Because we have plenty of hospital beds and ICU beds available, have lots of oncologists and cancer surgeons in Oklahoma, and plenty of chemotherapy agents available, we are going to suspend all cancer screening in Oklahoma. We will take care of patients in our hospital beds when they get cancer and will suspend cancer screening until we reach our hospital capacity to take care of cancer patients……..
………..well, that would be unethical and an absurd argument for not doing cancer screening.
Yet, that seems to be the most common rationale discussed in Oklahoma right now about why we don’t need to double down on known measures that will prevent the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. In numerous press interviews this past week, it was noted that “the state is ready to continue reopening because of the expansion of testing and a low rate of COVID-19 patients in the hospital.” Prior to the rally, I also heard the Governor note that since the majority of new cases being reported in Oklahoma are younger people, and that the mortality in that age group is low, it is safe to continue reopening. (Tell that to the 5 Oklahomans between the ages of 15 and 34 who have died in the state from COVID-19 so far). We have hospital beds available, so we do not have to worry about the new peak in confirmed cases??? Seems like another unethical rationale.
Last week I went out on a limb and predicted that hospitalizations for COVID-19 would increase in Oklahoma. I was right and expect that the hospitalizations will continue to rise this week. As you can see in the attached graphics, there were only 69 people with confirmed COVID-19 in the hospital on June 1. As of last Friday, June 19, there were 135 people with confirmed disease in the hospital – 76 of whom were in an ICU bed. I have no doubt that those patients would have preferred that we prevented the infection in the first place. As I showed last week, the peak in new cases is not due to more testing. The percentage of specimens tested last week that were positive went up to 6.0% (from a low of 1.8% the week of May 25), and was 6.7% last Friday [cudos to the OSDH that have now added a new graphic to their weekly epidemiology and surveillance reports that show the daily percent positive – this is a much better metric than state officials keep quoting (the cumulative percent positive)].
We are seeing exponential growth of new cases in Oklahoma. I have personally heard of confirmed cases that have been linked to funerals, weddings, events, gyms, church, etc. Again, “reopening” did NOT mean “back to normal.” Those reopening plans included recommendations to continue physical distancing and wearing masks. Yet people are not taking personal responsibility to do those things – hence the spread of the virus continues.
Will we have to go back to stay at home (safer at home) orders and start shutting down businesses again? Can we get everyone to take personal responsibility to do the things that we know to be highly effective at preventing person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 (wearing a mask, physical distancing, and hand hygiene). Are we willing to allow our leadership to impose orders for interventions such as mandatory mask policies in public settings when people are unwilling to take personal responsibility?? (And no, it is not a violation of your civil rights during a pandemic – there are a lot of legal discussions of this readily available.) Are we willing to make the sacrifices to stop the spread of this disease which continues to hospitalize Oklahomans and will most certainly result in more deaths??
I want to give a shout out to Senator James Lankford and his wife for bucking the trend at the rally last night and responsibly wearing masks! We need more leaders that will model the behaviors we want everyone to do to stop the spread of this virus!
Re: Covid-19 in OKC (coronavirus)
Originally Posted by pw405
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