Wednesday, June 30, 2021
The gift that keeps on giving How this sorority brought a blessing to OSU’s community Lauryn Thomas Staff Reporter Over the past couple months, the Theta Mu chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority has worked on a unique way to give back to the Oklahoma State University community. Their way of doing this was by creating OSU’s very first Blessings Box. The Delta Sigma Theta’s (DST) Blessings Box is a red wooden box filled with non-perishable food items and toiletries located outside of the Family Resource Center (FRC). Items from the box are free for all students and are restocked weekly by members of DST. DST President, Dezavia Taylor, believed that creating a Blessings Box would help the OSU community because food insecurity is one of the leading factors of stress for college students. According to New York City Food Policy.org, this year an estimated 54 million Americans, including 18 million American children, are now food insecure. The New See Gift on pg.2
Lauryn Thomas The Theta Mu sisters behind the creation of the “Theta Mu Blessing Box” are happy to give back to their community by providing basic needs for those who need them.
The new ‘Delta-plus’ coronavirus variant Tribune News Service
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The Delta variant of the coronavirus has spawned a variant of its own that has gained considerable attention since being dubbed “Delta-plus” in India. It is slightly different from the original Delta variant that also was first identified in India. The original Delta variant is perhaps twice as transmissible as other strains of the coronavirus — meaning unvaccinated people are more likely to become infected if they are exposed to it. The United Kingdom was forced to delay a new phase of reopening its economy as the variant began to spread among unvaccinated people there, causing an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. Delta’s contagiousness is obvious cause for concern. But what about Delta-plus? Statements issued
by the Indian government say the characteristics of Delta-plus also include increased transmissibility. But it’s unclear whether the strain is more transmissible than the regular Delta variant. Scientists in California say there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that Delta-plus is any more problematic than the original Delta. “It has a good name,” said Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Stanford University. But there’s not much information available to suggest it’s worse than anything else that’s circulating, and more research is needed, he said. “It sounds like just another variant that’s no better, no worse, than the regular Delta variant, and it’s a little unclear why everybody’s pushing on it,” said Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist. “I don’t See Coronavirus on pg.3