By Steve Brawner
© 2021 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

I’m not an expert in infectious disease epidemiology now, any more than I’m an expert in presidential impeachment law. But I can tell you what the people who are experts are saying: This is going to be a rough stretch in the pandemic in Arkansas.

Here’s Dr. Jose Romero, Arkansas’ secretary of health, at the governor’s weekly press conference Dec. 29: “We are seeing increased numbers of cases. And I expect, unfortunately, to see further increase in cases in the next couple of weeks.”

Dr. Joe Thompson, Arkansas Center for Health Improvement president and CEO, told me, “I think we still have a couple of months that … will be very challenging for the health care system, and also just for the general public.”

Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the state’s epidemiologist, said, “We are headed into several weeks of potential great difficulty because of the high number of cases, the high number of hospitalizations, and unfortunately an increasing number of deaths.”

And Dr. Cam Patterson, chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, tweeted Dec. 30, “Unless circumstances change drastically, this will get worse before it gets better.” Continue reading What Arkansas’ experts foresee in the pandemic →

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

If the first Gulf War in 1990-91 was when Americans relearned respect for military service personnel, and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 reminded us of the bravery of firefighters, then 2020 is the year to appreciate doctors and nurses who are battling the COVID-19 pandemic on the front lines.

Each year, Time magazine names its Person of the Year, and in that spirit I argue for an Arkansan or Arkansans of the Year in my little newspaper column. This year, there can be only one choice: the state’s brave, caring medical professionals. Continue reading Arkansans of the Year: Servant-healers on the front lines →

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

In the years before World War II, Americans were aware of the conflicts that were happening overseas, but they were determined to stay out of them. George Washington had urged the nation to avoid taking sides in international affairs, and that sentiment had endured. The country’s involvement in World War I, known then as the “Great War,” had not accomplished much besides getting a lot of people killed. The Great Depression had only recently ended.

Given all that, it’s not surprising that many Americans wanted to stay out of the latest in a thousand years of European wars. Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was an outspoken leader of the 800,000-member America First Committee. As explained by the National World War II Museum’s website, one poll in January 1940 found 88% of Americans opposed to declaring war against the European Axis powers led by Germany.

In fact, some Americans were on Germany’s side. Some of German descent formed the German American Bund, which drew 20,000 people to a rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939, along with lots of protesters outside of it.

Sentiment shifted as Americans witnessed Germany’s bombing campaign against the British. By April 1941, 68% favored going to war against the Axis if there were no other way to defeat them. At that point, Americans were divided. Continue reading No Pearl Harbor moment this time →

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When Trey Oguin has the chance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, he’ll take it. Why is he so confident? Because he helped develop it.

The 36-year-old Wynne native and Ph.D. is a lab manager at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute in North Carolina. His lab studied the effects on mice of the preclinical vaccine developed by Pfizer.

The company says it’s 95% effective. Oguin said it worked “marvelously.”

“Of every therapy that we have tested here, it was far and away the best,” he told me. Continue reading He helped test the vaccine in the lab – and will take it →