Letters to the editor

Maybe governor should stay home, help seniors

The governor of Arkansas announced that pharmacies will be giving covid-19 immunizations to those of us over 70 years old beginning Jan. 18 and suggested we try just one pharmacy and stick with it, so I tried calling the nearest one in Bella Vista and heard a message to go to its Facebook page to make an appointment because the phone lines are overwhelmed.

On the Facebook page was a link to an appointment calendar and the first available time is on May 6. MAY 6! So I tried the next closest in Rogers and there was no appointment calendar but I could sign up for the waiting list with 5,000 folks ahead of me. The next one in Bentonville also directed me to its Facebook page, which had no place to sign up or find out when shots might be available.

There are only six pharmacies in Benton County on the healthy.arkansas.gov map and all of them appear to be overwhelmed, but this paper reports the governor has moved himself to the head of the line for Jan. 17 and St. Bernards Healthcare in Jonesboro has already vaccinated "elected and appointed officials."

What's up with that, Uncle Asa? Perhaps in lieu of taking our National Guard on a trip to Uncle Joe's inauguration he might have stayed home to help the vulnerable seniors of Arkansas get the medical relief we desperately need.

Of course, I am sure all will be magically remedied on Jan. 21.

Phil Warner

Garfield

A better vaccination plan simple to make

I am unable to determine if our state government officials are stupid or just incompetent. The pace of vaccination continues at a snail's pace, with approximately 40% of available doses injected in about six weeks. At this rate we should achieve herd immunity in, oh, about a year and a half.

I'm pretty sure I could sit down with a pad of paper and a pencil and come up mass inoculation plan in about a half hour.

Let's go with this, just off the top of my head: (1) Select a high school gym in each town or city. (2) Assemble enough medical personnel/drug store employees to man 10 lines for vaccinations and let'r rip. Continue until we run out of vaccines.

Or a second option: (1) Select a Walmart parking lot in each town or city. (2) Same process as above except people stay in their cars to receive their shots.

This classic definition of insanity must stop ( i.e., doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result).

People are dying!

Don Thompson

Rogers

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