2021. In terms of resources for firefighting, this could contribute to limited suppression sources – some cause for concern. Outlook for rainfall and temperature going into July, temp will be above average and rainfall below. Looking to an early start to fire season, not just in Oregon, but across the west. Predictions for large fires hit in June and July (above normal odds). Ed is guessing the area effected will increase as time goes on. How severe the fire is depends on where he fire starts are – heavily dependent on thunder/lightning storms. Last year we had a quite year in terms of storms up until Labor Day. We’ll be in the thick of fire season in July, extending through September. Due to COVID, we’ve noticed an uptick of campers and folk out in the woods. Difficult to predict the effects, but working on a strategy to quell any additional human caused fires What we’re doing about Prescribed burning has already started for 2021 across Central Oregon. 2020 had no real prescribed burns as we wanted to keep off any extra strain on the population. Some planned for Crescent, Sun River. In progress for Ochoco, Bend, and Sisters. We also want to make sure that the information is out there educating on when we burn, and how to protect from smoke. Central Oregon Fire Info Website is a great resource. There is a place to sign up for text alerts for prescribed burns as well. 80,000 page views last year 7800, subscribers. Tools also include interactive maps – allow you to see the outline of burns, status, implementation, th planned, and air quality. We did have one smoke intrusion on April 16 from the fire at Tetherow, but data was able to track so we could make recommendations. Typical pattern for fires west of us is smoke clears out during the day, then builds up at night. We want folk to be mindful of that and are seeking strategies to better communicate with our citizens. We also have been trying to have public buildings to reprogram their HVAC to circulate air inside the buildings overnight. FireFree is starting this weekend – yard debris accepted free of charge, 60,000c/y was disposed without burning last year. FireFree.org a way for people to prepare for a safe fire season. We will always anticipate a fire in July/August. We’re working on building up FireWise communities. At the moment we have 40 communities. FireWise will tour the communities and offer suggestions on how to improve conditions for fire safety. Website On the landscape side of things, we were awarded a Forest Resiliency Project funding $13m over the next 3 years. Great news to help with our backlog of restoration work for the area. Extends from Bend to Camp Sherman. Possible policy change in the future – R-327.4 – implemented “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22 throughout Deschutes county. Waiting to see what the state decides to do. This policy would focus on funding for Oregon State Fire Marshal, Forestry; update building codes. Keith would like to know if we’re making headway in terms of forest thinning etc to see if we’ve been improving in our area. Ed stated that the proscribed burns are priority, and that it has shown in the past to really help. These last couple burns hare helping to fill in the gaps all the way back to 2014 around Bend in particular. There is still quite a few backlog burns we need to do, but have a handful authorized. 250,000 acers are sitting on the backlog currently. Tom – how much pushback related to the prescribed burns? Ed – relatively minimal, especially considering in proportion to support and understanding. We have a large PA presents to help educate. Did refresh public opinion poll back in 2019, 80% in support for prescribed fires. Tom has notice tons of campers deep in the woods at the moment, but saw that the Forest Service has been on top of it. Dr Ross wanted to mention that the western states share resources, wanted to know if all states are going to be hit bad, and if we’re anticipating any additional needs. Ed – unusually the fires hit across the country around the same window, but the fires start and stop in different times. No predictions yet, but we have air tankers stationed here and are lucky to have fast response. Keith would like to highlight the Fire info website, and encourages everyone to sign up for the texts. He also would like to know if we have any PSAs. Ed – some are in progress, but mostly focused on our website/text alerts. There should also be some publicity around education of what’s going on in the area. Also been working with Morgan Emmerson to get information out though the Health Network already in place. If there are other avenues to peruse, please reach out to Ed with ideas. Keith and Tom may reach out to Morgan to see how they can further assist with the campaign. Sarah Hudson Public Health Management Analyst with Deschutes County Central Oregon Vaccine Confidence Coalition: What is the Coalition? – it was formed in mid- December. Already new there was a high amount of public hesitation for the vaccine. Over 160 people involved in the coalition, including professionals across the tri-county area. There has been talk that the coalition may repurpose around other vaccines after the pandemic. They use evidence-based and equity informed strategies and interventions. They are also aware that areas within each county has nuances that they adapt to. Focus has been on the middle “unsure” category rather than focusing on the staunch opposition. Their approach focuses on Complacency, Confidence, and Convenience – a model that carries over from pre-COVID. A lot of their work is rooted in past research. They are also educating around the speed of development of the vaccine as well as its composition – including the science behind it. The coalition is also aware about government trust and institutionalized racism; both can effect public perception of their work. Lots of complacency among older adults and folk who have been infected in the past. They also want to make sure that their work is approachable and focus on making the science understandable. Heavy emphasis to being evidence based. Confidence – Collaborate with trusted community partners, launch mass media campaign, leverage and educate HCPs, empower community members as vaccine champions, provide relevant resource in varied ways Complacency – Monitor vaccination attitudes and concerns, explore application of behavioral science strategies, continue prevention measure communication (masking continues to be at the forefront), make vaccine coverage a key metric, provide incentives Convenience – Intentional outreach to disproportionately impacted communities, reduce barriers to vaccine Deschutes County has had a partnership with OSU-Cascades. They have helped produce focus groups, message testing, consulting, and train the trainer guidance. Thought the focus groups “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22 they’ve been able to come up with key themes with our community. There is a perceived sense of threat, so they have been trying to be more affirming in their messaging to reduce the defensive response of our community. They have also been working hard on how to increase family autonomy in regards to choices they can make. ‘Trust’ and ‘choice’ are the keystones to messaging according to research. The coalition is also working on a mass media campaign with Boost. OSU has been helping develop the scrips using their research. The foundation of the campaign is around 3 different story lines – younger, Latinx, and rural – and they all wrap into a larger narrative. The campaign consists of radio, social media, and TV. There are also have endorsements form 9 local organizations 390 respondents in a county wide survey were interviewed between March 3 and 10. Each were unvaccinated at the time of interview. There has been movement toward vaccine acceptance since December. Many have shifted their views over the last 3 months. Key concern that people gave around the vaccine is if there are any long-term negative effects. J&J vax came out right around the survey and data showed a clear preference for the other vaccines. Future surveys will be conducted and this information may shift. The Coalition has also had a handful of partnerships and focused efforts. One highlight is towards high schoolers and building social norms How can we best support Sarah’s group. Dr. Ross - $20k has been sequestered to help in efforts regional health improvement plan. Would like funding for 3 years (in terms of child and adolescent vaccines). Something that the coalition is working on is more influencer engagement. They would also love to do more ‘pop-up’ clinics, with the goal of reaching 200,000 people. Peter is confident that finding providers for the pop-up clinics would not be hard. Tanya stated that there is a grassroots effort to help cover any vaccination appointment holes at the BiMart pharmacy in Sisters to great success. As far as she knows, there have been no wasted vaccines thanks to this effort. Adjourn 1:32pm Action Items:  None Board Members Present: Keith Winsor, Charla DeHate, David Huntley, Rebecca Berry, Sharity Ludwig, Tanya Nason, Alison Perry, Robert Ross, Ed Keith, Peter Boehm, Sarah Hutson Staff Members Present: Tom Kuhn, Ethan Laing Guest Presenter: Ed Keith and Sarah Hutson BOCC – Board of County Commissioners COVID-19 – Coronavirus Disease of 2019 PHAB – Public Health Advisory Board “To promote and protect the health and safety of our community.” Updated 3/4/22