What a weird headline.
But there is a hope in the air. A hope of decline. After dealing with this pandemic since the spring of 2020, and maybe even before, there is a hope of decline in the numbers. And even from some experts who haven't signaled much hope in the recent past.
Before we get much more into it, a note on the numbers. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's replica edition features several pages every day as you shuffle past the A section and toward the Arkansas Section. The pages feature graphs and numbers and percentages.
Earlier this week, the Coronavirus Update said 64.7 percent of the total population of Arkansas had received one shot of the vaccine. And 52.4 percent were "fully vaccinated," meaning--we suppose--that they'd had either the one-shot version or both doses of the two-shot vaccines.
So why is there a 12-point difference? These vaccines have been available for more'n a year. There is still a large part of the population who've taken one shot of their two-shot regimen, but not the second.
That just seems strange. And only 35 percent have received boosters. These aren't anti-vaxxers. These are people who haven't completed the task.
Back to the hope of decline:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top covid-19 adviser to the president and country, was described by the papers this week as "cautiously optimistic." It is possible that the omicron wave has peaked in the United States. And in the coming months could fall to manageable levels.
"What we would hope," he said, using that word again, "is that, as we get into the next weeks to month or so, we'll see throughout the entire country the level of infection get to below what I call that area of control."
Which wouldn't mean eradication, like the boll weevil. But controlled, like regular weevils.
"There are still some states in the Southern states and Western states that continue to go up," he said, "but if the pattern follows the trend that we're seeing in other places as the Northeast, I believe that you will start to see a turnaround throughout the entire country."
And that is as much hope as we dare have just yet.