Quotes of the Day

“To call this unprecedented doesn’t begin to explain the enormity of the impact COVID-19 related job losses are having on our state and our economy.”

-Robin Roberson, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission [The Journal Record]

“Until we get ahead of this disease by keeping people at home and isolated and closing businesses down, we’re always going to be behind.”

-Dr. Larry Bookman, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association [The Oklahoman]

“Now is not a time to be cutting budgets or cutting services. We need to make sure that all the needs are met not only for the current crisis we are in, but also that we stabilize the budget going forward for the next fiscal year.”

-Senate Appropriations and Budget Chairman Roger Thompson, R-Okemah [NonDoc]

“This is going to shine a flashlight on those inequities in those areas where we have a lot of ground to make up and we better use this time to draw attention to that and move beyond this with a strategic investment.”

-State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister about the state’s pivot to distance learning during the pandemic [The Frontier]

“We understand that adopting a statewide shelter-in-place policy will place a tremendous strain on our state’s businesses and workers, however, combating the COVID-19 pandemic emergency calls for extraordinary efforts and sacrifice.”

-Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, in a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt [Norman Transcript]

“Many kids can do a lot online. The concern is access. A lot of kids may not have access to a computer or access to the internet. And even if students do have access, we have IEPs (Individual Education Programs), we have ELL (English Language Learners) students … And the access isn’t just internet, it’s access also to an adult who can help them.”

-Akela Leach, a fifth grade teacher at Tulsa’s Lanier Elementary, speaking about the pivot to distance learning [Tulsa World]

“It’s almost like we’re detached from reality. Nobody can believe it is going to happen here. We watch it on TV and just hope it doesn’t come here.”

-Guymon hairdresser Rick French about the spread of coronavirus [New York Times]

“What we are calling on, more than anything, is for Oklahomans to be good citizens, good neighbors and comply with the governor’s executive order, as well as the ordinances of local governments, to protect one another from this deadly illness.”

-Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter  [Tulsa World]

“Already faced with a shortage of health care personnel in medical facilities throughout the state, the anticipated surge in critically ill patients will result in over-stressing a system that is already at its maximum effectiveness.”

-Shelly Wells, Oklahoma Nurses Association President-Elect [Tulsa World]

“Hockey great Wayne Gretzky once said the secret to his success was to ‘skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.’ Likewise, Oklahoma’s leaders need to base such serious decisions not on the numbers and situation in which we find ourselves today (which we already know are inaccurate due to a lack of testing), but on where we could be in the coming weeks or, more appropriately, where we want to be in that time frame.”

-A letter from Oklahoma medical professionals urging Gov. Stitt to take stronger action to contain the COVID-19 virus [via Non Doc]