Rebecca Silbermann, M.D., discusses the possibility of relapse for patients with multiple myeloma. She says, “We hope that they don’t [relapse] for a really long time, but the expectation is that this will be a chronic disease that will have to be managed over a patient’s lifetime.”

Esther Choo, M.D., says getting a test result should stop COVID-positive people from gathering with others, but adds “Testing negative basically changes nothing about behavior. It still means wear a mask, distance, avoid indoors if you can.”

Walt Reynolds, the first African-American to graduate from the University of Oregon Medical School (now OHSU), former OHSU President Leonard Laster, and OHSU donor Arlene Schnitzer are included in The Oregonian’s compilation of notable figures we lost in 2020.

Carlos Crespo, Dr. Ph., says he expects hospitalization numbers to rise in January based on holiday travel: “We cannot lower our guard and believe that COVID-19 has gone away just because we are seeing a couple of days of lower numbers. The worst could be yet to come."

David Zonies, M.D., discusses high hospitalization rates and COVID fatigue. “I have to urge people to hang in there for this New Year’s holiday ahead. The pull to be inside with friends and family, with vaccine coming online with the new year, my sense is we are at the three-quarter mark of this marathon.”

Mary Ames, R.N., says she wasn’t expecting to receive the vaccine so quickly; when she learned she would receive it, she said “I immediately started crying. I'm just thrilled. I'm so happy. It was such a beautiful process and a beautiful, monumental thing to be part of."

In a story on the challenges hospitals are facing in an effort to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, Joe Ness, M.H.A., R.Ph., says: “The biggest challenge we’ve faced is really balancing a very full hospital and trying to get staff offline to be able to get their dose and more importantly account for the possibility they will have illness after receiving the dose. We wish it could go faster but at the same time we also can’t because we have to maintain full operations in a very full hospital.”

A photo of Ansu Drammeh, R.N., B.S.N., receiving the first OHSU COVID-19 vaccine is included in The Oregonian’s profile of the year 2020 in photos.

Esther Choo, M.D., discusses the complexity of vaccine distribution.

Adult entertainers in Portland raised more than $13,000 in an online charity event to purchase toys for the children at OHSU Doernbecher.