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Vaccine advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday voted unanimously in favor of expanding the emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to include children under 5 years old. 

The roughly 18 million children younger than 5 are the only Americans not yet eligible for vaccination against COVID-19.

There are around 183,000 children in Mississippi in this age group. 

Here’s what you need to know. 

What happens now?

The FDA is not required to follow the adviser’s recommendation but is likely to do so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will still have to weigh in on that decision if it comes, but if the agency gives its approval as well, vaccines could become available for children in this age group as soon as next week.

Are the vaccines for children different than the adult vaccines?

Both vaccines use the same messenger RNA technology, but the dosage and regimens for young children differ from adults’. Moderna’s regimen will include two doses at one-quarter the strength of adult doses, while Pfizer’s requires three doses at one-tenth the strength of adult doses. 

Pfizer’s vaccine is the only one currently approved for use in children ages 5 and older.

How did the approval for children happen?

A panel of outside vaccine experts met and reviewed the safety and efficacy data submitted by both vaccine manufacturers. The process was the same for the FDA’s approval of COVID-19 vaccines for each age group.

Are the vaccines for children effective?

In its analyses of Pfizer and Moderna data, the FDA said both vaccines are effective in preventing symptomatic infection. Pfizer’s vaccine appeared 80% effective at preventing a symptomatic COVID-19 infection in children under five. Moderna’s vaccine was around 40% to 50% effective for children under 6. 

“Pediatricians and parents are eager to have a COVID vaccine for children down to the age of 6 months,” Dr. Anita Henderson, President of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a pediatrician at The Pediatric Clinic in Hattiesburg, said in a statement to Mississippi Today. “We are seeing an increase in COVID cases right now in Mississippi, and we must remember that over the last two years, 13 children in our state have lost their life to COVID. Many additional children have had MIS-C (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children) and other complications from COVID-19. If the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are approved for use among children 6 months and older, pediatricians would welcome the opportunity to protect this age group as well.”

Are the vaccines for children safe?

The clinical trials of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children showed minimal side effects.

“Given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and likelihood of continued SARS-CoV-2 transmission during the ensuing months, deployment of the vaccine for use among children 6 months through 4 years of age will likely have a beneficial effect on COVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality in this age group,” the FDA said.

How many children under five have gotten COVID-19?

More than 30,000 children younger than 5 have been hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S., and nearly 500 coronavirus deaths have been reported in that age group, according to United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy.

In Mississippi, children under 5 have comprised less than 5% of the state’s monthly COVID-19 cases for the majority of the pandemic. 

How can I get the vaccine for my child?

The Mississippi Department of Health has pre-ordered doses of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines for children, and the shots will be available as soon as next week. The vaccine will be made available for children under 5 at MSDH clinics, and parents will be able to schedule appointments through the agency’s website. 

State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said MSDH will recommend that parents vaccinate their children under 5 if the FDA approves the shots.

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Nine proposed charter schools have made it to the second round of Mississippi’s application process. 

The applicants are all looking to open in 2023, with all but one run by new operators. 

While most schools would offer just one or two grades at launch, if approved they would eventually serve a larger group of students. They are:

• Columbus Leadership Academy, grades K-8 in the Columbus Municipal School District
• Level-Up Academy Public, grades K-12 in the Greenville Public School District
• Mound Bayou New Millennial High, grades 7-12 in the North Bolivar Consolidated School District
• Natchez-Adams Early Childhood and Intermediate Center, grades K-5 in the Natchez-Adams School District
• Resilience Academy of Teaching Excellence, grades K-5 in the East Tallahatchie and North Bolivar School Districts
• Southwest Mississippi Academy of Health Sciences, grades 6-12 in the Natchez-Adams School District
• Southwest Mississippi Conservatory for Performing and Media Arts, grades 6-12 in the Natchez-Adams School District
• Clarksdale Collegiate Prep, grades 7-12 in the Clarksdale Municipal School District. 
• Instant Impact Global Prep, grades K-8 in the Natchez Adams School District

The applicants that have made it to this stage will be reviewed by an outside evaluator whose findings will be released in July. Final decisions on each potential school will be announced in September. 

Charter schools are free public schools that do not report to a school board like traditional public schools. Instead, they are governed by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board, which oversees the application process to open a new charter school. They have more flexibility for teachers and administrators when it comes to student instruction, and are funded by local school districts based on enrollment.

Charter schools can apply directly to the authorizer board if they’re planning to open in a D or F district. If an operator wants to open in an A, B, or C district, they need to get approval from the local school board. All of the proposed schools being reviewed this cycle would be opening in D or F districts. 

Currently, Mississippi has eight charter schools. Most are located in Jackson, but there are schools in Clarksdale and Greenwood. 

Amanda Johnson, the operator of Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School, said she is applying to expand her school, in part, because parents have asked her for it.

“We made promises to those families to do what we needed to do to prepare their child for success in high school and beyond,” Johnson said. “We feel this is a continuation of the work we are already doing to prepare our scholars for college and career success.” 

Johnson said she feels Clarksdale Collegiate Public, which serves about 70 students per grade in grades K-5, has been very successfully received by the community thus far. They have had to accelerate their growth plan twice, and have a waiting list that Johnson described as “healthy.” 

The decision to open a middle and high school is also rooted in their commitment to the students in the Delta, Johnson explained, saying that it has always been central to their mission to ensure Delta children can achieve at high levels. 

“For us, it’s about making sure our kids are prepared to have opportunities so that they can pursue whatever they are interested in — whether it be military, four-year college, or vocational, we want to make sure that we are providing opportunities for them and making space for their passions,” Johnson said. 

They are currently authorized to serve students through the eighth grade, but are planning to reorganize so that one facility serves K-6 and the other 7-12. Johnson said they plan to begin serving seventh graders as Clarksdale Collegiate Prep in the fall of 2023. 

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The only thing hotter than the temperature in Hades-burg was the Ole Miss bats and arms. Now the Rebels are headed to Nebraska for the College World Series. On this week’s pod, Rick and Tyler break down last week’s Super Regional and take a look ahead at what awaits the eight teams that have punched their ticket to Omaha.

Stream all episodes here.

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When two winter storms struck the city of Jackson last year, it wasn’t the snow. It wasn’t the ice. It was the water.

Century-old pipes burst, leaving residents of Mississippi’s capital city without running water. Schools and businesses closed, and some residents went for a month without water.

The disaster brought the need for safe, clean water into clear focus, and last August, President Joe Biden pointed to the problem in a televised address: “Never again can we allow what happened in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson Mississippi. We can never let it happen again.”

More than 30 million Americans live where water systems have violated safety rules. That problem is even more acute in Mississippi, which is filled with small, often antiquated water systems. Of the state’s 1,200 public water systems, about 70% are rural systems serving 1,000 homes or less, most of which were built in the late 1960s or early 1970s. 

Some communities provide no water at all, forcing residents to turn to well water, which often goes without testing.

When testing is done, it may detect heavy metals. In 2015, high levels of lead appeared in Jackson’s drinking water. Since then, two-thirds of all water samples have contained at least a trace amount of the metal.

Mississippi Spotlight* and Consumer Reports are partnering to test water systems across Mississippi with volunteers who will use a special testing kit to take samples that will then be analyzed in a lab for any heavy metals or PFAS. We will share individual results with volunteers once the testing is complete.

Tests of drinking water across the nation have also detected synthetic chemicals, including PFAs, which have been linked to a range of health woes.

Would you like to help us test the water in your community? Is there a story about water quality where you live that you would like to share with us?

Volunteer to be a water tester

Please get in touch through this form, hosted by our partners Consumer Reports. Your responses are secure as the form is secure, and only we and Consumer Reports will have access to your contributions.

Tell us about your water supply experiences

In addition to testing, we want to hear from readers who have a story to tell about their drinking water. If you have a story that one of our reporters should check out, please respond in this form.

This report was produced in partnership with the Community Foundation for Mississippi’s local news collaborative, which is independently funded in part by Microsoft Corp. The collaborative includes the Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Advocate, Jackson State University, Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Mississippi Today.

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Since the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees was created by constitutional amendment in 1943, Mississippians have used the ballot box only twice to edit the state agency that oversees all eight public universities.

In 1987, voters permitted the board to lend a trustee to the Le Bauve Scholarship Fund at University of Mississippi, and in 2003, they reduced the trustees’ terms from 12 to nine years and reconfigured the districts.

Now, with the ballot initiative weeded from the voters, a legislative watchdog has looked at how lawmakers might change the governing bodies that oversee Mississippi’s universities, community colleges, and only academic medical center through state statutes and board policy changes, without a constitutional amendment. 

Last week, the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) released a report on postsecondary governance in Mississippi and how it could be restructured. The report described the history, structure and function of IHL, the Mississippi Community College Board, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The 69-page report offered questions for lawmakers to ask before determining how, if at all, the state boards overseeing colleges and universities in Mississippi should be restructured. It made no urgent recommendations, because the committee found that “no standards for best practices exist” for reformulating postsecondary boards because no state has the same system. 

“Leaders should consider working with the existing postsecondary governance before significantly altering it,” the report says. 

Lawmakers have discussed removing UMMC from IHL before, but the move would require an amendment to the state Constitution. But the report found it would be possible for IHL trustees to delegate more authority to UMMC by amending the board’s policies and bylaws. 

Lawmakers could look at “what, if any” functions IHL could delegate to UMMC, the report suggests, with “the primary focus … on how reimagined governance and policy could improve UMMC viability and future growth potential.” 

Marc Rolph, executive director of communications and marketing, said UMMC had no comment on the PEER report. 

The report also found that lawmakers could alter MCCB’s governance structure by amending the state statute that created the board. Still, the report says “a complete restructuring” of the state’s postsecondary boards would require a constitutional amendment. 

“Some of this is steeped in the Constitution,” said Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, the current PEER committee chair. “It would require an initiative, and we don’t have an initiative process right now.” 

The state Supreme Court struck down the ballot initiative process in May 2021, but lawmakers can still amend the Constitution via a two thirds vote in both chambers of the Legislature. Voters must then approve in a general election.

Unlike the state’s eight universities, each of Mississippi’s 15 community colleges have their own board of trustees. Created in 1928, MCCB was initially housed under the state Department of Education. It is mainly responsible for controlling and monitoring the flow of state funds to each community college. The central office, which has a $6 million annual budget, also oversees career and technical education programs. 

IHL, on the other hand, has vastly more power over the universities. The commissioner’s office and the trustees select the university presidents and have broad authority to decide how legislative appropriations are allocated among each school. For all eight universities and UMMC, the board approves new academic programs, and signs off on procurements greater than $250,000 and capital improvements totaling more than $1 million. 

This session, Sen. Rita Potts Parks, R-Corinth, proposed a bill to give UMMC its own hospital board, but it died in committee. Policymakers also discussed removing UMMC from IHL’s purview in 2015, when the board decided not to renew Dan Jones’ contract as chancellor of University of Mississippi. That same year, a report by the Center for Mississippi Health Policy and Veralon found that UMMC’s governance structure is unusual compared to other states. 

“The majority of state-based public universities with a medical school and associated academic health center are not governed directly by the state,” that report found. 

Academic health centers like UMMC in general have two sides, the academic medical center, which is more focused on education, and the clinical enterprise (the hospitals and clinics where care takes place). The state governance for these two functions is often partitioned, with one side operating more independently than the other, the PEER report found. 

At UMMC, the IHL board oversees both sides, and the budget lines between the two are murky – doctors often treat patients with the help of medical students. But some lawmakers have argued that IHL is not equipped to oversee the finances of UMMC’s clinical enterprise, which are structured differently from a university budget. 

“All risks associated with pursuing change efforts should be compared against the risk of doing nothing in a fast-paced and increasingly competitive and complex academic health care marketplace,” the report says. 

Others, including LouAnn Woodward, the vice chancellor for health affairs at UMMC, have disagreed with that. Shortly after IHL did not renew Jones’ contract in 2015, Woodward wrote in a public post to the UMMC community that she believed it should remain a part of the University of Mississippi. 

“Ole Miss, although out of sight and occasionally out of mind, is not only our parent campus to the north but our natural ally when the pressure is on,” she wrote. “From time to time there’s talk about separating our two campuses and treating UMMC as a distinct institution. It is critical that we remain part of the University of Mississippi. We’re stronger together.”

The PEER report suggested that if UMMC was separated from IHL, the academic medical center could remain under University of Mississippi with the clinical enterprise becoming a private nonprofit. The PEER committee interviewed staff at the University of Tennessee Medical Center which, in 1999, became a private nonprofit separate from the UT Health System. 

One benefit to this change, the UT Medical Center’s government relations officer told the PEER staff: The clinical enterprise was “no longer subject to open meetings law as a private nonprofit corporation.” 

Still, that step would require a constitutional amendment. Another idea the report suggested was that IHL could delegate more authority to UMMC – a step the board has taken in the past. In 2019, trustees decided to let UMMC, UM and Mississippi State University manage their own state-bond-funded projects after the lawmakers gave IHL sole oversight of capital projects funded by state bonds. 

The PEER report also reviewed reasons a state might want to restructure postsecondary governance, such as concern about rising costs, barriers to local or regional access to graduate programs, a change in state leadership, or “ill-defined or overlapping missions” of governing bodies.

Putting IHL and MCCB under a central coordinating board could be more efficient, the report says. Lawmakers could also give each university its own institutional board, though that would require a constitutional amendment and could result in “drawbacks” in the event of “attempts by the new board to delve into issues IHL generally does not (e.g., athletics).”

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Mississippi’s two U.S. senators — Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith — have not endorsed the gun safety agreement worked out by a bipartisan group of their Senate colleagues.

Both said they wanted to see more details before making a final decision on whether they could support the agreement, which was developed by several of their Democratic and Republican colleagues following the May 24 murders of school children and teachers in Uvalde, Texas.

“I look forward to reviewing the proposed language when it comes out to see if there are workable solutions to promote school safety and prevent gun violence without infringing upon the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners,” Wicker said in a statement. “As I have said before, I support efforts to step up enforcement of our existing laws and address the serious mental health challenges that lead to mass shootings.”

The bipartisan group reaching the agreement consisted of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats in the Senate. If the 10 Republicans stay committed to the proposal, they would theoretically provide the 60 votes (including the 50 Senate Democrats) needed to pass the legislation out of the 100-member Senate. In addition Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, also has said he would vote for the compromise if it remains in its current form.

“Sen. Hyde-Smith, as she does with all legislation, would like to see legislative language before commenting on the gun control framework,” said Chris Gallegos, a spokesperson for Mississippi’s junior senator, in a statement.

The agreement includes the following proposals:

• Establish a red flag law to make it easier for law enforcement to temporarily take away a gun from someone deemed to be a danger to himself or others,
• Remove the so-called “boyfriend loophole” that allows a person convicted of assault against a girlfriend not to have his weapon confiscated while it would be if the couple was married.
• Conduct more rigorous background checks of those under age 21.
• Develop tools to federally prosecute people who buy guns in one state and try to sell them on the streets of cities in other states.
• Expand the current law to require those selling multiple weapons to also run background checks before completing the sale.

In addition, the agreement calls for spending more federal funds on mental health issues.

“We are confident this agreement is not only going to save lives in the short run, but it’s going to lead to more success for the anti-gun violence movement in the long run,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, whose state was the site of a December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting where 26 people, including 20 elementary-age children, were killed.

“…What I know when I study great social change movements — and ours is one of those great social change movements — is that success begets success. That when you finally move that mountain, and you pass legislation that makes a difference, that in fact, you attract more people to your movement. You use that coalition for good in the future, and that’s what will happen here.”

Murphy said the agreement could result in “finally breaking the 30-year logjam on the issue of gun violence.”

Hyde-Smith’s spokesman was less enthusiastic about the new agreement.

“(Hyde-Smith) remains steadfast in protecting 2nd Amendment rights, supporting law enforcement, and protecting children,” Gallegos said in a statement. “Given that, she finds it difficult not to be wary of any agreement being praised by some of the same people who not long ago called for defunding the police and easing criminal prosecutions.”

The compromise reached by the bipartisan group falls far short of the gun safety measures advocated by many congressional Democrats. But those gun safety measures advocated by many congressional Democrats have nothing to do with defunding the police.

What is missing from the new bipartisan agreement but has been proposed earlier by Democrats is banning the AR-15 style semi-automatic weapons that have been used in some mass shootings, or at least prohibiting the sale of the weapon to those under the age of 21. Other proposals that still have not gained traction include enhanced background checks and waiting periods to buy many types of guns.

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A federal board has ruled freight rail company CSX must share previously unseen traffic data with Amtrak as the two move toward mediation over the future of the proposed Gulf Coast train route. 

The Surface Transportation Board’s ruling came Friday and calls for CSX to grant Amtrak access to materials the freight company had designated as “highly confidential.” Amtrak needs that information to create traffic studies to show the impacts a proposed passenger train could have on the route. 

The board is asking all parties – including Amtrak and CSX – to file traffic studies as evidence and ordered them to meet with a mediator. 

“All parties should have the opportunity to fully respond to the evidentiary issues raised at the hearing,” said Chairman Martin J. Oberman. “It is also the Board’s intent to have a full and complete record in such an important matter that affects the public interest.”

The board decided Amtrak was at a disadvantage to produce meaningful traffic studies without the once-protected freight train data. The new traffic reports need to be filed with the board by July 13. 

Amtrak has been pushing for a Gulf Coast train route that will connect Mobile to New Orleans with four stops in Mississippi for years. Amtrak stopped running through Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. Last March, it filed a complaint with the Surface Transportation Board over the route, accusing freight companies of stalling any meaningful negotiations. 

Freight company officials say Mississippi’s railway corridor is congested and Amtrak is over simplifying obstacles. CSX officials also said that the repairs and updates needed to accommodate passenger trains will cost taxpayers upwards of $400 million.

“Amtrak appreciates the Board’s continued efforts to instill transparency into this process and will work to meet the board’s new deadline,” said spokesperson Marc Magliari. “We will also work with the mediator the Board appoints and continue our preparations for beginning this service along the Gulf Coast as soon as possible.”

The board says the mediation period will be no more than 30 days, beginning on the date of the first session. 

The mediation order comes after weeks of public hearings.

READ MORE: How the Gulf Coast train beef between Amtrak and CSX is intensifying

By law, Amtrak can run passenger trains on tracks owned by a freight company as long as it doesn’t “unreasonably impair” businesses. Whether the Amtrak route – which would run a morning and evening train – would be “unreasonable” was at the core of the public hearings and will be addressed by the traffic studies the board requested. 

“CSX appreciates the STB’s decision to order Board-sponsored mediation and looks forward to working with the appointed mediator and all parties towards a reasonable and amicable solution,” the company said in a statement. 

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For decades, natural resources from an extinct volcano called the Jackson Dome, about 3,000 feet below Mississippi’s capital city, have given the state a role in a multistate oil extraction business.  

The operation, known as enhanced oil recovery or EOR, takes natural carbon dioxide from the Dome, sends it through a pipeline to oil fields in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and injects the CO2 into the ground to push oil out for production.

Now, as the United States government tries to encourage emissions reduction from industrial sources, Mississippi lawmakers are hoping that the same pipeline, owned by Denbury Inc., will give the state a new role in the emerging carbon capture business. 

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is an expensive method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions where a business separates CO2 from the other gasses it produces, and then transports it to a storage site where it’s injected into the ground for permanent storage.  

While CCS has existed for years, it was too costly for companies to consider without any incentive. But in 2018, the federal government enacted a tax credit that greatly expanded incentives for emitters. 

Mississippi House Energy Chair Rep. Brent Powell, R-Brandon, explained that companies hoping to receive the tax credit could potentially move to the state and use its existing pipeline for storage. 

“What we’re hoping with this is that the landowners and the public can get some royalties for the storage, but we’d really like to see some industry come into the state that’s close to the pipeline,” said Powell, who specified electric and fertilizer plants as businesses he envisions offloading their carbon in Mississippi. 

Under the program, both surface and mineral rights owners would be compensated, Powell, who wrote the bill, said. 

This year, Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law House Bill 1214, a bill that would allow the Mississippi State Oil & Gas Board to oversee a carbon storage program in the state.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency currently regulates carbon storage wells in most of the country, but now states are hoping to obtain authority to meet growing interest locally.

The Oil & Gas Board first has to obtain authority from the EPA, which it plans to apply for by the end of the year, the board told Mississippi Today. So far, just Wyoming and North Dakota have such a program, according to the Carbon Capture Coalition.

David Snodgrass, lead geologist for the Oil & Gas Board, said that eminent domain won’t apply to carbon storage in Mississippi. Eminent domain, which was restricted in the state after a 2011 ballot initiative, gives the government the power to take private property for a public use project without the landowners’ consent. Companies seeking to build a carbon pipeline or storage wells would first need to seek approval from a majority of landowners. 

The new law allows the Oil & Gas Board to move forward with the project without a majority approval, but Powell said it would only apply if there are unresponsive or absentee landowners.

“If a guy’s adamant, ‘You’re not crossing my property,’ the Board’s not going to let (the company) cross their property,” Powell said. 

Experts suggest that Mississippi, as well as its neighboring states, are prime locations for carbon storage because of their geology. 

Susan Hovorka, a research scientist at the University of Texas’ Jackson School of Geosciences, explained that the pore space – tiny openings between grains of rock in the ground where gas can be stored – gives the Gulf Coast region an advantage over the rest of the country. 

“The Gulf Coast states are particularly well-endowed, when you look at maps of the pore space availability, these states shine out as winners,” Hovorka said. “There are other states that have opportunity, but the Gulf Coast states’ opportunity is particularly excellent.” 

Beginning in 2008, Hovorka and other scientists conducted one of the first large-scale carbon storage tests in the U.S. at an oil field near Natchez owned by Denbury Inc.

Hovorka said while the program is new to most of the world, there’s a well-established practice for safely storing carbon. 

“People can get some confidence because this is not new stuff being done for the first time,” she said, mentioning the world’s first commercial capture and storage project in Norway that began in 1996. “It’s old stuff being put to new uses to mitigate greenhouse gasses.”

But storing carbon and transporting it are two different things. 

Last month, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA – the federal agency in charge of pipeline safety – announced its findings from a 2020 gas leak in Satartia, Miss. The report found multiple failures on the part of Denbury, and proposed a penalty of $3.9 million against the company.

After the episode in Sataria, some advocates are questioning whether the country is prepared for an increased demand on carbon transportation. 

While both Powell and Snodgrass referenced the company as a proponent of starting a program in the state, Denbury officials told Mississippi Today it’s too early to say if it will begin carbon storage in the state. Denbury is currently securing spaces in other Gulf Coast states, including Louisiana and Alabama, but likely wouldn’t start storage until 2025. 

“I would say it’s premature,” said Dan Cole, Denbury’s Vice President of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. “We’re certainly evaluating, are there some good potential storage sites in Mississippi?”

Cole said Denbury would be looking at large pieces of land with few owners. He added that the company would use its existing EOR pipeline as long as it met the capacity needs for transporting carbon.

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