State Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, and state Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, implored Gov. Kate Brown in a letter to reverse a mandate that health care and school workers get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The state lawmakers representing Grant County argued that the governor’s orders would trigger a wave of resignations that officials say could shutter ambulance service in the Vale area, close the Jordan Valley school system and leave the rural hospital in Burns with a skeleton staff.

Findley said Thursday, in Grant County, the Monument School District reports three of the six teachers are not vaccinated and have “very little desire to do so.”

Findley said these scenarios are playing out across rural Oregon.

“When you take a school with six people and if you lose half of them you don’t have enough to do it,” he said.

During this year’s general session, Owens introduced legislation that Findley co-sponsored that would have prevented any public body — state, local or special government — from issuing a requirement for proof of vaccination from COVID-19. But, to the rural lawmakers’ dismay, the bill never left the committee or received a hearing.

“The impacts these vaccination mandates will have on rural schools, health care providers and hospitals, prisons, public safety, and social and public services will be severe,” Findley noted. “These mandates will result in more harm than good and will have an opposite effect than desired.”

Meanwhile, the Oregon Health Authority reported 102 hospitalized COVID-19 positive patients as of Aug. 26 in Grant County’s region seven, which it shares with Deschutes, Harney, Klamath, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake and Wheeler counties.

Findley said people need to be educated and have an “informed discussion” on the severity of the virus.

“Social media is not doing anybody any favors, and people need to get educated with the facts and have a discussion,” he said. “People don’t like top-down, top-driven mandates. They want to be understanding, and I think we’re doing a terrible job with education and getting folks involved in making an informed decision.”

“This is not a debate about the reality and dangers of COVID-19 or the Delta variant, or the efficacy of the vaccine,” said Owens. “This is about a gross overreach of authority that is legally, ethically, and morally wrong. The decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine is a personal and private conversation and choice between the individual and their healthcare provider.”

Findley said the letter’s purpose was to establish a dialogue with the governor’s office to lessen the impact of the vaccine mandate in rural communities and look at meaningful exemptions that are viable.

“I hope cooler heads can prevail,” he said. “What we have attempted to do in the letter is build some off-ramps and say let’s have some dialogue and figure out how to lessen the impacts.”

In a Monday email, Gov. Kate Brown’s Deputy Communications Director Charles Boyle told the Eagle that Brown’s goal is to keep schools, businesses and communities open:

“Our hospitals are full, and our doctors, nurses, and health care workers are being stretched beyond their limits. Hospitalizations have increased nearly 1000% since July 9. The vast majority of Oregonians hospitalized for COVID-19 are unvaccinated. People are dying right now when we have safe, effective, and free vaccines readily available. The Governor is responding to a public health crisis. Elected officials should be calling on their constituents to wear masks and get vaccinated.”