Arkansas continues to have one of the lower vaccinations rates in the country, and recently has been making national news because of having high outbreaks of Covid-19, primarily in the unvaccinated population. Only 32 percent of the population of Carroll County has been vaccinated leaving a large pool of people unprotected from the virus that causes Covid-19, including the new Delta and Delta Plus variants that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says are far more contagious and less responsive to treatment.
According to the New York Times Covid tracker on July 6, in the past 14 days there has been a 168 percent increase in new cases of Covid-19 in Carroll County with an average of seven new cases per day. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 1 in 10 residents have been infected, a total of 2,912 reported cases,” NYT writes. “Right now, Carroll County is at a very high risk for unvaccinated people. The test positivity rate in Carroll County is high, suggesting that cases may be undercounted.”
Katy Turnbaugh, an engineer and science educator from Carroll County, said the moving targets are, of course, the variants.
“As the variants progress, some of the mutations are being advantageous to the virus so it is able to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines,” Turnbaugh said. “In the U.S., it is thought the effectiveness of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines in preventing the Delta variant of Covid completely could be down to 80 percent instead of the original 94 percent effectiveness.
“But what is being reported in Israel with the Delta variant is that it is significantly lower than that, around 65 percent at preventing Covid infection. It is still showing far better outcomes for vaccinated people as far as how sick they get and whether they require hospitalization. The vaccines continue to prevent the worst outcomes. But with more people getting the Delta variants, it is certainly something to be reckoned with. Delta is advancing significantly in parts of the U.S. including here in Arkansas, and in Missouri, Los Angeles and Florida.”
Turnbaugh is concerned that many people have declared victory over Covid-19. As she sees it, we have gained some ground, but we haven’t won. She advocates common sense, continuing to wear masks and maintain physical distance from others.
She is disappointed at people who have not been vaccinated and is concerned with anti-vaxxers using information from experts out of context.
“It can really skew what it seems like the experts are saying,” Turnbaugh said. “Slow down and actually bite into the research and data. We know that as people age, immune responses are not as great. We could put elderly people back into a very vulnerable position. Children under 12 aren’t eligible for vaccinations yet. There are large swatches of the population that we are putting at risk. On a personal level, no one would choose to harm someone else. But we aren’t realizing that our personal decisions are having collective outcomes.”
Infection rates in Carroll County are swinging up again when they need to be dropping for children to be able to safely return to school in six weeks. Ample evidence across the country shows that most children do better in a classroom rather than with remote learning.
“As a science educator, I see problems getting anywhere near the quality of classroom education by doing it online,” she said. “For example, you can’t do hands-on labs online. If people got vaccinated now, they could start being part of the solution by the time school starts. I wish we would get ahead of this instead of being behind this all the time. Our public health recommendations are coming out after the cows have left the barn. This is bad idea. This is not how you go about ending a pandemic.”
Dr. Dan Bell, co-founder of the ECHO Clinic that has given more than 4,000 vaccine shots to 2,000 people, said they gave vaccinations at Smith Drugs Saturday and only six people showed up.
“People are not getting it done,” Bell said. “Before the Fourth of July, we were already seeing a mini surge compared to what we had. Most folks are not vaccinated and a lot of people got together for the holiday. We are likely to see a continued surge with the Delta variant and people unvaccinated, but we don’t know how bad it will be. That mini surge will probably continue and get a little worse. How to control it? People need to think about wearing masks and social distancing, and ought to go get vaccinated. There is an uptick in a deadly variant that is more infectious and it is a concern. One day last week we had four Covid-19 positives at the Eureka Springs Family Clinic when we were seeing just one or two a week at the clinic.”
Bell said people who can get vaccinated need to step up to protect those who can’t including children under 12 who can’t yet be vaccinated.
“Hopefully, they won’t get too sick, but some do,” Bell said. “The time for everyone who can be vaccinated to get vaccinated is now so we don’t see this mini surge turn into a major wave like it did last year when school started. I think that is what we can expect unless there is a marked change in people getting vaccinated. The CDC leaders are telling us what we should do and we should just follow the science.”
Arkansas had dropped to about 170 new cases per day, but recently saw as high as 700 new cases per day. New cases are at a four-month high.
Bell said that the clinic is also seeing the usual number of patients with summer colds and tick-borne illnesses, some of which might mimic Covid. He recommends that people get tested to make sure. The clinic has a drive-through clinic from 8 a.m. to noon weekdays for Covid testing and sick patient care.
The NWA Healthcare Community Covid-19 coalition announced July 1 that NWA hospitals are caring for 41 patients in Covid-19 units. “This is the first time we’ve cared for more than 40 hospitalized Covid-19 patients since February,” a coalition press release stated. “The vast majority of these patients have not been vaccinated. As our hospital physicians and presidents shared yesterday, this is a significant red flag that the Covid-19 virus is not under control in our community. And unfortunately, if we don’t reach greater immunity quickly, we will reach, if not bypass, our summer and winter surges soon. The Covid-19 vaccine is the most significant tool we have to reach a level of immunity that will slow the spread of the virus, keep people from becoming critically ill and not stress our health care systems and workers.”
Eureka Springs’ resident Tom Conboy said he is sad that so many people have decided not to be vaccinated.
“When presented with an impossible situation, vaccines were developed in record time,” Conboy said. “Despite the vaccines being safe, effective, and free, our biggest hurdle turns out to be convincing people to take them. Amazing.”