OPINION | NWA EDITORIAL: It's spreading

Forget any confusion about whether you're in Group 1-A, 1-B or 1-C of the Arkansas Department of Health's rules for whether you qualify to receive a covid-19 vaccine. As of Tuesday, if you're an Arkansan 16 or older, you're eligible.

No extra qualifications to be met. If you've made the trip around the sun at least 16 times, you're good.

Our advice: Get your shot. And if you get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, get that second dose. As Dr. José Romero, Arkansas' secretary of health, said Tuesday, no one receiving those vaccines is fully protected from covid-19 without receiving the second shot.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced expansion of eligibility in his weekly covid-19 update at the state Capitol in Little Rock. At the same time, he confirmed the state had met his criteria for lifting the statewide mandate to wear masks.

There's a bit of give and take in the governor's latest approach to managing the pandemic. The "give" is easing up on what some Arkansans view as intrusive dictates from government about how they live their lives. Hutchinson acknowledged Tuesday there's a "weariness from government restrictions and mandates." Of course, government's interest is that its citizens, and the people they come into contact with, have a chance to live their lives.

The "take" is an expectation that Arkansans will, without government involvement, take responsible actions -- namely, getting their vaccinations -- themselves. The governor, despite understandable hesitance from his public health advisers, is betting that after a year of experience, Arkansans not only know how to protect themselves but will continue to take those steps as necessary without being instructed to do so.

People want to be able to make their own choices, Hutchinson said. So, now, if a restaurant is packed to the gills with customers not wearing masks and servers not observing precautionary behaviors, let the buyer beware. People can choose to do business with the places they view as responsible when the world is still in the throes of a global pandemic.

The more people vaccinated, though, the safer all such activities become. This is the kind of spread Arkansas wants and needs. Vaccinations are the right path to keeping covid-19 infections low, Romero said.

Not everyone is signaling it's time to ease up. President Biden on Monday called on governors and mayors to reinstate mask mandates as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of "impending doom" from a new wave of infections in parts of the country. But, Hutchinson says, Arkansas isn't one of them, providing the leeway for relaxed expectations.

Is that a recipe for a less-stressful population? Yes, unless infection numbers start to grow and hospitalizations pick up their former pace. There are no guarantees, but Hutchinson expressed confidence that Arkansans are ready and able to navigate the pandemic on their own.

Indeed, in lifting the mandate, Hutchinson said he still expects a lot of Arkansans to keep wearing masks when physical distancing from strangers isn't possible. Hutchinson said a mask will continue to be part of his daily wardrobe and he expects to put it on many times each day.

It's indicative of some concern that Hutchinson took time in his weekly update to urge Arkansans to respect decisions by businesses, event venues, schools, hospitals and health care providers to maintain their own mask requirements. That's informed by the experiences of many early on in the pandemic, when some people became confrontational in refusing to don masks.

Businesses can set their own expectations for customers. And customers can decide whether they want to patronize a business or not. Call it free-market pandemic protection.

It's possible, even probable, that Hutchinson's ease-up has been influenced by the presence of state lawmakers at the Capitol, some of whom have been steadily critical of the governor's exercise of authority to preserve public health. The legislative session has included a lot of debate over restricting the governor's powers. Call us skeptical that managing the covid-19 pandemic in Arkansas would have been made better by use of a committee (i.e., legislators). Hutchinson, who we're sure never wanted his second term to be defined by covid-19, nonetheless has shown wisdom in his leadership, balancing limits on intrusive government authority with what was necessary for public safety.

Now, the governor says the proverbial ball is in Arkansans' court. Let's call it the pandemic post-season, hopefully near the end but the season's not done.