From Senator Betsy Johnson’s Facebook page – a memo from OHSU to Oregon Legislators 5/1/20:
OHSU is proud to partner with the State of Oregon, the Oregon Health Authority and the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health on a plan to help get Oregon back to our “new normal” while paying close attention to the risk of future COVID-19 outbreaks.
This “Key to Oregon” study will allow us to better understand where the disease is located, how common it is and how it might be transmitted across the state. The information that is collected in real time will provide useful information that will help get people back to school more safely and back to work faster.
The program is seeking to enroll 100,000 Oregonians across the state who, if selected to participate, will receive an invitation starting the week of May 11, and participation is completely voluntary. If you’d like, please consider encouraging your constituents to participate should they receive an invitation via mail. More information can also be found at www.ohsu.edu/keystudy.
This study will not delay decisions about reopening but rather, it will give the state and local communities valuable information to keep Oregonians as safe as possible as decisions are made. It will provide critical baseline data about the virus in Oregon and how it behaves to help us make informed, data-driven decisions to manage through this pandemic until we have a vaccine.
We are incredibly grateful to the state of Oregon for this collaboration and to you and all Oregonians for their commitment to keeping our communities safe.