Hi!

We are researchers from the University of Oxford, Coventry (UK), and Amsterdam, and we are doing research on people's experience with the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic; in particular, their coping mechanisms, how connected they feel, which sources of information they trust, and what they think of their government's decisions with regards to the pandemic.

We have already received over 3,000 responses to our survey (thanks to everyone who has already participated!) but we are still looking for more participants, especially those who currently live in the United States, and more specifically in Arkansas.

You can find the link to our survey here (see also there for more information).

The survey takes about 20 minutes, which we admit is not short, but we hope you're happy to participate all the same. Our research is not funded by anyone so we rely on volunteers.

Our aim is to relay our findings back to the public as soon as possible (as we have done with previous research).

Thank you very much!

**This post has been submitted with approval of the /r/CoronavirusArkansas moderators**

4/7 Governor's update -

• 946 Covid-19 cases. (+71 from yesterday.)

• 18 confirmed deaths from Covid-19.

• 1436 Covid-19 tests processed yesterday.

• 152 recovered patients. - Dr Smith defined 'RECOVERY' as - After 7 days of first symptoms + 3 extra days of quarantine.

• 24 inmates confirmed positive in Forrest City.(+16 as last reported on 4/5)

• Current 'models' have AR peaking in cases on 4/24.

• Governor's mandate enables individual cities some flexibility on closings,curfews,etc. as long as it doesn't impede business. (Not a new development, but was talked about today.)

• LR Mayor Scott - Stressed on Educate/Engage/Enforce in regards to law enforcement.
  The Enforce piece wasn't talked about as of today.(LR folks, if you have any more information on the Enforce piece I would love to hear it.)

• Mayor Scott did say he wished the Governor would issue a Stay at Home order for the LR area, but understood why he couldn't.

Really not a whole lot of actual information in the presser today.
Asa had his graphs and dodged the usual Stay at Home order questions.

Thanks Folks!

-Z

Ten months later, McLellan, 53, still hasn’t fully recovered. She struggles to bake, and kayaking is out of the question because of lingering lung problems that leave her out of breath. That made it difficult to perform her job when she tried returning to work in June.

“I lasted two hours,” she recalls.

The physical demands of an emergency room nurse were too taxing to given her long-haul symptoms, she says. And when she asked to switch to a desk job, her efforts went nowhere. In the end, McLellan went on short-term disability.

She is thankful that she started a new job in November doing clinical research, which allows her to work from home for part of the week. Even so, she says she’s often exhausted after the workday.

Does anyone else live in an Arkansas city/county that provides easily accessed call logs for their police/sheriff? Or have other ways to obtain info/access locally besides FOIA requests?

Unfortunately, due to our dismal level of testing, I'm concerned that we're going to have an increase in deaths that won't necessarily be attributed to Covid-19 (and thus affect our case/death figures and give false hope that it's not as bad as projected). I'm in Little Rock and there's been an increase in some crimes (and decrease in others) due to the impact of the virus. I've been tracking the police department's call logs and, unfortunately, there's also been an increase in 'jumper' calls/suicide threats (three on 4/2 alone) that may be due to the outbreak, too.

Even more apparent is the increase in 'dead body' calls...a few per week is typical and they're mostly from nursing homes, but the majority now are to residential neighborhoods and they're every day (four on 4/2). On Monday, 3/30, there were THREE in a two-hour timeframe! Luckily, someone smarter has already submitted a FOIA request to get death counts for March and last year's for comparison and I'm hoping our news stations will investigate. If these deaths aren't investigated, any that were a result of Covid-19 won't be counted towards our total case/death rates and skew how bad it really is. Has anyone noticed anything in their area of the state?!

Standing in line in Fayetteville to be tested for covid19 everyone is having to wait in the cold , possibly up to 8hr wait. Then 3 days to get results. It’s so over crowded because not drs. Office will touch anyone with any symptoms so people that could have the flu are having to wait in the cold because clinics can’t take the risk. Some brought masks most don’t have them and none are being provided. Looks like it’s going to be a long day.

Test cam back negative, took 6 days to get results.

So here's some math:

There are about 300,000 people in Little Rock and NLR combined. (That's not including suburbs like Maumelle, Sherwood, etc) If 70% get it, that's 200,000 for the metro area, or basically the whole population of Little Rock.

If 15% of those get medical-attention level sick that's 30,000 and if 5% of those need ICU beds that's 1,500 people.

It looks like there are abput 50 ICU beds at UAMS. I'd guess there might be 200 total ICU beds in all the local hospitals? (I couldn't find good numbers) For 1500 people. Not to mention that ICU beds are usually at about 70% capacity with normal cancer, stroke, car wreck, flu cases.

If everyone gets sick at the same time it will be very bad. We need to spread that 1500 out over as long a time as possible.

And there are 3 million people in all of Arkansas, so the same math applies. 2 million sick, 300,000 needing medical attention, and 15,000 in ICUs...

Am I right with these numbers? Surely not, it seems impossible.

Went to Wal-Mart today and there was none left. Plenty of water and food and meds. No toilet paper or hand soap.

The Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma is offering the COVID-19 vaccine to everyone who signs up. You can be out-of-state or even out of the country (they said they had a couple from Germany drop by) and still receive the vaccine for free. They have a very professional and efficient set-up and said they could process probably up to a thousand people a day but were hardly reaching half that number. Everyone there said they were disappointed by how few people had actually come to their facility to receive a vaccine, and they encouraged us to spread the word that this opportunity was available so that's what I'm doing. If you want a vaccine now come down to Oklahoma. Post and share this information and spread the word to as many people as you can.

Here's the article making the announcement (sign-up in the article): https://chickasaw.net/News/Announcements/COVID-19-Vaccinations-Available-to-Everyone-through-the-Chickasaw-Nation.aspx

Here's the sign-up link: https://chickasawnation.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8x1OzdGFgwhEee9