MCMINNVILLE Ore. (KPTV) – Paul Harrell, a well-known guns expert, supporter of the Second Amendment, and self-dubbed “gun dad of the internet,” died this week at the age of 58. He announced his passing via a pre-recorded YouTube video after an extended fight with pancreatic cancer.

Harrell sits on a downed tree in a forested area in the video, which he gave the straightforward title “I’m Dead.” He imparts the depressing news that his health has gotten worse and that he feels the end is close.

“My goal in doing all of this was primarily to put out useful information — or at least interesting information,” Harrell said about his YouTube career in the video, which has more than 2.3 million views in less than 24 hours of its posting.

“I had hoped I would continue in this format for the next 10, 15 years,” said Harrell in the video. “Even once I was diagnosed, I had hoped I would at least be here another two, three more years, which turned out to only be a few more months. My apologies for that, it really makes me feel like I’ve let everybody down.”

Over the course of a dozen years, Harrell built his YouTube channel into a comprehensive teaching resource covering everything from product reviews to gun safety information, and he even touched on some of the societal issues surrounding the Second Amendment.

“I’m really glad to have had this opportunity to do all of the stuff that we’ve done. I really hope it has been helpful, and I really appreciate you watching, commenting and participating,” said Harrell, thanking his 1.1 million subscribers.

“I have very few regrets in what we’ve done here. I think we’ve been for the most part successful and I hope you agree. So as always, don’t try this at home, and thanks for watching,” he said at the end of his final video.

Harrell co-owned Harrell Brothers in Arms LLC, based out of McMinnville, Oregon since 2012, according to the company’s website.

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With one of the highest vaccine-exemption rates in the country, Oregon is experiencing its largest measles outbreak in decades. This year’s count is now higher than anything seen since 2000, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the highly contagious virus eliminated from the US.

Since the start of the year, Oregon has tallied 31 cases of measles, all in unvaccinated people. The cases have been accumulating in sustained waves of transmission since mid-June.

Last month, when the outbreak tally was still in the 20s, health officials noted that it was nearing a state record set in 2019. There were 28 cases that year, which were linked to a large outbreak across the border in Washington state. But, with that record now surpassed, the state is in pre-elimination territory.

“Before 2019, you have to go all the way back to the early 1990s to see case counts this high,” Paul Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases and immunization at Oregon Health Authority, said in a statement. “The reason is, we maintained very high vaccination rates and very high population levels of immunity. Unfortunately, we’ve seen an erosion in the percentage of people who are getting vaccinated against measles.”

Vaccination decline

In 2000, when measles was declared officially eliminated, only about 1 percent of kindergarteners in the state had exemptions from childhood vaccines, such as measles. But in the years since, Oregon has become one of the states with the highest exemption rates in the country. In the 2022-2023 school year, 8.2 percent of Oregon kindergarteners had exemptions from vaccinations, according to a CDC analysis published in November. Only Idaho had a higher rate, with 12.1 percent of kindergarteners exempt. Utah was a close third, with 8.1 percent, followed by Arizona (7.4 percent) and Wisconsin (7.2 percent).

Oregon’s exemption rate has risen since then, with the exemption rate now at 8.8 percent, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Any exemption rate above 5 percent is concerning. At that threshold, even if every non-exempt child is vaccinated, a state will not be able to achieve the target of 95 percent vaccine coverage expected to prevent sustained transmission of infectious diseases.

Health officials are directly linking the rise of non-medical exemptions to the current measles outbreak, which is centered in Clackamas, Marion, and Multnomah counties. All three are in the north-western corner of the state, with Clackamas and Multnomah in the Portland area.

“In Clackamas County, as in other Oregon counties, pockets of unvaccinated people raise risk of infection in communities where they live,” Clackamas County Health Officer Sarah Present said. “That’s why the counties reach out to every case that’s been identified and try to determine exactly where they’ve been while infectious.”

Notorious virus

Measles is among the most infectious viruses known. It is notorious for its ability to stay aloft in indoor air for up to two hours after an infected person has been present. For unvaccinated people who are exposed, up to 9 out of 10 will end up falling ill. Those who become infected are contagious from about four days before developing the tell-tale rash and four days after it erupts. Other common symptoms of the infection include high fever, runny nose, cough, and conjunctivitis (pink eye). Many children become severely ill, requiring hospitalization.

In a small percentage of cases, measles can lead to severe complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis, and a progressive neurological disorder (subacute sclerosing panencephalitis), which develops five to 10 years after an initial infection. Additionally, measles is known to cause “immune amnesia.” That is, being infected with measles virus wipes out existing antibodies and immune responses to other germs, leaving people more vulnerable to other diseases.

Two doses of MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella) are 97 percent effective against measles, and that protection is considered life-long.

So far this year, the US has logged 236 measles cases. Of those, 40 percent were in children under the age of 5, while 30 percent were in children and teens between the ages 5 and 19. Eighty-seven percent were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status. Forty-four percent (103 of 236) were hospitalized.

While Oregon’s current outbreak has broken its state records, the largest outbreak this year was in Illinois, where a total of 67 cases were reported amid spread at a Chicago-area migrant shelter.

This year’s tally is already well ahead of the total for 2023, which reached just 59 cases. It is still significantly lower than the 1,274 cases seen in 2019, when the US nearly lost its elimination status.

MEDFORD, Ore. — Attorneys representing both living and deceased patients of an Oregon hospital filed a $303 million lawsuit against the facility on Tuesday after a nurse was accused of replacing prescribed fentanyl with nonsterile tap water in intravenous drips.

The wrongful death and medical malpractice complaint accuses Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford of negligence. The suit says the hospital failed to monitor medication administration procedures and prevent drug diversion by their employees, among other claims.

A spokesperson said the hospital had no comment.

Dani Marie Schofield, a former nurse at the hospital, was arrested in June and charged with 44 counts of second-degree assault. The charges stemmed from a police investigation into the theft and misuse of controlled substances that resulted in patient infections. She has pleaded not guilty.

Schofield is not named or listed as a defendant in the complaint filed Tuesday. A separate suit was filed against Schofield and the hospital earlier this year on behalf of the estate of a 65-year-old man who died.

The 18 plaintiffs in the new suit include nine patients and the estates of nine patients who died. According to the suit, the hospital began informing them in December that an employee had replaced fentanyl with tap water, causing bacterial infections.

“All Plaintiff Patients were infected with bacterium uniquely associated with waterborne transmission,” the complaint says.

All of the plaintiffs experienced mental anguish, according to the suit, which seeks millions of dollars in damages for medical expenses, lost income and the pain and suffering of those who died.

Medford police began investigating late last year, after hospital officials noticed a troubling spike in central line infections from July 2022 through July 2023 and told police they believed an employee had been diverting fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that has helped fuel the nation’s overdose epidemic, but it is also used in legitimate medical settings to relieve severe pain. Drug theft from hospitals is a longstanding problem.