Several Oregon elected officials face backlash for tropical vacations during COVID-19 surge

As coronavirus cases surged in Oregon, county commissioners representing some of the hardest-hit areas in the state decided to travel — two to Hawaii and one to Mexico.

While two of the trips started before Governor Kate Brown’s ‘freeze’ travel advisory went into effect, the optics of taking this vacation as Brown asked Oregonians to take every precaution available to stem the tide of the disease, causes some county employees and members of the public wonder about a double standard.

KGW reported on Monday that Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran summoned to public meetings since vacationing in Hawaii earlier this month.

Meieran arrived on the Big Island of Hawaii on Nov. 10 and stayed there for two weeks, before returning to Oregon on Tuesday.

“I traveled when there was no surge, there was no notice, before all of this happened,” Meieran told KGW.

However, by November 10, cases had already started to climb in the state. That day the state reported 754 new cases of the virus.

On the same day, another area commissioner was also vacationing in Hawaii, KGW reported.

Washington County Commissioner Dick Schouten joined a Zoom meeting that day, the broadcaster reported, while wearing a Hawaiian shirt and talking about the quality of the weather.

He said he was three days away from his vacation at that time. Schouten told KGW on Tuesday that he had returned from Hawaii and was in quarantine for two weeks.

During the same meeting, Washington County Commissioner Jerry Wiley announced that he was leaving for Mexico on November 16. KGW reported that a county spokesperson said he would be back on December 1.

Wiley’s Journey came after the governor joined the governors of California and Washington on November 13 urging people not to travel unless essential.

The three officials are facing backlash, but perhaps none as much as Meieran, a practicing emergency doctor, who told Willamette Week on November 12, of his Hawaiian vacationthat Brown should impose another stricter statewide lockdown.

“At this point, I think the only thing that’s going to work is really not a break but a real shutdown,” Meieran told Willamette Week.

The next day, Brown posted her “freeze,” not a full stop.

According to KGW, Meieran’s husband flew to join her in Hawaii about a week after her arrival.

Meieran doesn’t seem to see a problem with her vacation, even though many Oregonians are forgoing planned trips to see family over Thanksgiving weekend.

“I’m so sorry and I regret what this has become, and I should have thought about it more,” Meieran told the Portland Tribune tuesday. “Not because of a COVID risk, but because of all the distraction.”

“I overtook masked, with an N95, and did not eat or drink” during the flight, she told the newspaper. “It was much safer than going to a mall in Oregon for a few hours.”

-Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052, [email protected], @lizzzyacker