News & Stories for Oregonians
A conversation with Julia Pinsky, co-founder and executive director of Max’s Mission in Southern Oregon You may have heard the term “harm reduction” and wondered what it means. Simply put, harm reduction means what it says—reducing harm. Specifically, reducing the social and physical harms associated with substance use, including death. It centers around the idea […]
A conversation with OHSU’s Dr. Aluko A. Hope, medical director at OHSU’s Long COVID-19 Program The medical mysteries associated with Long COVID are frustrating for many. For the patients who suffer the effects of Long COVID, as well as their doctors, it has largely been a matter of managing the various symptoms, rather than the […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved the updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine. The shots could be available in Oregon in the coming weeks. Oregon, like the United States, is experiencing a late summer wave of COVID-19 activity, which follows a similar pattern from previous summers since the pandemic began. And don’t forget – […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) advisory committee will discuss recommendations for the next updated formula (2024-2025) of the COVID-19 vaccine June 5. At this point we are still seeing low COVID-19 and low-moderate flu transmission in Oregon. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season ended March 30, when transmission levels in Oregon met the criteria […]
At this point we are still seeing active COVID-19 and flu transmission in Oregon, while transmission of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) has slowed significantly and Oregon met criteria for the end of RSV season March 30. (Note: Flu and RSV activity typically follows a seasonal pattern—increasing in the fall and winter and dissipating over the […]
If you test positive for COVID-19, symptom-based isolation guidelines in Oregon are as follows: The symptom-based isolation recommendations have been in place since May 2023, when the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ended, and there is no plan to change them at this time. “Because COVID-19 is exceptionally transmissible and a large proportion of cases […]
This week we reported a 10.4% test positivity rate for COVID-19, which indicates ongoing high community transmission in Oregon, based on data reported to health officials during the week ending Jan. 6. “The continued high amount of spread of COVID-19 in Oregon is made clear to us in the fact that many of us have […]
Available in Spanish If you love to decorate and exchange gifts during the holidays, don’t forget to consider safety, especially with children. “The holidays can be a really exciting time for kids with gifts and new toys to play with,” said Ben Hoffman, M.D., professor of pediatrics and medical director of the Tom Sargent Safety Center at OHSU Doernbecher […]
Updated Dec. 7 – this article was edited to clarify details of RSV vaccine coverage. Available in Spanish OHA is aware of some people being unexpectedly charged for COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines. There are a few reasons why this might happen, and we always recommend checking with your insurer if you have […]
Hace unas semanas le informamos que la subvariante XBB.1.16 de Omicron se había convertido en la variante de COVID-19 predominante en Oregon y Estados Unidos, representando el 14,8 % de todos los casos a nivel nacional hasta ese momento. Pero desde la semana pasada, otra subvariante, Omicron EG.5, se convirtió en la cepa predominante del […]