Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Arkansas Times and KUAR FM 89 And hello again, everyone, and thanks very much for joining us.

It's a full agenda.

This week will reflect on a season that can mean delight or despair for Arkansas farmers.

We'll begin our observance of Women's History Month by remembering a pioneering Pike County educator.

And we'll salute an Arkansas native, a journalist, no stranger to war who died covering one.

But first, another death or its cause, a death that occurred two years ago next week.

The first death in Arkansas from COVID 19, which came only two weeks after the first confirmed diagnosis of COVID in Arkansas.

And if the trend line in our state has been encouraging of late, there is fresh concern in the clinical community about a new variant already causing havoc in Asia and about our content you'd low rate of immunization, but there are some encouraging signs as well.

We're joined now by Dr. Shane Sports, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine at New York Institute of Tech at Arkansas State University.

Doctor, as always, thanks very much for being with us.

Let's let's start with it.

We had variants.

Now we have sub variants and apparently there is much to be concerned about there.

What can you tell us about it?

So what is catching the media and getting the attention now in terms of how it is this sub variant of Omicron and the and it's known as two and really it's kind of its predecessor was the original Omicron.

But there's eight new mutations in this two variant that's causing it to be more transmissible.

And so it's doesn't seem to be at this point any more severe than Omicron.

However, depending on the study that you read, it's between 30 to 80% more transmissible, which means that more people can get infected when infected person enters into a room or to an area So that's obviously a big concern for us.

We've been watching this.

This is actually a variant that's been here in the U.S. since about November.

So it hadn't really spiked in terms of the number of cases but we're starting to see a significant increase over the last two weeks.

About a week ago or so, it accounted for a little more than 10% of US cases this week.

And now accounts for 25% of the cases in the United States.

So that's a significant reason for us to watch it.

There is concern that we will see another wave.

Obviously, that depends upon the geography, the number of individuals who are boosted in terms of vaccination of all of those play into how much of a bump you'll see in cases in a specific area.

Dr. What about those who have already experienced COVID 19 in one or another of its variants?

How likely are they to contract this new.

Great question.

And it depends on the variant.

What we saw with Thelma KRON is that individuals that had just gotten infected a few months earlier with Delta weren't necessarily protected from Omicron.

Now, what we can see is we're looking at other countries, as you mentioned, over the U.K., Germany, Israel, even over into China and South Korea.

The cases that Omicron V2 that are occurring there.

There does seem to be some protection for individuals that got infected with the original Omicron or V one.

So four individuals that had Omicron there are antibody protections that are covering them for value.

The other promising sign is that it appears that all vaccination and booster actually covers you better against V2 than the original Omicron.

So that's good news as well.

We just need to get our boosted right up right now here in the United States, really about 44% of the country is fully vaccinated with a booster.

We're a little lower in Arkansas, about 38% here in Arkansas.

And some of those numbers drop off depending on what area of the state you live in.

Well, that vaccination rate here in Arkansas, Dr.. That would not seem to portend very favorably anyway for this in terms of this new variant, particularly when it has yet to even spike here.

And you're absolutely right.

That's why there is caution, obviously.

And then that going to be concerned certainly for our health care systems that that are just now, you know, just now recovering and getting over this last wave of al-Muqrin.

So that can be concerning right now based on our current estimates, we think about 43% of the U.S. population has overall and antibodies, meaning that about 43% have been infected at some level.

And so looking at those numbers plus our boosted numbers, you know, you're right we still got a ways to go in the state of Arkansas.

So those individuals that didn't get infected with homegrown and are not boosted and vaccinated.

That's a concern certainly those that are 65 and older.

If the if this new sub variant doctor is no more pernicious than its predecessors or perhaps even less so still those who will become infected are going to require medical treatment at some level.

Now, do you foresee is it possible to project how much of a stress we're likely to have on the health care system, which was just it was just creaking several months ago?

No, you know, it's really not Steve.

And one of the issues and I'm glad you brought this up as well.

You know, when we talk about everybody got kind of for lack of a better term and got relaxed when they found out that Omicron you know, didn't seem to be as bad as bad as Delta.

The problem was, is there were far more many people that got infected, which means that the total number was much larger.

So the total number of hospitalizations was larger.

Total number of deaths is larger.

All of those things were more impactful.

We can expect to see something similar with this, be a two depending on if it really takes hold.

And we see a significant spike here in the state of Arkansas.

We're averaging about 500 cases a day right now.

We've kind of hit a plateau.

And if people look back, you'll see that's much higher than we were before we entered our Omicron way.

So we're not back down to really what we consider a normal level, so to speak.

We're still seeing quite a bit of spread throughout the state.

When we see back to come in.

What will happen now?

Will we see another uptick in terms of cases when will that be?

Will be in the fall, late summer.

Will it impact our hospitals?

The answer is likely so.

Well, Doctor, we've also reached in the past several days, we have reached a new marker, if you will, a milestone, not a pleasant one.

We are now in Arkansas.

Over 11,000 diagnosed COVID deaths and I'm reading a new survey from the Ipsos people that as to 52 thirds of the American public believe that COVID at one level or another is of little or no danger.

That's a significant number.

Now, you're absolutely right.

And again, I sometimes be the bearer of bad news.

That number you just quoted is likely underreported when we look at larger datasets and we look at what we consider of the expected death rate, so to speak.

Those numbers, once we're through all of this and look back historically, will largely be much higher.

I mean, just for example, and most people don't realize this when you say, well, you know, how many people in the state of Arkansas typically die per year or per day?

We actually track that data and we've tracked it for many, many years, on average, about 47 people in the state of Arkansas down any given day.

So anyway, in terms of from COVID right now, 87 is the average number of deaths.

So on average, 87 people per day die in the state of Arkansas.

So 47 COVID deaths or even 21 COVID deaths.

That's a significant number.

And so as we see these numbers day to day when we have waves and we have a trough, so to speak, you know, it's a big deal.

But I think people don't understand it in context.

We have any untold numbers, Dr. any way of Arkansas moms and dads and grandparents who who maybe have read a little bit about the only ones who are now only Americans who are now on not eligible for vaccination or five years and younger.

Where does that stand?

But that seems likely to change?

Or is it in the near future Well, so in terms of those under the age of five, again, they came close to a six months to five years or so to speak vaccine.

But they pulled back and Pfizer had been working on that.

To be honest with you, I appreciate the fact that they pulled back because the data, they didn't have enough of the data together to really make a strong case.

And I think that's appropriate because we don't ever want to stray from the fact that we want to deliver safe and effective vaccines to everyone.

And depending on the age group that it's approved for And so we should not you know, even in the middle of a pandemic, we shouldn't push things forward unnecessarily without the data to support that.

So I appreciate their decision in doing that.

I think they'll come back out later in the summer with better data, hopefully before the fall.

We have also Dr..

The matter of long COVID.

And I'm looking at some other data that I just picked up, as many as one and one in three 30% or higher of those who have experienced COVID will have a long term effect of one kind or another.

That in itself is fairly arresting.

That's going to be the next big challenge that we have.

Once we really get this pandemic behind us is really the aftermath and the effects, just as you mentioned, of individuals who have long term effects from COVID.

And for some and for hopefully the majority, the long term effects will be mild.

But for so many right now, it's just variable.

I mean, just in my own practice, in my own clinic, I see young college aged students that still have liver damage, that have chronic fatigue, chronic call.

They just aren't back to where they were when they were working out for that go.

And this is, you know, months and months later, eight months or longer, some individuals may still haven't had a full return of their taste or smell a year or more later.

Again, this is a new area of study.

We'll be tracking it closely and hopefully devising some ways to be able to help these patients.

There's different theories on what we're seeing in terms of when there are these autoantibodies.

You know, is this really just the after effects of the COVID or something the body's getting wrapped up about?

We have it unlocked a lot of that.

But to your point, it's at least 30% or more of individuals that have had COVID that are dealing with these long term symptoms that can last, like I said, way beyond weeks, but actually months and years.

Dr. we've got about one minute remaining, and I want to read a quote back to you.

The last time you were on our broadcast, you talked about the the low vaccination rate in Arkansas.

And you said, quote, It is beyond maddening I have to believe that you haven't changed your view any what's frustrating is and I can understand, by the way, I mean, I fully understand, you know, the hesitancy when all of this started.

And it seems like it's happening so fast and so quickly We have given millions of vaccine doses around the world, billions.

These are safe and effective vaccines.

And it's just it's discouraging and really heartbreaking at the amount of misinformation and blatant lies that are still circulating on the Internet and the social media when we've got safe and effective vaccines that really can protect patients.

And back to your long COVID question.

The vaccines actually help protect individuals in terms of if you get sick from developing long COVID.

And so we got answers out there.

If the citizens of our state and our country will just take advantage of it.

Dr. Shane Spice from Jonesboro, thank you very much for for being with us and sharing your insights, your information.

Come back soon.

Always a pleasure, Steve.

Thank you.

You bet.

Well, as mentioned is Women's History Month, and we observe it in this week's edition with a toast to a remarkable Arkansas teacher and school administrator She's a woman who battled the odds herself and helped her pupils do the same.

Her story now from Jennifer Gibson in a small one room schoolhouse once near this Pike County Courthouse in Murfreesboro.

Arkansas.

Inside, Alice Ell Preston taught black students and first through seventh grade.

She was the only teacher in the school from 1929 until the school closed in 1965.

According to her son, she encouraged her students to bring their younger siblings.

They were often tasked with babysitting.

Leaving Preston left caring for infants while teaching seven grades of children.

Since the all-Black Preston Elementary ended at seventh grade, the older students had to be bused to Hempstead County, which held the closest all-Black High School.

In 1965, an invitation was given to integrate the schools.

And Preston encouraged her students to take it.

Not only did she play an integral part in the Murfreesboro school's integration, she became the high school's first black teacher Spring rains or floods, summer floods or droughts hail just about any time.

When it comes to Arkansas agriculture Arkansas weather can either smile or scowl.

It's the focus of this month's Good Root segments.

Coming up next.

There's a saying in Arkansas that if you don't like the weather, just wait around a few minutes and it will change And though many people use that with a lighthearted comedy feel behind it, it can also be quite detrimental to farmers because that quick change in weather can be the make or break in their yield that year.

I'm Lauren McCullough.

And on this episode of Good Roots, we're talking all things weather and how it affects farmers in the natural state.

You have sweet corn this year.

So what's for dinner?

My name is Ali Schaffner.

I'm the CEO of SRF, our seed.

We are a 1500 acre soybean, corn, rice and wheat farm.

I am a sixth generation farmer.

My dad started farming when he was ten.

I also started working on the farm when I was ten.

I loved growing up on the farm.

It was a it was a huge part of life and it was unique because there aren't that many of us.

Right.

There's something really satisfying about putting your crop in and getting it out.

I mean, it's a very visual all satisfaction.

I think one of the best things is my kid who is totally obsessed with farming.

I mean, his first word was tractor.

He just got a combine that is a replica of the one that I have.

And so it's a baby combine and all large equipment is Mommy, Mommy, tractor and mommy combined.

So I take a lot of pride in how much he loves that So I watched my parents farm for over 30 years before I took over as the principal operator.

And, you know, weather is always a preoccupation.

When I was a kid, my dad watched a little TV in the kitchen and my dad watched the Weather Channel every single morning.

Where farming works is you are cognizant that there will be bad years, right?

There will be weather events that will hurt your harvest, will hurt your yields.

And you want to save money in the good years.

So you're building equity to kind of get you through these bad years.

But when there's extreme weather and it's happening more and more, then you're having a harder time building the equity to get you through those bad years.

You don't have enough of the good ones to get you back in.

20, 18.

We had a drought during planting and we had torrential rains at harvest, and it really affected the quality of the crop all across the state.

2019 was extreme flooding during spring and fall.

20, 20 was actually pretty much everything I mean that was the year of the wildfires.

The bad hurricanes last year it was a huge drought.

I mean we didn't get rain for like 60 days.

Last spring the county was hit with 19 inches of rain in less than 48 hours, leading to a devastating loss for the farmers in the area.

This is a brand of the field here This is one of our main fields This water is barely moving.

We've got a pretty big loss here.

It's going to be pretty bad Do you see any significant trends over the past decade or even recently that could impact the future of agriculture?

I think we see a lot of trends, and fortunately many of them are somewhat alarming.

Our temperatures average about 3.6 degrees warmer than what they did about a few decades ago.

It's a pretty small increase.

Maybe you might think that the really 3.6 degrees is quite a jump.

The long term implications of that can't be underestimated.

Look at Tornado Alley.

You say that, you say that term and you're off to thinking Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa.

And while that's still technically true.

Data over the last 20 years really suggests it's sending a very strong signal at that tornado alley.

What we traditionally known as is actually shifted further east and includes a good chunk of Arkansas.

It's tapping its will not only retain the price for it nationwide.

We're paying the price for it here in Arkansas at the Miles farm in McGee, Matt and his son Lane are using technology to collect data to help protect themselves and other farmers from destructive weather events.

They're also installing a new pattern tile drainage system for healthier soil and hopefully larger crop yields.

One of the most challenging aspects for us on weather is flooding this field last year and the last part of June, you know, we got 19 inches of rain just a mile north of us in 48 hours.

Destroyed thousands and thousands of acres of crops.

That water come down here when it can't get down south, it's got to come back through all these ditches and flood these fields.

We we partnered with advanced drainage systems and try to come up with a way to pattern tile this field.

Now that's something that to my knowledge hadn't been done in Arkansas before or if it has, it's been a very limited amount.

We put a pumping station in our well.

It will it will reduce the amount of water we put on the field per acre.

A little bit If this works like we're planning on it working, we should be able to take care of a drought through the irrigation.

We should be able to take care of some flooding through the pattern tile.

It could be a game changer for for the, you know, the South Delta about 2050.

We're going to not have enough food to feed the world.

That's on projections.

And so we've got to make everything out of every acre we can So, you know, trying to figure out a way around the weather, we recapture a lot of our water.

We monitor our wells.

We've got computer programs that tells us wanted to cut them off preparation to work around the weather the best you can by using historical data.

That's you know, that's about all you can do We may call ourselves crazy sometimes.

I mean, it's we're we're always looking to try something new, always looks and looking to push that that envelope.

We're steady add in population and and we're steady taking away from white farm grants.

So there's you know, we don't have a choice but to try to make more.

We pride ourselves on being I guess, environmentalist.

I mean, we we do try to do the the best we can to the land, save water.

I mean, I've got two boys that are going to grow up, and hopefully maybe they want to farm one day, too.

And they've got to have some resources.

I have grandchildren, and I want this land to be in better shape for them than it was for me.

And my dad was the same way.

You know, we can't do anything about the weather, but, you know, we try to establish practices that will help, help in the future.

I think that we are going to recognize what's happening.

I don't think that we're going to stop climate change.

I think it's too late.

I do think we can stem the tide.

We have like, you know, 40 years of farming ahead of me.

And I have to wonder, you know, what am I going to do?

What is my livelihood going to look like?

And I mean, I have a three and a half year old, you know, what am I leaving for him?

I want him to have the life that I did Major funding for Good Roots is provided by Arkansas Farm Bureau, Arkansas Farm Bureau advocating the interests of Arkansas's largest industry for more than 80 years.

Arkansas counts on agriculture, agriculture accounts on Farm Bureau, additional funding for good routes provided by the Union Pacific Foundation By now, you know surely that a very brave Arkansas native, an award winning journalist, was killed several days ago while covering the war in Ukraine.

Brant Renaud was 50 and a veteran documentarian of several wars.

Brant Renaud and his brother Craig were partners, a team.

Their focus was humanity, its creativity, as in their state of the art program and Arkansas PBS companion to a Crystal Bridges museum exhibition on the grimmer side of the human condition and account of Arkansas soldiers.

Their families and the war in Iraq.

A capsule remembrance now of Brant Renaud.

My name is Brant Renaud.

This is my brother Craig and we produced the Columbia DuPont winning entry, Surviving the Earthquake for the New York Times.

Early in their career, for many, many years, it was just him and Craig You know, there was no there were no ones out going with them.

You know, like there were no Stephen Bailey's.

There was him and Craig digging it out, trying to build this little company of two people.

Brant was quiet.

Brant was compassionate.

Brant was caring.

And Brant was one of the hardest working people in this business.

And he made some of the best films this country seen.

And the last two decades, most of the murders that happened in the city, Chicago, are usually kids between the ages of 12 and 18 years old.

They have special needs now, my faith boy, I think the most important thing that he would say right now is, Hey, everyone, thank you that's enough.

And please turn the camera lens back on the people I was focusing on.

And to be a loving, caring mother.

You have to make sacrifices for your son.

All right.

Got to put him first.

It's like as if he could set aside his ego to such a great extent that people wouldn't even notice him because it's like he's not attractive.

It's not about him at all.

Like, if he just was not attracting any sort of energy where he's, you know, pulling attention to himself or in any way, shape or form when you're in a war zone or there's bullets flying over your head, you really it really hits home like I can die.

Even in those situations, Brant was really able to put himself and his ego aside and be present with it, present within the moment, present with the people that we were speaking to.

And create the space for them to to tell their story.

You know, here's a guy who was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, you know, got a degree at SMU, I guess, and went to Ivy League School in Columbia, got another degree, and very educated guy coming from the little state of Arkansas.

And the thing I think that got him great access when he was interviewing people was because he was from Arkansas, you know, because he he was smart and educated.

But he also had that Southern sensibility about There was something really interesting about Brants that despite him being this guy from Arkansas, he could blend in anywhere.

It was almost as if he had this invisibility cloak.

And I really did see it happen many times where, yeah, we're at a checkpoint or we're trying to get somewhere where we where we're being denied access and we're like strategizing, you know, what should we do?

And then you eventually realized, like, where's Brant And you like, look across.

And he's just over there working, and it's like, did get over there.

And how does no one even recognize that?

No one even knows Is this like he can walk into a crowd and just dissipate and like, nothing somehow, you know, he he was, you know, he was quiet.

He kind of just things didn't bother him.

He didn't freak out.

He kept his cool.

And, you know, with that very slight Southern drawl wasn't very much, but you could just barely hear it, you know, a little bit about it.

You know, people would, you know, listen to him and that does it for us this week.

We'll see you next week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The Arkansas Times and KUAR FM.

89.