Defending Arkansas’ path

Hutchinson pressured by those wanting stay-at-home order

The pressure is building on Gov. Asa Hutchinson to impose a stay-at-home order in Arkansas. This state is one of an increasingly small number of states without such an order in place as the nation fights the coronavirus outbreak that has already claimed more than 11,800 lives in the U.S. and is projected to take 10 times that many, maybe 20 times more.

The death toll in Arkansas is minute by comparison. Through Tuesday afternoon, the deaths stood at 18 while the total of coronavirus cases exceeded 945.

Every one of those lost lives was precious, every illness a serious concern for the victims, their families, friends and anyone with a caring heart.

The concern extends, too, to the heroic medical personnel who treat these patients and, unfortunately, to anyone else who may have come into contact with the contagion they carry.

Covid-19 could be anywhere now. Almost every county in this state has at least one reported case. Some counties have seen dozens of cases since the first presumptively positive case surfaced in Arkansas on March 11. The numbers are growing slowly but surely in an environment with no certain cure for the disease and no vaccine to protect against it.

Were there more testing, the numbers would surely be greater. The numbers are what they are and that’s the information, along with experiences in other states and projections from experts, that this state has to guide it.

Because the disease is carried by people who are asymptomatic as well as those with symptoms, the best response anyone seems to have come up with has been this universal call for people to stay home to avoid getting infected or spreading the infection, especially to those who are more vulnerable to the disease.

Everyone is also advised to keep at least a 6-foot physical distance from others and to wear some sort of nonmedical face mask to protect themselves and others when they do have to be out.

Nevertheless, the number of covid-19 cases in Arkansas alone is expected to more than triple in a couple of weeks. It seems just common sense to hunker down at home if at all possible.

In most states, residents have been ordered by their respective governors to stay at home. That’s happened in large measure because President Donald Trump has refused to consider a national stay-at-home order. One by one, most governors decided to issue their own orders.

Critics of the president have extended their criticism to the governors who haven’t put such orders in place, often asserting that these governors, all of them Republicans like Hutchinson, don’t want to displease this Republican president.

That’s unfair to Hutchinson. He may generally like to stay on the president’s good side, but he has his own reasons for not following the other states’ lead to shut down Arkansas.

Hutchinson, advised as he is by state Health Department Secretary Nate Smith, who has spent decades studying infectious diseases, has resisted imposing a stay-at-home order because he believes

OPINION

that Arkansas’ targeted measures are working. They have slowed the growth in the number of cases here to less than half of projected levels while keeping “a couple hundred thousand” Arkansans on the job, according to Hutchinson.

Arkansas has indeed closed the schools, bars and casinos, restricted restaurants to serving takeout meals, shut down barbershops and hair and nail salons as well as massage-therapy clinics and tattoo parlors. Closed, too, are fitness centers, movie theaters, bowling alleys and indoor amusement centers.

The governor has directed state employees to work remotely when possible and suggested companies encourage their employees to work from home.

“At this time, we have not issued a stay-at-home order primarily because most people are making responsible choices,” Hutchinson explained recently, citing voluntary closures of concert halls, sports arenas and most churches.

While the rate of growth in the number of cases has flattened in Arkansas, the governor said in a recent press release, “That’s not true in some states that began sheltering-in-place early on.”

Hutchinson makes a pretty strong defense of Arkansas’ actions, which he emphasized are based on scientific data.

“We can’t be pressured into taking measures simply because all the other states are doing it. When we need to do more, we will. And let me assure you, we will continue to listen our public health experts,” Hutchinson asserted.

We’ll see how well the governor’s resistance holds up.

This week, he’ll be hearing from state legislators who will necessarily gather in Little Rock for a constitutionally required fiscal session. They’ll be carrying messages from their respective constituents, all of whom are also the governor’s constituents.

Their collective message will likely be that a lot of vocal Arkansans want this state to get in line with other states requiring people to stay home and remove as much risk as possible from the coronavirus.

Constituents, even some lawmakers, may or may not know what Arkansas is already doing.

Hutchinson can continue making his argument that he’s doing the right thing to slow the spread and keep paychecks coming to more Arkansans.

He’s just going to have trouble silencing the increasingly strong call for a stay-at-home order here.