Covid-19 in OKC (coronavirus)

[jerrywall]

And then we have hotels posting this like the Midwest City Sheraton on Facebook...

Do you have cabin fever? Our hotel is complementary for your pet as well! Our swimming pool is ready to go for you and your kiddos! We are cleaning every hour on the hour for your safety! #OklahomaStrong #MidwestCity

Yes, let's get people to pack into a hotel and into the pool. That'll slow the spread....

[betts]

As a healthcare provider I can tell you there are epidemiological projections with 11 million deaths. That’s obviously the high end, but we’re just supposed to shrug it off? It’s not only old people who are dying. Think there won’t be chaos with people lying dead in their homes and no mortuaries willing to pick them up for fear of contagion? If medical doctors can’t even get proper supplies to take care of living patients, who thinks those who care for the dead will get them? We’ve become complacent, and for profit medicine is all about functioning with the least expenditure required to treat enough people adequately to keep the masses happy. So, we have the least number of hospital beds, ventilators, protective gear necessary to eke through a bad flu season. If Italy is any example, and it should be, we’re about to pay the price.

I can guarantee you the psychological and economic fallout of failing to try to contain this virus as much as possible will be grim as well. There is no right answer, because we’ve never had anything like this happen since the 1918 flu pandemic. If you look at experiences there, the states which took the least precautions and did the least social distancing were hit the hardest.

If we buy time by trying to flatten the curve, we’ll find treatments that help, we’ll have time to jury rig hospital beds and protective gear for doctors, to 3D print equipment and build ventilators, we have time to test vaccines. There will be jobs in construction, manufacturing, the pharmaceutical industry. People will still need food and let’s not forget the most important thing of all - toilet paper��. We will likely have a societal paradigm shift.

People are going to need to think creatively because, with globalization and climate change, crises are going to become far more common.

[dankrutka]

for one if everyone in the cournty got infected there would not be 11million dead ...

but lets say that is the correct number ...

in 90 days from today with the same economic activity we have currently this entire courntry will be in Martial law and unemployment will top 50%

it would go down hill from there ...

and that would cause far far more than 11 mil deaths ...


the potential economic disaster could be far far worse than the great depression ..

Aside from your economic modeling... do you have any sources who've actually modeled this economic impact? I'd be interested to learn about that side. We've seen a lot of mortality/health modeling, but I haven't seen much economic content yet.

But, again, I do appreciate how you, post-after-post, so nonchalantly dismiss the deaths of millions of people in your economic calculations.

Yes, we should consider the economy, but not everyone has been willing to concede massive numbers of (many unnecessary) deaths because our health systems are overwhelmed. The short term efforts of closing businesses is intended to buy us time so we don't get hit all at once, which would be devastating. The question isn't economy or health? We need to figure out viable ways forward.

[BoulderSooner]

Aside from your economic modeling... do you have any sources who've actually modeled this economic impact? I'd be interested to learn about that side. We've seen a lot of mortality/health modeling, but I haven't seen much economic content yet.

But, again, I do appreciate how you, post-after-post, so nonchalantly dismiss the deaths of millions of people in your economic calculations.

Yes, we should consider the economy, but not everyone has been willing to concede massive numbers of (many unnecessary) deaths because our health systems are overwhelmed. The short term efforts of closing businesses is intended to buy us time so we don't get hit all at once, which would be devastating. The question isn't economy or health? We need to figure out viable ways forward.

no one is talking about it because they don't want large scale panic ...

the "experts" now say close to 100 mil will be infected in this country no matter what we do ...

[jdizzle]

Just think, if China had not been ridiculously corrupt and tried to hide this for a while, we could have slowed this thing before it got to this point.

[Edmond Hausfrau]

I must say I do fear martial law under our incompetent, unethical leadership, but as a healthcare provider I can tell you there are epidemiological projections with 11 million deaths. That’s obviously the high end, but we’re just supposed to shrug it off? It’s not only old people who are dying. Think there won’t be chaos with people lying dead in their homes and no mortuaries willing to pick them up for fear of contagion? If medical doctors can’t even get proper supplies to take care of living patients, who thinks those who care for the dead will get them? We’ve become complacent, and for profit medicine is all about functioning with the least expenditure required to treat enough people adequately to keep the masses happy. So, we have the least number of hospital beds, ventilators, protective gear necessary to eke through a bad flu season. If Italy is any example, and it should be, we’re about to pay the price.

I can guarantee you the psychological and economic fallout of failing to try to contain this virus as much as possible will be grim as well. There is no right answer, because we’ve never had anything like this happen since the 1918 flu pandemic. If you look at experiences there, the states which took the least precautions and did the least social distancing were hit the hardest.

If we buy time by trying to flatten the curve, we’ll find treatments that help, we’ll have time to jury rig hospital beds and protective gear for doctors, to 3D print equipment and build ventilators, we have time to test vaccines. There will be jobs in construction, manufacturing, the pharmaceutical industry. People will still need food and let’s not forget the most important thing of all - toilet paper��. We will likely have a societal paradigm shift.

People are going to need to think creatively because, with globalization and climate change, crises are going to become far more common.

Betts, thank you to you, your husband, and your sister in law for everything you are doing to keep our patient population safe. Your words and your work carry weight.

[dankrutka]

Just think, if China had not been ridiculously corrupt and tried to hide this for a while, we could have slowed this thing before it got to this point.

Don't forget that our federal government slow played this too... not the same cover up as China, of course. We could have slowed spread in this country much earlier. Experts were saying to take the steps we're taking now three weeks ago.

[BoulderSooner]

Don't forget that our federal government slow played this too... not the same cover up as China, of course. We could have slowed spread in this country much earlier. Experts were saying to take the steps we're taking now three weeks ago.

the Federal gov restricted travel from china and put returning americans into mandatory 14 day quarantine on Jan 31st

[dankrutka]

the Federal gov restricted travel from china and put returning americans into mandatory 14 day quarantine on Jan 31st

Right, which goes to show you how inexcusable it was to downplay the event after that. Thanks for making that point.

[BoulderSooner]

Right, which goes to show you how inexcusable it was to downplay the event after that. Thanks for making that point.

that was also public knowledge

[HangryHippo]

Just think, if China had not been ridiculously corrupt and tried to hide this for a while, we could have slowed this thing before it got to this point.

Infuriating. They should face consequences.

[BoulderSooner]

CDC updated info

The CDC's worst-case-scenario is that up to 210 million Americans will be infected by December. Under this forecast, 21 million people would need hospitalization and 200,000 to 1.7 million could die. Collins said that if the U.S. takes drastic measures "we should certainly be able to blunt" the curve. "But let's be clear: There's going to be a very rough road."

[dankrutka]

^^^
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been seeing these estimates for weeks. Is the CDC just now posting them?

[BoulderSooner]

^^^
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been seeing these estimates for weeks. Is the CDC just now posting them?

i think last week they were saying 97+ mil infected ..

[Pete]

Updated #'s:

[Ginkasa]

Thanks, Pete.

[DowntownMan]

Wish something could be done to make employers who have employees who can fully do their jobs remotely go ahead and let their employees work remotely. Okc seems to still be buzzing along at some employers as if nothing is happening around us

[Pete]

Wish something could be done to make employers who have employees who can fully do their jobs remotely go ahead and let their employees work remotely. Okc seems to still be buzzing along at some employers as if nothing is happening around us

I've given my staff the option to stay home. We are pretty spaced out and there aren't a lot of us, so I've also given them the option to come into the office, because there are somethings we can only do from here.

But traffic around town seems unchanged. It doesn't seem to me that many have changed much at all.

[Roger S]

But traffic around town seems unchanged. It doesn't seem to me that many have changed much at all.

Traffic has changed significantly.... My normal 45 minute from Moore to downtown OKC commute is now 15 minutes.

[Pete]

Traffic has changed significantly.... My normal 45 minute from Moore to downtown OKC commute is now 15 minutes.

Good to know. My commute is very short so I only see the surface streets.

I'm sure lots of employers are still trying to adapt. You can't just snap your fingers and have people be able to work from home. If nothing else, most are not set up for remote access to their servers and not many are operating purely in the cloud.

[Roger S]

Good to know. My commute is very short so I only see the surface streets.

I'm sure lots of employers are still trying to adapt. You can't just snap your fingers and have people be able to work from home. If nothing else, most are not set up for remote access to their servers and not many are operating purely in the cloud.

Even the traffic on Main Street in front of my office is now a few cars a minute most of the day instead of the non-stop flow on a normal day.

Our office is non-mandatory work from home if we choose too... Most of us are riding it out in the office but we all have our own offices and plenty of separation.

[Pete]

My office faces NW 36th at Shartel, and I'm watching tons of traffic go by.

I haven't really noticed a difference.

[HangryHippo]

My commute has been night and day different. I'm not sure if it's Spring Break or people working from home. Either way, it's been much better.

[Roger S]

My office faces NW 36th at Shartel, and I'm watching tons of traffic go by.

I haven't really noticed a difference.

My guess would be that's a more residential area. So people are going out in search of toilet paper.

I started noticing traffic lessening on the west side of downtown late last week.

[Zuplar]

Traffic on the west side of town has seemed to be less this week, but for some reason today it almost seems back to normal.