It’s been five years now since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Oregon and a global pandemic shook our lives and our politics.

The virus is now endemic. A permanent feature of life. Causing less destruction and loss than it did, but still capable of sending people to the hospital and worse.

This is the time of year when boosters for COVID and the flu are typically available. But this year, those boosters have been caught up in fights at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and allegations that the agency’s scientists are being sidelined by politicians. The controversy has prompted West Coast states like Oregon to create their own COVID-19 vaccine guidelines. All of that has rekindled a simmering political debate around the effectiveness of these vaccines. What could this mean for Oregon’s role in health care? We discuss all that and more on this week’s episode of OPB Politics Now.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/18/opb-politics-now-podcast-public-health-policies-covid-19-flu-vaccines/