John Moorhead, M.D., says the surge in COVID-19 cases statewide is being driven by people who aren’t vaccinated: “Every hospital in Portland is currently on emergency department divert and transfers into the hospital are being diverted. So, the smaller hospitals in which physicians are caring for time-limited conditions – heart attacks, strokes, traumas, etc, are getting frustrated because they have nowhere to send patients for higher levels of care.”

An OHSU study that found vaccinated participants who were older than 70 produced only about 15% as many antibodies as those in their 20s is cited in an article about mask mandates and keeping the delta variant out of Colorado's nursing homes.

In an interview, Renee Edwards says that, in large measure, the people she’s seeing in the hospital are unvaccinated: “Patients who are presenting with this delta variant who are being hospitalized do tend to be sicker and more likely to require ICU level care."

In an interview, Marcel Curlin says: “If you get vaccinated and now you are exposed to COVID, if you would have had symptoms they are probably much less and if you are destined to severe infection maybe now with vaccination you have mild flu like symptoms. But there is still going to be a few people — the elderly, immunocompromised people — that are vulnerable who go on to more serious disease.”

Marcel Curlin, M.D., says that vaccines remain effective despite breakthrough cases: "If you got the vaccine, that's really good and its going to be helpful and it's going to increase your safety by a lot. It's very important to get the vaccination. But you're not bulletproof."

In an article on the urgent need for long-term care reform, Walter Dawson, D.Phil, says the pandemic is an "inflection point and an opportunity for real change."

In a story about an increase in virtual intensive and emergency care during the pandemic, Marshall Lee, M.D., says patients appreciate the attention a virtual ICU offers when hospital staff are stretched thin.

In a story about in-person learning, Bonnie Nagel, Ph.D., says: “I feel like kids are pretty resilient. I don’t have major concerns for kids in terms of mask wearing or distancing. They sort of roll with this stuff.”

Mark Pennesi, M.D., Ph.D., says preliminary results of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation-sponsored clinical trials evaluating gene therapies for achromatopsia show encouraging signs of biologic activity.

A new survey of patients who experience prolonged symptoms of COVID-19, including patients at OHSU published, is published in The Lancet.