Another political leader has tested positive for Covid-19, this time the Governor of Oklahoma in the United States.
CNN: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announces he has tested positive for coronavirus
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has aggressively pushed to reopen his state and flouted experts’ health recommendations, announced Wednesday that he is the first governor to test positive for coronavirus.
Stitt, a Republican, said at a press conference that he was tested on Tuesday and that he feels “fine,” other than being a “little bit achy.” He said he’ll be quarantining and working from home, and that he was “pretty shocked” to be the first governor to get the virus. He added that he would isolating away from his family, whom he said tested negative.“I want to use my story to remind Oklahomans that if you aren’t feeling well, we want you to get tested,” said Stitt, who added that he is not considering a statewide mask mandate as of now.Stitt’s diagnosis is particularly notable, as he has not only pushed to aggressively reopen his state despite a surge in cases but has at times disregarded advice from medical experts. In March, he faced backlash for posting a photo of himself and his children at a crowded restaurant, which he later deleted.The city of Tulsa has experienced a recent surge in coronavirus cases following President Donald Trump’s rally there on June 20, at which Stitt was present without a facial covering. On Wednesday, the governor downplayed the possibility that he contracted the virus at the event.“I don’t think there was any way it was at the President’s rally. It’s too long ago,” Stitt said.Based on contact tracing, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said Stitt did not contract Covid-19 at the rally.
Oklahoma health officials report another record-breaking day for COVID-19 cases
The Oklahoma State Department of Health reported Tuesday that almost 1,000 more people have tested positive for COVID-19, setting a new record for the most cases reported in a single day in Oklahoma.
Public health officials said every indicator that we look at right now is signaling more spread of the coronavirus, especially as hospitalizations rise.
he numbers come as hospitalizations spike – the latest numbers indicate that hospitalizations increased to 561 – and the majority of hospital systems are readying their surge plans, with one saying it’s on high alert.
One question KOCO 5 hears is are the more cases because of more testing? The answer is no.
Also from the US:
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned against embracing a “false complacency” as news reports showed a declining death rate for COVID-19.
“[I]t’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death. There are so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus. Don’t get yourself into false complacency,” said Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Anthony Fauci called attempts by the White House to discredit him “bizarre,” claiming the move would ultimately hurt President Trump.
“Ultimately, it hurts the president to do that,” Fauci told The Atlantic. “When the staff lets out something like that and the entire scientific and press community push back on it, it ultimately hurts the president.”
Fauci’s comments come after Navarro tore into Fauci in a stunning op-ed published by USA Today.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on,” Navarro wrote.
President Trump said Wednesday that he has a “very good relationship” with Dr. Anthony Fauci, just hours after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro published a blistering op-ed criticizing the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for his projections on the coronavirus pandemic.
“I get along very well with Dr. Fauci,” Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office. “I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci.”
Number of Covid cases continues to rise in the US – https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
Your NZ 
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020Clearly the death rate has not paralleled the growth of cases, producing only a small rise. The apocalyptic projections have failed abysmally yet again. Heads should be rolling but strangely are not.
Pete George
/ 16th July 2020What can’t be known though is what would have happened if lockdowns and drastic measures hadn’t been taken. All that’s certain is it would have been far worse if less was done to limit the spread.
Worst case projections (with no action anywhere) will never be proven right or wrong, they can’t be.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020We don’t know what measures are effective let alone cost effective. We do know that death rates are much lower than predicted.
Dennis Horne
/ 16th July 2020So success is measured as failure. Yes, Dr Dunning Kruger.
Measuring deaths, ultimately it’s the excess deaths compared with average for the period.
Furthermore, it’s not just deaths that are important:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/jul/13/as-covid-19-persists-around-the-world-death-is-not-the-only-outcome-to-fear
Not to mention hospitals being overloaded. Watch Britain this winter under the command of Blustering Boris de Pfeffel Brexit Bollocks.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020Deaths were the great virus scaremongering. Millions would die. Now they suddenly don’t matter?
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“What can’t be known though is what would have happened if lockdowns and drastic measures hadn’t been taken”
Sure we do. Sweden. Japan. Quite a few others.
Alan Foster
/ 16th July 2020We sure do – Sweden death rate 552 per million, Norway 47 & with no economic benefit to Sweden. Jap growth down 1.7% in first quarter – will be interesting to see next quarter
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020Normal annual death rates approx 12,000 per million.
Perspective?
Alan Foster
/ 16th July 2020Which country are you commenting on? Yes, people do die from many causes eg car crashes, cancer etc.
Your point being ???
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020Every country. Generously ssuming avg age at death is 80 that means about 1000 deaths per million per month. The worst viral death rates are much less.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“Sweden death rate 552 per million, Norway 47 & with no economic benefit to Sweden. ”
No economic benefit? I suggest you look at current data. The UK has just seen 25% of it’s GDP disappear as a direct result of the lockdown.
That is something that has never been recorded before. It is staggering beyond words.
And here is the Norwegan PM saying the lockdown was too much and an overreaction.
“Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg went on Norwegian television to make a startling admission. Some, even most, of the tough measures imposed in Norway’s lockdown now looked like steps too far.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/30/coronavirus-norway-wonders-should-have-like-sweden/
Macron in France has also said the lockdowns were no effective and came at far too high a price.
Tom Hunter
/ 16th July 2020And since this was mainly about the USA, then other states could be included – like South Dakota, whose Governor took the approach of providing guidelines and updates but left people to figure it out for themselves. For this non-lockdown approach she was attacked by the likes of the WaPo until it became obvious that her strategy had worked.
The fact is that politciians, particularly Left-wing politicians, took the appoach of maximum government control and as usual anybody who objected to that was attacked as uncaring or scientifically ignorant when it was actually the Lockdown proponents who should have been asked why this had never been a strategy for other disease oubreaks.
And as far as Fauci is concerned it might pay people to understand that there are some equally well-qualified medical people who don’t think his advice has been all that good. Go read this letter to President Trump, signed by hundreds of doctors spread across the USA, making the medical case against lockdown.
Or try these Tweets from Michael Levitt.
Who is he? Oh only a Nobel prizewinning biophysicist. And of course Standford’s Professor of epidemiology and Public Health, John Ioannidis has been on the case from the start – and his calculations on IFR and advice seem more prescient by the day.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“All that’s certain is it would have been far worse if less was done to limit the spread.”
This is not certain in anyway. There is not any evidence that lockdowns, nor any of the other measures, made any difference to the spread. The spread was very likely complete before the end of last year, long before lockdowns or any response.
The climbing numbers of positive tests reported on news every night have never been a measure of the spread. That is a profoundly wrong idea.
“Worst case projections (with no action anywhere) will never be proven right or wrong, they can’t be.”
Yes they can. We can look at the track record of these projections. When we look at that, they have never been right. Ferguson predicted 200m dead from SARS. They have never accurately projected any epidemic. They have been wildly wrong every single time.
As I have said from the beginning of this, the computer models used have no ability to make predictions. You are just as likely to get the same answer out of tea leaves.
Griff.
/ 16th July 2020Are you nuts
The virus spreads though contact with infected vectors.
Lockdown limits the spread though limiting contacts
To say other wise is loony territory.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020Depending on lockdown being maintained. Social distancing also reduces infectious contacts with varying confidence in its component parts.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“The virus spreads though contact with infected vectors.
Lockdown limits the spread though limiting contacts
To say other wise is loony territory.
The theory is a lockdown slows the spread. There are good reasons to believe it can do the opposite. Confining people to their homes guarantees spread within households for example.
NY has plenty of evidence this was a major factor in the severity. (>60% infections from same households)
Note also the policy of sending infected people into rest homes as part of the lockdown.
Alan Foster
/ 16th July 2020Over 100 deaths each in Florida, Texas & Arizona yesterday. .Obviously, the more testing one does, the more cases one finds. Not all fatal of course.
Tom Hunter
/ 16th July 2020Funny how you and others here never mention California. Gaslighting at its best.
Alan Foster
/ 16th July 2020California – 67 deaths today so far – they don’t follow the “lockdown”
Tom Hunter
/ 16th July 2020California’s last 10 days working backwards:
67
139
45
25
74
102
137
150
118
76
During this time all I’ve seen from [deleted, don’t use vague derogatory labels to attack people- PG] is “Texas, Florida, Arizona”.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“Not all fatal of course.”
Not all?
For those under 65 the survival rate is, rounded to the nearest couple of decimals, 100%.
Alan Foster
/ 16th July 2020CDC make the death rate of under 65s as about 18% of total deaths.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#AgeAndSex
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020Yes. That does not change the fact the survival rate is almost 100%.
Survival rate for those over 65 is only slightly less than 100%.
Patzcuaro
/ 16th July 2020Pink David
/ 16th July 2020I’m not a fan of Fauci, but he gets respect for this. It does, however, show exactly what you need to do to prevent the spread of a virus. Ebola is very significantly less transmittable than Covid.
Call me Ishmael...
/ 16th July 2020One of the more bizarre aspects of the Fauci critiques from Trump and Navarro is they’re basically saying Fauci didn’t take the virus seriously enough, at a time when Fauci’s spent weeks warning the virus is not under control.
Call me Ishmael...
/ 16th July 2020A month ago deaths were well down as a result of rigorous testing, tracing, and stay-at-home orders, prompting Alan, Pink David, and Tom Hunter to proclaim that COVID was over in America.
Now the national deaths are rising again – pretty much at the time I said they would: 6-8 weeks after positive cases started rising again.
This week 23 states are reporting more deaths each day than they were two weeks ago, and California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee all set records for single-day deaths from COVID.
Texas and Arizona are readying refrigerated morgue trucks (22 mortuary supply trailers have been installed in Texas alone).
The new surge of virus cases may have involved many younger and healthier people, who are less likely to die. But the young are spreading it to older people and those more vulnerable.
There’s no clearer evidence that deaths are going to continue rising again, than the full-to-overflowing hospitals across the sunbelt, Clearly there are a growing number of seriously ill patients and limited facilities to treat them.
Call me Ishmael...
/ 16th July 2020Los Angeles County CA confirmed 4,244 new cases and 2,103 hospitalizations Tuesday — both single-day records.
How does a health system cope with record illnesses? Badly.The surge in infections, hospitalizations and deaths in California has wiped out all the progress the state made in their spring.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“Los Angeles County CA confirmed 4,244 new cases and 2,103 hospitalizations Tuesday — both single-day records.”
California has had the longest and strictest lockdown in the US.
“How does a health system cope with record illnesses? Badly.”
Your right, look at how badly the hospitals are overflowing!!!
https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patients/
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020AFAIK here is no causal justification for a six to eight week delay between case detection and death. US deaths are still a fraction (1/3) of what they were at peak up a little from their minimum of 1/4 peak. Obviously there has been a delayed spread from the metropolises to the rest of the country.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“Obviously there has been a delayed spread from the metropolises to the rest of the country.”
No there hasn’t. It’s been there for months. This is a highly infectious disease. Why do you think it would not have been nation wide in March?
The positive test results have never been a reflection of the spread of the virus.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020“Why do you think it would not have been nation wide in March?”
For a similar reason that Victoria’s cases are concentrated in some high rise apartments and that they go first where international arrivals go.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“For a similar reason that Victoria’s cases are concentrated in some high rise apartments and that they go first where international arrivals go.”
That is very tenuous. International arrivals are simply a place testing is focused.
Up to 80% are asymptomatic, the seen and unseen. This is an iceberg.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020Still too much uncertainty to estimate asymptomatic. Studies are all over the place.
Pink David
/ 17th July 2020“Studies are all over the place.”
Not really. The studies are all showing a high portion/majority are asymptomatic.
Prof Sunetra Gupta estimated the UK had half a million infections back in March.
The CDC estimates 25-50m Americans have had Covid.
My experience was that the epidemiologists always greatly underestimated the numbers, and the start date for the epidemics I was involved in. That was certainly the case with the 2001 FMD, and that led to a massive over reaction.
Tom Hunter
/ 16th July 2020According to the CDC the epidemic is over as its count of PIC as a % of daily death has slipped below the Flu/Pneumonia baseline they use to determine such things. I put the CDC graph up a week ago which it showed the PIC redline touching that baseline. It’s now into it.
As they said themselves, deaths from this virus will continue, but the idea that it’s an epidemic “out of control” is dead and all the MSM scaremongering to get Biden across the line won’t work.
Back to Stone and clemency perhaps.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020Remember flatten the curve?
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“There’s no clearer evidence that deaths are going to continue rising again, than the full-to-overflowing hospitals across the sunbelt”
There really is no evidence of this at all.
“Texas and Arizona are readying refrigerated morgue trucks (22 mortuary supply trailers have been installed in Texas alone).”
I have pointed out to you this is common in the US. They have them for a reason. They get used quite a lot.
Call me Ishmael...
/ 16th July 2020I’d admire your strength of conviction if it weren’t symptomatic of your underlying unwillingness to admit that COVID is not under control in America.
As for the mortuary trucks in Texas and Arizona, they’ll get used quite a lot more over the next three months as positive cases continue turning into hospital admissions, and then deaths. They have them for a reason – COVID-19.
Mortuary trucks have been used quite a lot this year. Not so much in previous years – a Google search of the term “mortuary truck” gave me one hit in 2018, three hits in 2019, and 1,500 hits in 2020 ytd.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020A bit like homelessness in NZ. It’s only a concern to the Left when there is not a Lefty government.
Kitty Catkin
/ 16th July 2020An American who lives here said that if they hadn’t given it a fancy name it would have gone unnoticed to a large extent.
Pink David
/ 17th July 2020It had a strange name.
It came from China
Lots of people are benefiting from the chaos.
Lots of people enjoy being locked up.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“a Google search of the term “mortuary truck” gave me one hit in 2018, three hits in 2019, and 1,500 hits in 2020 ytd.”
Gee, I wonder why. Just like the flu epidemic in Italy in 2018 that killed 28,000 and overwhelmed the hospitals.
No one noticed something that happens on a quite frequent basis. That is until they called it Covid.
duperez
/ 16th July 2020At last, the real stats for Covid-19 are going to be available. The data will not go to the manipulators of figures, CDC, but straight to a Washington database and those who need the information can get it from them.
I can’t find a Dr Goebbels on the staff list at the National Healthcare Safety Network but I’m sure he is there.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/07/15/trump-administration-orders-hospitals-not-send-covid-19-data-cdc/5441730002/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/13/trump-administration-recommend-national-guard-an-option-help-hospitals-report-covid-19-data/
Tom Hunter
/ 16th July 2020Ah. Conspiracy theory time. Maybe the Russians are involved. 😳
BTW, there was a prominent person who said some time ago that the CDC’s figures were inflated rather than suppressed:
That would be Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Task Force response administrator.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“At last, the real stats for Covid-19 are going to be available. ”
The only stats that really matter is total mortality. That is where the real picture is and it is very difficult to manipulate.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020This is the correct way to view. We see very similar things in all countries hit hard by Covid.
duperez
/ 16th July 2020Yeah, just count the number who are dead. Wait until they arrive at the morgue. Accept that most of the deaths are from the flu or anything but Covid-19. Voila – the overcooked covid problem gone – disappeared as promised.
I can’t believe a few Americans are concerned about it. You look at Louisiana population 4.65 million and you can see there a few cases of the flu but nothing unusual, no concern for concern.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sxsrf=ALeKk02uMtnhRn2bQp5yz3D1hAKDgxTdeA%3A1594871673326&source=hp&ei=ec8PX6KREtyP4-EPycSwmAY&q=covid+stats+michigan&oq=ciovid+&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgAMgcIIxCxAhAnMgcIIxCxAhAnMgcIIxCxAhAnMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKMgQIABAKOgQIIxAnOgcIABCxAxBDOgQIABBDOgUIABCxAzoICAAQsQMQgwE6CwgAELEDEIMBEJECOgUIABCRAjoCCAA6BwgAEEMQiwM6BwgAEAoQiwNQ4gpY9x1g_TNoAnAAeACAAYQCiAGAC5IBBTAuNC4zmAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpergBAg&sclient=psy-ab
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020Here is the data for Louisiana. Michigan, which you linked too, has had one of the strictest lockdowns in the USA.
https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_7cb2af1c-6414-11ea-b729-93612370dd94.html
Call me Ishmael...
/ 16th July 2020It’s all academic now…. Trump has just ordered all hospitals to refuse to allow the CDC to coordinate the COVID data collection system from hospitals across the nation.
It probably wouldn’t be out of order to mention that the HHS spokesperson is Roger Stone’s co-conspirator and former employee of the Russian Government Michael Caputo.
Or that the database that the HHS is going to use was built by Palantir (which was in cahoots with Cambridge Analytica in 2016).
When he can’t control the virus, Trump tries to control the numbers. Covering up the numbers instead of fixing testing and isolation feels like a metaphor for the entire trump presidency.
duperez
/ 16th July 2020It is all academic. Those who wanted nothing to be done except say, “Wow there’s a new flu arrived, let’s encourage scientists to develop a vaccine” will never know how successful their approach would have been.
Well, they do, they know it would have been fine, far better than what has happened, the best approach. A few people, mainly older ones, would have died but by and large everything would have carried on as normal, businesses wouldn’t have had to close and here, our government wouldn’t have had to subsidise wages or anything else.
Immigration etc. would have just carried on. The most extreme moves would have been the suggestion of washing hands, wearing masks, social distancing and not gathering in big crowds with all of those voluntary.
No-one would have had to dispute numbers or views of ‘experts’ because they would have been taken out of the equation. Their stuff would have been irrelevant. And of course we we would all be better off.
The same approach in the US would have meant all the tra las there wouldn’t have gone on. A few more may have died but mainly just older people. Fauci would’ve just been some nonentity and Trump would’ve been doing far better in the polls.
That was how it was supposed to work wasn’t it? 🙃
Pink David
/ 17th July 2020“Those who wanted nothing to be done except say”
Who are these people?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020In other news, vaccines in the US and UK have tested initially successful in producing immune responses and safety.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020Are they covid?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020The Oxford, UK one:
Oxford scientists believe they have made a breakthrough in their quest for a Covid-19 vaccine after discovering that the jab triggers a response that may offer a “double defence” against the virus.
Phase I human trials of the world-leading Oxford vaccine have shown that it generates an immune response against the disease, the Telegraph has learned.
Blood samples taken from a group of UK volunteers given a dose of the vaccine showed that it stimulated the body to produce both antibodies and “killer T-cells”, a senior source said.
The discovery is promising because separate studies have suggested that antibodies may fade away within months while T-cells can stay in circulation for years.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/15/coronavirus-vaccine-breakthrough-oxford-scientists-discover/
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020And the US one:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-fauci/fauci-bullish-on-prospects-for-u-s-vaccine-not-worried-about-china-winning-race-idUSKCN24G2ZY
Call me Ishmael...
/ 16th July 2020Now that is about the best news I’ve seen all day. I hope that they are able to follow through and deliver a solution without world supplies being bought up by trump
Pete George
/ 16th July 2020Modelers Suggest Pandemic Lockdowns Saved Millions From Dying Of COVID-19
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/09/872441984/modelers-suggest-pandemic-lockdowns-saved-millions-from-dying-of-covid-19
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“Modelers Suggest Pandemic Lockdowns Saved Millions From Dying Of COVID-19”
That’s a surprise. Talk about self-justification.
Rather telling they don’t use the data from Sweden to be a control on their model.
Pink David
/ 16th July 2020“For example, in the U.S. through the first week of April, there were officially just over 360,000 confirmed cases nationwide. Without lockdowns and other interventions, the researchers at Berkeley calculate that the U.S. would have had nearly 14 times as many by April 6: more than 5 million confirmed cases. To put this in perspective, the U.S. now, two months later, is hitting the 2 million mark.”
This really is criminal. The estimate for cases in the US is 10-20 times the positive test numbers. They are talking total bullshit to compare their model to test cases and claim success. Very likely ~50 million have had Covid.
Positive tests were limited by the ability to roll out testing, not positive cases.
https://time.com/5859790/cdc-coronavirus-estimates/
Alan Wilkinson
/ 16th July 2020Unfortunately Nature is now fully committed to publishing alarmist crap in the service of ideological science having been taken over by the climate alarmist industry. This stuff really is ridiculous.