Covid-19 in OKC (coronavirus)

[soonerguru]

I'm glad to hear about Urban Agrarian service. Is their inventory on their website? I know they try to keep stuff fresh and organic so I imagine the stock turns over fast.

Their website gives an overview of the products they carry, and it is significant. They have added things that aren't local, but perhaps regional, like citrus and avocados, for example. They work with a fisherman in Alaska who catches cod and rock fish wild and ships it frozen. That's kind of a Whole Foods price point but if you're craving fish it's a great option.

They don't allow you to come inside, so I just call them and start asking for stuff. They make recommendations. Then they assemble your order for you. They were busy Saturday so they needed an hour to put everything together.

The first week I ordered I asked about beef. That was on a Wednesday. They said they were sold out but would be getting a side of beef in Friday. So I got two fresh, not frozen, strip steaks and some of the best ground beef I have ever eaten, also fresh, from a small rancher near Enid.

We ended up buying like three pounds of the ground beef, by that time frozen, a couple of days later, and have since thawed a pound for some of the best chili ever. Sorry if this is making you hungry!

The chicken they had was only in the boneless, skinless variety . We actually went over to the old farmer's market and picked up some chicken from a local farm. It was not crowded at all and the vendors were spaced out from one another and wearing masks and paying attention to sanitation.

I really don't miss going to the supermarket at all. So yeah, the Urban Agrarian thing is keeping me sane. They are curating some great food from all around Oklahoma and they are moving a lot of food. They are open 7 days a week. They did tell me this has been good for their business.

NOTE: I'm talking about the one in Downtown OKC. They offer food from their Edmond location, too, but I haven't been there.

[dankrutka]

No it’s a way to rationalize not guaranteeing the start of a second Great Depression by keeping stay at home orders in effect for another year while we wait for a vaccine.

Responding to your own strawman (no one has suggested year-long stay at home policies) proves my point. I’m not dismissing different policies and approaches (see Sweden’s approach below), but so many people calling for re-opening the economy are making disingenuous arguments.

Sweden’s model is interesting, but has also resulted in large numbers of elderly deaths: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/w...-immunity.html

[kukblue1]

So places that can open are required that everyone needs to wear a mask. What about the places that are currently open aka Braums and others that are not requiring employess wear mask? Or is that going to change May 1st?

[mugofbeer]

Any food prep business where masks aren't required by their owners - especially one like Braum`s won't get my business right now..... law or not.

[OKC Talker]

Stitt is being audited for his Covid-19 spending
https://oklahoman.com/article/566118...lth-department

The Oklahoman reported Tuesday that health officials had been moving forward with a $9.5 million purchase of N95 masks and other equipment from a new company even after being told the FBI was investigating it. A special agent with the FBI told DeMarco the company was being investigated for possible fraudulent activity involving Chinese ventilators, according to information obtained by The Oklahoman.

Health officials canceled that deal Monday at the last minute.

The Oklahoman reported April 20 that health officials were ordering more than $9 million in masks from a Tulsa company that at the time had been in existence for less than a month. A partner in that company also owned a Tulsa piano bar.

The Oklahoman also reported April 20 that the state secretary of health, Jerome Loughridge, had authorized prepayment on some supplies costing millions of dollars.

Deliveries of certain supplies, particularly of N95 masks from China, have been slow to arrive or have not arrived at all, officials have acknowledged. The Health Department on Tuesday evening reported having approximately 130,000 N95 masks on hand.

The Associated Press reported this week that Oklahoma spent $2 million to buy the malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat patients with the coronavirus despite warnings from doctors that more research was needed. Stitt said Tuesday, "I was being proactive to try and protect Oklahomans."

[OkiePoke]

Stitt is being audited for his Covid-19 spending
https://oklahoman.com/article/566118...lth-department

It does follow this path of the current administration it seems.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/co..._plan/foapyuv/

It's more than that. The Federal Government under Trump thinks they have no duty to help states at all, that they should in fact actively compete against them to funnel money to an even more elite group than the 1%.

The following is not my work. Here's the scam as it exists:

Hospitals say feds are seizing masks and other coronavirus supplies without a word. (1) This is in addition to the Fed stealing supplies from shipments from states, and acts of piracy abroad. (2)

Here's how what they're doing works:
1.) Eliminate oversight of the spending of nearly a trillion dollars of tax dollars. (3)

2.) Acquire the authority to command which businesses get which contracts. (4)

3.) Have trusted people stand up companies through which the money can be funneled (3 week old company, founded through a loan approved via the Coronavirus Stimulus bill, is now the center of medical supply distribution): (5) “I don’t want to overstate, but we probably represent the largest global supply chain for Covid-19 supplies right now,” he said. “We are getting ready to fill 100 million-unit mask orders.” (16)

4.) Have the federal government sell, at a reduced price, its strategic stockpile to the new companies, run by your buddies. (6) (15)

5.) Have the states bid on the supplies, driving up the price. (7)

6.) Have the federal government spend taxpayer dollars to ship supplies purchased from China to these brand new private companies. (8)

7.) Eliminate the competition. Attack any company that doesn’t play ball. (9) ----- States are having to smuggle in supplies aboard sports teams jets, and escort them with state police (10). Is it really to this point that we're going to have to have states deploy the national guard to protect their shipments and supplies and treat the federal government like the enemy? This is no different from the Somalian government stealing food sent by the United Nations and cartels selling it illegally. (11) Except in this situation FEMA is the cartels and the banana republic is the United States.

Also regarding Trump removing the watchdog overseeing the $2 trillion coronavirus bill? In 1998 the Supreme Court ruled line item vetos are unconstitutional. (12) His excuse? The Take Care Clause. And the Take Care Clause just says the President can't make his underlings do stuff that's against the law. It underscores that the executive is under a duty to faithfully execute the laws of Congress and not disregard them. (13) If you don't know what that's about, Trump wrote a line item veto into the stimulus bill that he was going to ignore the oversight provisions in the bill and do it himself. (14)

[OKC Talker]

Stitt is being audited for his Covid-19 spending
https://oklahoman.com/article/566118...lth-department

I thought it was more interesting from the perspective of fiscal responsibility and the "inside baseball" of what the state is doing to secure medical supplies. This may be too political though so feel free to delete the posts Pete.

[Bill Robertson]

That's very helpful. Could you do one showing hospitalizations?

Here’s the other two graphs.

[catcherinthewry]

Thanks, Bill

[Bunty]

Sweden’s model is interesting, but has also resulted in large numbers of elderly deaths: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/w...-immunity.html

Failure to do a good enough job protecting older people, especially past age 70, is the only major weakness of the Swedish policy. Stats show Oklahoma isn't do a very good job of it, either.

[Pete]

Numbers just updated for Wednesday:

[dankrutka]

Failure to do a good enough job protecting older people, especially past age 70, is the only major weakness of the Swedish policy. Stats show Oklahoma isn't do a very good job of it, either.

It's also worth pointing out that despite keeping things open, Sweden's economy has contracted as much as the U.S. And unfortunately, even if the U.S. wanted to, it couldn't mimic Sweden as their country trusts and relies on health experts, not politicians, to lead in the crisis. For example, the U.S. and Oklahoma have politicians who spread medical misinformation and then waste $2 million of taxpayer's money on drugs that medical experts said were unproven. So, it's unlikely the U.S. could follow Sweden's model.

[jccouger]

I imagine Sweden's general population is much healthier than America's as well. Obesity is by far one of the biggest risks to Covid complications so it's hard to imagine we'd have as much success.

[soonerguru]

Failure to do a good enough job protecting older people, especially past age 70, is the only major weakness of the Swedish policy. Stats show Oklahoma isn't do a very good job of it, either.

Sweden is also one of the most educated places on earth. It is not teeming with Covidiots. The people there are actually following the government guidance. So, yeah, while their policy has not led to catastrophe, their citizens honor and respect what is asked of them, too, which is why they haven't had to result to broad mandates.

It will be interesting to see what Oklahomans start doing Friday given the way many of them have behaved when they were supposedly under government order to restrict their activities to essential ones.

[soonerguru]

Numbers just updated for Wednesday:

Pete, do you know why there is a lag in reporting deaths? No conspiracy here at all I'm sure, I'm just wondering why they wait to report deaths that occurred a week ago.

[jdizzle]

Pete, do you know why there is a lag in reporting deaths? No conspiracy here at all I'm sure, I'm just wondering why they wait to report deaths that occurred a week ago.

Doesn't it take a bit to determine true cause of death? I mean, just because someone has Covid-19, it doesn't mean that is what killed them. Unless we are just saying anyone who has it and dies, dies due to Covid-19, regardless.

[Bill Robertson]

Pete, do you know why there is a lag in reporting deaths? No conspiracy here at all I'm sure, I'm just wondering why they wait to report deaths that occurred a week ago.

This was on KFOR.com yesterday along with the daily stat reporting:

“Authorities say all of the patients died between April 22 and April 26.

Officials with the Oklahoma State Department of Health tell KFOR that experts must gather several pieces of information in order to classify a death as related to COVID-19.

“We can have a death reported to us, but with missing information that we have to gather or the reporting entity can have a delay in reporting the info to OSDH as well. All that is to say, no one is artificially inflating or deflating any numbers, it is there are quite a few “boxes” to check before we can officially report a death attributed to Covid-19 and that process along with delays in reporting can mean that it’s not possible to officially report a death within 24 hours of that death occurring, although every effort is made to do so,” Shelley Zumwalt, with OMES and working on behalf of the Oklahoma State Department of Health, said in an email.”

[mkjeeves]

Those many “boxes to check” might help explain how death numbers and their causes don’t seem to add up. Not necessarily nefarious, just incomplete and/or inaccurate.

U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...oll-total.html

[kukblue1]

Any food prep business where masks aren't required by their owners - especially one like Braum`s won't get my business right now..... law or not.

I haven't been out too much. I know chick-fil-a is wearing mask and Mcdonald's What are business that are not? Maybe this could be it's own tread?

[Pete]

Just got an email from Costco and it sounds like they will require all customers and employees to wear masks for the foreseeable future.

[dankrutka]

Just got an email from Costco and it sounds like they will require all customers and employees to wear masks for the foreseeable future.

Hopefully this is the way most businesses go. This is even more about protecting the employees than it is about the customers.

[Pete]

Went to the Costco webpage to get the specifics:

Face Mask Requirements
To protect our members and employees, effective May 4, all Costco members and guests must wear a mask or face covering that covers the mouth and nose at all times while at Costco. This requirement does not apply to children under the age of 2 or to individuals who are unable to wear a mask or face covering due to a medical condition.

The use of a mask or face covering should not be seen as a substitute for social distancing. Please continue to observe rules regarding appropriate distancing while on Costco premises. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

[OKC Guy]

Hopefully this is the way most businesses go. This is even more about protecting the employees than it is about the customers.

Will they provide masks at entrance?

[Pete]

Will they provide masks at entrance?

They didn't say so, so I assume the answer is no.

[sooner88]

Our Bank is reopening our lobby next week, and we are required to wear masks anytime we're outside of our personal offices, including interacting with customers. We've ordered masks for all employees and are encouraging clients to wear their own or use what we have. It sounds like this will be the new normal for the foreseeable future.