Building Bridges on 3rd St, COVID-19 Protestors and Healthcare Workers Meet in the Middle
By Cole Goodwin
Driving through downtown The Dalles this week you might notice two things: North Central Public Health District's free vaccine clinic and the Informed Consent protestors booth just across the road.
And while they might be standing on opposite sides of the road, they aren’t enemies.
Both groups have said they are making conscious efforts to make compassion and kindness a part of their conversations.
On Monday Timothy Hall, Oregon Health Authority State Field Operations Lead brought the protestors water and heaters to keep them safe in the cold.
And on Tuesday protestors Joyce Brown and Erica Miller brought doughnuts to the healthcare workers at the free clinic.
Timothy Hall standing outside the free vaccination clinic at 523 E 3rd street in The Dalles.
“I went over and introduced myself and talked to them and made consensus,” said Hall, who is a retired combat Veteran and served for 23 years which included combat deployments as a medic.
“I mean our country was founded on protest. And they aren’t trying to stop us from giving out free vaccines, and they’re not being rude, so I’m 100% supportive of them saying their piece. That’s what our country is about.”
Hall wanted to be clear that the vaccine clinic was not forcing anyone to do anything they weren’t comfortable with.
“We’re not here to mandate anybody, we’re not here to force anybody, we’re just here to give an option to those that want to get a free vaccine,” said Hall.
Protestors also wanted to be clear that they were not there to force or convince anyone to NOT get the vaccine either.
“We love people and we want them to be safe,” said Erica Miller, who is a part of a Medical Freedom group.
“We’re not here to be intimidating or condemn anyone. We’re just here to share factual information, and we’re more than willing to correct our information; we don’t want to spread misinformation,” said Miller. “We just feel it’s important to give everyone passing by the opportunity to come over and talk to us.”
“We are manning a booth about informed consent to give people an option for other information about vaccinations,” said Joyce Brown, who used to work in the medical field. “We’ve got some fliers and things here. We just want to be available for people who may want to hear other information. As a Christian, I feel it’s my duty to share truth and love and leave people free. Our Country is about freedom, and it’s also about truth telling.”
Joyce Brown and Erica Miller hold a sign saying “You are our voice!”
Hall and Brown both agreed that informed consent was important to them.
According to Hall, informed consent is when a person understands and accepts the aspects of a procedure or medication or practice that is going to be administered to them. Essentially, informed consent means that the person receiving the vaccine or booster understands it’s potential benefits, risks and side effects.
The conversation between the two groups could have went badly but it didn’t.
The protestors and healthcare workers were able to find some common ground and interact respectfully and with kindness.
CCC News asked Hall and Brown about how they navigated the often shark-filled waters of discussing COVID-19 vaccines with strangers.
Be friendly.
“I’m the type of person that says good morning to strangers,” said Hall. “And generally they say ‘Good morning to you’ back. I think we generally want to seek goodness in people. People are generally good.”
Despite his many deployments in which he ‘saw people at their absolute worst’ Timothy Hall said it was important to remember that people are also capable of good and of being their absolute best.
Establish common ground before establishing differences.
“What I tried to do with the protestors was to create common ground and figure out, okay, what do they believe that I believe.”
“Well turns out, they don’t believe in vaccine mandates. I don’t believe in vaccine mandates. I don’t believe in mandates… if there was a husband and wife type thing where one was dragging the other in and they are not comfortable getting the vaccine, and they’re not consenting to get this vaccine, then I’m not giving them the shot.”
“Build consensus first. From there you can start to discuss what you might not agree on.”
“Coming from a space of consensus will always get you further than if you start off with defensiveness. We built a bridge by reaching a consensus first. Having consensus gives you these foot bridges that you can expand upon to build into a bigger bridge that you can actually have movement across and the free exchange of ideas.”
Joyce Brown and Erica Miller huddle up and smile to stay warm in the cold.
Center and respect each person’s intrinsic value as a person.
“At the end of the day it’s got to be about respect. You can’t be calling names. You can’t make assumption,” said Brown. “This nation has always been one based on freedom of thought. Now there may be some thoughts I don’t agree with. But we should all still have the freedom to have those thoughts and opinions and express them.”
“I think we should be kind to one another and just honor the fact that we may not see things the same way. I don’t even see things the same way as my husband for crying out loud,” Brown laughed. “But I respect him. I respect his opinion.”
“Tim Hall came over and graciously offered us water and introduced himself first thing, which I thought was great because I was thinking about doing that myself because we’re not enemies,” said Brown.
“And we shouldn’t be enemies. We are human beings with different perspectives and choices that we make for our lives. But the mere fact that we’re human beings garners respect. A psychologist I worked with once said to me, even with a difficult patient you still need to have unconditional positive regard for that person. Meaning: they are valuable. We’re all valuable.”
Share information without trying to convince them.
“If I share information with Tim, and he shares information with me, it doesn’t mean we’re on one side and he’s on the other. We’re just hearing each other out. Both of us knew we didn’t have to accept each other’s premise. We were just sharing,” said Brown.
“To see that in action felt really good,” said Brown “We both said, hey isn’t this nice.”
Don’t be afraid to be wrong.
Cole Goodwin: I noticed your booth is missing a few of the signs that were up yesterday about vaccines being made with aborted fetal cells. Was it a conscious decision not to put them back up after your conversation with Tim?
“That was a conscious decision for me,” said Brown. “I am a very big advocate for telling the truth, and Tim gave me some information yesterday about the use of fetal cells and he pointed out that the sign was a little misleading and might make people think it was a current practice.”
The sign about fetal cells.
Hall said that the (now removed) signs in question were a bit ‘sensationalized’.
“Vaccines are not made from aborted fetal cells,” said Hall. “The way that started was that in the ‘70s they did indeed take aborted fetuses and pull cells from them and created something we call a cell line.”
Hall explained that cell lines are cells that can be maintained in a culture petri dish for extended periods of time. Cell lines are essentially clones of cells that originate from a single common ancestor cell. This means that current cell lines are essentially thousands of generations removed from the original cells and vaccines do not contain fetal tissue.
“So it is true that the cells originated from aborted fetuses in the ‘70s, but the sign didn’t fully reflect that,” said Hall. “It only happened for a short amount of time, and then the law changed.”
Hall said that this science has helped in developing countless medications and that those looking for a non-political take on cell lines should check out this article by National Geographic.
Brown said she was glad that Hall had shared this information with her as it had spurred her to take a deeper dive into learning about fetal cell lines.
“So I did a little looking online about the fetal cells they used to develop the vaccine,” said Brown. “I still personally believe that I don’t want to support that even though it happened in 1970.”
But she still felt she should pull the signs down as they could be misleading.
“I’m not afraid of being wrong. There’s no shame in that. Life is about learning from mistakes, sometimes we learn more from our mistakes than our victories.”
While Hall and Brown’s interaction could have been disastrous, it wasn’t.
They took the time to get to know each other instead of making assumptions, establish common ground, offer information without trying to convince or persuade, centered respect, and entered the conversation without fear of being wrong. And the result? Goodwill towards their fellow humans, free exchange of ideas, bold expressions of freedom, and an increasingly interdependent, safe, and caring community.
Inside the free vaccine and booster clinic.
About the Free Vaccine Clinic.
The free walk-in vaccine clinic at 523 E. 3rd St. runs Feb. 21st through 28th from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The clinic offers Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and boosters to everyone ages 5 and up.
“We do ask for a person's name and date of birth and do strive to ensure their medical records are accurate but we don't hold that as a barrier or require it to the point of refusing a vaccine..” said Hall. “ We want to remove that barrier for people so that they can get vaccinated and get good healthcare. And some people don’t speak English, so we have interpreters here on staff.”
On Monday the clinic vaccinated 47.
Get Free At-Home Test Kits
North Central Public Health District is also handing out free Drive-through COVID-19 antigen rapid at home test kits this week at their central office in The Dalles. On Monday they handed out over 500 free tests to the community. To get your at home tests simply drive up to NCPHD on Feb. 23rd and 24th from noon to 1 p.m.
iHealth Covid-19 antigen rapid tests.
