Quotes of the Day

“We don’t know if social distancing will be required in the fall, but what we have to do now is be prepared for those scenarios while we have this gift of time to prepare. It’s really a time that we can’t underscore enough the significance of the learning loss that has occurred.”

-Superintendent Joy Hofmeister speaking about school plans for the fall semester [The Oklahoman]

“A lot of these rural hospitals have either been cut back or closed. The extent to which we’ve really hindered the capacity of rural communities and public health in general is starting to show in our incidence rates, but also in our death rates.”

-Randolph Hubach, an Oklahoma State University researcher studying health outcomes, speaking about the state’s lack of health care in rural areas [The New Yorker]

“If you go to the local Walmart, I would say 10 percent of people are wearing masks, and the restaurants … that are open are packed. But [people] don’t seem to know the science behind it. Even though they see the news, they just think it’s all overblown.”

-Dr. Jeffrey Lim, an internal medicine physician in Guymon, where COVID-19 cases have dramatically increased due to an outbreak at a local meatpacking plant [Washington Post]

“It just seems like what he is creating here is another year of prolonged negotiations with urban and rural hospitals. I was hoping that we had all of this put to bed and agreed upon.”

-Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan, speaking about the Governor’s veto of SB 1046, which was the primary funding mechanism for his health care proposal [NonDoc]

“[T]he hope is that we are able to get through the entire inmate population to give us at least a clear look in regards to whether or not we truly are infection free within the jail”

-Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado, whose facility has not reported any COVID-19 cases among its incarcerated population [StateImpact Oklahoma]

“We were not equipped to deal with this pandemic.”

-Comanche County Facilities Authority Chairman Johnny Owens, speaking about the virus outbreak in the county detention center in Lawton. [AP News] 

“This bill is the biggest woolly-booger I’ve seen in a decade. (There was) not a peep from the authors as to what the bill really did.”

-A lobbyist commenting on Senate Bill 1595, on which lawmakers — including the bill’s authors — have differing opinions about impacts from a last-minute provision added to the bill [NonDoc] 

“We are definitely not out of the woods with this. We have finished up the school year, but from everything I’ve heard, COVID’s not going anywhere between now and August. So we have to be responsible and proactive and do as much as we can to study the issue and make decisions for the start of school.”

-Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller [Tulsa World]

“To sit here and say, ‘Well I’ve got to be fiscally responsible so I can’t help you’… I have to question that because I have to look those people in the eyes. I know some of those people, and they really need it. We have people out there that we need to help.”

– Sen. Dewayne Pemberton, R-Muskogee, speaking about the need for a cost-of-living adjustment for Oklahoma’s public retirees [CNHI]

“I fear that our non-profits will be further burdened. But, those who see people experiencing homelessness as problems won’t have had made the connection that the decision to not implement policy to protect against evictions is contributing to increased numbers experiencing housing instability.”

-Oklahoma City Ward 6 Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon [Free Press OKC]