Oregon's War on Hope

As most of America embraces normalcy, Oregon runs in the other direction

When Oregon’s entrenched Democratic majority gets clobbered in the 2022 elections, they can thank lame duck Governor Kate Brown and the hapless sycophants and bootlickers making policy at the Oregon Health Authority. Despite overwhelming evidence that face masks have been ineffective at stopping viral spread and a passionate public outcry, OHA last week doubled down on indoor masking by making the rule permanent. That’s right, Oregon now holds the unique distinction of being the only state with a permanent indoor mask mandate for schools, work and all public places.

In true Orwellian doublespeak, the agency claims that permanent doesn’t really mean permanent, but refuses to give the 4 million people of Oregon any idea of what goals need to be met for the not-really-permanent edict to be rescinded. Pat Allen, the corpulent OHA director (now out on indefinite sick leave after falling down his stairs at home) has been dismissively kicking that can down the road.

What Allen and his minions fail to understand is that people need hope. People need to know there’s an end to this, and they need to have some idea what that end looks like. In Oregon, they have none. Even left-leaning newspapers like the Oregonian, have said a permanent mandate sends the wrong message.

Just who in Oregon is making these decisions? The bucks stops, of course, with Governor Kate Brown, whose terms ends next January and who is barred by law from running again. Brown has been a champion of the importance of masking, except when she’s partying with drag queens in Washington D.C.

Kate Brown went maskless in a room full of maskless partiers in Washington, D.C.

Brown’s handpicked Director of the Oregon Health Authority is Patrick Allen, although there’s now some debate whether Allen is still legally running the agency. Allen was appointed for a 4-year term that ended September 24, 2021 and, according to an active lawsuit, has never been confirmed by the Oregon Senate as required by Oregon statute. According to the plaintiffs, ORS 236.140 limits terms for this position to 4 years. The lawsuit also asks that all OHA policies, procedures, mandates, rules, and laws issued or enacted after 9-24-21 be placed on hold until there is a full investigation.

Pat Allen

Allen has a degree in economics, but no formal background or training in science or medicine. Most people in this position would have, at least, a Masters in Public Health. Allen is a career bureaucrat who previously managed the Department of Consumer and Business Services and, before that, was Deputy Administrator of the Building Codes Division. Clearly the perfect career path for someone crafting public health policy during a pandemic.

Allen’s go-to for science stuff is Dr. Dean Sidelinger, who Brown named Oregon’s “state epidemiologist” despite his having no formal background, training or certification in epidemiology. Sidelinger did a fellowship in community pediatrics at the University of California, then went straight from school into a government job in San Diego.

Dean Sidelinger

Sidelinger and his husband have amassed a collection of over 400 bow ties, earning him the moniker “Bow Tie Boy” on social media. Prior to COVID, Sidelinger questioned mask efficacy:

He has now come full circle and remains a strong proponent of masking, recently claiming that cloth and surgical masks were equally effective to N95 respirators in “community settings.” That’s technically true because all three are, in practice, equally ineffective. The public has little idea how to properly use respirators.

By law, the Oregon Health Authority has to take public comment before adopting new administrative rules, so on January 20th they scheduled three hours for public testimony on the permanent mask mandate. Decision makers like Allen and Sidelinger didn’t oversee the contentious hearing, which ended up lasting over 7 hours. That unhappy task fell to Deputy Public Health Director Cara Biddlecom, who does hold a Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where (coincidentally) lab tinkering with coronaviruses similar to SARS-COV-2 took place in recent years.

Virtually 100 percent of the January 20 callers voiced passionate opposition to continued masking. And as the hearings were being held, demonstrators gathered outside the locked-down OHA headquarters in Portland and burned face masks in protest. The callers came from both political parties and all walks of life. I listened for hours to an outpouring of grief, angst and rage. I heard heartbreaking testimony from mothers whose children were suffering physical and emotional damage from 8-hours of daily masking in schools. I listened to educated professionals explain why masks fail to block viral particles so small you could fit a hundred on a human hair. I cheered the passionate cries for medical freedom. Here are some excerpts (with some cleanup).

“And when I am walking in a store. I have to stop every few minutes because I can't breathe through the mask.”

“Even the box says it doesn't stop transmission of disease. You’re sucking these infinitesimally small microscopic fibers covered with chemicals deep into your lungs. You're going to get mesothelioma, a COPD pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. It doesn't happen overnight, it's festering in your lungs right now. The maskers need to demand financial reparations from the state and OHA for the future care their medical issues. This is a class action reparations lawsuit. … What's next. We either move out of the state and take our tax money with us? We don't need a passport to go to the next state where there's freedom and sanity. No one is moving to this fascist state. You can have your dark threatening dystopian disease reality and own it. Enjoy your disease up session or we can be buying billboards across the state showing the Nuremberg code.”

“I believe the Oregon State and OHA are using mandates and masking to receive funding or any other money grab from the from the federal government and let's be clear that is ultimately our money. It's time to stop.”

Some of the callers identified themselves as medical professionals. Although there is a public transcript, I am leaving names out here.

“I was trained as to why we wear protective material. It is for blood splatter. Surgeons wear masks because of potential fluid squirting out of their patients. You don't want that in your mouth. It has nothing to do with bacteria and viruses. It is a shield.”

“I'm a licensed physician in the state of Oregon. I am not here with any affiliated organization. However, I would like to mention that a number of my colleagues are absolutely terrified to speak out about this. So I'm taking it for the team today, I hope everyone else has my back in the future. I would like to focus on the bulk of my testimony, which is the effect of masking on the pediatric population, which a lot of people have talked about, but here are some quotes and research that I have done and from my clinical observations.

Masks are known to be troublesome for myopic children, which means they are shortsighted, due to their glasses fogging, which is a highly documented problem for medical students and in operating suites if any of you wear glasses. You go to the store. How do you see anything? My mom wears glasses and she can't see anything. How do you think a little kid in school feels? They are already completely stressed out. How about mask-ni? Has anyone seen mask-ni? Have you had mask-ni? It causes dermatitis acne, painful sores, histamine reactions that can only be resolved with discontinuation of the mask wearing. Sometimes treatment must be initiated. Painful irritated lips are also common. My daughter is a first grader and she comes home daily with excoriated lips and nostrils from excessive moisture trapped in her mask and from mucus from her nose. She is to wear a mask during PE and indoor recess. She can only take it off to eat and drink water, she never sees her classmates or her teachers smile.

I'm going to skip the portion about carbon dioxide and deoxygenation. Everyone has pretty much nailed that. Masking traps condensation, which promotes viral bacterial and fungal particles to be condensed within the mask, creating a reservoir for pathogens promoting disease states, including COVID-19. We have seen an uptick in oral infections, gum disease, tooth decay, pharyngeal infection. Sinus infections alarmingly, now deep long and intracranial infections. This also brings me to another topic. A mask survey that was recently out — they have been shown to cause anxiety. Psycho vegetative states in children as well as adults with an increase in psychosomatic and stress-related illness. Depressive self experience, reduced participation, social withdrawal, lowered health-related self care. Children are suffering learning disorders. There is a 364% increase in delays with speech. They are now calling it Covid delayed. It's on par with how autistic children are functioning. We must stop masking children. We must stop masking basically everyone. As a physician, I'm completely appalled that this is even an issue and I sincerely hope that I do not have to come back and testify for vaccines.

Schools and school system autonomy was an issue of concern for a number of callers, including this representative from the Redmond, Oregon school board.

“I am speaking on behalf of the Redmond School Board. We represent over 30,000 Oregonians here in Central Oregon. The Redmond School Board opposes adoption of the OAR (Oregon Administrative Rule) requiring masks to be worn in indoor spaces in Oregon. The Board of directors for the Redmond School District urges each board and committee member in the strongest possible terms to stand firm against the efforts of OHA in adopting the mandate set forth in OAR 3330191025 and return control over pandemic related safety measures to local government bodies, including local school boards.

We implore you to take these things into consideration and make reasonable changes to policies, practices and procedures and listen to the needs of Redmond School Board by stopping the OHA proposed rule changes, effectively returning control over pandemic-related decision making to the local level. In addition, according to OHA nondiscriminatory policy, OHA must follow state and federal civil rights laws. It cannot treat people unfairly in any of its programs. We also have grave concerns that adopting these rules changes would effectively create de facto discrimination to mandate masks as a prerequisite to attend school in Oregon. It openly discriminates against students and families who exercise their right to decline masks.

And a number of callers warned that Democrats would pay the price for these mask policies.

“Just last week, I learned about another child suicide. Our children are suffering. They're not learning. They're not socializing. They're eating outside. They can't learn with masks. What about our deaf kids? Governor, Brown confirmed that masks do nothing when she chose to attend a DC gala along with more than 1000 others all maskless. Who in that huge ballroom was masked? The help. She didn't feel compelled to wear masks because masks don't work. I have little faith you will take anything I say seriously. I will say something that will matter for the first time in decades. Tens of thousands of Oregonians like me, lifelong Democrats, will no longer vote for Democratic leaders and for the first time in my life, I would rather consider a Republican who's going to save our state and prioritize small business owners parents and children, than vote for a party whose policies are running to state into the ground please. I encourage you to prove me wrong by showing courage by standing up and ending this theater, these mask mandates. Stop treating us like children and start caring about our children. Do what's right for Oregon.”

At the end of the meeting, moderator Brittany Hall said “Thank you for everyone who has joined today and I assure you that the agency will consider fully all written and oral testimony. That brings this meeting to a close.”

That was a lie. The course was already set. Kate Brown, Pat Allen and Dean Sidelinger want Oregon masked and they contemptuously refuse to provide an offramp. There is still hope in Oregon, but that hope is that Oregonians unite and refuse to comply. The power to end the mandates lies with the 4 million people of Oregon. Will we use it?