Demand for vaccine shouldn’t be waning

It’s an odd thing to say you have a million of something and then proclaim that it’s not enough. But that’s where we are. On Tuesday, at Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s weekly covid-19 news conference, the governor praised the fact that Arkansas had doled out 1 million vaccinations, but in the same breath, he said let’s not slow down now.

“I’m not happy with the speed of distribution, and I think we’re running into a little bit of a continued demand problem, in the sense that, as people in the community see the lower case numbers, they’re less motivated to want to get a vaccination,” Hutchinson said. “We’ve got to reverse that trend. I want to ask everyone: When it’s your turn to get it, get that shot.”

That is an interesting — and troubling — observation. Because cases are dropping, people who were, perhaps, not excited about the idea of getting a shot in the first place are thinking that maybe they can just skip getting one altogether.

Lelan Stice, Pine Bluff’s Dr. Vaccine, is seeing the same thing locally. Where he has had lines out the door of people wanting and waiting to get a vaccine, now, suddenly, many of his appointment slots are going unfilled.

“Part of it is opening up the remainder of the population so that anybody that wants a shot can get a shot,” Stice told a Commercial reporter. “We’re having to filter through people in part because of job classes and disease states. Those people should get vaccinated first, but there are not enough people right now to fill all the clinic slots.”

Getting a covid-19 vaccination is the essence of doing something good for oneself and for all mankind, even if that broad description is a relatively small community. And generally speaking, such acts of goodness are not left entirely to someone’s better nature. Please drive the speed limit, but if you don’t, we have ways of encouraging you, for example.

But where does society draw the line? Children are required to get vaccinations for a variety of diseases, although parents can have them opt out for many personal reasons. Requiring grownups to get covid-19 vaccinations is a heavier lift and unlikely to work. But if you are a business owner, would you be within your right to allow only those who have been vaccinated to enter? To enter a theater, for instance, or to board a plane or train, might you be asked: “Please, ma’am, may we see your vaccination card?” There would be outrage, but not getting a vaccination might someday have consequences.

It would be far better if at least a good majority of the public would get the shots, and now that covid is on the run or appears to be on the run, it is not the time to take our collective foot off the gas. This should not be this difficult.