Mayor promotes unity during pandemic

Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe has taken to social media during the coronavirus pandemic to promote calmness and optimism, saying “the only way we’re going to fight and win this battle is by working together as one.”

“All of our individual efforts have got to be focused on the whole community, and if we as 100,000 individuals in Garland County are of one mind and one purpose, we will come out of this with the least amount of individuals impacted from the COVID-19 virus,” McCabe said in an interview on Monday.

This is the time when Americans and, “certainly those of us who live in Hot Springs, rise to our greatest potential,” he said.

“There is no individual goal that’s greater than the whole goal for the community,” he said. “We set all that individual stuff aside and we focus on the common good. If it’s not part of the common good, we’re not going down that path. It’s got to be for the common good of our community and everyone has got to have their oars stroking in the same direction, and

I believe we have it, and I think we as a community are going to be better off as a result of that.” Calmness and optimism during a pandemic is of “utmost importance” in leadership, McCabe said, because “running around with your head cut off” is not going to instill confidence in the public.

“I think it’s important for us to provide timely, accurate and truthful information and not sugarcoat anything, but communicate in a responsible, understandable and in an intellectual manner,” he said. “For instance, there’s been a lot of projections for those who will be infected and those who will need to be hospitalized … I’m trying to establish myself as a person who is looking at that, both with my background as a hospital administrator and my education and experience and my review of many news articles … We’re learning as we go, and projections are just that: Projections.”

McCabe said he is in a “very unique” situation as Levi Hospital administrator because it allows him to receive information on COVID-19 from the Arkansas Hospital Association and UAMS conference calls, as well as from government sources.

With daily updates on his Facebook Page, McCabe is addressing his followers with messages reminding them to wash hands, don’t touch their face, keep their distance and continue to support businesses in safe ways. With numerous comments expressing appreciation for his positive approach on handling the pandemic as the mayor, he said “running around in fear” is not going to benefit the situation.

“You’ve got to interpret the data and the facts,” he said. “I think now, Garland County has

26 positive cases; we’re nearly

100,000 population, maybe a little bit over. We’re actually doing pretty good for being a tourism community where we had a lot of people come into our community, and a lot of people leave.

“As I stated in one of my Facebook posts,” he continued, “the communities that are going to weather this better than others are going to do so because of good governmental leadership and the citizenry are going to respect their governmental leaders and abide by what is being asked of them, and they understand the importance. And I think our community is very, very high on that scale of understanding what’s at risk.”

In regard to preparations, McCabe said the first thing done in Hot Springs was the declaration of an emergency, which provides access to funds and programs for the community.

“The task force has just been excellent,” he said. “We have a task force that’s addressing this issue and it has health care providers, social agencies and first responders. Just about every aspect of our community is in those meetings, and they’re doing a fantastic job of ensuring that we’re going to have what we need when we need it and at the location of need.”

McCabe said local hospitals are also working together to “ensure we’re not individual organizations addressing it ourselves, but we can correlate where we can … to make sure we can meet, as best we can, any increases in patient activity as a result of COVID-19.”

The “main message” McCabe said he wants to relay to people in Hot Springs is “we will get through this and we’re going to get through it together.

“It may be a little bit longer than what we originally anticipated,” he said. “The biggest thing is: Continue what you’re doing. We’re doing a great job with our hand washing, our social distancing, our (avoiding) face touching and we will get through this. I know that for businesses this is a very, very, very tough situation and my heart bleeds for them; it’s just a horrible situation. But we’ll work together, we’ll get through this, and we’ll get back to normal as soon as we can get back to normal.”