Imagine you live in Portland, Oregon. On Monday, it was 116 degrees Fahrenheit. Given that you reside in the typically gloomy Pacific Northwest, it is unlikely your apartment has air conditioning. Seeking relief, you decide to hit up the local ice cream place. Upon arriving, you are informed Gov. Kate Brown’s restrictions on indoor dining are still in place, and you’ll have to be served outside.
With a rapidly melting scoop of kombucha-infused ice cream in hand and a budding case of heatstroke, you contemplate the incompetence of your elected officials.
All this would have happened on June 28, just two days short of the state’s set reopening date.
As Reason’s Jacob Grier put it: “Needlessly waiting a few extra days” to lift remaining restrictions “wasn’t following the science, it was losing sight of trade-offs.” Grier argues government fixation on semi-arbitrary measures such as set vaccination thresholds or rigid deadlines inhibited Oregon’s ability to act pragmatically, which ended up harming businesses and consumers.
His assessment is correct. Brown should have had the common sense to expedite her state’s reopening in preparation for the coming heat wave. If she lifted restaurant restrictions a few days earlier, small businesses across the state would have had the opportunity to reap some much-needed patronage. Everyone else would have been provided with more options to beat the heat by visiting establishments equipped with air conditioning.
Instead, Brown stuck to her arbitrarily constructed guns.
As far as statewide vaccination rates are concerned, there would have been no meaningful distinction between a June 28 reopening and a June 30 reopening. The proportion of Oregonians having received their first vaccine dosage has been hovering around 69% for a while, just shy of the state’s goal of 70% that, purportedly, would be enough to achieve herd immunity.
If anything, not opening sooner was more dangerous. Eating outside during a historic heat wave is, no doubt, pretty hazardous. Knowing people would go out despite the temperature, Brown should have expanded (or abolished) indoor dining capacity limits. Outside temperatures of 105 F is enough to induce heat exhaustion. Nearly every major city in the state exceeded 110 F on Monday.
It’s not as if this heat wave came out of nowhere, either. Oregon’s leadership had ample time to consider the implications of historically high temperatures on their policies. The National Weather Service issued warnings as early as June 22.
Yes, vaccination rates and case incidence should play a role in how a governing body shapes its COVID-19 policy. But setting fixed goals and refusing to alter course until those goals are met (even when extenuating circumstances, such as a historic heat wave, arise) is just poor statecraft.
Oddly enough, Oregon did ease some restrictions before the heat wave hit, lifting capacity limits on places such as shopping malls and gas stations. However, this raises the question: Why were restaurants not included?
It takes a severe lack of common sense to look at the difference between a 69.4% vaccination rate and a 70% vaccination rate and see it as a valid reason to keep air-conditioned establishments closed during the hottest week in recorded history. Good job, Oregon!
