Sen. Trent Garner made a good point -- for those opposed to his stand on masks.
In an article Tuesday in The Commercial, the Republican senator from El Dorado who represents some of Pine Bluff said he was against a mask mandate because following that advice had not worked.
"I think, at this point, we can't keep doing the same exact things that have failed us for 18 months," he said.
Garner was the sponsor of legislation that bars almost all public entities -- including schools -- from requiring masks to be worn. The problem is that school is around the corner, less than two weeks away, and the delta variant is hitting the state hard, including the young.
Because of that dire situation, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said last week that he was declaring a statewide health emergency and was also going to call a special session of the legislature to amend Garner's legislation, which became law and went into effect last week.
The governor's rationale on the health crisis was that the hospital beds were full, and there weren't enough health care professionals to handle the load.
As for the special session, the governor said that, because children under 12 can't get the vaccination, they are particularly vulnerable when it comes to going back to school. The answer, he said, is to carve out an exception in Garner's legislation -- Act 1002 -- to allow school districts to require the wearing of masks at school.
Garner, however, would not have any of it. He said mask-wearing should be a choice that's left up to a child's parents.
So what things have failed us for 18 months? The main thing, of course, is being from Arkansas.
If more state residents had been following the science, we don't think we would be in this mess or not in this much of a mess. The science, as we know, recommends putting space between ourselves, wearing face coverings and washing hands often. And once vaccines came on the scene, the recommendation was to get one of those.
With the state's high rate of infection, it's fairly obvious that few people have been following the CDC recommendations. The statistics tell the story. Those getting seriously sick with covid, those in the hospital, those on ventilators, those dying --- the vast majority of all of those populations have not been vaccinated.
Yes, the delta variant is infecting some people who have been vaccinated, but those people, by and large, are experiencing mild symptoms.
In short, had the public been scrupulously adhering to CDC guidelines for 18 months and had the public lined up in great numbers to get vaccinations, perhaps we would not see youngsters under 12 on ventilators or have the fear that once students go back to school, the system will once again fall apart because some are wearing masks and some aren't.
For that reason, we support the mandated wearing of masks in schools. The state can't afford to lose another school year to the pandemic. But to have school, it's going to require some accommodations for the virus. A sound place to start is wearing a mask. For once, can we just try to keep everyone safe?