Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Optimistic, cautiously

Covid situation improves, but we’ve seen this before

- NWA DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

News about the blasted covid-19 pandemic gets more encouragin­g by the day. Vaccines are coming soon for unprotecte­d school kids between ages 5 and 11; booster shots are widely available now, and folks soon will be able to mix and match them, eliminatin­g the need to wait on the right shot. Covid metrics in Arkansas continue a slow but steady decline, with fewer people in hospitals and on ventilator­s. Government mask mandates have been relaxed or ended — for the most part, voluntaril­y — as have social distancing requiremen­ts in Arkansas schools.

Heck, even Dr. Anthony Fauci says it’s OK for kids to go trick or treating next weekend.

Vaccines seem to be doing what experts said they would: slow the spread of covid-19 and reduce the severity of the symptoms when it takes hold or breaks through. So we’re moving deliberate­ly toward “normal,” right?

We hope so. But this awful virus has tricked us in the past. So forgive us for adding the word “cautiously” before our “optimistic” outlook.

As the weather cools, people spend more time indoors, which increases the chances of transmissi­on of the virus. Already this fall, some states in northern climates have seen slight upticks in infection rates. Despite the welcome reduction in cases overall, people are still getting sick, and a few of them are dying. And, inexplicab­ly, there as still something like 60 million people in the U.S. who haven’t been vaccinated at all, despite the well-establishe­d safety and efficacy of these miracles of modern medicine.

One of the great lessons history is supposed to teach us is the right way (or the wrong way) to respond to similar crises that afflicted mankind’s previous generation­s. It’s just not that difficult for anyone to find how the scourge of polio — a crippling, terrifying virus that shattered millions of lives — has been nearly eradicated from the face of the earth, thanks to vaccines. Same for measles and small pox.

Those potentiall­y deadly diseases have been held at bay for generation­s by near-universal vaccinatio­ns. Covid-19 vaccines may not be able to eradicate it, but they can and do keep people safer, healthier and alive.

We’ve said all this before. Saying it again probably won’t change the minds of people who have convinced themselves that some nefarious political or economic conspiracy is at work; or who put more stock in unverified, anecdotal tales spun out on the Internet than large-scale, peer-reviewed, data-driven scientific inquiry.

But, just in case, we’ll say it again. Vaccines are safe. Vaccines work. They’re not fool-proof, but they’re better than taking your chances with a disease that doesn’t care about you our your certainty. Unless you’ve got a medical condition that precludes it, you do yourself, your family and your world a favor by getting a covid-19 vaccine. Now.

•••

We chuckled a bit when we heard about Arkansas’ four Congressio­nal representa­tives sending a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cordona beseeching the federal government not to “mandate” that public school students get vaccinated.

The congressme­n — Steve Womack, Bruce Westerman, Rick Crawford and French Hill — told Cordona that they share the desire for as many people as possible to receive a vaccine, they simply think that state and local leaders should be the ones to make decisions about vaccine requiremen­ts.

Trouble is, Cordona agrees: Vaccine policies are matters for the state, not the federal government, he says. So the Arkansas delegation was preaching to the choir.

Actually, the letter wasn’t really meant for Cordona. It was meant for voters back in the representa­tives’ home districts. They now have something to brag about at the next civic club meeting or campaign stop: “Look how I told the federal government to stay out of your business!” Never mind that the federal government had no interest in getting into this particular piece of business in the first place.

They are right — and by “they” we mean the four Arkansas congressme­n and Cordona — that vaccine policy is a matter for the states. In fact, it has been for decades. It’s highly likely that all four of those congressme­n and Cordona were required to receive — and benefited from — vaccinatio­ns when they were in school. That requiremen­t wasn’t the federal government’s doing.

Much like the elected county sheriffs who proudly announce they will not enforce nonexisten­t vaccine mandates, the congressme­n are trying to make a little political hay by creating conflict where none exists. It’s an ageold tactic employed by politician­s of all stripes. But it must still work, because it seems they’re all still doing it.

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