(not good) News from Arkansas

My good friend Kevin Perry, who lives near Little Rock, Arkansas, emailed me in response to my last post. In that post, I mentioned the big problem nowadays is the large number of people, especially in rural areas of red states, who refuse to get vaccinated. To give me an idea of what life is like on the “front lines” of this fight, he said:

The hospitals in Little Rock are full to overflowing.  My local hospital (Saline Memorial) is full.  The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock has set an all-time record for COVID patients.  Children’s Hospital in Little Rock has young children on ventilators.  Hospitals are diverting ambulances to outlying areas because there is no room in the inn.  My local hospital is diverting to the Baptist Medical Center in Malvern, some 20+ miles away.  Ambulances have to travel through a major Interstate construction project that often has traffic backed up for miles.  All because this state is full of morons who won’t take the vaccine.

I saw a posted comment the other day that I will paraphrase:  Yes, it is your choice to blow through a red light.  Other, innocent people will suffer the consequences of your poor choice (and I might add, “You might suffer the consequences as well.”)

After this, Kevin gave me an update, even more distressing:

24 kids are in Arkansas Children’s Hospital.  7 kids are in the ICU. 4 are on ventilators.  Roughly half are age 12 or over.  None were vaccinated.

And that’s really the worst part of it: Adults who stubbornly won’t get vaccinated, and make their kids sick in the process. The idea of a child having a bad enough case that they need to be on a ventilator is something that hadn’t even occurred to me. But on the other hand, the idea that a deadly pandemic would somehow become a political football never occurred to me until late March of last year; until then, I thought it was just a matter of getting the science and facts in front of people. Silly me.

P.S. Kevin dropped me the following update today. It seems like good sense isn't entirely dead in Arkansas! As for Florida, well....

"And if you want to add some more “good” news, school here starts in about three weeks.  Earlier this year, the GOP-dominated State Legislature passed Act 1002, which took effect only yesterday (Wednesday, July 28), that prohibits all public school districts from requiring students and staff to wear masks.  The Governor could call a special session of the legislature to repeal the law, but it would take a two-thirds majority vote of both chambers and it appears there is insufficient support from the GOP members to be successful."

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com.

 

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