This awful plague seems, according to early numbers, to target the elderly and those who have health problems already. But new research from Asian authorities shows being healthy isn't a guarantee against the disease. And, maybe even more frightening, young and healthy people might be carriers without knowing it.

It turns out that watching for people with symptoms of covid-19 isn't enough. Because folks who appear perfectly healthy, without so much as a cough, are still capable of giving the virus to others. Here's more from the Associated Press:

"A study by researchers in Singapore became the latest to estimate that somewhere around 10 percent of new infections may be sparked by people who carry the virus but have not yet suffered its flu-like symptoms."

It gets worse.

"The seemingly healthy people who can transmit the virus are believed to fall into three categories: pre-symptomatic, who do not have symptoms when they spread [it] but develop illness a couple of days later; asymptomatic, who never develop symptoms; and post-symptomatic, who get sick and recover but remain contagious. The Singapore and China studies focused on pre-symptomatic infections."

You've no doubt seen Facebook comments from folks who claim that this new virus kills fewer people than the flu, or who think they can tough it out. But this new research shows even if you do tough it out (whatever that means), you might still give the virus to someone else who will not be able to walk it off.

And that's why all this social distancing is so important. We don't have enough information about this virus yet to determine who is safe and who will for sure get sick--and require hospitalization.

So far, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has declined to issue a stay-at-home order for the state of Arkansas. He explained his reasoning yesterday at his daily press conference. The man, as always, made a lot of sense. (It's a habit of his.)

He said that stay-at-home orders aren't really stay-at-home orders, and if he issued one tomorrow, 700,000 would go to work come Monday. That is, even with these orders in other states, nurses still go to work, electricians still go to work, grocery store workers still go to work, lawyers and accountants still go to work. So how much good these orders are doing is anybody's guess.

And if he did issue his own order, thousands of others--at stores trying to stay afloat by paying employees to fill online requests--would lose their jobs. Gov. Hutchinson noted this isn't just a health-care crisis, but an economic one as well.

But he also noted that if his experts tell him to crack down even more, he will do so.

The most interesting part of the governor's conference yesterday, he pointed to a chart that showed the number of covid-19 cases as compared to what was expected for Arkansas. As things stand--with his social distance directive--the number of actual cases has consistently glided below the forecasts in this state. Which means, so far, what our state government is doing is right. Pray it stays that way.

In a remarkable turn of events, the governor of New York state asked for volunteers to help with the pandemic, and more than 80,000 people turned up. That includes health-care professionals from other states, folks taking a break between jobs, and recent retirees.

Recent retirees. Just because a body is retired doesn't make them elderly. But the over-65 set is the demographic that this virus seems to attack in force. And these people are volunteering to serve on the front lines in this war.

Remarkable. What a country. What a people.

The government in Great Britain has canceled Wimbledon for the first time since World War II.

The president of the United States said in a press conference this week that his nation is going to face a "horrific" couple of weeks. Starting now. We hope that's not just empty optimism. That is, we hope he's right and it's just a couple of weeks. And not longer.

Editorial on 04/03/2020