Masks, distance will remain good advice

Some governors have removed mask mandates, despite advice from the Centers for Disease Control and prevention to continue wearing them. This comes at a time when covid-19 has risen in 27 states by at least 5% and when new cases are up 9.5% over the previous week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The prudent thing to do, of course, would be to listen to the CDC, but that is too difficult for these elected leaders who want to blow the doors open and get their economies going at full steam no matter what some sissy scientists say. Governors don’t have to be smart, apparently, just electable.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson is headed down the same road. At the end of the month, which is just days away, he will likely get rid of the statewide mask mandate. And just so no sissy mayor decides masks are still necessary, he at first said there would be no local mandates allowed to the contrary, although he reeled that back a bit and said he was still pondering the matter.

As has happened in other states where a governor’s order to take it easy on covid has been dismissed by a more aggressive mayor and the two have then tangled, Hutchinson’s mask retreat will likely be at odds with mask mandates still in place in Fayetteville and Little Rock.

Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan said in March that his city’s mandate will remain “no matter what the governor does,” according to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. We’re picturing a line in the sand.

And in the capital city, a spokesman for Mayor Frank Scott said the city’s mask order “will continue.”

While not as strident as Jordan and Scott, Pine Bluff Mayor Shirley Washington and Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods are encouraging the public and their employees to follow the CDC guidelines, meaning they should wear masks and practice social distancing.

“I still think on the local level we still should maintain until we get more people vaccinated,” the sheriff said. “I still think we are premature to make a decision to relax at this time.”

Good advice.

Good that at least some people are following the science and showing some leadership, even if the same is in short supply at the state level.