January 5, 2022 Issue, Page 3 of 10

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3 January 5, 2022 A g r iNceuwt sl u r e Scientists struggle to understand the SWOSU announces competition between omicron and delta 2021-22 North Melissa Healy, Los Angeles repeat itself, because there are dominance ta variant is still very much Times stark differences between then and now. Most importantly, It’s unclear whether the current trends are being driven among us. Emory University epidemi- Family Scholars As the pandemic’s third the number of Americans who more by the omicron variant or ologist Jodie Guest said that year dawns, Americans are are fully vaccinated has gone by the delta variant. in a surge of new cases, delta Southwestern Oklahoma Scholars include: feeling fatigued and confused. from about 350,000 to more On Dec. 22, a projection re- is likely to do what it has done State University has an- Ryan Kellar, Yukon; Al- And it’s all omicron’s fault. than 204 million, with 68 mil- leased by the U.S. Centers for since its arrival last March: nounced the 2021-22 North exandria Silvernail, Midwest Even scientists are deeply lion of those having also re- Disease Control and Preven- send many who remain un- Family Scholars. uncertain about how quickly ceived a booster shot. tion suggested that omicron vaccinated to the hospital, or City; Cody Spillman, Mustang; or even whether the new vari- —Hospitalizations had rocketed to dominance worse. The awardees receive fi- Ambrosio “Al” Aldrich, Weath- ant will eclipse delta, as well Among people over 65, the in the United States, jumping “I routinely hear that omi- nancial assistance from the erford; Armando Chavez, as who is likely to fall ill with vaccinated are six times less from 3% of all cases to 73% cron is mild, not going to be a North Family Endowment which variant and how sick likely than the unvaccinated to over two weeks in early De- Weatherford; Hunter Dodson, big deal, and hopefully that’s at the university. The North those people will become. be hospitalized for COVID-19. cember. true,” Guest said. “But clearly Sayre; Justin Dowe, Weather- Family Endowment was es- “It does feel like omicron The difference is twice that for News reports treated omi- delta is still here, and everyone ford; Brayden Farrow, Perkins; has changed everything we people 18 to 49. cron’s sudden takeover as a took delta pretty seriously. It tablished in 2021 by 1980 SWOSU alumnus Mike North, Lauren Faurie, Wichita Falls, thought we knew” about the The benefit of vaccines ap- fait accompli rather than the makes sense from the hospi- virus, said Dr. Megan Ran- pears evident in the current projection it was. The reports talizations we’re seeing that of Oklahoma City, to pro- Texas; Lydia Gearhart, Weath- ney, associate dean of Brown surge. While hospitalizations also seemed to suggest that there’s more delta going on vide ongoing support to the erford; Fransisco Quezada, University’s School of Pub- climbed almost 20% in the the new variant was responsi- than we had estimated.” Elk City; John Roberts, Law- lic Health. “This feels like a week that ended Monday, hit- SWOSU Department of Parks ble for other shocking develop- —Testing strange turning point, poten- ting a daily average of 9,442, ments: New cases had topped The Biden administration & Recreation Management. ton; Paul Schmidt, Barnsdall; tially, in the pandemic.” that figure is 43% below the those seen in last September’s announced this month that it The 2021-22 North Family and Jensen White, Hydro. Clues about the pandem- peak nearly a year ago. wave, and intensive care units would make at-home testing ic’s next phase have begun to Similarly, with an average nationally had reached about readily available. The aim is to emerge, but they have been of 1,085 deaths a day over the three-quarters capacity. make it easier for people to fig- conflicting and prone to er- ror. Torrents of new data and statistics tumble out daily, but last week, COVID-19 is killing about half as many people as it did during last winter’s surge. The projection, it turned out, was wrong. A week later, the CDC ure out if they’re infected and act to prevent the spread of the virus. Misdemeanors Felonies what they mean isn’t always Still, it’s unclear how the would downgrade omicron’s But it is also likely to add clear. Some seem quite reas- surge in cases will play out, be- presence on Dec. 18 to an esti- another layer of uncertainty to MISDEMEANORS suring, others deeply alarming. cause it typically takes two to mated 22.5% of new U.S. cases, our understanding of the pan- Meanwhile, decisions need four weeks for an infection to predicting that by Christmas demic, because it means that State of Okla vs Lane G Dowty Resisting an officer to be made: Visit grandma in send a person to the hospital. Day that figure would hit 59%. fewer people will receive PCR State of Okla vs Ryan J Longhofer her nursing home? Attend that Those who die of COVID-19 Although still much more tests. State of Okla vs Kendall L Billings Child not in school New Year’s gathering? Wait often spend weeks in the hos- transmissible than delta, omi- Gathered from every cor- hours in line for a COVID-19 pital before succumbing. cron does not seem to have ner of the United States and State of Okla vs Tamara O Brewer “ test because you woke up with And even after hospital- carried out the stunning coup zealously tracked by the CDC, a scratchy throat? Send your ization and death rates are positive PCR tests have been State of Okla vs Catlin W Frazier Petit larceny that had been announced. kid back to college when she known, researchers will have What happened? the basis for detecting pan- FELONIES might be sent home in two to sift through medical records The CDC oversees the se- demic hot spots, measuring weeks? Wear a mask ... every- and genetic data to compare quencing of about 80,000 spec- vaccine protection, figuring State of Okla vs John E Hammond Kidnapping. Domestic where? out the transmissibility of assault & battery by strangulation.Domestic assault & battery the effects of omicron and imens a week — about 14% of new variants and alerting au- Here’s what we know about delta, and how vaccination new cases, at last count — but thorities to coming waves of with dangerous weapon. Possession of CS & paraphernalia omicron and the state of the and variant type interacted. it takes weeks to compile the hospitalizations and deaths. pandemic — and what we That work could take weeks or results. That’s too slow for pub- Researchers also track what State of Okla vs Tiffany D Gibson Domestic assault & bat- don’t. months. lic health authorities guiding happens after a positive PCR tery. Obstructing an officer —New infections An analysis by South Af- current policy. test — asymptomatic illness, The United States has rican scientists suggests that So the agency’s modelers hospitalization, death, long State of Okla vs Adelbert L Strom Rape by instrumenta- notched a new high in con- people thought to be infected must take three-week-old data COVID-19 — to gain insights tion firmed infections, with an av- with omicron were about 70% and make judgments about into individual and group vul- erage of 277,241 new cases less likely to become severely how that mix of variants is nerabilities. a day for the last full week of 2021. The previous record was ill and 80% less likely to be hospitalized than those who were infected with delta. likely to have changed. That ex- ercise, known as “Nowcasting,” uses a smattering of newer ge- All of that will become less reliable as more Americans use at-home antigen tests, whose Marriages & Divorces 259,759, set early last January. A study conducted in Eng- netic sequencing results sup- results will not be centrally A week later, daily COVID-19 land found that after account- plied by the states to update compiled. Some people who deaths reached their zenith of ing for the effects of vaccina- a variant’s national growth get a positive reading on an an- MARRIAGE LICENSES 4,048, and for the next month tion, omicron-infected people rate. But choosing the wrong tigen test may seek to confirm Raymond Cross, Sayre – Zarene Chapman, Sayre that figure rarely fell below were about 45% less likely than sample — an easy mistake in it with a PCR test. But most DIVORCES 2,000. people infected with delta to a highly fluid situation — can will probably not, meaning Juan Lopez vs Brittney Lopez As worrisome as that his- wind up in the hospital. lead to significant errors. more infections won’t make it tory sounds, it is unlikely to —Omicron’s quest for The big takeaway: the del- into the official case count. 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