Kudos to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who made a case last week for taking evasive action against covid-19. Specifically, he called a special session of the legislature in order to amend Act 1002 and he declared a public health emergency.
In doing so, he tried not to inflame the Republican-heavy state legislature, which now has to approve the declaration of a health emergency and which, of course, would have to be sold on amending the act. Even he knows the way forward is fraught with peril.
The governor made a good case for both moves.
The delta variant, as we continue to learn, is not just a minor blip on the way to beating covid-19. It spreads much more easily -- as easily as chickenpox -- and it is serious, putting more people in the hospital and keeping them there longer than the original version of the virus.
The state's new-patient numbers keep jumping, now pushing 3,000 a day, which, as a Jefferson Regional hospital nurse said, is creating bigger health care problems than were being experienced a year ago.
Consequently, ICU beds are full around the state and some patients were being cared for in ambulances while waiting for a bed to open somewhere. If that's not a health emergency, the governor said, he didn't know what was.
Then there's Act 1002, the Republican pushback to the affront they felt when the governor, just a little more than a year ago, ordered masks to be worn.
Act 1002 said, "Nope, we're not having any more of that. Go forth and cough and sputter and spread the coronavirus as you see fit because your rights trump those of the people you might infect."
We imagine there was quite a bit of self-satisfaction when that bill was signed into law because it bars mostly any other institution of government from installing a mask mandate. But that was then, when the coronavirus was on the run, and this is now, when it's baaack.
Consequently, Gov. Hutchinson is going to try to get these same Republicans to meet up at the Capitol and amend the poor piece of legislation and carve out an exception for schools.
As the governor correctly points out, the delta variant, unlike the original version, can become a serious problem for even the young, with several children already being hospitalized at Arkansas Children's Hospital, some on ventilators. While children 12 and older can be vaccinated, those younger than that are not cleared for the shots.
Ergo, to open schools and to protect those younger students in the schools, the state needs to allow school districts to require masks on campus. And to do that means Act 1002 needs to be amended.
It's a connection of dots that is easy to follow, even by the average lawmaker, although, as the governor said he had been told by the Republican leadership in the legislature, changing the act will be a "heavy lift."
Protecting the health and lives of children, however, should not be heavy or a lift, but that's the world we live in now. We couldn't help but notice that when the governor took his "please get your vaccine" roadshow to northwest Arkansas, some in a crowd in Siloam Springs jeered and called him a liar.
So, apparently, the politics of covid we will have with us always. But also, apparently, we will have covid with us, if not always, a long time.
Good for the governor to take action against the actual virus even if he can't do much with the politics. We think we will miss him when he's gone.