Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves gave a press conference today, updating the state’s situation in regards to the Delta Variant of COVID-19. This is the first chat he’s given on the topic since I don’t know when, maybe March, and given what he said today, I really don’t blame him. Long story short, thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin.
Here’s how it boiled down. He repeated the numbers, which have been staggering this week. We hit 5,023 cases reported today with 31 deaths. This is the highest number since the very beginning, back to last year, and that’s the third time this week I’ve written something similar. We’ve jumped between 500-700 cases every day, and dirty back-of-the-envelope scribbling has it that one in every 1,000 Mississippians have COVID.
One thing that is encouraging – sort of – is we’re seeing a leap in vaccinations. We went from 20,000 a week to 60,000 last week. Reeves said he hopes to get it up to 70,000 this week. Mississippi’s been one of the worst states about getting vaccinated, and right now only 1,072,000 or so full vaccinations have gone down. There are about 2.98 souls in the Magnolia State, for what that’s worth, so it’ll take a couple more weeks.
Another topic the governor brought up was outside aid. Along with MEMA (Mississippi Emergency Management Administration), Tate’s asked the federal branch to basically send in the Marines. Hospitals have been dealing with being over-capacity all week and face what’s being called “complete failure” within 10 days. We’ve also got a severe staffing problem. Seventy-three hospitals across the state have requested 65 physicians, 920 nurses, 239 respiratory technicians, and 59 advanced practice nurses.
Now, let’s address the “full ICU beds-short staff” situation. Most hospitals have fewer rooms being used than they actually have, that’s just how things are done. Not only do you have to allocate what staff you’ve got available. Mississippi’s had a problem with medical professionals for a long time, in that we’ve traditionally had fewer than we’ve needed. No one wants to live in Mississippi, figure that. Some counties have doctors paying off their student loans by serving excruciatingly poor counties, especially in the Delta, and that’s it.
If we get the people requested, that means 771 rooms and 232 ICU beds across the state could be opened up. Reeves also requested 150 ventilator machines from the federal government. It’s important to realize, though, that the U.S. government may not be able to meet these requests because so many states have done exactly what Mississippi’s done. There’s only so much that can go around. It should be noted hospitals have spent the past two weeks begging Reeves to do something drastic and he’s just now getting around to it. A request for the USS Comfort, a hospital ship used in New York City early in the pandemic last year, was denied but that’s just as well. It’s better suited for open-ocean work and, frankly, getting everyone down to the coast would be a bummer.
Finally, Governor Reeves pointed out some things residents could do. He encouraged vaccinations, pointing out his family all got the shot and one of his young daughters had a light case of COVID. He pointed out that even vaccinated one can catch a case. With the shot, though, it’s more than likely not going to be as fierce. He also recommended the use of masks and social distancing. However, he wasn’t gone to issue any mandates; instead, he’s counting on the “common sense” of Mississippians. Okay, then.
To be fair, I don’t know what he could do, particularly after spending the last couple of months ignoring the not-quite-conquered virus. I mean, he’s not actively trying to kill us like Ron DeSantis or Greg Abbott, so props there. We are in severe shape, though. Pearl River schools, which is close to Jackson, is the latest one in the “well, what did you expect” category, with 40% of the student body in quarantine. Schools here started this week and late last week, and a truly unsettling number have reported cases, quarantines, and closings. An even more troublesome number of schools have yet to issue any sort of mask mandate.
Okay. Now there’s really not much Reeves can do apart from trying to get as many feet on the ground as possible. As loathsome as he is, his hands are tied. But – and this is a big but – the whole point of having a governor is you have one person leading the way, and he can’t even be bothered to do that. This didn’t have to be this way. Like far too many other Americans, we saw the merest crack of dawn and kicked the door open. We’ve had a dumb summer and we’re paying for our dumbness.
That’s on us, not Reeves. His mistake is depending on the “common sense” of the average Mississippian. Come on, now.
Dear Y'all 