Name: State epidemiologist offers two separate mea culpas after COVID-19 data controversies, expresses confidence in improving reporting capabilities
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State epidemiologist offers two separate mea culpas after COVID-19 data controversies, expresses confidence in improving reporting capabilities

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Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisState epidemiologist offers two separate mea culpas after COVID-19 data controversies, expresses confidence in improving reporting capabilitiesShare thisIn recent weeks, the state epidemiologist has offered two separate mea culpas for unrelated COVID-19 data reporting controversies, but he stands by the state’s efforts and is confident of reporting capabilities as technology upgrades come online.The first came March 1 after the state acknowledged falling behind in its reporting of COVID deaths, with federal data based on death certificates far outpacing the state by about 2,500 deaths — .The second was Friday after the state didn’t announce its intention to , nor consult with local health departments about the matter.Additionally, the Oklahoma Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency released a report Thursday that found contact tracing data from the state was “lacking in substance, withheld, misaligned, or never developed for public consumption.”State Epidemiologist Dr. Jared Taylor addressed a question Friday about why people should trust the state to robustly and accurately report COVID-19 data analysis on a weekly basis, given how the state has had so many data reporting problems.Taylor said the state has “done admirably,” given its limited and outdated resources, but certainly isn’t perfect. He said he sees opportunities in which the state has learned from what it could have done better but also will defend “a lot of things” it has done well.“We will have improved technological capabilities; we do already have improvements over what we had previously,” Taylor said. “We will continue to improve that as we move forward.“I feel very confident we will have the ability and the expertise to see what is happening as we move into the future, able to respond to that appropriately, and deal with that as we can.”Taylor said the state has technology improvements continuously occurring.He specifically nodded toward strides he says the state is making in the genomic sequencing of COVID-19 variants, which is another data reporting area that has drawn concern.Oklahoma ranks next to last in the U.S. in percentage of cases sequenced to identify the variants of concern, with the state doing only 0.091% as of March 21, according to CDC data.Oklahoma also is the only state so far that hasn’t confirmed the presence of the B.1.1.7 variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom, according to CDC data Thursday.Dr. George Monks, president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, in a Friday statement emphasized the importance of accurate and timely data to fight COVID-19.Monks applauded the state’s “excellent job” rolling out the vaccine but said the data side is “still very much a work in progress.” He said declining infections statewide is welcome, but it’s difficult to know how accurate that picture is without dedicating time and resources to looking for variants that other states are prioritizing.He pointed to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s controversial decision to move the state’s Public Health Lab to Stillwater from Oklahoma City as a likely reason for the lack of genetic sequencing.“We are genuinely pleased to see that OSDH is looking at new ways to increase transparency and address our state’s health problems,” Monks wrote. “However, the difficulties preventing Oklahoma’s ability to screen for these variants are more likely found in the administration’s poorly-timed decision to move the public health lab amidst a pandemic than in resources.“We hope that this issue is one that will be solved quickly.”Health Department Deputy Commissioner Travis Kirkpatrick on Friday said the state identified five COVID-19 variants in its initial sequencing effort. He said those samples were submitted to the CDC and were confirmed — but an issue arose.“There was a little bit of a communication error that I believe Dr. Taylor has called out partially that they did not receive the report,” Kirkpatrick said.He said the state has successfully sequenced 90 more samples in the past few days and continues to hold that cadence.The CDC’s data table lists Oklahoma as only sequencing 397 samples as of March 21.Kirkpatrick said that all positive cases identified by a lab in the state’s public health network now are being submitted for genetic sequencing at the state’s Public Health Lab, along with about 5% to 10% of negative samples.He said that as the virus mutates, the variants also can change how they might trigger a positive result — leading to false negatives under current testing platforms.“So the sequencing is not only important on positives that we get through our current lab-developed tests, but also on negative tests we continue to see this virus drift and shift,” Kirkpatrick said. “I will tell you that we are continuing to build ... We are one lab that has the capability of doing this directly, where generally a lot of public health labs rely on the CDC to do their genetic sequencing.”Featured videoYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atLed by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and the World Health Organization, COVAX aims to provide equitable Covid-19 vaccine access for 92 low/middle income governments through donations.You will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atYou will find more infographics atSign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisState epidemiologist offers two separate mea culpas after COVID-19 data controversies, expresses confidence in improving reporting...

State epidemiologist offers two separate mea culpas after COVID-19 data controversies, expresses confidence in improving reporting capabilities

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