By Rebecca Najera | Oklahoma Watch Jul 8, 2021 1 of 2
Oklahoma State Rep. Mauree Turner, D-Oklahoma City, Turner describes what their experience has been like as a freshman and minority lawmaker.
Whitney Bryen / Oklahoma Watch
Oklahoma Watch
Rep. Mauree Turner is a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. They made headlines after being elected last November for being the first Muslim in the Oklahoma Legislature and for being the first non-binary lawmaker in the U.S. Turner represents House District 88.
In a new Oklahoma Watch feature âA Mile In Anotherâs Shoes,â an initiative to give voice to the voiceless or call attention to the plight of those affected by public policy, Turner describes what their experience has been like as a freshman and minority lawmaker. Their comments were edited for length and clarity:
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
The Oklahoma State Department of Health is able to say with certainty the Delta variant of COVID-19 is now causing at least some of the infections in northeast Oklahoma where cases have been rising.
Public health officials suspected the more transmissible Delta variant was to blame, but couldn’t say for sure since Oklahoma has struggled with variant identification. The moving of the public health lab from Oklahoma City to Stillwater during the pandemic caused delays in the genetic sequencing needed to tag different viral strains.
On June 22nd, OSDH sent out a message to labs and providers across the state via its emergency network saying it needed samples to ramp up sequencing. State epidemiologist Jolianne Stone said at a press conference today some samples arrived from the northeast.
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Oklahoman
Stop Harm on Tulsa Streets has been working under the radar for three years to distribute fresh syringes, fentanyl test strips, naloxone and other items to prevent overdose deaths and reduce the spread of disease that can occur when drug users share needles.
Under a new law that legalizes needle exchange programs in Oklahoma, the group will be able to make its underground operation more public in the hopes of helping more people.
Hana Fields started Stop Harm on Tulsa Streets after seeing needle exchange programs in Arizona. When she moved back to Tulsa, she arrived with 500 doses of naloxone which can reverse an opiate overdose and sought help with distribution.
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