What Arkansans say

New poll of residents shows impact of covid-19

Covid-19 has directly touched more Arkansans than you might imagine. The recently released annual Arkansas Poll found that 69% of respondents personally know someone who has been hospitalized or died as a result of having the virus.

That’s almost seven out of 10 of us who know someone whose life has been cut short or been sick enough to require hospitalization during the ongoing pandemic that has now seen more than 8,500 Arkansans die.

More than three times as many Arkansans have been hospitalized from among the 516,245 confirmed and probable covid-19 cases in Arkansas since the start of the pandemic.

The numbers change constantly, but those are Monday’s numbers from the Arkansas Department of Health. The good news is that the active case count has slowed and the number of hospitalizations lessened as more Arkansans have gotten vaccinated. The bad news is that immunizations are still lagging.

Immunization of children ages 5 to 11 has begun, but those numbers aren’t yet available from the Health Department. Among other Arkansans who are eligible for the free shots, anyone age 12 and up, the department reports more than 1.4 million are fully immunized. That’s still only 55.1% of that population.

Generally, that level of immunization is attributed to hesitancy among other Arkansans to take the shots, despite an intense campaign to encourage holdouts to get vaccinated.

Unfortunately, many Arkansans are also resisting other measures to protect the public health, according to that recent Arkansas Poll.

Respondents were asked whether they favor or oppose requiring people to wear a mask or show proof of vaccination before they can do certain activities.

As you might imagine, opinions are divided. While 61% of respondents favored requiring masks to travel by airplane, for example, only 42% favored requiring masks inside a restaurant.

Only 50 or 51% of respondents favored requiring masks to go to a sporting event or concert, attend public college and universities in person, attend K-12 public schools or shop inside stores and businesses.

Showing proof of vaccination in each of those circumstances was even less popular with respondents, never rising to more than 48% (to travel by airplane) but falling as low as 33% (to shop inside stores and businesses).

The Arkansas Poll is an annual survey sponsored by the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Dr. Janine Parry is the director of the poll, which is in its 23rd year.

The covid- related questions follow a long-standing practice of incorporating new issues in the poll, which also addresses several repeat questions from past polls. It also measures approval ratings of current officeholders and changing attitudes about “life in Arkansas.”

By far the most respondents, 29%, identified the economy as the most important issue facing people in Arkansas today.

Health care came in second at 9% with politicians, education and drugs each being cited by 8% of respondents.

Interestingly, Arkansas Poll respondents are apparently peeved at all of the current officeholders. Gov. Asa Hutchinson and U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton each saw their approval ratings plummet in the past year.

Hutchinson’s rating dropped from 69% to 57%, Boozman’s from 50% to 37% and Cotton’s from 58% to 49%.

Each of the Republicans are still way ahead of President Joe Biden, who drew a 63% disapproval rating from respondents, while only 30% approved of the Democratic president’s performance. But even Biden more than doubled one other group’s approval rating. The U.S Congress fell to 13% approval in the 2021 poll with 74% disapproving of its performance.

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A full summary report of the 2021 Arkansas Poll, a telephone survey of 800 randomly selected adult Arkansans conducted statewide between Oct. 12 and 24, can be found on the Arkansas Poll web page: https://fulbright.uark.edu/departments/political-science/partners/arkansas

The poll has a +/- 3.5 percent margin of error.