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At least 22 hospitals in Mississippi had no open intensive care unit beds last week as a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations due to the delta variant pressing the state’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse. 

The lack of ICU bed capacity at these hospitals offers a snapshot view of the strain all healthcare providers in Mississippi are seeing across all departments. It is only a limited view, however, as many other hospitals were near capacity on paper but had no ability to staff ICU beds.

“The real focus has been on trying to get staffing so we can keep people in hospitals and utilize those beds to release the pressure on the system,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said during a press conference on Wednesday.

More than 2,000 medical professionals have left the field in Mississippi over the past year, and MEMA is deploying over 1,100 healthcare workers to 61 hospitals in the coming weeks to help alleviate the staffing strain.

READ MORE: MEMA to deploy 1,100 contract healthcare workers over next two months

As of Wednesday morning, only 15 ICU beds were available across the state. There were also 63 patients waiting for an ICU bed — 31 of them being COVID-19 patients. At the same time, more than 400 of the contract workers had been deployed to 11 of the 61 hospitals that submitted staffing requests to MEMA. This included 347 nurses, 11 nurse practitioners and 78 respiratory technicians.

Below is a list of the hospitals that reported having fewer than one open ICU bed between Aug. 13 and Aug. 19 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. During that period, nearly 94% of ICU beds in the state were full, with nearly 64% of them being occupied by COVID-19 patients. 

Adams County

• Merit Health Natchez

Alcorn County

• Magnolia Regional Health Center

Bolivar County

• Bolivar Medical Center

Clay County

• North Mississippi Medical Center – West Point

DeSoto County

• Methodist Healthcare – Olive Branch Hospital

Forrest County

• Forrest General Hospital
• Merit Health Wesley

George County

• George Regional Health System

Grenada County

• University of Mississippi Medical Center – Grenada

Harrison County

• Memorial Hospital at Gulfport
• Merit Health Biloxi

Jackson County

• Singing River Health System

Jones County

• South Central Regional Medical Center

Lincoln County

• King’s Daughters Medical Center – Brookhaven

Madison County

• Merit Health Madison

Okitbbeha County

• Och Regional Medical Center

Pearl River County

• Highland Community Hospital

Pike County

• Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center

Warren County

• Merit Health River Region
• KPC Promise Hospital of Vicksburg

Washington County

• Delta Regional Medical Center – Greenville

Wayne County

• Wayne General Hospital

The post At least 22 Mississippi hospitals were out of ICU beds last week, according to the latest federal data appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As the Legislature considers eliminating Mississippi’s personal income tax and raising sales taxes, a panel of lawmakers on Wednesday heard about the nuts and bolts of state revenue — which is way up in part due to federal pandemic spending — from state tax and budget officials.

They also heard about broader theories of tax structure and policy from national experts.

“For the nine states without an individual income tax, population growth is more than twice the rate of those with one,” said Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation. “Why it matters? Whatever we tax, we get less of … A sales tax is a tax on present consumption. An individual income tax, in a way, is a tax on present and future consumption. In some ways it’s double taxation.”

The two days of tax hearings Wednesday and Thursday are in response to House Speaker Philip Gunn’s proposal to eliminate the state’s individual income tax and raise the state’s sales tax from 7% to 9.5%, along with increases in other user or “consumption” taxes. Gunn says his plan will give a big tax break to a vast majority of Mississippians while creating a better tax structure. Others say it could hamstring the state budget, unfairly shift more tax burden onto the state’s poorest and retirees or hurt businesses with more sales taxes.

Gunn’s plan passed the House this year, but died without a vote in the Senate. Senate leaders said they want to further study the issue and vet Gunn’s plan before making such a sea change in taxation, the impetus for this summer’s hearings.

State tax and budget officials told lawmakers Wednesday that revenue came in more than $1 billion over estimate for the last fiscal year and collections continue to run high.

Rep. Hank Zuber, R-Ocean Springs, during the hearing said the choice appears stark to him.

“Revenue is at an historical, all-time high,” Zuber said. “Government has two choices: spend it, or provide some tax relief for people, correct?”

But Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, noted that Mississippi’s top income tax rate of 5% is about middle of the pack for the nation and it’s sales taxes are relatively low.

“There’s no problem with our state tax code,” Bryan said. “It’s about like every other state’s. We do have other problems, though, like with our roads … or getting our names in the paper because we have the lowest vaccination rates and people are going to the co-op to get horse de-wormer. We have an image and infrastructure problem, and I do not think our tax code has much to do with lack of economic development or growth in this state … I would think the prudent thing to do as long as money is coming in is to long term investments in infrastructure.”

READ MORE: Speaker Philip Gunn struggles to garner support for income tax-sales tax swap

House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, said, “Every sign seems to point to this (tax proposal) as a positive, something we could do here, today, in Mississippi for positive growth.”

The joint Tax Study Committee hearing also included Joe Bishop-Henchman of the National Taxpayer Union.

“Structure matters,” Bishop-Henchman told lawmakers about tax policy and changes. “It is very easy when talking about taxes to reduce it to dollars, but a dollar can be raised in different ways.” He said some structures require so much administration, compliance and enforcement costs and volatility that “a dollar raised takes more out of the economy than a dollar.”

But, Henchman said, “It can be done, and it can be done responsibly and fairly.” He said Mississippi eliminating its individual income tax would be “dramatic and would draw attention to the state” and could help growth.

No state has ever phased out an individual income tax. Alaska, the only state to eliminate an existing income tax, did so in one fell swoop. For Mississippi, the shift would be seismic: Individual income taxes usually generate about $1.8 billion a year, or 32% of the state’s revenue.

The tax hearings continue on Thursday. Scheduled speakers include Grover Norquist with Americans for Tax Reform, Kyra Roby with One Voice, Russ Latino with Empower Mississippi, and several state business leaders.

The hearings begin at 9 a.m. in Room 216 at the Capitol and can be watched online on the Legislature’s website.

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Investment earnings of nearly 33% during the past year allowed the governing board of the state’s Public Employee Retirement System to vote not to increase the contribution rate paid by the state and local governmental entities to the pension plan.

Earlier this year, it looked as though the board would vote to increase the employer contribution rate, meaning state and local governments would have to provide more funds to the massive system that about 10% of the state’s population is invested to some degree.

But earlier this week, the board opted to continue monitoring the system, but not to make any changes at this point.

“The board voted to retain the 17.40% employer contribution rate for fiscal year 2023,” said Ray Higgins, the executive director of PERS. “After considering the impact of last year’s 32.71% investment return on the fund and estimated actuarial projections, we felt it was appropriate to stay the course for now and continue to monitor.”

The large return on the system’s investment comes after earnings of 3.35% on investments in the previous year. Based at least in part on those earnings, there was a belief that the employer contribution rate was going have to be increased to move the system closer to full funding

A report earlier this year by the Legislature’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee highlighted the possibility of the employer contribution rate being increased. The report pointed out that some warning indicators were “flashing red” for the system.

The system had a full-funding ratio of 58.8% last June, down from 61.3% the previous June. That means that it has almost 59% percent of the assets needed to pay the benefits of all the people in the system, ranging from the newest hires to those already retired. Theoretically, it is recommended that a system has a funding ratio of about 80%.

Most state, city and county employees and public educators are in the system that currently has about 335,000 members, including current employees, retirees and others who used to work in the public sector but no longer do.

If the employer contribution rate had been increased, it could have meant that the state and local governments would have had to plug an addition tens of million of dollars in the retirement system.

When the board voted in 2019 to increase the employer contribution from 15.75% to 17.40% for each employee, it meant an additional $100 million annually from the state and local governments were put into the system.

Under the state Constitution, the Legislature cannot block a decision of the PERS Board of Trustees to increase the amount paid by state agencies, local governments and education entities into the pension plan. If the Legislature opted not to provide the extra money to pay for any increase, it would just come out of the amount the Legislature budgeted for the agency, taking money from other programs.

While the Legislature cannot block the action of PERS to increase the employer contribution, both Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, and his House counterpart Rep. John Read, R-Gautier, praised the Board’s decision not to take any action at this point.

“Increasing the employer contribution would have taken money from agencies that would have gone for operations,” Hopson said.

Still, both Hopson and Read said the financial stability of the system is paramount and believed it should continue to be monitored. They both said other steps might be needed to stabilize the system.

“I think there are other steps that can be taken (without increasing the employer contribution) to stabilize our retirement system,” Hopson said.

Read said, “Of course a few years of 33% growth would solve a lot of the problems.”

Employees in the system pay 9 percent of their salary toward their retirement. It was increased from 7.25% in the late 2000s by the Legislature. The average yearly benefit from the plan is about $25,100.

The system has total assets of about $35 billion.

The PEER report from earlier this year cited a litany of issues with the system. They included:

• The decline in public sector workers.
• A growing number of retirees.
• Slow wage growth for public employees.
• Benefits that were added by the Legislature in the early 2000s.
• Investments not meeting returns in some years.

READ MORE: State, local governments may have to pay more for public pension plan

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The Natchez-Adams School District is incentivizing employees to get vaccinated by Nov. 1 and requiring those that don’t to submit to twice-weekly testing.

Employees who get vaccinated by Nov. 1 will be eligible for a monetary incentive, an additional day of personal leave and a half day off work to receive each injection of the vaccine. Natchez-Adams is the first known school district in the state to implement such a program.

The goal, according to the document, is to achieve a 100% vaccination rate among all employees. There is a process for employees with medical and religious reasons to be exempted.

“This is going to be a long-term issue, and the best way to secure the health and safety of the children is to make sure we leave no stone unturned … so we can say we did the best we can for parents to ensure when they send their child to school they’re going to be safe,” said Phillip West, the vice-chair of the school board and the main driver behind a push for a vaccination requirement, during the board’s discussion of the plan, which passed 4-0.

Administrators and board leaders are now setting up meetings at schools to talk to them about the importance of being vaccinated.

Several board members and Superintendent Fred Butcher also discussed other COVID-19 protocols the schools have been taking to ensure students and staff are safe, including universal masking throughout the summer and during the school year and air purification efforts.

Butcher said during the meeting that the district is transparent about its COVID-19 data. However, the district did not report COVID-19 data for all of its schools to the Mississippi Department of Health for the week ending Aug. 20, so a complete picture of the district’s cases is not available. Butcher did not immediately provide those numbers when asked on Wednesday.

While the audio of the board’s Zoom meeting was unclear at times, Butcher did say several times “some people can’t get the vaccine” and once told West the principals of the schools “know who’s been vaccinated and who’s not.”

“People have all kinds of different reasons why they’re not being vaccinated,” Butcher said at one point. He then said he would do whatever the board asked of him.

Cecile Bunch, another board member, said the new policy was “a step in the right direction.”

As of Tuesday, 35% of Adams County residents are fully vaccinated, compared to the statewide vaccination rate of 38%.

The city of Jackson recently announced it would require employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. Last week the University of Mississippi Medical Center announced a new vaccination policy that will require employees and students to get fully vaccinated by Nov. 1.

In the Jackson Public School District, leaders are considering mandating vaccines but have not taken any steps yet to require it.

At a school board meeting on Tuesday, Superintendent Errick Greene said they’ve had several conversations internally about the possibility of mandating the COVID-19 vaccination for staff. He also said they’ve consulted with attorneys and have been advised there is nothing that would legally prohibit them from making such a requirement.

“We’re not yet at the point where we’re making a recommendation to mandate vaccines … I want to hear some more from staff and parents,” he said.

The post Natchez-Adams school district adopts vaccine incentive program, requires twice-weekly testing for unvaccinated employees appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Walter Isaacson is the king of the blockbuster biography. The former CNN and TIME executive has written the definitive histories of iconoclasts like Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Steve Jobs.

Isaacson was slated to headline the Mississippi Book Festival to discuss his latest nonfiction bestseller The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. Though the annual event was cancelled for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic, plans are underway to present author talks later this year.

Isaacson’s book spotlights Jennifer Doudna for her role leading the development of gene editing, which he describes as not just the biggest revolution of our lifetimes, but perhaps in the history of humankind.

Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry alongside Emmanuelle Charpentier, making them the first two women to jointly earn a science Nobel. While The Code Breaker acknowledges numerous researchers who have pushed forward gene editing, Isaacson said that Doudna “did the most to figure out the moral implications.”

“When I met her, she was such an exciting and dynamic figure I decided she’d be a great subject, but more importantly a great role model for people who want to appreciate this new age we are entering,” Isaacson told Mississippi Today in an interview.

What Isaacson admires so much about Doudna is her lifelong pursuit of curiosity, starting with her youthful observations of nature growing up in Hawaii.

“That’s the trait that all of my subjects from Leonardo da Vinci to Benjamin Franklin to Jennifer Doudna have, and it’s wonderful because it’s a trait that all of us can nurture in ourselves,” Isaacson said. “Sometimes you pursue curiosity for its own sake—not because you need to know why the sky is blue or why the water swirls the way it does, but simply because you’re curious. And then that curiosity turns out to be useful.”

Useful is an understatement when it comes to gene editing. Doudna and Charpentier earned their Nobel for identifying how it works in bacteria. They realized that a special combination of RNA can cut and paste genetic code in certain areas of DNA nicknamed CRISPR, an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat.

The game changer is that this can also edit human DNA. Gene editing could soon prove to cure cancer and genetic disorders that cut lives short.

Scientific advancements in RNA technology have already contributed to the innovative development of coronavirus vaccines. In previous generations of vaccines for diseases like chicken pox and polio, recipients are given the actual virus in a killed or weakened form.

The coronavirus vaccines available now are different. Instead of the virus itself, they deliver a segment of genetic code called messenger RNA (mRNA). This code activates the body to create a lookalike to a piece of the virus. This helps the immune system recognize and destroy it later, after the mRNA in the vaccine itself decomposes naturally.

Additionally, CRISPR technology is being adapted for coronavirus testing and treatment. Home testing kits including freeze-dried CRISPR are on the horizon.

What CRISPR also makes possible — in stark contrast to vaccines — is the ability to make edits in human embryos that last across generations. Editing the “germline” allows an individual’s children to inherit the edited genes.

Scientists around the world are approaching germline gene editing as delicately as if it were radioactive. It strikes at the heart of what it means to be human, provoking an avalanche of ethical questions. One of the biggest concerns is whether gene editing could snowball into a new form of cosmetic surgery, selectively engineering traits deemed desirable for a costly price. 

“Now that we have this tool, who gets to use it, who gets to decide, and when do we use it?” Isaacson said. “I think that one of the important issues we’ll face with gene editing is how to make it fair, to make sure that rich people can’t simply buy better genes and design their children and make them taller or have better memory.”

Coincidentally, meaningful precedents emerged here in Mississippi. The first ever heart and lung transplants were conducted at the University of Mississippi Medical Center by Dr. James D. Hardy in the early 1960s. At the time, transplant surgeons like Hardy were accused of playing God. The viability of organ transplantation ultimately led to its widespread practice under strongly enforced medical guidelines.

Fast forward to today, and Mississippi again plays a leading role in the advancement of medicine. Victoria Gray of Forest was the first volunteer for CRISPR-based gene therapy to treat her sickle cell disease, which has appeared successful thus far.

“Victoria Gray is one of the pioneers of this age of genetic medicine,” Isaacson said. “She was brave in order to be the test pilot for editing the genes of her blood cells so that she no longer has sickle cell. And this has shown the world that this tool can be very useful, instead of just some Frankenstein that we’ve created.”

Isaacson believes that Mississippians will continue to contribute to this new frontier of science.

“Mississippi is a place of great diversity. That was true of Florence in the 1400s, and it was true of Philadelphia in the 1700s,” Isaacson said. “That’s usually the mark of places that are cradles of creativity.”

As for Isaacson, his next big profile is already on deck. According to recent reports, he’ll be tackling a well-known and controversial tech entrepreneur: Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Emily Liner is the owner of Friendly City Books, an independent bookstore and press in Columbus, Miss.

The post Beat COVID-19? Cure cancer? Isaacson’s bestseller delves into gene editing, the breakthrough that could do both appeared first on Mississippi Today.

On August 24, Mississippi Today Circle Members took part in a special, virtual conversation with artist Bill Dunlap, writer Hank Burdine and Mississippi Today CEO Mary Margaret White about the life and legacy of writer Julia Reed.

Julia and Bill shared an incredible friendship, from times spent together at the cool tables of Galatoire’s to the muddy sandbars of the Mississippi River, where she and Hank were famous for ferrying guests to drink and dine. This intimate conversation between Bill, Hank and Mary Margaret features a slideshow of images from Bill and Hank’s personal collection, accompanied by stories of Julia, their friendship, and the adventures they shared.

To be part of future programs like this, please consider joining Circle Giving or contact Donor Relations Director Michelle Alexander at malexander@mississippitoday.org

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Immunocompromised Mississippians who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines can now schedule an appointment to receive a third booster dose through the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s vaccine scheduler.

Previously, the only way for people with weaker immune systems to get a booster shot in Mississippi was by seeking one from their own doctors. Now, a person can self-attest that they are immunocompromised and get a booster through UMMC. 

More than 18,000 Mississippians have already received booster shots, according to data from the Mississippi Department of Health. 

People who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are not eligible for boosters because the data on its use is several months behind that of the mRNA vaccines. 

“Johnson and Johnson is giving individuals good protection from the severe complications, but it may well be that a booster is recommended for those individuals at some point in time in the future,” State Epidemiologist, Dr. Paul Byers, said during a press conference on Tuesday. 

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that moderately to severely immunocompromised people be allowed to seek a third dose on August 13, a decision that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quickly endorsed.

The soonest anyone can receive a third dose is 28 days after receiving their second one. MSDH primarily recommends boosters for severely immunocompromised people who have certain conditions or have received treatments that suppress their immune systems. According to MSDH, these include but are not limited to:

•Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies
• Receipt of solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy
• Receipt of CAR-T-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within two years of
transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy)
• Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (e.g., DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-
Aldrich syndrome)
• Advanced or untreated HIV infection
• Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids

READ: Ask Me Anything: COVID-19 in Mississippi with Will Stribling

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for people 16 and older on Monday, making it the first of the three vaccines being administered in the United States to move beyond emergency use authorization.

“The FDA’s approval of this vaccine is a milestone as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, FDA Commissioner, Janet Woodcock, said in a press release. “While this and other vaccines have met the FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for emergency use authorization, as the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product.”

The decision will likely inspire new vaccination requirements from private businesses in Mississippi. Some hospitals in the state, such as the University of Mississippi Medical Center, announced vaccine requirements for employees and students before the FDA announcement. It is unlikely to move the needle at the state’s public colleges and universities, which have resisted such requirements. 

Many hope that this approval will be the final step in pushing many across the country to get vaccinated. Scores of people in Mississippi have said that they were waiting on full FDA approval to get a COVID vaccine. It’s likely that some of those will stay true to their word, while others will move the goal posts for when they’d be comfortable getting the vaccine. 

More than 1.2 million of the 2.45 million doses administered in Mississippi have been Pfizer doses. 

The Pfizer vaccine has been available for people aged 16 and older under an emergency use authorization since Dec. 11. That authorization was issued after the vaccine was shown to be safe and effective in a randomized, controlled, and blinded clinical trial that is ongoing and includes thousands of individuals. 

The FDA reviewed updated data from the clinical trial to support its approval decision, which included around 22,000 people who received the vaccine and 22,000 people who received a placebo, all 16 years of age and older. The results showed the vaccine to be 91% effective in preventing COVID-19, a slight decrease from the 95% efficacy rate shown by the data when the vaccine first received emergency authorization. 

Pfizer’s clinical trials didn’t include children ages 12-15 at first, so the data needed to grant full approval for that age group is still months behind. The vaccine has been available for that age group under emergency use authorization since May 10. Data collected from the 2,264 trial participants in that age group showed it to be safe, and the side-effects they experienced were akin to those experienced by those ages 16-25. None of the children who were given the vaccine during the clinical trial contracted a symptomatic infection.

Though the FDA fast-tracked the Pfizer vaccine for approval, this does not mean the process was rushed, just that the agency prioritized it. More than half of the clinical trial participants were followed for at least six months after their second doses to monitor outcomes. 

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