Letter from the Editor: COVID-19 vaccine status of teacher was core to story – OregonLive

A recent headline was straightforward and factual but nevertheless was objectionable to some readers.

The headline in The Oregonian on Wednesday morning said: Unvaccinated 46-year-old Estacada teacher dies from COVID-19.

Ill admit when I saw it on the front-page proof Tuesday night, I paused. Does the headline read as if we are blaming the victim for her own death? And, as a mother myself, I thought of her two teenage children and wondered how they would feel reading the headline.

But I approved it as written. Headlines are difficult to write, especially for print editions where space is limited. Headline writers must succinctly capture the gist of the article in very few words. They also want to use everyday language and make the headline interesting enough that readers will go on to read the article.

They must choose which of many potential angles they will emphasize by calling them out in the headline.

In this case, I think we got it exactly right.

Samantha Fox, 46, was the first teacher known to have died with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in Oregon. An obvious reader question is whether she was inoculated with one of three highly effective vaccines that first became available in December, vaccines government officials are promoting as the best chance of ending the pandemic.

Yes, the vaccines are about saving your life, but also the lives of the people around you, President Joe Biden said last month. But theyre also about helping to get us get back to closer to normal.

It would be a reader question regardless, but the controversial decision by Oregons governor in January to prioritize educators over senior citizens for vaccines (when they were much harder to come by) also looms large. Many senior citizens were outraged by the decision when the death toll was highest among the oldest Oregonians.

In addition, the teachers mother spoke emotionally and in detail about the decision not to receive the vaccine, not due to political reasons but because of a dislike of injections and doctors.

Please, Foxs mother, Mary Beck, told reporter Fedor Zarkhin, if you can get the shot, get it.

The news of Foxs death came on the day Gov. Kate Brown announced the overall vaccination rate of Oregonians would be the determining factor for lifting most restrictions for all. Health officials announcing the change noted that vaccinations greatly reduced severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths.

Comments on our Facebook page were mixed on the question of highlighting Foxs unvaccinated status. Many understood immediately why we included it. Others found it to be victim-blaming.

Victim-blaming, the tendency to ascribe the blame for bad things to some choice or action of the victim, is baked into us. Its a psychological defense that allows us to believe -- however inaccurately -- that such bad things will never happen to us, because, after all, we wear our seatbelt religiously, never bike without a helmet, etc.

Other readers saw bias or an attempt to push an agenda in favor of vaccinations.

Brad Schmidt, the editor who has guided our coronavirus coverage over many months, said readers frequently contact the newsroom asking whether people who had died with COVID-19 had been vaccinated. The state health department discloses deaths daily but does not release the vaccination status of each fatality, instead releasing aggregated reports monthly.

So far, state officials have identified just eight people all 70 and older who died despite being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

In this case, we knew that Fox had not been vaccinated, and we also knew that Foxs mother felt it had cost the family dearly, Schmidt said. The mothers decision to speak about Foxs vaccination status, in an effort to encourage more people to get vaccinated, was central to the story and an important point of clarity to include in the headline.

Some readers also expressed shock that teachers were allowed to skip the COVID-19 vaccines.

One reader wrote: Why was she allowed in the classroom without proof of vaccination? ... If you are drawing a public salary and working closely with the public, you should be required to be vaccinated and happily comply.

Some readers seemed to think Browns decision to place teachers ahead of others somehow meant that all educators would be vaccinated before returning to in-person teaching. Not so. There is currently no requirement that educators receive the vaccine, according to the Oregon Education Association.

Its undeniable that the issue of COVID-19 transmission, or lack thereof, in schools is an important one for teachers, parents and students.

As with all of our pandemic coverage, we seek to be fair, accurate and thorough. Being an honest broker of news and information has never been more important than during this deadly pandemic. We take the responsibility very seriously.

Thanks to our print and digital subscribers who help support such vital local journalism.

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Letter from the Editor: COVID-19 vaccine status of teacher was core to story - OregonLive