Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
LAWMAKERS told of benefits of mandating masks.
Requiring masks in indoor spaces would change the shape of the coronavirus outbreak in Arkansas, two top health officials told lawmakers Monday at a committee meeting.
In remarks before the Arkansas Senate and House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committees, both the state epidemiologist and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ chancellor pointed to research supporting mask mandates.
While he clarified that it is not his role to set policy, UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson said his position “as a clinician, as a scientist” reviewing data is that mask usage would throw cold water on transmission that’s accelerated in recent weeks.
“Since we don’t have mandatory masking restrictions in place, they’re not having any impact on our trajectories,” Patterson explained.
Both Italy and New York City “implemented mandatory masks — and that is what changed the trajectory of their epidemic,” said Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the epidemiologist. “So that is something that we may have to look at.”
Made during an omnibus hearing updating legislators on the pandemic response, the comments came less than a week after Fayetteville passed a city ordinance requiring masks in public spaces, the first place in the state to do so.
Thus far, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has resisted a statewide mask requirement, which he has said would be difficult to enforce. The state Department of Health on Friday issued new guidelines that encouraged masks. but stopped short of mandating them.
Legislators on Monday were divided in their comments on the issue, with the House committee chairman, Rep. Jack Ladyman, R-Jonesboro, asking about improved public education strategies.
“If we know the science tells us that a mask is good, then we need to win the minds and the hearts of the public,” he said.
Rep. Reginald Murdock, a Democrat from Marianna who tested positive for the virus earlier this year, asked what could be done to correct “mixed messaging” from different parts of the government.
“My constituents continue to talk to me about what they see on TV … in terms of the necessity of these,” he said. “There are people in policy-making and decision-making positions that feel like that you should do nothing.”
However, Rep. Justin Boyd, R-Fort Smith, questioned the science that Dillaha referred to about the effects of mask-wearing in places where transmission died down.
“What’s to say that there wasn’t an acquired immunity that led to these drastic decreases?” Boyd, who is a pharmacist, asked.
It was one of a few comments made Monday challenging the health officials on scientific matters, including inquiries about the accuracy of a UAMS College of Public Health model projecting a peak of 150,000 covid-19 cases in September.
“Something about that just doesn’t smell right to me,” said Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado. “Even the states with the worst example of the outbreak don’t get near to that number of active cases.”
Patterson said that model, which is updated weekly and is made based on local data and assumptions, has more closely predicted the virus’s momentum in the state than national forecasts.
He said he hopes it’s wrong, but “compared to a month ago, we have a fourfold increase in the number of patients on ventilators. … If that increase continues at that same rate, then yeah, that’s where we’re headed.”
At Monday’s meeting, committee members and attendees heard from numerous hospital industry officials, representatives from longterm care facilities and others about their continued work during the pandemic.
Overall, access to diagnostic testing and personal protective equipment has improved, most said. Hospitals are managing the financial impact and devising resource-sharing and surge capacities for fall.
Comprehensive testing at long-term care facilities such as nursing homes also is underway, lawmakers heard, in anticipation of visits to some of those sites resuming next month if the facilities meet criteria.
That testing revealed 63 virus cases among clients at the Conway Human Development Center, one of five staterun sites for adults with disabilities, said Developmental Disabilities Services Director Melissa Stone.
Northwest Arkansas health officials and the director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission also called lawmakers’ attention to covid-19’s disproportionate impact on the state’s Hispanic, Marshallese and black populations.
Right now, that’s especially affecting Northwest Arkansas, said UAMS Northwest Vice Chancellor Pearl McElfish, where there’s a need to ramp up in-language contact tracing and other resources for Spanish and Marshallese speakers.
More than 20% of Arkansas’ total covid-19 cases have been in Hispanic individuals, and roughly half the deaths in Benton and Washington counties have been among Marshallese people — many of whom are younger, she said.
Those people may have sought care when their disease was more advanced or have had other health conditions, but “we are very concerned, and need an immediate and coordinated effort,” McElfish said.