Bennett

BAKER COUNTY — Baker County Commissioner Mark Bennett said he knew COVID-19 was a dangerous virus even before it entered his own household.

That experience, which he said happened about a month ago, only heightened his concern.

Bennett has served as the county’s incident commander — in effect, the lead elected official in the county’s response — since the pandemic started in March.

Bennett said he knew three of the four county residents who have died due to the virus. He also has a cousin who died from COVID-19. And his son-in-law’s uncle died recently in a California hospital where he was being treated for the virus.

But Bennett’s experience with COVID-19 became even more personal in November when first his granddaughter, a college student visiting from California, and then his wife, Patti, tested positive.

The Bennetts live on their cattle ranch east of Unity, in southern Baker County.

Mark Bennett said Patti had severe respiratory problems, although she was not hospitalized.

Her condition has improved, but her “lungs still feel heavy,” he said on Monday morning.

He said he never had any symptoms or felt ill.

Nonetheless, Bennett said he quarantined in his home for 14 days, as health officials recommend for people who are close contacts with someone who has tested positive.

Bennett said he and his wife took precautions, including trying to maintain distancing, while their granddaughter and her girlfriend, also a college student, were visiting.

He said his granddaughter’s college is closed to in-person classes, and she is attending online.

Bennett said he has not been tested for COVID-19.

He said he assumed he could have been infected about the same time as his wife was, and as a result he quarantined for 14 days. Bennett said that if he did actually contract COVID-19, despite his lack of symptoms, he would no longer be infectious.

However, he said if he were tested now he might test positive. That, Bennett said, would require he quarantine again, even though he wouldn’t actually be infectious. It also would add another case to Baker County’s total, which has more than doubled since Nov. 1.

The Oregon Health Authority conducted a free COVID-19 testing event Wednesday, Dec. 16, in Baker City.

Increasing testing can, for instance, identify people who are infected but don’t have symptoms. Those people, especially if, unlike Bennett, they haven’t been in close contact with someone who they know tested positive, would have no reason to quarantine and thus they might unwittingly infect others.

But higher test numbers can potentially be a “two-edged sword,” Bennett said.

If the testing turns up a large number of positives, that would make it more likely that the county will continue to to stay in the extreme risk category for virus spread, based on state standards, and thus subject to the most severe restrictions on businesses and other activities.

More positive tests also puts additional stress on the county’s case investigation and contact tracing teams, Bennett said.

Bennett said he’s had multiple conversations with county residents who discount the seriousness of the virus, in some cases comparing COVID-19 to influenza. Bennett said he’s recently challenged such people to think about whether they’ve ever known anyone who died from the flu.

“In my 68 years, I can’t think of anyone,” Bennett said. “(COVID-19) is more serious than some think. And we don’t know the full extent of the complications, how long they’ll last.”