Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks during a press conference at the state Capitol.
While Oklahoma has some of the worst pandemic statistics in the nation, Gov. Kevin Stitt has been promoting tourism in commercials appearing in surrounding states.
Stitt emphasizes that Oklahoma is “open,” in a video posted on YourTube on Nov. 19 and appearing as commercials in surrounding states.
“Today, we all need a place that offers hope,” Stitt says in the video. “Oklahoma is open to the challenge. We’re open with new, exciting places to explore safely. We’re open with amazing meals and safe surroundings. We’re open to living, learning and dreaming under wide open skies.”
Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum and Gathering Place are among the locations featured in the ad, which is planned to run through Wednesday, The Oklahoman recently reported.
The same day that the video was posted on YouTube, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against traveling around the Thanksgiving holiday. Even more dire warnings against travel were issued around the Christmas holiday.
Currently, Oklahoma is among the top 10 states in two of the four metrics for pandemic issues, according to the latest report published by President Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force.
Oklahoma ranks No. 3 for test positivity rate, No. 7 for weekly new COVID-19 hospitalizations per inpatient bed, No. 21 for weekly new confirmed cases per capita and No. 33 in weekly new deaths per capita.
All but one of Oklahoma’s 77 counties have moderate or high levels of virus transmission, with 71 (92%) in the red zone for high rates of spread. Similarly dire statistics were available to Stitt when he made the video.
The White House task force has repeatedly called on the state to take stricter restrictions, including a statewide mask mandate, but Stitt has refused to do so.
Stitt’s advertising campaign is tone deaf to Oklahoma’s current situation, and it seems doomed to failure. Any smart traveler would surely drill into the governor’s promise of an open state, see the unhealthy situation in Oklahoma and stay put.
Promoting Oklahoma is a big part of the governor’s job. The ill-time advertising effort won’t help him accomplish that task, and may well hurt it.
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Gallery: Mourning COVID-19 deaths in Oklahoma
Debbie Rusher, EMSA paramedic
Debbie Rusher joined EMSA in 1999. Around Thanksgiving, her COVID-19 struggle became grave. Numerous EMSA colleagues and other workers with the Tulsa Police and Fire departments blared their lights outside Ascension St. John Medical Center in Tulsa to show their support for Rusher, who died Dec. 28 at 56.
Dr. Greg Gray, a doctor at Saint Francis Hospital South, wrote how Rusher was “out in our community working to help all of us” stay safe from COVID-19. How Rusher contracted the virus likely will remain unknown, he said, but he called her an “awesome, loving, caring paramedic” whose loss is “hitting our EMSA and EMS community HARD.”
Dr. Yee Se Ong
A longtime Muskogee physician who was the first cardiologist to set up a practice in the community, Dr. Yee Se Ong died Dec. 21 at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa of complications from COVID-19.
For the past several months of the pandemic, Ong spent virtually every waking hour in the ICU at Saint Francis Hospital in Muskogee.
Ong was a native of Cabanatuan in the Philippines. He came to Muskogee in July 1979 and dedicated his life to caring for residents from the rural areas and small communities nearby.
Pam Rask, Tulsa Health Department
Pam Rask, 61, was serving as Tulsa Health Department's division chief of adolescent and child health when she died Dec. 26. A public Facebook post from relatives indicated Rask had been hospitalized and placed on a ventilator after testing positive for COVID-19.
Jimmy's Egg pioneer Loc Van Le
Loc Van Le, who purchased a single breakfast cafe in 1980 and turned it into a multi-state franchise, died of complications from the coronavirus Dec. 10, 2020. He was 75.
As it mourns the passing of its patriarch, the Le (pronounced Lee) family is keeping vigil for its matriarch Kim, who remains hospitalized with the virus.
Oklahoma education advocate Melvin Todd
Melvin R. Todd, Ph.D, died Dec. 2 after testing positive for COVID-19. He was 87.
Todd was one of Oklahoma’s most consequential educators, leaving a trailblazing legacy of leadership through racial integration.
Former longtime Oklahoma City pastor Nick Harris
The Rev. Nick Harris, former longtime minister of First United Methodist Church of Oklahoma City, died on Nov. 23. He was 81.
His life story intersected with the broader story of the tragedy of April 19, 1995, and the triumph of the "Oklahoma Standard" that prevailed in its aftermath.
Jerad Lindsey, Tulsa FOP chairman
Jerad Lindsey, 40, chairman of the Tulsa Fraternal Order of Police, died in October after suffering complications of COVID-19, the agency reported.
He had started his career with Tulsa Police Department in 2005 and worked as patrol officer. He recently was serving also as Oklahoma Fraternal Order of Police vice president.
Lindsey is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and two sons.
Oklahoma City preservation leader Bill Gumerson
Bill Gumerson, 76, who co-founded Friends of the Mansion, a group that has helped support upkeep of the Governor’s Mansion, died on Thanksgiving from COVID-19.
As president of Preservation Oklahoma he led a successful capital campaign to renovate the Overholser Mansion.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Jeff Sewell
Capt. Jeff Sewell, 58, had been hospitalized since Sept. 5 due to COVID-19, and he died at Texoma Medical Center in Denison, Texas, on Sept. 26, according to a social media post.
“It is with deepest regret that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol announces the passing of one of our active duty members,” the agency wrote the post.
Tulsa Public Schools electrician Michael Angelo
Michael Angelo, an electrician who worked in the maintenance and plant operations department and joined Tulsa Public Schools in 2007, died in October and is the district’s first COVID-related death.
Angelo’s wife, Violet Angelo, also became ill from COVID-19 but has recovered. Violet Angelo is a custodian at TPS and joined the district in 2005.
Former Jenks East Elementary teacher Sandy Majors
From Michael Overall: "My Aunt Sandy — you might remember her as Sandra Majors, Ph.D., who taught for many years at Jenks East Elementary — tested positive for COVID-19 in mid-August."
She died Aug. 28.
QT employee Israel Sauz
Israel Sauz, a 22-year-old Broken Arrow resident, died in April. He left behind a wife of less than one year and their first child, a son born in March, among other family, friends, co-workers and even regular customers at the QuikTrip store where he worked east of downtown Tulsa.
Sauz, known as “Izzy” to some, was a night assistant manager at the QuikTrip at 1022 S. Utica Ave., and his death raised panic and outrage among fellow employees and some customers.
State's first COVID-19 death
A Tulsa County man became the state’s first resident to die from COVID-19 in mid-March, one day after he tested positive for the disease.
Tulsa County health officials said that it also was the first case of community spread in the county. The man was identified by friends and peers as Merle Dry.
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