Numbers don't support Trump greatness claims
A few facts for Trump supporters who insist Trump has done a good job handling the covid-19 virus.
Arkansas has a population of 3 million. South Korea has a population of 52 million. Arkansas' covid-19 cases total more than 70,000. South Korea cases total about 23,000. Arkansas deaths are around 1,200. South Korea deaths are under 400.
Now tell me Trump has led a great response to this pandemic.
Rick Ivnik
Garfield
If football gets tests, why not the elderly?
My mom is in an assisted living facility in Fayetteville. She hasn't been able to hug a friend or family member since early March. Just in the last month or two we have been allowed to visit, sort of. We are allowed to schedule a 25-minute supervised visit, outside, six-plus feet apart with masks on. The facility is going by Centers for Disease Control and state guidelines, so they are not to blame for how this is being handled.
While human interaction, provoking conversation and hugs from family members are important to all of us, they are much more so to our aging and dying (i.e., our most vulnerable) population. Since going under lockdown, I have heard my mom's cognitive ability, mood and disposition, and her overall well-being decline each day she has been isolated. I also know from speaking with her that her physical ability to walk has declined drastically as well.
During this time, she has been disallowed the human right to interact with those she loves in person. Daily phone calls are no substitute for physically being there. While we all continue to make sacrifices during these times, my mother sacrificing the remaining years, or possibly months, of her life in depressive isolation and forced minimal mobility is something I will not just accept and keep my mouth shut. There are just so many ways this isolation is detrimental for not only my mom, but many others throughout the world. This is extremely frustrating, sad and scary to long-term care residents and their families, especially since there is a seemingly easy solution.
I learned from my doctor that many clinics in Northwest Arkansas use rapid antigen testing. So why aren't some of these tests set aside for family members of our long-term care facility residents?
I read today that the Big 10 Conference is resuming football with required daily rapid testing. I am sickened and appalled that these tests are readily available to athletes wanting to play a game yet are not available to those of us just wanting to hug our parents who are dying from isolation and the lack of human touch. This is unacceptable and cruel!
The holidays are coming up and our parents will spend them alone in their rooms. Yet, athletes can play football because they can be tested, while we can't because we are repeatedly told rapid tests aren't available. In what world is this OK? Why doesn't anybody care about our seniors? Doesn't Gov. Hutchinson care about our seniors? Doesn't the CDC care about our seniors?
I love football and I am all for a little entertainment in these unprecedented times, but it's a very sad time in our country when watching football is valued over the lives of our seniors. Clearly that is the case.
Keena Melton
Lexington, S.C.