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John Reischman and the Jaybirds March 12

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What’s Wrong New apartment building is leasing now So, With Healthcare, Part 3

BY. DR. CHARLES HURBIS For The World

"It's a very nice facility; it was just old," Tate said. "It was brought to my attention when they closed it all up, and it was in bankruptcy for two years, and I bought it and wanted to turn it into apartments." 73 of the 94 units are ready to be leased, according to Tate. Advanced Property Management is managing leasing for the facility. Tate said while the building was old, the structure was solid and allowed renovation. "It was a good shell because it was all concrete ﬂoors and walls and everything, so we're taking that shell and repurposing it," Tate said. Recognizing the need for housing in the area, Tate bought

BY WILL LOHRE Country Media

In an effort to ease the housing shortage in the area, one developer has opened a 94-unit apartment complex in North Bend. Eagle Crest Village Apartments in North Bend is now leasing units for rent. The former Bay Crest Village, built by the Catholic church in 1957, with an additional building added in 1976, is located at 3959 Sheridan Ave in North Bend. Ray Tate bought the building intending to turn it into an apartment complex. The complex is comprised of three separate buildings. After two years of renovations, it is ready for occupants.

and renovated the buildings so the rooms could support more permanent residents. They replaced windows, addressed rot issues, and brought in new LED lighting and 220-volt electrical circuits to support a microwave and refrigerator in each room. According to Advanced Property Management's website, they have studios, one-bedroom, large one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments for rent. These are the rates listed: Studios – $800 One Bedrooms – $1100 Large One Bedrooms – $1200 Two Bedrooms – $1400 The apartment complex will also boast a variety of amenities.

Renters will have access to on-site maintenance and security, a library with a computer room, a large workout room, and an on-site laundry room free to the tenants. There will also be a delicatessen that will offer a variety of food and snacks at a discount price for all tenants. There will also be a chapel offering church services and Bible studies soon. "What we want to provide is a clean, safe environment for people that want to live the rest of their life out," Tate said. "We're looking for long-term residents." For more information, visit https://advancedpropertymanagementonline.com/properties/eagle-crest-village-apartments/

South Coast Clambake Music Festival returns this weekend

Event promotes fun and dancing while preserving America's original music

Coos County High School students will be kicking off the music festival on Friday morning. This includes band members from North Bend High School. The South Coast Clambake Music Festival has a goal to introduce young people to live performance music and to support local music programs.

Contributed photos

Local band "The Throttles," will be performing in the South Coast Music Festival for the first time this year. The band members are a mix of coworkers and friends from the North Bend School District who got together in 2020. They perform a mix of folk, rock and bluegrass music.

this weekend. For more than three decades the South Coast Clambake Music Festival has entertained thousands in the Northwest. The musical extravaganza features bands from across the United States who play

BY BREE LAUGHLIN The World

South Coast Clambake Music Festival organizers are telling community members to get ready to party. The longtime event is back

everything from traditional jazz to 50s rock, including swing, doowop, blues, big band and Zydeco dancers. While the word “Clambake” is in the name of the festival – visitors shouldn't be expecting mollusks.

Clambake is an old time musical term for a jam session. It's all about the music at this festival. “We a great mix of bands,” said Mary Ring, Clambake Music Festival board member. Please see CLAMBAKE, Page A12

Three years later, what does COVID look like now "If you haven't been infected, you will probably get infected at some point, and if you've already been infected, there's a very high likelihood that in the future, you will get reinfected; that's just the nature of this virus. But the tools we have through vaccination and anti-virals do work," - Dr. Katie Sharff, Chief of Infectious Disease for Kaiser Permanente Northwest

BY WILL LOHRE

Sharff said.

Feb. 28, 2020, was the date of the ﬁrst COVID diagnosis in Oregon. Three years later, we are still navigating the waters of the pandemic, but the storm has calmed considerably. After three years of uncertainty, lockdowns, masks, and immunizations, a return to normalcy seems within grasp. To ﬁnd out the state of the pandemic and where we go from here, Country Media spoke to Dr. Katie Sharff, Chief of Infectious Disease for Kaiser Permanente Northwest. "COVID is never really over. I mean, we're anticipating that this virus will be here, circulating for the next several years, decades; it just may not be at the forefront,"

Public health regulations rolling back On Jan. 30, 2023, the Biden Administration announced its intent to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations on May 11, 2023, related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This cessation of the state of emergency does not mean COVID will resolve itself completely, but it marks a new stage for dealing with the virus. "I think the ending of the public health emergency is more a signal that we will start to treat COVID like a routine illness, such as Inﬂuenza or RSV," Sharff said. "I think that what will happen is that this pandemic will transition to what we call the 'endemic phase,' which

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means that the infection will impact a stable number of individuals but not be causing substantial illness across the globe all at the same time. It's going to be a respiratory virus that we manage along with all of the other respiratory viral infections that we're already currently managing." Oregon is seeing policy changes that also reflect the decreasing threat of COVID. On Mar. 3, the Oregon Health Authority announced that it would rescind the mandate that requires workers in healthcare settings to wear masks. The requirement had been in place since August 2021. In some ways, Dr. Sharff feels that these official changes reflect the sentiments of the public.

Where things become almost comical is drug pricing. New drugs are introduced with nosebleed level prices, while old drugs are often relabeled, re-dosed and then remarketed with hugely inflated prices. Drug companies price drugs at, “whatever the market will bear” levels. Medications at times have their prices change exponentially. I’ll use examples from within my medical specialty. Bear in mind here that during these pricing follies the supplied product never changes. A standard neomycin/polymyxin ear drop perhaps 20 years ago sold for maybe $20 per bottle. There is nothing fancy here. It is effective but contains a combination of very old medications. Due to an unfavorable study on this medication a few years back prices dropped to $6 whereas the “safer” competing drop was suddenly over $100. When the next study arrived showing the replacement drops to be even more dangerous, the price of original drops suddenly jumped to over $100 per bottle. Another example would be nasal steroid sprays. Medications such as Flonase and Nasacort would average $120 per bottle until many went over the counter. All of a sudden you could buy these on sale at Costco for $12 in bulk. At that price point, you know there was still a profit or Costco wouldn’t carry it. There are still a few steroid nasal sprays which require a prescription and pricing reflects that, one utilizes an old drug but with a novel new application device. The cost of this new piece of fancy plastic? It’s over $500 a bottle. An area where prices have totally reset the needle are the newer monoclonal antibody bio-drugs. Now don’t get me wrong here, many of these are true miracles of modern medicine, allowing for control of diseases and cancers which were not previously treatable. But prices for these medications average over $30,000 per year. Miracle or not, that’s pretty stiff. Could the prices be half that, one third? Probably, and the companies would still do just fine. What wouldn’t be fine would be the executive bonuses. One glaring example of this being the drug Humira. By gaming U.S. patent laws (common in the pharmaceutical industry) the company AbbVie has made $114 Billion on Humira. Another example in the headlines was the story of the clearly soulless Martin Shkreli. During his tenure at Turing Pharmaceuticals Mr. Shkreli raised the price of their flagship drug Daraprim, used to treat AIDS and cancer, by 5000%. He’s now serving a 7-year sentence for fraud charges. Last month another headline

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