We’ve all been busy this Summer and we’re all enjoying the freedom from COVID but there’s one thing Oklahoma needs you to not forget: Get your COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.
COVID-19 vaccines- whether it’s Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J- are safe, effective, and free. America’s three COVID vaccines were bolstered by American innovation, developed with the help of America’s brightest scientists, and distributed with the help and strength of America’s workforce.
While vaccine research was decades in the making, under the leadership of the Trump Administration, Operation Warp Speed established important public-private partnerships which ensured COVID-19 vaccines were both timely and safe.
No corners were cut and vaccine trials were large and public. Just as has been accomplished throughout history, scientists and doctors have built upon cutting edge innovation and science to deliver lifesaving antidotes to protect us from the world’s deadliest viruses and diseases. From smallpox to polio to tetanus, vaccines, coupled with citizens undertaking the responsibility to defeat the virus, have ended pandemics of past and continue to keep our communities safe and healthy.
We’ve come a long way since the height of the pandemic, but unfortunately, cases are dramatically increasing again in Oklahoma and across the country due to the COVID-19 Delta variant and lack of vaccine participation. We have a tool, we have a vaccine that can defeat this virus, and I appeal to every Oklahoman- and American- to join in our war-like effort to bring an end to this pandemic once and for all.
Across the United States, COVID hot spots are emerging and, as evidence suggests, the spread of COVID-19 is happening far quicker in unvaccinated communities. The U.S. is now averaging more than 26,000 new COVID cases per day, with hospitalizations and deaths increasing by the day.
Across states like Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas, daily cases have more than doubled compared to two weeks ago.
On a now daily basis, the Oklahoma State Health Department is reporting an increase in new COVID cases. Just last week, Oklahoma’s 7-day average of daily COVID cases spiked over 700 for the first time in months.
And just as we’ve seen the number of cases tick up, so have hospitalizations. Oklahoma’s hospitalization rate for COVID is up 253% since June 29th.
Should hospitalizations continue, there will be a significant strain on both rural and urban hospitals- something our health care professionals lived through once during the height of the pandemic and shouldn’t have to live ...
