As some cities, counties and other entities try to do what the CDC calls for, it is not helpful that the governor and now the state legislature, led by Sen. Trent Garner, a Republican from El Dorado who represents some of Pine Bluff, is doing all in their power to make sure that no one is wearing a mask.
It’s true that the covid numbers have fallen in Arkansas, but they are rising in many areas in the country, and in our way of thinking, this is tantamount to turning off the fire hoses and heading back to the station before the fire is extinguished.
The first indication there might be trouble ahead was the comment made Monday by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She said she felt a sense of “impending doom” about where this new uptick in cases across the country is headed. The whole country has lived through “doom” for most of the past year, so that was really all she had to say to get her message across.
We also draw your attention to Michigan. That state too had covid on the run, but now, things are getting back to being in a very stressful situation.
“It is absolutely alarming,” said Emily Toth Martin, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, according to a story in the New York Times. “Looking at numbers yesterday felt like a gut punch. We’re going to have to go through this surge, and all this hard work again to get the numbers down.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Some 2.8 million doses are going out each day, which is a good thing, but what has helped reverse Michigan’s path to staying ahead of covid are a couple of variants, one of which is spreading quickly there.
But, and this is where Arkansas can take a cue, one of the reasons blamed for this new surge in Michigan is a relaxation of covid restrictions and a relaxation of people’s habits to wear masks and socially distance — in short, to continue taking covid seriously.
Sen. Garner said he didn’t think his bill would get rid of “all mandatory face covering requirements,” according to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. But Sen. Clarke Tucker, a Democrat from Little Rock, said that is exactly what Garner’s bill would do.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who just suspended Arkansas’ mask-wearing requirement, called Garner’s legislation “pointless.” The governor also said the bill would keep private businesses, schools and hospitals from demanding people wear masks and that he would veto it in its present form. (Golf clap here)
Again, we applaud Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington, Jefferson County Judge Gerald Robinson and Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr., all of whom have said that their employees must continue to wear masks and that anyone walking into buildings operated by any of the three have to wear masks as well.
Our elected leaders are simply following the advice from the CDC, which bases its statements on scientific evidence. What Trent Garner bases his legislative proposals on, well, we’d all like to know that.