More Oklahomans got infected last week, than the entire spring of 2020. As the conventional tracking models suggest, you'll likely be a patient in the next few months. Currently, almost 4% of Oklahomans are confirmed to have the Wuhan strain of a cold virus. But the most concerning statistic is the rate of spread. While at least 4 out of 5 patients will not need hospital care, the massive number of hospitalized patients over the coming holidays will stress the healthcare infrastructure of every state, not just Oklahoma. While some advocates are calling for more restrictive control of public behavior, it's important to hold those 'control freaks' to a heightened level of accountability for their use of legal authority. If we want the populace to act like responsible folks, we need to approach them with the proper temperament. Rather than jumping at the chance to control them, we need to appeal to the hero factor in each of us. It will bring out the best in most of us. Are we forgetting to distance?Many retailers are making severe mistakes. Walmart, for instance, spent months with a policy of pressing all shoppers into just one entrance. It's a 'bottleneck' effect. |  |
 | Public health experts still believe that sufficient distancing is the best deterrent to social spread of an airborne virus. But by lecturing on cheap masks, Too many folks are rationalizing that they don't have to maintain distancing if they have a cheap mask on. This actually increases the dangers for individuals who cannot wear a mask for extended periods of time. Poorly trained staff who enforce cheap mask rules at libraries and other govt. buildings are also banning people who wear shields rather than cheap fiber masks. Their ignorance causes an unconstitutional loss of civil liberties and leads to civil rights lawsuits, costing taxpayers more. A mask is only a mufflerCoughing & sneezing into your sleeve is about as effective as a cheap fiber mask worn all day long. And the skin tissue on your face is going to be healthier without a mask on. But a cheap mask does work, in a limited way. It keeps airborne wet particles from flying several feet when you shout, cough, or sneeze. The cheap mask does almost nothing when you stay close to a sick person for hours. Many of us are now getting medical treatment for yeast and other fungal infections of the mouth & nose, because we're keeping our faces in warm, moist, & dark conditions for hours. |
'Chicken Little' effect
We have a real public health issue. It's far worse than it was in April. But the folks who spent the whole year trying to lecture us, have diminished their own voices and caused many of us to tune them out. What SoonerPolitics has watched carefully, is the doubling rate. In August we saw the the total confirmed Oklahoma cases double in just 21 days. Had that continued til now, we'd have all our hospitals filled. But within the next 45 days the doubling rate dropped to 59 days. The rate today stands at about 56 days. If we remain constant, then January will hit with more than 3000 Oklahomans getting sick each day. This would mean maybe 600 new patients needing hospital care each day. That's a challenge. It will precipitate triage policies of rationing and perhaps less than optimal professional resources. That's not a matter to be dismissed.
Many of our valued readers are suffering viral panic fatigue. Some are probably irritated at even seeing this subject published on SoonerPolitics. That's very understandable and the public health officials need to learn from the mistakes they've made in undermining their own credibility.
Many of our valued readers are suffering viral panic fatigue. Some are probably irritated at even seeing this subject published on SoonerPolitics. That's very understandable and the public health officials need to learn from the mistakes they've made in undermining their own credibility.
