SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. — It was a chaotic scene Friday, July 30, when Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was in Siloam Springs for one of his covid conversations. Someone from his team told 5NEWS it may have been the worst covid conversation yet. People were talking over the governor and heckling others who were speaking.
“The way I saw my town treat our governor, I couldn’t believe it,” Ashley McFadin said.
Ashley McFadin spoke, telling the story of how her brother is very sick but not with COVID and needed immediate care this week. He was forced to wait 14 hours to be admitted because hospitals were diverting patients. As she told her story, people in the crowd started laughing at her.
“I tried to give them questions of a parent, a sibling or do you have loved ones, and one lady spoke up and said, we don’t want to suffocate our children, and I began saying my brother’s lungs only function at 40% and he double masks and does not complain, and they laughed,” she said.
Governor Asa Hutchinson says today’s town hall was the essence of democracy, and he says we’ll have to wait and see if the crowd heard his message about the vaccine at all. He thinks the outcome of these meetings is often the follow-up.
“We find out that people get engaged and help in their community trying to get the vaccines out or get more information out," Hutchinson said. "I also think an outcome will be people will do more research, they’ll go to their trusted advisor, hopefully, their doctor and ask the tough questions and get the information they need."
Kari Ahlum wanted to hear what the governor and Dr. Romero had to say about masks and vaccines. She says her son was adversely affected by the MMR vaccine 10 years ago and lost his legs. She says nothing can bring her son's legs back. She thinks are leaders need to stop forcing vaccines and treat the disease.
“You can’t force anything into anyone’s body; that’s their body, their autonomy, their God-given right," she said. "And they should have the ability to go to work and to not force, I have to put this in my body, or I don’t have a job tomorrow to feed my kid."
As of now, this is the last of the governor’s COVID conversations that are scheduled.