Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The Arkansas All Times and Little Rock Public Radio.

Hello again, everyone, and thanks very much for being with us.

It is that time of year that after all those months when doctors see their waiting rooms fill up and teachers see classroom attendance go way down.

Indeed, that's the case in Arkansas right now.

And in a moment, we will have an update on the flu situation from a medical pro.

First, we are about a month away from the first round of voting in Arkansas.

Much but not all the action is on the Republican side.

There's an intraparty challenge to a veteran congressman and to a sitting GOP state senator.

On the Democratic side, almost a dozen primaries for the House of Representatives.

And let's not leave out the judicial races, which are nonpartisan kind of.

And at the presidential level, the suspense is fairly bearable.

Who better now to hash it out?

But the leaders of the two major parties in Arkansas, Democratic Chair Grant O'Neal and his Republican counterpart, Joseph Wood.

Mr. Chairman, Chairman Wood, both of you, thanks for coming in.

Chairman Wood.

We'll start with you.

What kind of landscape do you see?

Is it just red everywhere?

Or do you feel some blue nibbling at your heels?

Well, I definitely think that the rates here and the rate is going to stay.

I think we're going to have a very good primary, but really get the eyes looking forward to November, where we will see even more, not just here in Arkansas, but across the country with movement and keeping the house and even garnering the Senate and presidency.

So in the primaries that I'm looking at anyway.

On your side, there seems to be the question seems to be how far right should the party go?

Would you quarrel with that?

No.

The Republican Party does have a very diverse group of folks, obviously, and whether it be the social conservatives or the fiscal conservatives.

And so there's always going to be some movement in there, a lot of individual responsibility, a lot of individual thought processes in their brains, which makes the Republican Party so unique.

So, yes, there's always going to be the jockeying.

The primaries will be what the primary is, is going to bring people out.

And we will support the best person who ends up coming out of that to go ahead and move toward the November general election.

But, yes, it's going to be a lot of dynamics, not just here in Arkansas, but across the country in that regard.

Okay.

But in the primaries that I'm looking at so far, the question seems to be on the part of the challengers is if the incumbent isn't conservative enough and that that that may be their thought process, I guess.

I don't know if that's the rationale why they got into run.

Now, clearly cultural or fiscal, That's.

That's correct.

And I think that is their charge.

Am I getting in to move the agenda, whether it be fiscal or social or what have you, further to whatever that regard is.

So again, that then becomes the individual, why they're running, what is their their thought process?

But do we all line up and say, yes, we believe in these principles of the party?

Now, how far is what the candidate has to own and run on?

Yeah.

Grant to Neil from the Democratic side.

Well, we filed more candidates this time than we filed in a decade.

And so I think what you're seeing is a renewed interest in the Democratic Party.

I think you're seeing renewed strength within the Democratic Party.

And I think that what that will bring you occasionally and we're not looking at these as a bad thing in most cases.

It's important that we have primary contests so that the party can continue to define who we are and what we're for.

Well, and in the success that you have had in recruiting candidates.

Sure.

Was there a common denominator?

If there is this renewed interest in the Democratic Party, what is fueling it?

Well, I've said it a few times, but right now there is a whole lot of anger among Democrats and others in Arkansas about the way things are going under this governor.

And we said the day filing closed that she was our best friend.

Now, I recognize that I'm her best friend, too.

She raises money on my back.

So it works both ways.

What about the presidential level, though?

To what extent is our national politics?

Let's go to Mr. One first, Chairman.

To what extent are national politics driving Arkansas politics?

Well, I think is it absolute or is it?

Well, it definitely has an impact.

And I think the chair mentioned the anger, if you will, by the Democrats, which is engaging and bringing them out.

I think that's exactly same thing that Republicans are saying.

We've had, obviously, for years under the President Biden's administration.

And if we don't look and see what is happening across our country, what's happening across our world with some of the engagement in wars, what's going on across our border, it is really cause Republicans to say, this has got to stop and we have to engage and get back to some sense of running law and order in this particular country.

And so that has engaged and brought a lot of so the influence from national is truly impacting Arkansas.

And so you saw the governor down on the border supporting Texas and their governor, along with, I don't know, 20 plus different governors saying we are responsible, the governor is responsible for the people in this state, and yet we're having trafficking human sex trafficking, fentanyl, all coming through the different parts of the border.

That's that is part of it.

And again, that's the anger that that I think we're seeing.

Gretchen and Steve, I think, you know, and we've seen coverage for days now.

Some Republicans negotiated in good faith on a solution to the problems at the border.

And yes, there are problems at the border and people of good faith came together to try and find solutions.

And they put forward a bill that answered every single thing that the Republican caucus has been saying for years.

We need They won't support that bill because they want to run on it.

We're taking the safety of Americans and gambling it on the November election.

If the safety was I mean, they would have been addressing this way before now.

And I think the biggest one is if you're putting a is, for example, a cap of 5000 people coming in the day, when you have had millions, there should be no nobody coming in until we get this squared away.

And to say, yes, let's go ahead and let 5000 continue to come a day.

That's still that's just continue to bleed.

What we already are bleeding.

Now, look at what happens in New York City, Detroit, Chicago.

Democrats are furious.

So you talk about anger.

You're exactly right.

And it's all about the national security of our country and the collapse of the deal, though.

Chairman, what did the collapse of the deal on the House side anyway?

Did your party, in fact, in the House, hand the Democrats a bargaining chip, hand them a campaign issue?

Well, the the House was not supportive of what the Democrats the Senate was coming out with because the opening the border was still there.

It was not shutting down.

And addressing was if you're going to continue to allow people to come in.

You have not addressed the issue, the issues, the trafficking, etc..

So, yes, did they give them the border of the United States has never been 100% completely closed in the history of the country.

It's not possible.

5000 is a minuscule number.

Wow.

Wow.

And no, because let's talk about the people who want to come from France and England and Germany.

You know, I the here to work.

And if we're going to take it to zero, none of those people, the people who repair the machines at Big River Steel aren't going to be able to move here to do that job.

Well.

Chairman two Neil, they are coming in a slightly different circumstance, as you can concede.

Right?

But no, he just said zero two.

I say zero, we're coming in.

We need to stop it until we can figure out what is this quote unquote, reform is going to look like.

How are we going to address the issues that's coming here?

I'm not wrong.

Yes, I did say it.

I do say yes.

How are you going to put it be able to say yes.

Let 5000 continue to come in when we already know 10 million plus already in this country.

And we have no idea where they are, plus what illegal immigrants have come.

And we don't know if that number is too many and we don't know where they are.

We can't address any of the issues if we continue to.

This are people who come in without you can't go to any country without having your shots taken, without going and having some sense of who you are.

Where are you going, Where how long you'll stay, and then when you come in.

Chairman Just because I want to make sure I'm clear last, because Steve asked me, you know, Grant it's and but you're saying no, you want it shut down zero immigration from anywhere into the United States for some period of time that you have yet to determine.

Is that is that true?

I said that the southern borders need to be shut down until we have some some real reform put in place.

We know who's coming in.

We talk about a wall.

Yes, this is Steve.

You opened up with the the health issues.

You got doctors who are Democrats who are saying, you know what, We probably do need to have people coming through a door, a legal coming in legally.

So we know who these people are, where they're going, so they're not bringing in diseases and we have no idea where they're going.

And now you have that bill, just put all of those things in place.

Let me bring it down and then that's going to bring back our stuff.

I can't you're one of your announced goals in a way, on the Democratic side, anyway, was to break the super mister.

Which party has a commanding majorities in both chamber?

That's correct.

Your goal was to one of your goals anyway.

Well, can you break the supermajority in the house?

Certainly.

And it has to continue to be until we do it, however long that takes.

Do you have a reasonable shot at that with these?

Yes, I believe that there are enough races to break the super majority in the House, which will essentially get the job done to what I think the majorities will stay as he is.

In fact, we may even see some increase.

So, no, I don't see the the supermajority as being breaking broke in this this election.

Yeah.

Especially.

But we just got to talking about the overture of what's going on nationally.

Absolutely not.

All right.

Well, I think that you have parents all over this state in credit be concerned about the state of education, in public education.

In what aspect?

Well, just to not get too far into the deep end right away, the governor was asked a few weeks ago whether she knows what the third year of learns is going to cost.

She said she does not.

That's a little disconcerting because she's going to have to tell us what it's going to cost at the end of the fiscal session in just a couple of months.

So if she doesn't know now, we better get to work.

But there is legitimate fear that if it's too expensive, that what Lawrence will wind up being is like a 20 $500 a month or 20 $500 a year voucher program that will do nothing but help people who are already in private school afford it a little easier.

Is that an issue?

I there's clearly people who have questions, concerns that are being addressed.

And since since the passing of that legislation, again, you got a three year before it's all implemented.

And the charge is can we walk through and get through?

Can we address the questions that people have?

Can we work with those schools or superintendents, those parents who are raising those questions?

And they have been and we have been really addressing those.

The larger piece is this There was 137 years where we were working under a certain and now we shifted and move this.

We're not asking for 137 years to roll out education and see how it manages.

We're saying give us some time to roll out, implement and phase it and address the questions as as people are asking on January 30 or January 10th of 2013.

Education Week Quality Counts Report placed Arkansas as public education system in the top five nationally.

Just to give some credit to the other side, in the same time period, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is the Republicans team, placed Arkansas in the top 20.

So it hasn't been 193 years of terrible education.

In fact, we were in the top five in 2013 and a whole lot of that had to do with the work of two governors.

One of them's name was Mike Huckabee, and the other one's name was Mike Beebe.

All right.

You get the last word on that, Mr. Chairman.

I think we're in a good place in this state.

And with our education, we also address our criminal justice.

And again, when we start looking at what's going on across this country, people are saying, yes, parents have a right to be empowered and have know what's going on in their schools with their students and what's going to be taught to their kids and what's going to be taught to their students.

So I think the governor and the legislators took the right right move in getting this legislation.

And last and we will continue to roll through that and address the issues that people are having.

All the congressional the congressional level, if we can.

The the gentleman who sits for Northwest Law.

Well, for the third Congressional District, he's got a primary.

Do you want to venture a tell us what the dynamics are.

you've got a long term senator, Congressman Congressman Steve Womack.

And again, his challenges when I sit in senators, pencil.

I think, again, the primary is going to yield out again with the voters in that third district once again is causing both to up their game and address questions and issues, etc..

It's going to be a good, good piece.

And again, the Republicans will get behind that candidate when it's all said and done at the end of the primary.

Can you crack the fort with all four of our delegates, House delegates, anyway, are, of course, Republican.

Can you crack that?

I don't think realistic realistically that that all four of them can be cracked in this year.

I am proud of our candidates.

I think we've got some strong folks who are in it for more than one cycle.

I think they know that this cycle is all about starting a conversation with their constituents and really beginning to dig into what needs to happen.

The one thing, if I can, that I'd like to to jump into, because the chairman mentioned it is public safety and corrections, because he said we think we've addressed that.

We're addressing.

yes, you're right.

It has been absolute chaos for weeks over there.

And we're hiring people who've had sex with children and then asking them to resign.

And then we're having folks show up and say they're going to run the thing and then they resign after a couple of days.

It's a mess.

And it's a mess for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, no body wants to listen to the experts.

Well, we had an expert in that was Secretary Joe Theory who was in and again, the legislators brought down and said, this is where we're going to be heading.

Before he had the plan of where we're going to go.

They moved toward that direction.

The board said, no, we don't.

And so they took that in my mind away from the governor who appointed and brought them in to run this particular operation.

And they said, no, that's our responsibility.

And so and so.

And now the legislators will have that as their opportunity to say, why do we have boards without any a legislative issue that's unknown.

Well, from a constitution, right.

That's great.

But the legislature doesn't fix the Constitution.

The people.

Well, they can take an amendment and have that and draw that in for themselves.

30 seconds each, not on the judicial outlook.

Some of the candidates make Mr. Chairman, very little are, if any, effort at separating themselves from their Republican roots.

Are you uncomfortable with that?

You would not be uncomfortable with that officer.

No, I don't.

I do think people who are who they are and and I know at one point you did have to decide who what side of the fence you are on.

Now, we don't.

But I think at the end, when you can look at their record and their doctor to see how they how they rule.

You can kind of get a sense of their leanings.

Yes, Tony.

And again, I think you've always been able to get a sense of the leanings of judges based on their decision.

That's correct.

But I think we are beginning to cross over and and it's something that we're resisting as hard as we can in the Democratic Party, because I think that people who have to stand before judges seeking justice have to believe that that judge is impartial.

And if the judge has a declared preference for one stripe over another, then you it's easy to question their impartiality.

Got to end it there.

Gentlemen, because we're out of time when things get settled a little bit after March.

We'll have you both back.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you.

And we'll be back in just a moment.

And we are back.

The flu and other respiratory viruses.

Arkansas's case rate is high and getting higher.

Schools across the state are reporting high absenteeism.

Students and teachers and employers are trying to cope with a workforce that is suddenly smaller owing to a microscopic menace and COVID.

It is still with us for an assessment of the situation and the outlook, we're joined by Dr. Robert Hopkins, an internal medicine specialist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Dr. Hopkins, thanks very much for coming back.

Welcome back, by the way.

Thank you, Steve.

Happy to be here.

Well, I'm looking at the I hope it was under different circumstances, but I'm looking at the statistics from the national clinical organizations.

We were a few days ago Arkansas High in terms of our case rate.

Now we have gone from high to very high.

Any surprise on your part?

No, it really isn't, Steve.

We're saying the same thing.

I primarily practice in the office and we're getting lots of calls from people who get influenza like illness.

Talking to my colleagues that work in the hospital, we get lots of patients in the hospital with influenza, A fair number with COVID 19 and even a few adults in the hospital with RSV, although fortunately RSV seems to be fading a bit.

But COVID and influenza are still running wild.

All right, Doctor, are these seasonal viruses that we're that you're encountering now that the doctors across the state are encountering?

Well, influenza tends to be seasonal, although the timing of onset of that seasonal surge tends to vary a bit from year to year.

Last year, we started early, well before Thanksgiving.

This year we started in our at our more usual time around Thanksgiving.

While much of the country seems to have peaked out a couple of weeks ago, would be starting to trickle down, unfortunately, here in the south.

Numbers continue to rise.

What what's the regional aspect there, Doctor?

Well, it's it's just interesting that we tend to see influenza A rise and fall in different areas at different times.

At present, the South seems to have the most increase in influenza disease, although there's also a fair amount of activity in the D.C. and up to New York area as well as out to the mountain states.

I'm anticipating you're going to tell me that this is largely an urban that you are.

The spike is in the urban areas.

The case rate is higher in the urban areas.

We certainly have seen that here in Arkansas and other areas.

If you look at the data from our our own health department, the rates are higher in central Arkansas than they are across other areas of the state, although it's impacting people across the state of Arkansas.

Are we dealing here with a variety of of of microbes or viruses here?

We are the majority of it is influenza and COVID 19, but there's also RSV.

We've seen some melanoma virus, which is a virus we don't have a vaccine for.

And I'm sure there are a number of other viruses that are causing some of the outpatient illness.

Fortunately, those are less likely to cause people to be sick enough to end up in the hospital.

The demographic spike that I'm seeing here, Doctor, from the from the data that I've been provided in a way from the national organizations and from Arkansas is the 5 to 17 year old age bracket.

We're talking about the K 12 bracket, so to speak.

Well, you know, children are I don't mean this in a negative way, but children are very effective at transmitting viruses from one to another.

And so with schools being open, the kids are crowded in there.

They're spending a lot of time in their classrooms.

They're doing lots of other indoor activities, particularly with all the rainy weather we've had in the last few weeks.

And that contributes to spread among the school age population from there.

Those viruses go home to their families, from the members of their families to others.

And we've seen a real drop off in influenza vaccination rates through the last couple of years.

And so you get a combination of low vaccination rates with highly transmissible viruses.

We see lots of disease in our communities.

Are you surprised at that slow down in the vaccination participation?

No, unfortunately, I'm not.

I think a lot of there's been a lot of hesitancy around the COVID 19 vaccine that has rolled over into a number of other vaccines.

I think it's important that we recognize for routine childhood immunization generally, the vast majority of people continue to vaccinate as they should.

But vaccination rates for influenza and COVID 19 have been far less than they need to be, and that puts a lot of people needlessly at risk from small children down to six months of age on through our older adult population.

Do you have a message, particularly for parents and our doctor, what vaccines are available?

Is there an information gap here?

Well, I think the two messages I would get out our first and foremost, if you're sick, please stay home, take care of yourself, reach out to your health care provider for recommendations for taking care of your symptoms, controlling fever, getting fluids down and resting.

Second is, if you have not had your influenza vaccine or your COVID 19 vaccine, the 2324 vaccine that we've been using since September, October, please get it is not too late.

We are at least six more weeks in our influenza season.

COVID is still running rampant, and I want people to have all the protection from severe disease as well as from infection that they can get.

COVID never went away.

I mean, and I'm looking here, if I have the data correctly, doctor deaths from COVID in Arkansas last year are over the last reporting period, 12 months of reporting here.

Far, far more deaths is something like ten times more deaths from COVID than from influenza.

That's right.

And, you know, COVID is a bane on our society still.

We know that this winter surge of COVID has been one of the worst surges and we've had an opportunity to to reduce that with vaccination.

But vaccination rates are horribly low.

There is still a tremendous amount of misinformed nation out there.

This COVID 19 vaccine we have available is safe.

It is effective.

I've given it to all of the members of my family.

I have encouraged all the members of my team and every patient that I see as well as every opportunity like this to encourage people to get that vaccine.

Our flu vaccine, similarly, is safe.

It is most effective at reducing severe disease.

It doesn't prevent everyone from getting infected.

But if we can reduce the likelihood of you getting sick enough to end up in the hospital, we reduce the likelihood of deaths.

And we need to do everything we can to try to keep our society healthy.

And flu and COVID 19 both.

We see the most hospitalization, the most severe disease in our older adult population, but we also see both of these diseases in healthy adults, in healthy children, even down to healthy small children.

Kids to under two years of age in particular are at very high risk for severe flu.

And COVID 19, who is elderly in terms of that age demographic doctor Who needs to be who at what age is that appropriate for immunization to begin?

Immunization for influenza and COVID 19 should start at six months of age six months?

Yes, six months.

Got it.

Dr. Hopkins, as always, thanks for coming in and come back again soon.

I hope under nicer circumstances than an influenza.

Absolutely.

And everyone, wash your hands and stay away from sick people.

good.

Doctor, thanks very much for being with us.

That does it for us for this week.

As always, thanks for watching and we'll see you next week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.