Occam’s razor

Let us reason, if we can

APPARENTLY this is where we are as a state. Last week, during debate about the ban against mask requirements in public buildings—and whether the new law should be amended to allow school boards a say in the matter—the General Assembly invited some folks to speak.

And, according to the paper, one woman took the opportunity to ask state Health Secretary Jose Romero to “prove the existence” of the coronavirus.

She probably walked away from the Capitol satisfied Friday, when the Legislature adjourned without amending the law. Unless a judge steps in along the way, school boards won’t be able to require masks in schools, even as the Delta variant stampedes across the state and nation. Even though kids under the age of 12 can’t be vaccinated.

As far as proving that the covid-19 virus is real, we suggest a microscope and a careful doctor who knows what to look for. But then, doctors are experts in this field, so some people aren’t going to trust a darn thing one might say.

We don’t know when experts on health care became suspicious types. It reminds us of a person who drains all the oil out of his car just because 99.99 percent of all mechanics say not to. (“But I saw something on the Internet . . . . ”)

Maybe proof can be found in numbers.

On Friday, the paper reported that the number of covid-19 patients rose to a six-month high.

The state’s death toll rose by 17. The total death toll since the pandemic began stood at 6,247 in Arkansas.

On Friday, the number of covid-19 patients in the state’s hospitals was the highest since Jan. 19—officially listed at 1,251.

The number of people in intensive care stood at 464.

The number of those on ventilators rose to 266.

Andy Davis, this paper’s hotshot health reporter, wrote that 266 is just two below the high of 268 set back on Jan. 11. With new cases rising faster than people can get over the disease, the number of cases considered “active” in Arkansas rose to 21,461— also the highest level since mid-January.

At least some people in Arkansas believe the coronavirus is real. On average, more than 12,000 people in this state get the shot every day. That number has increased as the number of infections has increased over the last month. Most people are educable.

Yes, Virginia, there is a new coronavirus, and an even newer variant, that has the state, country and world in crisis. There’s a reason you saw no fans in the stands at the Olympics. And it wasn’t because the organizers of the Games wanted to lose millions of dollars in ticket sales.

We suppose there’s an outside chance that this is all one big conspiracy, involving nearly all medical doctors in the world, President Joe Biden and the Donald Trump administration, most business owners in the country, organizers of fairs and football games, restaurant owners, the media of all kinds, and what we in the industry call “real people” who have volunteered to get sick and lay around in a hospital. But often times, the simplest explanation is the best one.

And that would be: The virus is real. Get a shot.