Troubled expressions

These records not meant to be broken

THE GOVERNOR of Arkansas doesn’t grimace much. Or at least he doesn’t in public. Asa Hutchinson has one of those faces that’s quicker with a smile, even when the news isn’t necessarily happy.

To see his weekly news conference on the virus this past Tuesday is to believe that things—health things, hospital things, life-and-death things—aren’t going well.

The national task force in charge of limiting the deadly damage of covid-19 said its members shared a “strong concern” about the worsening situation in Arkansas, and the governor read part of its report to the press Tuesday afternoon.

The feds say the coronavirus numbers in Arkansas put the state on the “precipice of a rapid accelerating increase in cases which will be followed with new hospital admissions.” And, even if they left it unsaid, we will not: New hospitalization admissions lead to new fatality numbers. Or have so far.

The governor’s response to Arkansas being singled out by the national outfit: It wasn’t defiance. It wasn’t denial. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is in his second and last term of governor, so he has the ability to tell it with the bark off, and give it to us straight: “Now that’s a statement [by the White House task force] that will get your attention as a leader. We look at the holiday season that is approaching and we have to be mindful that if Arkansas continues at the present pace over the last two days, then Arkansas will have an additional 1,000 Arkansans that will die as a result of covid-19 between now and Christmas.”

He called that a cloud that hangs over the state, and a cloud that hangs over coming Christmas celebrations.

And yet, and yet . . . . There are still those who would call the whole thing a hoax. Or, if they’re not overtly disparaging reality, they’re showing their “independence” by not wearing masks in public. We’ve seen them. We can only imagine they’re trying to make a political statement. But the statement they’re really making is more educational than political.

If there are “only” another 1,000 cases added today, for example, that would be good news. That’s how bad the news has been lately.

Some folks would naturally be impressed by the articles in the papers about the coming vaccines. But those vaccines are months away for the majority of us. Until the spring, we still must rely on common sense, vigilance, and, by the way, our leaders. Such as the governor and the state Health Secretary Jose Romero, who said at the same press conference:

“This is like a boulder rolling down a hill. There will come a time that we cannot stop it. It will continue to escalate and will eventually overwhelm our health care facilities. Now is the time to act. I cannot stress enough the importance of the Three W’s. I’ll say it again: Wear your mask, wash your hands, and watch your distance.”

So they’ve said it again. Have we grown too tired to listen? And if so, are we willing to watch another 1,000 Arkansans die before Christmas to pay for our fatigue?