Arkansas Governor Regrets Bill Signing Limiting Mask Mandates
With a surge in Covid-19 cases hitting his state, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has called back the legislature to rescind a bill he signed that banned local and state government authorities from enacting mask mandates.
Hutchinson said the bill was signed at a time when Covid cases were low. He knew not signing meant the legislature would override it. Hutchinson said he got rid of the statewide mask mandate already.
With the cases rising in Arkansas, the Republican governor wishes he hadn’t signed it into law but commented that there were two ways to change it. He said the courts could rule it unconstitutional, or the state legislature could modify it.
Hutchinson said he’d like the legislature to take action and make changes to the law. A court declaring it unconstitutional could generate confusion for the public as cities and counties could do what they wanted.
He advised students who could get vaccinated to do it – parents could choose to vaccinate their children, or the children can do it for themselves.
As of Sunday, the state’s seven-day average was just over 1,900, and the state has one of the country’s lowest vaccination rates. Johns Hopkins University data shows about 37% of people have been fully vaccinated. The rise in cases is due to the Delta variant.
Hutchinson has been supportive of the Covid-19 vaccine, saying it should never have been made political. He agrees that conservatives are hesitant about it when the government is involved, which is natural. He said their hesitancy affects everyone, no matter what political party they belong to.
Hutchinson said the Delta variant is hitting unvaccinated people horribly. He said people need to look at the vaccines as a bioweapon against the deadly virus.
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