Covid-19 in OKC (coronavirus)

[soonerguru]

I think all schools should be shut down till at least the end of this school year. Masking the kids will not work.

I agree. Masks work when you are in situations where you briefly cannot maintain distancing, say, 30 minutes a at a grocery store. The science known about transmission is that the particles linger in the air for up to two hours in indoor spaces. So one kid may not have his mask on right, sneeze, and those particles are floating around in the air in environments without good air filtration.

The masks limit the spread and should be mandatory for sure, but sitting in a room with 20-30 kids for hours during the day would probably stretch the envelope on the prevention masks provide.

[BDP]

I have seen conflicting information on testing in Oklahoma, with some saying "flat" to another source saying 40% fewer tests. In my own case, new hurdles were put up to get a swab test. The "rapid tests" are not counted in our case numbers. Could there be a political motive to pushing people toward the rapid testing?

I can't say I understand the politics of this whole thing to begin with or why rapid testing results are not reported, but anything that would boost rapid testing would be a good thing. I know they're not as sensitive, but identifying infected people before they spread it is really the key.

This is a pretty good in depth look at what we're doing and what we could be doing, in terms of testing, if there was any will to do so.

The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back:
The U.S. has never had enough coronavirus tests. Now a group of epidemiologists, economists, and dreamers is plotting a new strategy to defeat the virus, even before a vaccine is found.

Basically, many epidemiologists think we can control it, even without a vaccine, using rapid saliva tests. But it would take investment and centralized coordination to get it to scale. In a way, if we had committed as much to a comprehensive testing strategy as we have to vaccine development (which we still don't know will work), we'd probably have it under control and wouldn't have to be taking a "cross our fingers" approach to schools, sports, and reopening in general. Public health and the economy would not have to be pitted against each other as it seems to be now.

[BoulderSooner]

Mask requirements for the general community were also declared to not work right up until we tried them and have had (anecdotally speaking based on observations) nearly full compliance and what looks like the start of a downward slope to our community spread.

As people have been pointing out, if you can regulate skirt lengths and ban tank tops in schools you can mandate masks.

Hawaii has among the strictest rules in the country and they are having an outbreak sweeden denmark and norway have no maks mandate and seem to be doing no worse (or better ) than the rest of europe

[BoulderSooner]

I think all schools should be shut down till at least the end of this school year. Masking the kids will not work.

all schools should be open and in person with the option to virtual learn if wanted

[RustytheBailiff]

all schools should be open and in person with the option to virtual learn if wanted

Only lunatics open schools in a pandemic. Unfortunately, we are not lacking for lunatics...

[David]

Hawaii has among the strictest rules in the country and they are having an outbreak sweeden denmark and norway have no maks mandate and seem to be doing no worse (or better ) than the rest of europe

all schools should be open and in person with the option to virtual learn if wanted

There is absolutely no reason to take you seriously.

[BDP]

Sweden has about 8200 confirmed cases per million people as of 12 August, compared with 1780 in Norway and 2560 in Denmark.

Sweden has had 57 deaths per 100,000, compared with five in Norway and 11 in Denmark.

[kukblue1]

Once again I think we need to find a way to keep the young away from the old. I'm not totally for schools opening however if the parents are young and healthy, teaches are young healthy then I can see it being ok. Not sure what the age would be 50? Death rate for under 50 is .0008 and probably even lower than that. Maybe 45? When kids get home from school they don't go over to grandparents house. They don't go over to a friends house where there might be someone living that is more vulnerable.

Collage age kids especially athletes mostly likely are not going to have a problem with this virus. How many positive test did Clemson have? In fact just googled and found a story. 800 and they think a lot more have tested positive. Looks like a few went to the hospital and had 2 weeks of being really sick.

So I really don't know what the answer is but at some point we are going to have to learn how to live with this.

[LocoAko]

We're really off to a great start locally...

https://twitter.com/KOCODillon/statu...58151257522176

Dillon Richards @KOCODillon

NEW: Moore Public Schools has informed parents that a student attended the first day of in-person class after testing positive for COVID-19, @KOCOPorsha confirms.

A spox tells Porsha the parents misunderstood guidelines and sent their child to class before quarantine end date

It is inevitable that asymptomatic kids will end up going to school (which, to me, speaks for itself re: whether schools should be reopening). It also seems likely that parents desperate to be able to go to work will give a kid with questionable symptoms a Tylenol and cross their fingers (unfortunately). But if guidelines and procedures for what happens for a confirmed positive case can't even be followed......

[dankrutka]

Westmoore High School had a policy in place and parents sent their child who tested positive for COVID to school because they supposedly misunderstood the quarantine time required. lol. This is going to be such a ****show. I feel for all my former colleagues at Westmoore who must be so anxious, stressed, and upset.

[LocoAko]

Edmond now also has a teacher who tested positive that was at school (before students were back). Teachers now quarantining for 14 days.

https://twitter.com/KOCODillon/statu...82149395795971

[WileyPostage]

Once again I think we need to find a way to keep the young away from the old.

For tens of thousands of Oklahomans there's no way to separate kids from the elderly. See http://www.grandfamilies.org/Portals...homa091519.pdf. There are over 45,000 Oklahoma grandparents who are raising their grandchildren without a parent in the household.

Nationwide, millions of kids have grandparents as their only caregivers. There are millions more who share households with grandparents or other elderly family members. When people suggest separating kids from the elderly, the consequence would be busting up 10.1% of the households in the U.S.

[Libbymin]

I know that the plan for schools assumes that some people are just going to get sick and quarantining others is just inevitable, but at the rate it's happening, I have a hard time envisioning a scenario that doesn't ultimately result in schools going back to distance learning at some point.

[kukblue1]

Why is the news saying a coach at this school is positive a teacher at this school is positive. Why don't we announce where everyone is working? A walmart worker has tested positive. A Mcdonalds worker has tested positive.

[kukblue1]

For tens of thousands of Oklahomans there's no way to separate kids from the elderly. See http://www.grandfamilies.org/Portals...homa091519.pdf. There are over 45,000 Oklahoma grandparents who are raising their grandchildren without a parent in the household.

Nationwide, millions of kids have grandparents as their only caregivers. There are millions more who share households with grandparents or other elderly family members. When people suggest separating kids from the elderly, the consequence would be busting up 10.1% of the households in the U.S.

Wow didn't realize it was that high. That being said this virus isn't going to go away so at some point we are going to have to learn to live with it and go about normal living as much as we can.

[Pete]

Nationwide, millions of kids have grandparents as their only caregivers. There are millions more who share households with grandparents or other elderly family members. When people suggest separating kids from the elderly, the consequence would be busting up 10.1% of the households in the U.S.

In the Latino culture, it's very common for multiple generations to live under one roof.

Most tend to look at these issues only through the we-warehouse-our-elderly white America lens.

[dankrutka]

I know that the plan for schools assumes that some people are just going to get sick and quarantining others is just inevitable, but at the rate it's happening, I have a hard time envisioning a scenario that doesn't ultimately result in schools going back to distance learning at some point.

I've said before and I'll say it again, most schools are risk averse. There is no reason to think any of this will get better. So, we have two choices in my view:

1. A stressful, constant cycling of opening and closing schools, sending COVID positive emails to parents, and completely wearing out educators, or;
2. Go online and start solving the challenges. For example, why not go to asynchronous learning, but school buildings could remain open and support students/families who most need it. Let students use Internet, have a safe place to go, and teachers can support smaller numbers of students one-on-one. Encourage lower stakes, but important, educational activities like reading book clubs and media projects as opposed to standards-based instruction.

I just wish schools had been encouraged to re-think education for this year: more big projects, longer reading, etc. But, schools received little guidance or leadership.

[Bunty]

all schools should be open and in person with the option to virtual learn if wanted

That is the way it will be with Stillwater schools. But will all return to online if cases increase to a certain level in Payne County. My guess is it won't take long for that to happen, unless masks really work with enough people wearing them.

[Bunty]

rt.live is an interesting website. It shows graphs and details by state of the reproduction level of the virus over time. Oklahoma is one of the many states under 1.0, which isn't very bad, but needs to be better.

https://rt.live/

[jerrywall]

Why is the news saying a coach at this school is positive a teacher at this school is positive. Why don't we announce where everyone is working? A walmart worker has tested positive. A Mcdonalds worker has tested positive.

Because schools are in the process of opening right now and the debate about whether or not it's appropriate is sort of the big thing currently? If McDonald's was the big item of debate I'm sure the news of a sick worker would be running across the headlines. In fact I remember when it would have been news (which in itself says something).

[Bunty]

This is good news. OSU is reporting far less than expected positive corona cases:
https://www.stwnewspress.com/covid-1...nt=read%20more

Mask enforcers: OSU expects students, faculty to report people not wearing masks — and there's no clear penalty.
https://www.ocolly.com/news/mask-enf...99b46f414.html

OSU’s ‘Cowboys Coming Back’ may rely solely on students not partying.
https://www.ocolly.com/news/osu-s-co...a5d165cbc.html

What happens to Stillwater when 25,000 students arrive back on campus?
https://www.ocolly.com/news/what-hap...ticle-nav-next

Concerns regarding Stillwater music festival continue to increase.
https://www.ocolly.com/news/concerns...ticle-nav-next

[Bill Robertson]

rt.live is an interesting website. It shows graphs and details by state of the reproduction level of the virus over time. Oklahoma is one of the many states under 1.0, which isn't very bad, but needs to be better.

https://rt.live/

There were very few states in the green a couple weeks ago. Last few days there have been 30 to 32. Of course all the people who don’t want to believe anything good are saying testing is being manipulated to make rt look better than it is.

[C_M_25]

rt.live is an interesting website. It shows graphs and details by state of the reproduction level of the virus over time. Oklahoma is one of the many states under 1.0, which isn't very bad, but needs to be better.

https://rt.live/

Oklahoma was number 1 on that list about a month ago.

[Bill Robertson]

Oklahoma was number 1 on that list about a month ago.

Yes we were. Then we stayed in the top ten for quite a while. Today we’re 35th. So we’re doing something right.

[soonerguru]

Once again I think we need to find a way to keep the young away from the old. I'm not totally for schools opening however if the parents are young and healthy, teaches are young healthy then I can see it being ok. Not sure what the age would be 50? Death rate for under 50 is .0008 and probably even lower than that. Maybe 45? When kids get home from school they don't go over to grandparents house. They don't go over to a friends house where there might be someone living that is more vulnerable.

Collage age kids especially athletes mostly likely are not going to have a problem with this virus. How many positive test did Clemson have? In fact just googled and found a story. 800 and they think a lot more have tested positive. Looks like a few went to the hospital and had 2 weeks of being really sick.

So I really don't know what the answer is but at some point we are going to have to learn how to live with this.

IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT DEATHS. And, there are not “safe ages.”

At last count, 46 school districts had positive cases reported within the first two days of opening, including Moore and Mid-Del. The list keeps growing. None of those transmissions happened at schools, but just wait. Why are so many officials pushing the hygiene theater of “cleaning and sanitizing?” And temperature checks? That is not going to work to contain an airborne virus that is most commonly spread in enclosed environments by people talking to each other.

The school situation is already a total ****show.