Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a State of Emergency has been declared at the city, state, and federal level. These declarations have far-reaching impact and consequences and, frankly, we are in uncharted waters. Here to help us walk through everything that has happened in the past 48 to 72 hours for my cohosts, Bailey Perkins and Scott Melson. 

Last Friday President Trump declared a national state of emergency, which was followed by a similar declaration on Sunday from the mayors of Oklahoma City and Stillwater, as well as Governor Stitt. We are recording this on Monday evening, and so far today I have seen that the mayors of Yukon and Tulsa have also declared state of emergency in those jurisdictions. Additionally, the Oklahoma state Department of Education has canceled school throughout the state until April 6, the Cherokee in Chickasaw tribes are clothes in their casinos, (Most of the casinos in Las Vegas are also closed, for what it's worth), and the Oklahoma legislature announced they are making significant changes to their operations to expedite passage of the budget and other constitutionally required duties. Yesterday the CDC said that all public events with 50 or more people for the next 8 weeks should be canceled, and today they updated that to be all public events with more than 10 people should be canceled. 

How about we start by talking about what a state of emergency declaration is, and why there are different ones, walk through what a state of emergency means at each level.

So, why do we have different ones? 

[discussion]

So, a when the president declares a national state of emergency for a public health emergency, it basically enacts three laws: the Public Health Service Act, Stafford Act, Social Security Act, as well as some other laws.

• The Stafford Act is the government’s main mechanism for responding to major disasters and emergencies. It permits tapping into an account that currently has more than $40 billion, which it could use to do things like buy medical supplies and equipment. Often used with natural disasters, previously also used by President Clinton to respond to the West Nile outbreak 
•  It frees up federal funds and other resources to help when “federal assistance is needed to supplement state and local efforts and capabilities to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety.” 
• also empowers the president to direct any federal agency to use its personnel, facilities and equipment to support state and local emergency efforts, disseminate public health and safety information, provide public health and safety measures, and distribute supplies like medicine and food.
• unlocks extra powers under Section 1135 of the Social Security Act aimed at making it easier to get medical supplies and doctors and nurses where they are needed most. (Prev used by by Obama to address H1N1 aka Swine Flu.

Okay, let’s move down to the state level.

[discussion]

And finally, down to the city level.

[discussion]

Resources

cdc.gov

Coronavirus.health.ok.gov

Regionalfoodbank.org/covid19 

Okfoodbank.org 

Good news coverage:

The Frontier

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