Covid-19 in OKC (coronavirus)

[DowntownMan]

That was my first thought. But then I looked at the US and Oklahoma new case graphs with 7 day average and average lines are very similar. The whole country wasn't in the deep freeze so while that was definitely a factor here there's something else affecting the new case numbers nationwide.

I was kinda joking because people said the rush to stores would cause a spike.

I think we have vaccines doing their job as well as a large portion of population with known or unknown antibodies that we are probably much closer to herd immunity for the existing stains than we hear from news about
I guarantee that more have had virus than realize.

[Pete]

City Council voted today to extend the mask ordinance through April 30th.

The way things are going, that may be the last extension.

[Bill Robertson]

City Council voted today to extend the mask ordinance through April 30th.

The way things are going, that may be the last extension.

Hopefully another extension won't be needed. But if things slow down or worse I hope they have the cajones to extend it further.

[PoliSciGuy]

Meanwhile, to our south, Texas just opened up everything back to 100% capacity starting next Wednesday, even though they're 48th in vaccines/capita.

I hope we can at least make it to the end of this month before our governor tries to follow suit.

[jn1780]

Meanwhile, to our south, Texas just opened up everything back to 100% capacity starting next Wednesday, even though they're 48th in vaccines/capita.

I hope we can at least make it to the end of this month before our governor tries to follow suit.

And if we still see Texas numbers decline than we know its pretty much over at least for the winter season, but continued vaccinations over the summer should prevent another winter resurgence hopefully.

[jerrywall]

Meanwhile, to our south, Texas just opened up everything back to 100% capacity starting next Wednesday, even though they're 48th in vaccines/capita.

I hope we can at least make it to the end of this month before our governor tries to follow suit.

Isn't that already the case? We have no state level restrictions in place, that I'm aware of. It's all at the local level.

[DowntownMan]

Isn't that already the case? We have no state level restrictions in place, that I'm aware of. It's all at the local level.

We never had a state level policy so they are just catching up to us. But also they are way behind us on vaccinations so I feel better about Oklahoma not having a policy than them.

[jerrywall]

Looks like Mississippi is following Texas' lead. Hopefully more states don't jump in and do this, because this is the type of stuff that could lead to another surge if done too early.

[PoliSciGuy]

And Biden just a few minutes ago said that there will be enough vaccines for every adult in the US by May.

May! We're so close! And given the rates of people who don't want the vaccine, we'll probably hit the inflection point between supply and demand sometime in the middle of next month.

[jerrywall]

^^ I was about to come here and comment about that. I wonder if announcing that we'll have so many vaccines available by May is helping to drive some of this renewed urge to reopen?

[Canoe]

Only 111 new cases today; 7-day rolling average down to 684.

56 additional deaths; 7-day rolling average an all-time high at 43.9.

Hospitalizations are 447 (-37).

ICU is 134 (-16).

So positive tests are dropping, but deaths are at an all time high? There seems to be a lot of changing variables in this data, making the data difficult.

The gentleman (or lady) that makes the graphs, could you make a graph showing Christmas, the change in the PCR test, the ice storm ECT? Maybe we can make more sense of this data if it is graphed.

[PoliSciGuy]

Deaths are increasing because of the backlog from the winter peak. Something like 50% of today's deaths occurred in or before January, they're just being finally correctly tabulated now. Hospitalizations and positivity rate are the most consistent metrics to look at (and they're all showing good news as of now).

[BoulderSooner]

Texas with no more mask mandate and 100% open starting March 10th

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...n-15994001.php

[soonerguru]

Only 111 new cases today; 7-day rolling average down to 684.

56 additional deaths; 7-day rolling average an all-time high at 43.9.

Hospitalizations are 447 (-37).

ICU is 134 (-16).

As a total amateur web sleuth, it seems like the CDC death numbers were right and Oklahoma is just slow-walking the reporting for PR reasons or to avoid shutdowns. Clearly most of these deaths were from January.

[DowntownMan]

At this point. Posting the death counts is just adding fear to those who are very afraid of this virus. The death totals making news aren’t true representation of current situation and provide no meaning to the every day person but just scares people.

[soonerguru]

Deaths are increasing because of the backlog from the winter peak. Something like 50% of today's deaths occurred in or before January, they're just being finally correctly tabulated now. Hospitalizations and positivity rate are the most consistent metrics to look at (and they're all showing good news as of now).

I think we now know why the CDC is reporting 2,000 more deaths than the state. It appears the state was slow walking the release of deaths. They didn't want to announce what was really happening: close to 100 deaths or more per day.

[king183]

I think we now know why the CDC is reporting 2,000 more deaths than the state. It appears the state was slow walking the release of deaths. They didn't want to announce what was really happening: close to 100 deaths or more per day.

This is not at all the reason behind the difference in the numbers. You could make an honest attempt to understand it rather than immediately dive into a political conspiracy theory. The reason for the difference is due to a long standing (read: long before COVID) methodology for investigating and confirming cause of death and the surge putting strain on investigative resources. The Oklahoma State Department of Health has a much more thorough process for investigating cause of death and reporting it than does the CDC and they are relying on older systems for reporting. You can agree with it or hate it, but it doesn’t mean it’s due to a PR conspiracy. This has all been reported multiple times, by the way—most recently by Paul Monies of Oklahoma Watch—so just a bit of effort to understand could go a long way. OSDH has been very open about the fact they believe the numbers will ultimately catch up or be close to the CDC’s once their process is completed, by the way.

[dankrutka]

At this point. Posting the death counts is just adding fear to those who are very afraid of this virus. The death totals making news aren’t true representation of current situation and provide no meaning to the every day person but just scares people.

If we've learned anything during this pandemic it's that leaders need to always be transparent with information, provide context, and offer clear implications for people's lives. There's a lot of sociological evidence that withholding information actually creates more fear and uncertainty, not reporting accurate information. Or put another way, tell the truth.

[Bill Robertson]

And Biden just a few minutes ago said that there will be enough vaccines for every adult in the US by May.

May! We're so close! And given the rates of people who don't want the vaccine, we'll probably hit the inflection point between supply and demand sometime in the middle of next month.

To think that last summer there were soooooo many people saying a vaccine couldn't possibly come out before this summer.

[Bill Robertson]

If we've learned anything during this pandemic it's that leaders need to always be transparent with information, provide context, and offer clear implications for people's lives. There's a lot of sociological evidence that withholding information actually creates more fear and uncertainty, not reporting accurate information. Or put another way, tell the truth.

Tell the truth and be accurate. It would be so extremely easy for the OSDH to post a graph daily with newly reported deaths plugged in to the day they occurred instead of just reporting X number of deaths when they occurred over weeks or months.

[OKCretro]

If we've learned anything during this pandemic it's that leaders need to always be transparent with information, provide context, and offer clear implications for people's lives. There's a lot of sociological evidence that withholding information actually creates more fear and uncertainty, not reporting accurate information. Or put another way, tell the truth.

Also leaders need to practice what they preach. Good for thee not for me kills the message.

[Bill Robertson]

Only 111 new cases today; 7-day rolling average down to 684.

56 additional deaths; 7-day rolling average an all-time high at 43.9.

Hospitalizations are 447 (-37).

ICU is 134 (-16).

Just looked and saw that there were 16,570 test results reported. And only 111 new cases. Very encouraging!

[Pete]

After only 111 cases yesterday, 747 today. 7-day rolling average 677.

No additional reported deaths.

Hospitalizations are 427 (-20).

ICU is 135 (+1).

[soonerguru]

This is not at all the reason behind the difference in the numbers. You could make an honest attempt to understand it rather than immediately dive into a political conspiracy theory. The reason for the difference is due to a long standing (read: long before COVID) methodology for investigating and confirming cause of death and the surge putting strain on investigative resources. The Oklahoma State Department of Health has a much more thorough process for investigating cause of death and reporting it than does the CDC and they are relying on older systems for reporting. You can agree with it or hate it, but it doesn’t mean it’s due to a PR conspiracy. This has all been reported multiple times, by the way—most recently by Paul Monies of Oklahoma Watch—so just a bit of effort to understand could go a long way. OSDH has been very open about the fact they believe the numbers will ultimately catch up or be close to the CDC’s once their process is completed, by the way.

I understand the process, and I understand it's a bit conspiratorial, but of the 56 deaths announced yesterday, only 2 were from February, and 26 from January. That means that half of those deaths were from November or before. I understand the process of investigation takes a while, but several months?

We know that the Stitt administration has done all sorts of things to fudge the data.

The timing of this lag in reporting coincided with the massive uptick in cases and hospitalizations. If the deaths were being reported on a timely basis, say, two to three weeks after the actual deaths, we would have been seeing as many as 100 Oklahomans a day die.

So you can dress me down all you want but waiting months for a death announcement is fishy to say the least.

[FighttheGoodFight]

We are also the highest state difference in death numbers from our own and the CDCs. So clearly we are doing it wrong.

OSDH is now showing the CDC numbers on their report: https://twitter.com/KassieMcClung/st...628441089?s=20