Ashton Glover Gatewood, 31, a member of the Choctaw Nation and descendent of both the Chickasaw and Cherokee Nations, has long lamented the glaring lack of Native American physicians. So she decided to become one.
Gatewood is a student in the inaugural class of the first tribally affiliated medical school in the United States, the Oklahoma State University (OSU) College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation. The school opened this fall on Cherokee land in Tahlequah, the capital of the Cherokee Nation’s 14-county reservation in the rolling hills of rural Oklahoma, about an hour east of Tulsa.
Be safe this year in whatever form of holiday celebrating you choose to do.
The holidays are upon us, which means a spike in gatherings of people who do not otherwise see one another. Such get-togethers, especially if they are multi-generational, can spark more outbreaks. I take no joy in saying this, but all of this means that any gathering outside one’s existing quarantine pod should be avoided for now—especially if it is indoors. Think of it as a postponement and plan to hold it later. Better a late Christmas than an early medical catastrophe. Pods should not expand unless absolutely necessary. Order takeout instead of dining indoors. Make game night virtual. Shop in bulk, so you can do fewer trips to the store. It’s not the right time for wedding receptions or birthday parties.
Young people present one of the biggest challenges. Many colleges are ending school and sending students home, for what could be a country-wide super-spreader event. That age group—young adults—is especially dangerous; while they can get infected, they are less likely to get very sick, so they don’t stay put the way sick people would. That means they pose a great risk to their more vulnerable parents and other older relatives as they go about their lives. Ideally, colleges should offer the students already on campus the option to stay in the dorms over winter break, and those who live in off-campus housing should consider staying put. If they do go home, the students should quarantine for the recommended two weeks to the greatest degree possible.
Oklahoma Weekly Epidemiology and Surveillance Report 11/6-11/12 2020
In Oklahoma we don’t have a statewide mask mandate. Mask mandate decisions are at the city level. The last time I looked at these numbers I focused on the percent change from 8/1 to the present study date. Today my eyes focused on the Nov. 1 seven day average case numbers mask vs no mask. My small brain is trying to understand what I’m seeing. Under the assumption mask wearing is effective in helping stop the virus from spreading why is the gap narrowing?
Numbers notwithstanding, I’m still going to wear a mask.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said the following in a statement released Sunday: “Today’s individual case number, 4,507, is a corrected version of yesterday’s number with all duplicate cases removed. Today we will not be releasing a new daily case number, allowing our data reporting system to catch up and ensure duplications are removed from the daily number prior to release moving forward. Starting tomorrow, the daily number released will not include any duplicates. We are committed to giving the public and media accurate and transparent data, and this will ensure the daily number reflects the actual case count. We will continue to point to the 7-day average, percent positivity and hospitalizations in addition to the daily number to give a more complete picture of trends. We have no reason to believe our revised number is an anomaly, but instead shows community spread is occurring. We continue to urge all Oklahomans to take this highly-contagious virus seriously and act immediately to avoid large gatherings, wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance to others. Together we can bring these numbers down and protect our friends, family and neighbors.”
My original post follows below. I’m glad we got this number fixed. Am I supposed to feel better now?
The headline came across my Twitter feed and my eyes just froze. Oklahoma reported 4,741 new coronavirus cases which obliterated the previous single-day record. I am still in a state of shock and tried to confirm the number at https://coronavirus.health.ok.gov/. Unfortunately the state’s webpage has numbers are only updated to 11.06.20.
Source: Twitter
If today’s reported numbers turn out to be accurate it’s going to be a long, cold, nasty winter.
Update
The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 4,741 new infections on Saturday, shattering the previous daily record of 2,101 that was set on Thursday, and moving Oklahoma’s 7-day average to near 2,000 new cases. There have been 136,492 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in Oklahoma since the pandemic began.
The headline came across my Twitter feed and my eyes just froze. Oklahoma reported 4,741 new coronavirus cases which obliterated the previous single-day record. I am still in a state of shock and tried to confirm the number at https://coronavirus.health.ok.gov/. Unfortunately the state’s webpage has numbers are only updated to 11.06.20.
Source: Twitter
If today’s reported numbers turn out to be accurate it’s going to be a long, cold, nasty winter.
Update
The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported 4,741 new infections on Saturday, shattering the previous daily record of 2,101 that was set on Thursday, and moving Oklahoma’s 7-day average to near 2,000 new cases. There have been 136,492 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in Oklahoma since the pandemic began.
Oklahoma Weekly Epidemiology and Surveillance Report 10/23-10/29 2020
In Oklahoma our Governor refuses to mandate masks on a state wide basis. Instead, individual cities and towns decide for themselves whether or not to institute a mask mandate. These numbers don’t lie. Masks work. Wear one.
Obesity rates vary considerably between states and regions of the country. Mississippi has the highest adult obesity rate in the country at 40.8 percent and Colorado has the lowest at 23.8 percent. Twelve states have adult rates above 35 percent, they are: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. As recently as 2012, no state had an adult obesity rate above 35 percent; in 2000 no state had an adult obesity rate above 25 percent.
Meanwhile in Oklahoma we are ranked #4 in the nation with an obesity rate of 36.8% — (SOURCE: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, CDC).
Oklahoma ranks No. 5 in the U.S. for new COVID-19 cases and test positivity, according to the latest White House Coronavirus Task Force weekly report released Wednesday afternoon. The state’s rate of new weekly cases was 142 per 100,000 people, nearly doubling the U.S. average of 74 per 100,000 people. Its test positivity rate was at 10%, which is more than double the national average of 4.8%.
Oklahoma has an 11.3% positivity rate — the percentage of COVID-19 tests that are positive — more than double the country’s positivity rate of 5.2%. The state’s rate is its highest yet, surpassing the 10.1% in the July 26 report to become the second time Oklahoma has landed in the positivity red zone.
Oklahoma’s new case rate is 146 per 100,000 people, nearly two-thirds more than the national average of 88 per 100,000. The state has been in the red zone for new cases for nine consecutive weeks.
A week ago the report warned that virus transmission was increasing in the “major university towns.”
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