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Hello again everyone and thanks very much for joining us first, the excitement and the promise of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Now the frustration, the confusion of who gets it, when and where.

And that's where this addition begins.

We are joined up top by Doctor Jose Romero, secretary of the State Department of Health doctor John Kirtley, director of the Arkansas Board of Pharmacy, and John Vincent, PhD, vice president of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association.

Gentleman doctors.

Thank you very much for being with us.

Doctor Romero let me begin with you there.

There does seem to be across the state, at a minimum, confusion about where we stand on the immunization.

Now we're getting the states allocated something in the neighborhood of a bit less than 40,000 doses.

A week, my understanding of one or the other of the vaccines, but sometimes it doesn't seem the message doesn't seem to be reaching the intended audience, and the intended audience isn't always hearing it.

That's correct.

Well, thank you for having me again.

So we are receiving about that amount of vaccine each week.

It's in allotment that we ask for.

We are currently distributing that vaccine through our partners.

The pharmacies community pharmacies in the area we originally had targeted the high risk individuals, that is, those individuals that long term care facilities, the staff there, as well as our as our health care providers and that is gone.

I think reasonably well we can talk about what were some of the issues in that, but.

I think that right now the the biggest issue and what I'm hearing more and more often is that persons don't know where to go to look to see where they can register.

We ask them currently to check with their pharmacies to see if they're giving the vaccine.

An for educators are those are individuals that are in the education area.

They especially in K through 12.

They should be checking with their school districts for where to go for vaccine, but for the 70 plus which is the other high risk group that we're now in?

1B we're relying heavily on the pharmacies themselves.

Well in terms of the of the 1A target audience, how effective has that effort been?

So we think it's gone.

Well, I I don't have granularity as to the percentage of of health care providers we immunized at that point, we're getting that now.

We've really been concentrating on getting the vaccine out, so we need that data.

We need to know how much a vaccine is actually been delivered and how it's been accepted.

In the long term, care facilities, that is that the residents and the staff that take care of them.

And then we also use that pays 1A to get delivered to first responders.

So we need that data.

It looks like we're doing OK, so let me give you some general data as of this morning we had distributed about 54% of the vaccine that had been allotted to us last night.

When I looked at the CDC distribution chart, you know our distribution per capita is.

Among the highest in the southern area you know of our contiguous states, only Oklahoma has a higher rate and if you look at below the 36th Latitude, it's Oklahoma and New Mexico that are ahead of us.

So we are doing well in the distribution of this vaccine is certainly we'd like to get it out to a larger number of individuals.

OK to Doctor Romero are to either of our pharmacy representatives are is there concern in the clinical community yourselves included?

Certainly about a resistance in the target groups to accepting the vaccine to taking advantage of the vaccine.

Go ahead Doctor, go ahead.

Yeah, I would just say that and I'd love to hear Doctor Merodach Kirtley's response to that as well.

But in the current phase in the Community pharmacies for the patients over age 70 years of age, there's a very high demand and much less hesitancy than than what we were concerned about.

With it being new vaccine I'm hearing from the field that greater than 90% of their patients are wanting the vaccine and willing to receive the vaccine.

In this 1B phase for the age 70 and over an remember.

That that patient population remembers polio.

They were kids.

When the polio vaccine was released back in the late 50s, early 60s, and they are really big believers and the virus in that patient population is also the most devastating.

There's a higher risk of severe illness, and they are very, very interested and willing to be vaccinated.

OK, and you mentioned that a segment that remembers polio, there's another segment of the of Arkansas of the nation that remembers Tuskegee.

So I have to ask if there is, if you have detected a continuing reluctance or suspicion skepticism in the community and communities of color, particularly our African American communities, about the vaccine.

So, so let me answer that both at a national level and local level.

So clearly the studies are have been performed and as many as 60% of African Americans have indicated some reluctance or total reluctance to accepting the vaccine within the state.

They are a high group which has demonstrated or has really a voice reluctance with regards to accepting the vaccine.

The other group that's also important are the Latino population within our state.

You know, I've personally been involved and have heard of these.

Of these concerns from the Latino population, it is our job that is the job of those of us who are delivering the vaccine.

The health Department to affectively communicate about the safety and efficacy of this vaccine.

One thing I think that we can stress is that these vaccines have been studied in those target populations.

That is, in Latinos and African Americans, we know that those studies included significant numbers of that population and that it was shown to be effective and safe in those populations.

And that is what I always try to stress.

For those populations, that vaccine has been studied, Doctor currently Doctor Vincent, do you anticipate that our pharmacies in Arkansas will continue to be or will well continue to be, the focus?

The locus if you will of immunization in Arkansas?

You know, Steve.

I think that one thing that's been a point that has been said many times is almost every community in the state of Arkansas has a local pharmacy.

We are in many ways the most accessible health care professionals for many people in the community, and I think that they will continue to take a very active role.

We have a couple of 100 pharmacies on board right now that are actually receiving vaccine and or out dosing.

Those doctor Vincent can outline those numbers specifically, but what he and I think would both tell you is.

There's a whole another list of pharmacies that are on unready on ready to get this vaccine, ready to provide it to their customers and the other thing I can tell you is every pharmacist and pharmacy I have talked to as of late is just absolutely inundated with phone calls.

It is breaking phone systems and shutting down phone phone lines in these stores because people are so adamant that they are ready to get this vaccine and want to know when and where they can receive it.

What about supply?

Yeah, gentlemen, I don't want to catch this and I political sense but but just this morning we received an I'm not asking you to comment politically, but this from from.

Vite from President Biden's team quoting this morning regarding the Covid situation that the Trump team had failed to share crucial information about supplies, an vaccine availability airgo the situation quote is so much worse than we could have imagined.

Now, Governor Hutchinson himself.

Has repeatedly expressed frustration over the past year with the absence of coordination from from Washington is that are you seeing that manifested now at the ground level at the granular level in Arkansas?

So just yeah, currently.

Let me let me take a crack at that and again I I don't think this is political.

Anyway, it is.

The facts are the facts.

So we were promised a second supply of vaccine that was promised to be 50% that was held in reserve plus a 5% contingency reserve.

And within a matter of days of having Mr Azar announced that he wanted to expand the groups to receive the vaccine, we learned that that vaccine supply did not exist, so.

All of us were of the mind that there was another set of vaccines that were in reserve and could be released when necessary.

So you know, that's not political.

That's the fact.

You know if other issues are when this vaccine was originally released and was released on before two major Holidays, and those are Holidays in which you only have a limited number of days in which to distribute that vaccine.

So there were flaws.

I believe in the distribution of this vaccine.

And it could have been better executed.

The Doctor currently Doctor Vincent, do we have?

Are any of?

Do we have vaccine in Arkansas?

Have we experienced in Arkansas?

Vaccines that have have gone unused either cause they've been dated or a failure to participate.

I would say in the Community pharmacy saying Duck Kirkwood can add to.

We have not heard any reports of the Community pharmacies wasting doses throwing any in the trash or having doses expire in our community pharmacies.

We did start with 212 Steve because 212 represented 70.

Three of the 75 counties plus a collaboration with the local health Unit and a local rural health clinic physician clinic in one of the counties.

An 212 is the boiling point of water, and we're bringing the heat to this virus with the supply we have.

We are getting consistent supply Steven and what I mean by that is we know how many doses are coming per week.

We have the vaccinators.

We have the capacity and we're making sure that patients in Calico Rock receive vaccine in an equitable fashion, the same way a patient in Pulaski County or Little Rock might receive the vaccination.

And that's partly because of this.

Are mostly because of this public private partnership with governor in the health Department.

There is also concerned gentleman doctors about the ancillary equipment and shortages there.

Syringes for example.

Sterile needles is are we experiencing that in Arkansas as well?

So as of last night the supplier that will come from the federal government will have sufficient needles through at capturing the 6th dose of Pfizer vaccine.

So the date I haven't heard that there is a specific deficiency of any of those, and I'll defer to my colleagues to see if they have heard specifically about that.

Alright, gentlemen.

Well, I would say that from the regulatory side we have seen some questions that people are worried that if the supply does not keep coming at the steady rate that it has an also calculating the fact that there are additional doses in these vials due to overfill.

There are pharmacists that are concerned that they will not be able to get the specifics ranges that they need.

There is some some technical issue with some syringes that actually just work better when drawing up vaccines than others, and that's the supply that we want to have.

Gentlemen, I have to advise that should not advise the audience that for several reasons we are conducting this conversation on a Thursday morning.

The new president is to address the nation we are told Thursday afternoon regarding his administration and the coronavirus.

I would ask each of you each of you if you could ask for one 2 three things from the new administration regarding the virus.

What would it be?

Doctor Vincent.

Let's start with you.

I would say whatever resources that the new President President Biden has in his team to help the manufacturers to ramp up any manufacturing areas that they made it need assistance to work on.

Working with the other manufacturers that have vaccines in the pipeline to remove any barriers to those being their data being brought to the FDA and eventually the CDC for review to make sure we're able to get a third or fourth vaccine approved.

In the near future, and to also improve the communication so we know reliably what's coming, how it's coming when it's coming, and how much is coming.

Doctor kirtley.

Yeah, I would echo exactly what he said.

You know the the Board of Pharmacy, especially his long taken approach of a couple of things.

One of them is largely education.

We have got to educate and we've got to communicate.

The biggest thing is if you've got vaccine accessible through the federal government, by all means get it to us.

If you get it to Arkansas, we will take care of it.

Doctor Romero so I echo all what has said.

First of all, we we have built an incredible vaccine or vaccines in a matter of 10 months.

You know, we've, as I've heard of a colleague of mine called we built a Cadillac, but we need to distribute that Cadillac so we need funds.

We need support to get those vaccines into arms, and that means the federal government needs to provide the states funding so that we can get the individuals necessary to get that vaccine out.

Second of all, we need to have.

Clear messaging from the federal government about how we should approach this issue.

When possible, give us giving us a month as much detail as possible and Lastly openness.

We cannot have another debackle like we did with regard to what was expected from vaccine.

Keep us informed we can deal with the with limitations, but we need to know what those limitations are.

Alright doctors, thank you very much for your time.

I fear that we are now out of hours.

Thank you so much for being part of the program.

Come back soon.

New session of the General Assembly with some new faces.

An both chambers overwhelmingly Republican.

Does that necessarily mean smooth sailing for a Republican governor facing his final General Assembly and an all Arkansas Republican congressional delegation now confronts not only a Democratic House and Senate?

But a Democrat in the White House.

Well, to hash it over, we welcome back consultants Bill Vickery from the right, Michael Cook from the left.

New year, new decade.

First time back on our air gentleman.

Thanks for coming back here.

Let's start with the General Assembly.

We're in week two now wrapping up week two.

It's the final regular session bill for a Republican governor, but that doesn't suggest we mention it doesn't assure him necessarily smooth sailing.

Yeah, I think everything's a family fight now inside the Republican Party.

And you know, typically governors in there that are term limited that are in their second term.

I mean, this is Governor Hutchinson's.

Last official full legislative session.

No, it can.

It can get a little dicey for those folks, but but I gotta tell you, I think the leadership in both the House and the Senate and the Governors Office seems to be working fairly well together.

I do get the real sense being up there.

There is everybody wants this to work out, so there's a lot of folks who are putting a lot of skin in the game in terms of having a some weather very smooth legislative session.

And some of that has to do with the fact that we're all stuck under the same.

Protocols in terms of safety and the virus and things of that nature.

Nothing like operating the government in a global pandemic to kind of make things cohesive.

Little better.

Well, certainly there are what appear to be some in for family fights going on.

There will certainly on on the Senate side on the South end of the capital.

It is I think you've got some strong personalities.

In the Senate, and folks that have been here for quite a bit of time, especially in our term limited world that all want that.

My sense is, you know, you got folks who all want to do well, they just come at it from different perspectives.

But I think at the end of the day, the Senate will smooth things out and you know, the house typically is the one.

That's because of the large number of members, it can be a little bit scattered, but in this case I thought the House seems to be all sort of unified together.

The Senate, though I listen.

Steve, I think I'm strong personalities, but they all want to get stuff done.

And so and I think they're all aware of being able to needing to get stuff done for the state.

And I think that wins the debt that wins the day.

In the end, Michael Cook on the on the on your side of the aisle on the Democratic side of the aisle you're facing super majorities in both chambers stronger than ever.

Your part.

the Democrats ability to shape the agenda is pretty limited.

Yes, that's correct.

You know the Democrats in the House and the Senate are in the as you mentioned, the Super minority.

So frankly the Republicans have the run of the place.

They get to vote up or down on anything they wish in the past and the previous sessions.

With ASA Hutchinson and the Democrats where they were just enough of them.

Whereas could could go to them or the public and even some of the public leadership and ask them to either pass certain things or frankly kill some things quietly in committee that they didn't want to get out.

But now that Democrats just don't even have those numbers, they are unfortunately have been have been put to the side.

So frankly, the actually action is going to be on the Republican side, which you know, as you mentioned earlier, we're just getting started in this session.

And like all legislative sessions, they start off very slow and very start getting geared up.

We have some big fights looming ahead.

You know.

We're currently the standard ground is going through the legislature.

The hate crimes bill that the governor I suction is proposing is going to go through or he's going to be.

Centered and then we have a future fights over potential factual bills and other kovid related things.

So I think what?

While the Democrats will not have too much say this time around, I think what you will see tored the end of the session will be a lot more GOP infighting.

Kind of what some of Bill was alluding to on the Senate side with the lame duck governor people are wanting.

They're just sort of, you know, they want to do their own thing they want to reassert themselves.

So these fights are around the corner, right?

Well, what you mention Bill or Michael mentioned the hate crime.

So let's take that up.

Bill, because it is something that Mr. Hutchinson in his address to the General Assembly said.

I very much want.

And the resistance is plainly there.

Yeah it listen he's going all in on that legislation.

There's no doubt about it.

There are some very sober, smart, well meaning people who have some issues with it in terms of what all gets caught up in defining things.

And I think for the bill, the devil really is in the details for a great number of Members who want to see who want to see a lot of kind of how we how are we going to define XYZ or should we open it up or should we narrow it?

Things of that nature and like any legislation listen, it's going to be debated out in public.

I think members don't have a fear of talking about these kinds of things in public and at the end of the day, you know, I don't know.

I I'm not much of a gambler, Steve, but 5050 maybe less than 5050 for the governor to get this past.

I think it just it really all boils down, but let's put it this way, it would not shock me to see the bill amended two or three times before it passes out.

Well, according to his sponsor, that is totally unacceptable to him.

And of course, and I think basically.

Well, it might be, it might be ethnicity and race to some extent, but the real big hang up would appear to be gender identity and sexual orientation.

Or do you read it another way?

Bill, Michael.

No, I tend to think the right.

I tend to think that again we're getting into for a lot of members.

I believe, you know, classifying people in certain ways.

Do you create specialized classes of folks who get treated differently than others?

Equity amongst the you know in the law for everyone?

These are just a few of the things that are going to be kicked around.

Will there be some outlandish arguments?

There's no doubt about it in my mind that will see some outlandish arguments surrounding this.

But there are listen sponsors.

A good man, smart Guy, Governor's a good man, smart guy.

They come from the same family and you've got folks on the other side who are smart, well meaning people too.

I think at the end of the day, they'll get.

They'll get their heads together and and we'll get something worked out on this particular issue.

Like the business community, Wayne in probably will have a big impact on it as well, but but again, lot of members out there who are rational, reasoned people.

A down to Earth folks that have some problems with it and those are going to have to be addressed.

Alright, let's go to Federale for a second.

Michael, your party has reason to celebrate.

If on the Senate side, barely.

Yes, you know yes.

On the on the 20th we had the inauguration of as Joe Biden as the new president.

Knighted states #46 and then at the same on the same date, Democrats took over the US Senate and now they control the House, the Senate and the Presidency.

So they are now in control and hopefully we will see some new movement to, you know, kind of heal the wounds of this country first.

For most, most importantly, hopefully now we will have a plan to fight covid when it has happened for quite awhile.

Since this whole thing started that the states had to figure it out themselves, and now that we have a vaccine, it seems like we've been in the same boat where all these different states trying to figure out Trump just sort of gave up and now to have a president who's put this on top of his agenda is putting out a plan on how to get this vaccines and peoples arms.

How to you know?

Lower the rates of infection by emphasizing and and really stressed the importance of masks and social distancing.

I think that's going to be very long way to solving this pandemic, but of course it's going to be awhile.

I mean, let's not fool ourselves.

This is not because we have a new president in the dinner.

Kratz control both branches of the House and Senate, then all of a sudden it's going to be magical.

This is going to take a while to get where it needs to go, but at least we have somebody in charge who has a plan is working hard to implement it.

Well backed Abilify made for second because what the what the?

Inauguration of 46 has meant is that the junior senator from Arkansas appears to have a fairly clear, but not a clear path to the nomination, but certainly he does not have to be concerned about any about what's going to happen in 2020.

Four, yeah, listen.

I think politically Tom Cotton has played the last 12 months perfectly.

I think he came out and was very strong and forceful about the end of the election and moving on and an unwillingness to.

To fight the results and we see I think that's paid political dividends, but at the end of the day here, he's now constantly mentioned he's one of two or three guys that are always going to be mentioned as presidential candidates for years.

So now he is in demand.

I think you will see him popping up in Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina.

You'll seem raising money.

He very much has a Golden Boy status inside the Republican Party at the moment because he has a foot in both worlds.

He can speak confidently too.

The millions of Trump supporters that that do dominate the Republican Party.

There should be no doubt about that, but he also within the business community and within the Business Roundtable and others.

The more traditional Republican community from the past.

I think he's very well respected there as well, so.

There was one guy that was looking forward, I think to this to the new administration and the ability to be the vocal counter to the administration.

That's the other thing.

Alot more airtime for Tom Cotton in the coming days.

And well let me let me go to Michael now because he gets the last word and we're down to a few seconds.

Michael well I think cotton of course is is trying to position himself for 2024 but we just had a president who is incredibly flamboyant.

Donald Trump.

He's a showman, and to me it's again, I'm Vickery will know more about the GOP primary than I ever will.

But it seems like that's what Republicans want.

They don't want cotton is so wooden, so stiff it seems like they want more of the congressman Matt Gaetz or the new Congress.

Women.

You know Marjorie Taylor or Laurent Bobart.

It seems like those well, now you're really pushing it there.

It sounds crazy.

That's that's where the party is headed.

They love.

They love the flamboyance.

They love the showmanship and I think cotton stiffness.

It wouldn't.

This is, you know, he says all the right things, but I don't think he has the red meat.

That the Republican primary voters they love Trump, but I think they want another Trump and I just don't think cotton fits that bill.

Alright guys, both of you stay close to the phone.

I have a feeling will be calling you back soon.

Right now we're out of juice or we're out of time.

Thanks very much for joining us.

As always, see you next week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and KUER FM 89.