OPINION | JOHN BRUMMETT: Adventures in mediocrity

The first thing Gov. Asa Hutchinson said when he returned my call Saturday was that a ranking that morning in The New York Times had shown Arkansas 25th among the states in vaccination performance thus far.

It was an interesting opening line, showing off that solid C on a steep grading curve.

Was the governor's main concern the national assessment of his state's performance in comparison to other states? After all, he's become ubiquitous on the national talk shows. And, if so, was mediocrity in a pandemic a positive thing?

Actually, the governor's context was that, whatever the problem in Arkansas, it hardly was unique. Nobody is getting much vaccine right now. We fall in the national mainstream of plodding failure.

The statistics the governor cited showed Arkansas pulling up to 25th by vaccinating, as of Saturday, 3.2 percent of its population and using 40 percent of the doses it had received.

The governor has a certain calm about the situation, as well as in general manner. But what I hear from many Arkansans is that they would prefer less calm and more urgency.

I'd requested the callback because I was hearing complaints from the state's over-70 population about a lack of clear information or an accessible appointment process for getting the vaccines through pharmacies--about, in fact, the reliance on overwhelmed pharmacies in the first place.

I'd also been hearing about unfairness with some people not in early authorized groups getting vaccines from friendly druggists who were telling the genuinely eligible 70-somethings that they couldn't say when they'd receive enough of the vaccine to get to them.

Somehow, though, the governor, who turned 70 last month, got set up for his vaccine first thing Monday.

I can tell you that Hutchinson had an answer for everything.

As he told it, the problem simply is forced on us by math.

Data in The Times on Saturday showed that the state had received not quite 300,000 doses and given about 120,000 inoculations in the first phase supposedly only for front-line workers and nursing home residents. That left about 180,000 doses available as the state moved Monday to its second phase encompassing persons 70 and older and educators. And that combined population is about 460,000 people.

By the governor's unassailable arithmetic, 180,000 vaccines won't cover 460,000 people, and, on top of that, the state has been notified it'll get only about 30,000 new doses this week.

So, yes, your pharmacist cannot give you any certainty about your vaccination date.

But why use pharmacies at all? Rather than dividing an inadequate supply into tiny fractions, why not consolidate vaccines at large public venues?

Hutchinson said the state likely will turn to that large-venue practice when supplies are more plentiful and more age groups are authorized. He praised the new vaccination clinic run by UAMS and boasted on Sunday that a Rogers hospital had vaccinated 1,000 that day and assured it could keep up the pace when the supply line opens.

But, even so, Hutchinson said that pharmacies provide the best means of reaching small rural communities. He added that local pharmacies are ideal for coming into local nursing homes and schools for vaccinations.

As for reports of persons not in the targeted early groups managing to get the vaccines by breaking in line, Hutchinson said most of those cases occurred when pharmacies or hospitals needed to use vaccines still on site after completing all appointments, lest vaccines inexcusably go to waste.

It's like this: "Hey, Joe. I got some vaccines over here nobody has come for. I don't want to have to throw 'em out. That doesn't seem right. Drop by if you want one. Bring the missus and a couple of cousins."

Maybe planning could be better. Maybe eligible people could be sought out before Joe gets snuck in.

The bigger story is the tragic one. Our government is under literal attack and must be defended, but its defense would be well-served if it could do something right for a change.

The Trump administration disgraced us generally and failed on the virus specifically and spectacularly. The Biden administration vows an all-out effort to do better, but already is learning it will inherit less of the vaccine in reserve than it had thought.

Our people can't keep dying at this rate. Our hospitals can't keep treating at this pace. We can't keep educating our children at home some days and at schools on others. And we can't keep propping up the economy by printing money funneled via direct deposits into checking accounts a couple of times a year.

There is one hope, and it is the vaccine we're fumbling from coast to coast.

Seniors are frustrated with a blundered process, fearful they'll get left out and resentful that they are seeing no signs of fairness.

Hutchinson, ever measured, said the situation is not ideal but will get better.

It had better.

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John Brummett, whose column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is a member of the Arkansas Writers' Hall of Fame. Email him at jbrummett@arkansasonline.com. Read his @johnbrummett Twitter feed.

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