More than $4 billion in loans have now made its way to Mississippi after Congress approved another round of federal support for businesses earlier this year.
As was the case after the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program last summer, the state’s top recipients so far include restaurants, doctors’ and dentists’ offices, legal practices, construction companies, car dealers, hotels and religious organizations.
In total, over 79,000 businesses in Mississippi have been approved for PPP loans. Borrowers are eligible for full forgiveness as long as they maintain the same level of employment and compensation for a certain period and spend most of the loan on their payroll.
Mississippi Today published info on many of the businesses receiving money last summer, but the Small Business Administration has since made public more information on PPP recipients following a lawsuit from the Washington Post and other outlets. The published data now include specific amounts businesses have received, as well as the names of places that got smaller loans.
Disbursements to Mississippi businesses ranged from $100 to a $10 million loan, which went to Staff Pro LLC, an employment agency in Gulfport.
The SBA states that the PPP program is designed to help small businesses keep workers on payroll. In Mississippi, nearly all — 96% — of loans were directed towards payrolls. On average, businesses in the state received about $7,000 per employee.
Yet that rate varies greatly; J&W Transport LLC, a trucking company in Jackson, received a loan of over $260,000 to pay one employee. Several other companies, shown below, received enough in loans to pay each employee over six figures. The program caps forgiveness for salaries at $100,000 per employee, more than twice the state’s median household income.
For the most part, Mississippi’s recipients were small individual businesses — over 80% reported 10 or fewer employees, and only 1% were part of a franchise. Yet franchisees in Mississippi from dozens of large national chains came away with millions in loans; 28 of McDonald’s locations in Mississippi, for instance, received a combined $14.8 million, despite the chain being a multinational corporation that made $4.7 billion in profit last year.
In fact, the franchise locations combined for each of McDonald’s, Sonic, Applebee’s and General Motors received more in loans than any of the state’s non-franchise businesses.
The loan data also include demographics of the borrowers, although most businesses left those fields blank. Most of those that answered were white and male-owned, shown below:
Use the tables below for full lists of Mississippi’s PPP recipients, by business and industry.
By industry:
By business:
Disclosure: In 2020, Mississippi Today sought a Paycheck Protection Program loan, which was approved and disbursed.
Clarification: The story has been edited to clarify that franchisees of national chains applied and received PPP loans rather than the chains’ corporate bodies.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast hasn’t been closer to getting Amtrak access back in the last 15 years than it is now.
But even with $77 million in awarded funds and a 2022 proposed start date, the return of the passenger rail line — which some prominent officials believe would be an economic boon to the state and help complete years of recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina — still isn’t a sure thing.
Amtrak’s leadership says after years of failed deliberations that have become mired in politics, they’re done waiting on languished negotiations with freight companies they’re not sure will ever end in an agreement to run the line connecting Mobile to New Orleans.
So, Amtrak has filed a case with an independent federal agency called the Surface Transportation Board, petitioning its members to speed up the process. Mississippi leaders have already thrown their support behind Amtrak’s decision to file, hoping the board could be the last major step in restoring service to a region that’s been cut off from the nation’s passenger rail network since Hurricane Katrina.
“Assessments have shown this route has the capacity to accommodate both Amtrak and freight movement,” U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a long-time supporter of the plan, told Mississippi Today. “Restoring this route has been delayed long enough.”
The proposed Gulf Coast route would have four stops in Mississippi: Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. It would stretch over 200 miles from start to finish and have two trains running both ways — once in the morning and once in the evening.
Amtrak says it can begin the service Jan. 1, 2022. But doing so requires the cooperation of CSX Transportation, which owns some of the needed tracks. The freight company has called that start date an arbitrary deadline and ambitious goal in documents filed with the board.
In his own letter to the Surface Transportation Board, Wicker wrote restoring the rail service “would serve as the culmination of Mississippi’s efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina.” But it isn’t just Mississippi leaders and businesses longing for transportation options and economic development waiting on the decision from the railroad court.
This long-running Gulf Coast problem has turned into a national test case in passenger access to freight-owned railways. Experts say the results could shape Amtrak’s ability to grow more routes nationwide.
“This isn’t just about the Gulf Coast anymore,” said Knox Ross, a Mississippi representative with the Southern Rail Commission. “It’s become about the expansion of Amtrak.”
In 2006, the freight companies replaced the Gulf Coast tracks that were washed away by Hurricane Katrina. Freight trains soon resumed but the passenger route never came back.
“All those Gulf Coast communities took it as: We don’t count,” said Jim Mathews, the president and CEO of advocacy group Rail Passenger Association.
Amtrak and CSX have been in regular back-and-forth over the future of the route since the grassroots effort for its return picked up steam about six years ago.
The previous route that ran through southern Mississippi was part of a line called the Sunset Limited that stretched from Florida to California. Even Gulf Coast rail advocates admit the former route wasn’t an ideal setup for locals. Trains from the West Coast arrived at the Gulf Coast at odd times and on-time performance was poor.
The new Gulf Coast route, though much shorter, would connect to other nationwide routes like up to Chicago or through Texas to California. More importantly, it allows for day trips to New Orleans or to the Gulf Coast beaches.
“It’d be huge for our small destination,” said Nikki Moon, the owner of Bay Town Inn in Bay St. Louis. “You’re going to have everything from day trippers from New Orleans to vacation home owners coming seven days a week. People will be coming to our shops, our galleries, our restaurants. You can’t put just a dollar figure on that.”
A University of Southern Mississippi researcher came up with a number, though. According to a study from the university, new tourism spending from the train could reach nearly $495 million in one year if the amount of visitors went up by 20%. Should visitors to the Gulf Coast increase by just 1% from the train, new spending would still reach nearly $25 million, the study says.
John Robert Smith is the four-term mayor of Meridian best known for redeveloping the city’s Union Station into a transportation hub that generated tens of millions of dollars in economic development. He can see similar development coming from the Gulf Coast route.
“The trend among the young workforce and aging boomers is to have options of mobility,” said Smith, now a senior policy adviser with Transportation for America. “Mississippi has been exporting their talent for decades and fails to retain our own children, our own talent. The world is changing, time is changing. If we want to play seriously in this new economic development paradigm, our economic choices are key.”
CSX, meanwhile, wants the case to be dropped. In its filing calling for a dismissal, the freight rail says engineers need to complete an impact study before the board can make any decision. A study conducted by a firm commonly contracted by CSX to model how freight and passenger rails would interact has already been started.
Alabama officials, including Gov. Kay Ivey, and the Port of Mobile have sided with the freight companies in pushing for that study to be completed before any passenger route begins.
“I am particularly concerned about the impact to the Port of Mobile, which has been critical to Alabama’s substantial growth in exports in recent years,” Ivey wrote. “An operational modeling study is needed to adequately understand the impact of new Gulf Coast passenger service on freight rail traffic.”
Every mayor from each Gulf Coast city has spoken out in support of the rail. Unlike the Port of Mobile, the Port of Pascagoula and Port of Gulfport say passenger and freight can easily coexist along the route
Bay St. Louis has already spent $1.5 million improving its downtown depot. Gulfport has its new aquarium, and Biloxi casinos are eager for a funnel of new visitors.
Following Amtrak’s March 16 filing, one of its executives, Dennis Newman, said the decision to go to the board was to prevent more delays. Now it’s the board’s job to weed through hundreds of pages of reports, public comments, and train data. It will apply its findings to federal law and determine whether Amtrak can access the tracks.
“We want to deliver this service next year, not some day far away,” Newman said.
TIM ISBELL/SUN HERALD
The Amtrak Inspection Train arrives at the Gulfport Depot, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016.
Critics of the freight companies say the impact study is another CSX tactic.
“When this study is done, they will want another one,” Mathews said. “They’ll just keep going until it’s delayed into the ground.”
When a contract with the engineers handling the study ended at the start of this year, Amtrak didn’t renew it. It was supposed to take six months and finish in October.
“It dragged on and on,” Ross said.
In their documented response to Amtrak’s filing, the freight rails say they “have not said no” to the passenger route. CSX also says Amtrak needs to continue to cooperate in the engineering analysis that will show if there is “actually a disagreement” that calls for the transportation board’s role as an arbitrator.
“Amtrak elected to abandon the long-standing practice of completing an impact study when the introduction of new passenger service is proposed,” CSX said in a statement to Mississippi Today. “From the onset, CSX prioritized this Amtrak Gulf Coast study, treating each step as expeditiously as possible.”
Both Amtrak and the freight company denied further comment now that the dispute is in front of the transportation board.
Amtrak describes the route as two short and quick trips. CSX says it’s not that simple because the bulk of the route is a single track, according to its filings with the board.
Amtrak, state officials, and the 2017 study by the Gulf Coast Working Group — created by Congress to study the route — have all said the addition of two trains should not congest a corridor that typically services eight freight trains a day. The Federal Railroad Administration was involved in determining those results.
That study also said it would cost about $5.4 million to improve the stations along the route and another $95 million in other improvements, such as adding more siding tracks so the trains can pass each other.
CSX disagreed with the 2017 Gulf Coast Working Group study estimates and said needed improvements were more complex and would cost $2 billion.
Mathews pointed out NASA’s latest Mars rover mission is estimated to cost about $2.7 billion.
Ross said in the years following the 2017 study, the Southern Rail Commission tried to work through the freight rail’s concerns, hosting several meetings with all the players. He’d think they made progress, but plans would continue to stall out.
“We want something that works for everyone,” Ross said, referring to both passenger and freight rail. “We’re all interested in what the Surface Transportation Board has to say because it will be a transparent process to tell us the truth.”
Conflict between freight rail and passenger services is nothing new.
The 1970 act that would lead to the creation of Amtrak also gave the passenger rail right to access freight-owned railways. Before the Rail Passenger Act, railroad companies endured decades of financial distress while handling both transporting people and goods. The act was a bailout plan that forgave railroads of their debts and gave passenger responsibilities to the newly created Amtrak.
If Amtrak and the railroads can’t negotiate over track access, they can go to the Surface Transportation Board, which was established in 1996.
The board, with a growing focus on passenger rail, also has new responsibilities tied to a law passed last year by the Department of Transportation.
That law allows the board to open investigations should passenger trains consistently miss an on-time-performance of 80 percent. Freight companies can face fines or be ordered to update infrastructure if they’re found to be at fault.
“The easiest way to avoid that problem is to just not have passenger trains on your track,” Mathews said.
Amtrak ran what it called an inspection train that started in Florida and made stops in the Gulf Coast in 2016. It was a test run.
The stops were quick — just 10 minutes — as they would be if the route started up again today. But that didn’t keep each city from throwing a party complete with pep rallies, marching bands and speeches. The train didn’t even stop in Ocean Springs, but there was a crowd cheering there, too.
Kay Kell, a long-time Southern Rail Commission member and Pascagoula’s former city manager, remembers how each city fought to out-do the other. She said it felt like a president was passing through.
“I think it’s going to happen, but I’m not foolish enough to think there won’t be hurdles,” Kell said.
The Surface Transportation Board doesn’t have any statutory deadline to decide cases. As of Wednesday, more than 40 letters or comments had been submitted to the board from Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama officials.
Gulf Coast leaders are hopeful this could be it. In Mississippi, it’s become a bipartisan issue — not always the case when it comes to transportation.
“Our counties, our cities, have been hugely supportive not only in words but in money,” said Moon, the hotel owner. “I hate that we have had to wait this long, but it will be worth it because it’s going to be even better.”
She sees herself taking day trips for Saints games and, more importantly, New Orleanians taking weekend trips away from the city to relax at her pool.
With a tourism economy still in recovery from the pandemic, many Gulf Coast business owners think the passenger rail’s return can’t come too soon.
“It will link six major and smaller urban centers,” said Smith, the Meridian mayor turned transportation expert. “It links them for job creation and from one economy to the next.”
On Monday, around 20 bus drivers in Greenville Public School District went on strike to protest reduced hours, low pay and what they say is poor treatment by the district.
The move left school children standing on corners with no transportation Monday and Tuesday morning, and the district’s board of trustees and superintendent scrambled to fix the issue at a board meeting Tuesday night. By Wednesday morning, the bus drivers were back at work after their concerns were addressed.
The Greenville bus drivers took the rare measure despite the existence of state laws that explicitly prohibit public employees from striking, which comes with threats of jail time and fines. And State Auditor Shad White, citing those state laws, recently investigated and punished a University of Mississippi professor for a work stoppage.
Bus drivers in the Greenville district work either 5, 6 or 7-hour routes. But at the beginning of the current school year, all drivers were cut down to 5-hour routes as a result of the school district’s virtual-only instruction amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Superintendent Debra Dace said they were also offered a voluntary furlough so they could collect unemployment but keep their jobs, though none opted to take it.
Yolanda Lewis, a 19-year veteran bus driver with the district, said she and others met with Dace on the issue in November, but were given no relief. They asked to meet with the school board, but Dace told them the school board “didn’t want to meet with them.”
Then, last month, the board voted to reduce the number of days of work for bus drivers and custodial employees by from 187 to 182 days in the 2021-2022 school year. Dace said she made the recommendation for the reduction of days to the board because she and the director of transportation determined there were “idle days” when students weren’t in school and didn’t need to be transported.
Drivers received the letter informing them of the cut on Friday, and, as one school board member described it, it was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” The letter also stated drivers would only be paid for days worked, which raised fears about the loss of paid holidays.
Following the bus drivers’ strike, however, the board on Tuesday reversed that decision.
Edwin Young, who has driven for the district for two years, told board members on Tuesday that he made $16,000 last year.
“We’re not making anything … We are certified drivers, we got CDLs and we’re living at the poverty level,” he said, noting the additional lack of hazard pay amid the pandemic.
And there are other issues in addition to the low pay, he and other drivers said. He still hasn’t been paid for hours he worked in October of last year despite repeatedly requesting the payment from the district.
Lewis said she was exposed to COVID-19 earlier this month by a student on her bus. She had to quarantine for 10 days with no pay, and when she went to human resources, they said she wouldn’t receive pay, she said.
She was already living on a smaller paycheck after having her hours reduced from 7 to 5. She had to give up her dental, vision and other supplemental insurance after she was no longer able to afford it working the 5-hour route.
After the strike, however, she received a call Wednesday letting her know she would receive pay for those days.
The district did not immediately respond to questions about these allegations. Dace is set to meet with the drivers on Friday.
Mississippi law prohibits public employees from striking. The law defines a strike as “a concerted failure to report for duty, a willful absence from one’s position, the stoppage of work, a deliberate slowing down of work, or the withholding, in whole or in part, of the full, faithful and proper performance of the duties of employment, for the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation, rights, privileges or obligations of public employment.”
Mississippi resumed the use of Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, ending a temporary pause that began on April 13.
Around 40,000 of the 90,000 Johnson & Johnson doses the state has received sat unused during the pause, according to State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs.
MSDH has updated its recommendations for healthcare providers administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. These recommendations include measures such as informing vaccine recipients of the risk of developing the rare blood clots that prompted the pause, and having an alternative COVID-19 vaccine available for patients who request it.
Federal health agencies ended their recommendation for a temporary pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Friday, and since then a majority of states have resumed its administration. The pause recommendation was ended after an extensive safety review by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
Acting out of an abundance of caution, federal health agencies issued the pause recommendation after six people were discovered to have developed a rare blood clot, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. A subsequent safety review found that 15 of the nearly 8 million people that have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the U.S. developed the rare blood clot.
Less than 5% of Mississippians who have received a COVID-19 vaccine received Johnson & Johnson, so the pause has had little impact on the state’s overall vaccine supply-chain. The number of COVID-19 vaccines being administered in Mississippi has decreased 35% over the last two weeks, marking a growing rift between the state’s supply of vaccines and the population’s demand for them.
In an attempt to curtail existing barriers to vaccine access, MSDH and its community health partners have begun administering at-home vaccinations for Mississippians that cannot access traditional vaccination sites. Those interested in setting up a vaccination appointment this way should reach out to MSDH by email at COVIDhomebound@msdh.ms.gov.
“We have recognized that this is the stage of the response where we need to bring vaccines to where people live,” Dobbs said.
House Judiciary B Chair Nick Bain, R-Corinth, questions the logic of why at least some of the people convicted of felonies permanently lose their voting rights unless they are restored by a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature.
“People convicted for bad checks – why do they have to jump through hoops to get their rights back?” Bain asked.
Bain hopes to explore that question and others during hearings of his Judiciary B Committee before the Legislature convenes in January for the 2022 session.
Bain said he is not sure how he feels about the provision in the state constitution that permanently disenfranchises people convicted of some felonies, but not those convicted of some other crimes. But he said people convicted of at least some of the lesser crimes should not face lifetime disenfranchisement.
Rep. Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley, agrees.
“A person can lose his voting rights at 18 for stealing a lawnmower and not have that right back at 81 unless it is approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature,” said Reynolds, who nearly every year files legislation to end the lifetime disfranchisement for many convicted of felonies.
While that 18-year-old would lose his voting-rights forever, under the Mississippi Constitition people convicted of some other crimes, such as being a major drug dealer, could continue to vote even while incarcerated.
Bain said he hopes to have hearings to explore various issues related to the felony voting rights provision of the Mississippi Constitution. One question that most likely will be explored is whether the Legislature could change the process by passing a bill instead of going through the more arduous process of amending the constitution.
Reynolds said he believes changes could be made without having to amend the constitution, which would require putting the issue on the ballot.
By the same token, Reynolds said, “I believe the people would vote to restore the voting rights of nonviolent offenders. I think it would pass.”
But Reynolds also pointed out that former Gov. William Winter, while serving in the Mississippi Legislature in the 1940s, authored a bill that became law to restore voting rights to military veterans at the time who had been convicted of felonies.
Reynolds has filed similar legislation to restore the rights of veterans who are alive now. The legislation has not been successful.
“I think in a matter of time time, it might be 20 years or it might happen quickly, this is going to be thrown out for either an equal protection or due process argument to the U.S. Constitition,” Reynolds said. “A person can be convicted of murder under federal law and not lose his rights, but be convicted of felony shoplifting in state court and lose his rights.”
Reynolds surmised the framers of the state’s 1890s state constitition did not include federal crimes as disenfranchising because that could have impacted veterans who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.
“This is a relic of the past whose time has come,” said Reynolds, age 66. “It will be repealed one day. It might not be in my lifetime, but it will happen.”
Mississippi is in the minority of states — less than 10 — where voting rights are not automatically restored for people convicted of felonies either after they complete their sentence or at some point after completing parole or probation.
The state now denies a higher percentage of its residents the right to vote because of felony convictions than any other, according to a recent study. In Mississippi, 235,150 people — or 10.6% of the state’s voting age population — have lost their right to vote, according to a recent study by The Sentencing Project, a national nonprofit that advocates for voting and criminal justice issues. Since 2016, Mississippi has moved from second to first highest percentage in the nation.
The prohibition on voting is part of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution — added as one of several attempts to prevent Black Mississippians from voting. A 2018 analysis by Mississippi Today found that 61% of the Mississippians who have lost their rights to vote are African American, despite the fact that African Americans represent 36% of the state’s total voting-age population.
Disenfranchising crimes consist of: arson, armed robbery, bigamy, bribery, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, theft, timber larceny, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, statutory rape, carjacking and larceny under lease or rental agreement.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with businessman, philanthropist and former politician Dick Molpus. Molpus, born and raised in Philadelphia, Mississippi, was the first person Governor William Winter hired for his staff. As one of the “Boys of Spring,” Molpus helped push through education reform which became a signature piece of legislation during the Winter administration. After working for Winter, Molpus successfully ran for Secretary of State and held the office from 1984 to 1996. Molpus unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1995 and after losing the election, pivoted by founding the successful Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC. It was during that time that he and his wife Sally found Parents for Public Schools, which now has chapters across the nation. Molpus has received numerous awards for his efforts to promote both eduction and racial equity. He also is a member of the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame and the University of Mississippi Hall of Fame. Ramsey and Molpus discuss his long career, what he hopes for his beloved Mississippi and even the time Jon Stewart had to apologize to him on air on The Daily Show.
Mississippi will not lose a congressional seat even though it was one of only three states to lose population during the past decade, according to early U.S. census data released this week.
State leaders had said for some time they did not believe the census would result in a loss of a congressional seat for Mississippi.
“We have a cushion, but if the trend (population loss) continues, it does not look good for the future” in terms of not losing a seat, said Mississippi House Apportionment and Elections Chair Jim Beckett, R-Bruce.
While the state will not lose a congressional seat, the Mississippi Legislature will have little time to redraw the state’s four congressional districts before the 2022 mid-term elections to match population shifts found during the 2020 Census.
The goal, both Beckett and Senate Apportionment Committee Chair Dean Kirby said, is to present a plan to redraw the four U.S. House districts to their legislative colleagues early in the 2022 session, which starts in January.
“We have to be ready to go when we first get there” to start the session, Kirby said. “That will be one of the first things we have to do.”
The reason for the need for swift action on congressional redistricting is because the deadline for candidates to qualify to run for the congressional seats is March 1. The primary election will be held June 7.
Both Kirby and Beckett said they do not anticipate trying to convince Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session to redraw the four congressional districts late this year before the 2022 session begins.
The intent, Beckett said, is to have nine public hearings across the state, most likely beginning in October, and later develop a redistricting plan to present in the 2022 session for approval.
While the preliminary census numbers were released this week, the final numbers that include the precinct-level data needed to redraw political districts, is not expected to be available to the states until September.
After both the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the Legislature was unable to agree on a plan to redraw the congressional districts. In 2000, the state lost a seat, making redistricting particularly contentious. In both 2000 and 2010, the federal courts ended up redrawing the districts.
“Our intent is for the Legislature to draw the districts this time and not the courts,” Kirby said. “It is going to be an experience.”
Kirby said the most difficult part of the effort will be dealing with the loss of population in the 2nd Congressional District that encompasses much of western Mississippi, including the Delta. The 2nd is the state’s only African American majority district, represented by Bennie Thompson, D-Bolton.
Based on existing federal law, the state will have to maintain a Black-majority district, especially since the state’s African American population increased slightly, based on the census data.
While legislators will face a tight time frame on congressional redistricting, Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point, said, it is important to make sure “the districts are reflective of our population.” Turner Ford, the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, said she would be willing to spend the time needed to ensure that goal is met.
To deal with the population loss in the Delta, the Legislature may have to expand the 2nd District into fast-growing DeSoto County in northwest Mississippi or into the Natchez area in southwest Mississippi.
Overall, Beckett said, a few areas of the state — the Gulf Coast, an area stretching from DeSoto County east into Lafayette County and into the Tupelo area, and suburban Jackson — gained population, while the vast majority of counties lost people during the past decade.
The number of congressional seats also determines a state’s influence in electing the president. The number of electors a state has is equal to a state’s total number of senators and U.S. House members, meaning Mississippi has six electors to cast in presidential elections.
While the Legislature will need to pass a congressional redistricting plan early in the 2022 session, later in the year legislators will need to redraw the 122 House districts and 52 Senate district to match population shifts.
But legislators will have more time to complete that task since legislative elections will not be held until 2023. But since legislators will be redrawing their own districts, that process is likely to be more time consuming and potentially more contentious.
At least 32 states have resumed the use of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine, but Mississippi is not one of them.
“As of now, the Mississippi State Department of Health continues to pause Johnson and Johnson vaccine. The agency will review additional information and will advise the media and public if and when Mississippi resumes administration of the vaccine,” Liz Sharlot, director of communications at the Mississippi Department of Health, told Mississippi Today in a statement on Tuesday.
Less than 5% of Mississippians who have received a COVID-19 vaccine received Johnson & Johnson, so the pause has had little impact on the state’s overall vaccine supply-chain. Still, the effects of its absence will likely be more pronounced in rural areas, where the shot’s more lax storage requirements and singular dose requirement have helped ease logistical issues in vaccine distribution.
It is still unclear how the pause will affect Mississippi’s already high rate of vaccine hesitancy. The number of COVID-19 vaccines being administered in Mississippi has decreased 35% over the last two weeks, marking a growing rift between the state’s supply of vaccines and the population’s demand for them.
Federal health agencies ended their recommendation for a temporary pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Friday, and since then a majority of states have resumed its administration. The pause recommendation only lasted 10 days, and was changed after an extensive safety review by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
Acting out of an abundance of caution, federal health agencies issued the pause recommendation after six people were discovered to have developed a rare blood clot, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. A subsequent safety review found that 15 of the nearly 8 million people that have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the U.S. developed the rare blood clot.
A new warning will now be placed on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine label, and health care providers administering the shot have been instructed to inform patients of the associated risks.
Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner said in a press release: “We have concluded that the known and potential benefits of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine outweigh its known and potential risks in individuals 18 years of age and older. We are confident that this vaccine continues to meet our standards for safety, effectiveness and quality. We recommend people with questions about which vaccine is right for them have those discussions with their health care provider.”
