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COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the United States were slowed by an unexpected hurdle on Tuesday after federal health agencies recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine after six recipients developed an extremely rare blood clot.

“We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a joint statement. “Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare.”

Health officials have said that the pause is only expected to last a few days. In response, state health departments across the country, including in Mississippi, have either instructed or advised health providers to halt the use of the vaccine while the blood clotting issue is investigated. The pharmacy giants CVS and Walgreens have also said that they will stop administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and will reschedule the appointments of affected patients as soon as possible.

Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted Tuesday morning that the Mississippi State Department of Health is instructing vaccine providers in the state to refrain from using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until more guidance is available from federal health agencies. 

Dobbs also told the nearly 42,000 Mississippians who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine not to worry, noting that the window of risk for developing the rare blood clot after receiving the vaccine appears short, and the likelihood of it happening at all is very slim.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, State Epidemiologist, Dr. Paul Byers, said that MSDH will work with vaccine providers that have received Johnson & Johnson shipments to replace those doses with Pfizer or Moderna doses if needed.

All six patients known to have developed the rare blood clot, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, were women between the ages of 18 and 48 and developed the clotting within two weeks of vaccination. One of the six has died from the illness, and another has been hospitalized in critical condition. 

The CDC will hold a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Wednesday to further review these cases and assess whether they were caused by an immune system response triggered by the vaccine. The FDA will review these findings alongside their own investigation to determine the future status of the vaccine’s Emergency Use Authorization. 

Treating the type of blood clot observed in these cases is another area of concern, as it might be dangerous to administer the drug commonly used to treat blood clots. Dobbs said that the federal review of this issue was important “in part, to ensure that the health care provider community is aware of the potential for these adverse events and can plan for proper recognition and management due to the unique treatment required with this type of blood clot.”

Nearly seven million people in the U.S. have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to CDC data. This represents only a tiny fraction of the more than 187 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered across the country.

MAP: Where Mississippians can get the COVID-19 vaccine 

The post Mississippi tells providers to halt use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine over rare blood clot appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to act on Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s motion to pause a lawsuit filed on behalf of African American parents saying the state violated federal law by spending less on majority-Black schools than majority-white ones.

Will Bardwell, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Black Mississippi parents, said the ruling denying Fitch’s request “almost certainly means that the Supreme Court isn’t going to take the case, at least for now, which clears the way for us to move forward in district court.”

Colby Jordan, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office, said of last week’s decision by the Supreme Court: “We are in the process of reviewing our options.”

Fitch was asking the nation’s highest court to halt any advancement of the lawsuit in district court while her office had time to file an appeal of a narrow ruling of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals saying the case could move forward. Samuel Alito, one of the Supreme Court’s more conservative justices, acting on behalf of the entire panel, rejected Fitch’s request last week.

What is at issue in the unique case is whether the state is in violation of the Mississippi Readmission Act of 1870 that was passed by the U.S. Congress after the Civil War. As a condition of readmission, the federal act, in part, prohibited Mississippi from making changes to its laws that lessened the guarantee of an equal or uniform school system. Bardwell said the language placed in the state Constitution recognizing the state’s commitment to public education has been watered down through the years, especially as state leaders strived at times in the state’s history to have separate school systems based on the students’ race.

Bardwell said the goal of the lawsuit is “to re-establish Mississippi’s obligation to maintaining a uniform school system and to hold the state accountable for not upholding that obligation.”

The lawsuit by the SLPC cited what it said were numerous examples where African American students still receive an inferior education in Mississippi. For instance, in the 2015-16 school year, of the 19 F-rated school districts, 13 had a Black enrollment of more than 95%, and all had enrollment of African Americans of at least 85%.

In its motion to dismiss the case, Fitch argued, “At the end of the day, it should go without saying that education is of the utmost importance to all of the state defendants and the state’s citizenry. And, of course there is always room for improvement in this area in the state of Mississippi. But the tactics utilized by the SPLC in this lawsuit are not, and could not be, the answer.”

All states have clauses in their constitutions establishing their public education commitment.

Mississippi’s 1868 Constitution states: “As the stability of a republican form of government depends mainly upon the intelligence and virtue of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to encourage, by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural improvement, by establishing a uniform system of free public schools, by taxation or otherwise, for all children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, and shall, as soon as practicable, establish schools of higher grade.”

The state’s current Constitution, enacted in 1890, weakened that commitment by among other things removing the word “uniform” and adding a new section, mandating separate schools for “children of the white and colored races.”

That language establishing separate education system based on race was not removed from the Constitution until 1978. Even with that removal, the lawsuit contends the state’s current constitutional commitment to public education is much weaker than it was in the 1868 Constitition when Mississippi was re-admitted to the Union.

U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate of the Southern District of Mississippi is scheduled to hear the case.

The post U.S. Supreme Court denies Fitch motion to halt education lawsuit over Jim Crow-era language appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi women who have given birth will likely continue to receive Medicaid health care coverage until at least the end of 2021 even after legislation recently died that would have extended the coverage.

During the 2021 Mississippi legislative session, Senate leadership attempted to place in state law a requirement that postpartum coverage would be expanded from 60 days to 12 months for mostly low-income women. That coverage is particularly important in Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation with high rates of infant and maternal mortality.

The Senate tried to include the postpartum coverage expansion in the Medicaid bill passed during the 2021 session designed to make various technical amendments to the complex federal-state health care program. The House rejected that proposal.

But Matt Westerfield, a spokesperson for Mississippi’s Division of Medicaid, told Mississippi Today that federal emergency orders “will likely” keep the coverage in place through 2021.

“Because of the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act enacted in March 2020, Medicaid recipients, including pregnant women, are receiving continuous Medicaid coverage for the duration of the federal public health emergency,” Westerfield said. “The Biden administration has informed states that the federal COVID-19 public health emergency will likely remain in place for the entirety of 2021.”

When the legislation failed this year, House leaders pointed out that the coverage would remain in effect because of the federal health care emergency status. House Speaker Philip Gunn contended that adding the postpartum expansion to the Medicaid technical amendments bill was not allowed under legislative rules.

“The code section that involved that was not in the bill and it was subject to a point of order,” Gunn said, adding, “there was an individual who had informed us he was going to raise the point of order.”

When asked if expanding the postpartum coverage should be considered in the 2022 session, Gunn said, “I don’t know if Medicaid is the answer to that, but certainly we are concerned… We will probably be looking at ways to address that. Expansion may or may not be a way to address that. It is just something we need to look at.”

Mississippi has the highest infant morality rate in the nation with 9.07 deaths per 1,000 births, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mississippi also has the 19th-highest maternal mortality rate at 20.8 deaths per 100,000 births, according to a study released by USA Today in 2019.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has said that the Senate will be studying issues surrounding health care access and outcomes in the coming months.

Twelve states, including Mississippi, have not expanded Medicaid as is allowed under federal law to provide health care coverage for primarily the working poor. With Medicaid expansion, presumably poor women who give birth would have continuous coverage as long as they are in lower income levels. The Medicaid expansion would not entitle people who qualify to any additional funds, but instead would make them eligible for health care coverage.

There have been proposals that would mandate any Medicaid expansion in Mississippi to include a minimal co-pay for health care for people covered by the expansion.

While pregnant women in Mississippi are now receiving the continuous Medicaid coverage, the state is receiving extra funds from the federal government to pay for it. Under the March 2020 Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the federal government is providing a matching rate of near 85% for Mississippi Medicaid recipients. In other words, for each dollar of health care provided through Medicaid, the federal government is paying almost 85 cents and the state is paying the remainder.

In addition, under the more recent American Rescue Plan, the federal government would provide incentives of about $600 million for Mississippi over a two years to expand Medicaid to cover primarily the working poor. Thus far, state leaders, including Gunn and Gov Tate Reeves, have rejected the incentive package. Hosemann has indicated that all avenues of improving health care access, including for postpartum coverage, will be studied this summer.

In the meantime, the Mississippi Hospital Association voted last week to back a ballot initiative that would ask voters to approve expanding Medicaid in the state. Supporters of that effort believe they can start gathering signatures by May 1, 2021, and that the question could be placed on a statewide ballot by 2022.

The post Medicaid coverage for postpartum likely to continue through year despite legislative inaction appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association Board of Governors said it may ban future championships — including college baseball and softball regionals — in Mississippi and other states that have passed legislation barring transgender athletes from competing on teams that align with their gender identity.

The NCAA decision resembles one they made in June 2020, when Mississippi lawmakers were considering whether to change the state flag, the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem. Many believe that decision from the NCAA — a more definitive ruling than the one made this week — helped spur lawmakers to change the flag.

“Inclusion and fairness can coexist for all student-athletes, including transgender athletes, at all levels of sport,” the NCAA board said in a statement on Monday. “Our clear expectation as the Association’s top governing body is that all student-athletes will be treated with dignity and respect. We are committed to ensuring that NCAA championships are open for all who earn the right to compete in them.”

In a rare public ceremony on March 11, Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill that bans transgender girls and women at public schools and colleges from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. The bill is set to become law on July 1.

Neither Reeves nor any legislator that supported the bill could cite any example of a transgender athlete competing with their cisgender classmates in Mississippi. 

Though Mississippi was the first to do so in 2021, it is far from the only state taking up the issue. Lawmakers in the neighboring states of Arkansas and Tennessee have passed similar bills this year. Last year, Idaho passed a similar bill. A federal judge kept that law from going into effect as hearings continue. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 30 state legislatures are considering bills that would target transgender athletes. 

In June 2020, the NCAA banned Mississippi from hosting tournaments until lawmakers changed the state flag. That economic pressure, put on lawmakers by many business leaders, played a considerable role in getting the legislature to adopt a new flag early this year.

READ MORE: ‘Denying humanity’: Advocates discuss law that bans trans athletes from female sports teams

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Former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove used to say the most important item addressed each legislative session is the budget because it establishes the priorities of the state.

For decades, that priority in terms of where the most state funds are spent has been public education. While arguments can be made that Mississippi could be spending a modest amount more of existing funds on education than say on public safety or other entities, the real issue is not the share of state revenue spent on public education, but that Mississippi’s limited tax base does not cover all the needs of the state.

During the 2021 session, legislators found themselves in an enviable and somewhat unusual situation in that by Mississippi standards the state coffers were flush — well, relatively flush.

Based on that situation, legislators passed a state-support or general fund budget that totaled $6.56 billion or $249.6 (almost 4%) above the amount budgeted the previous year.

“The main highlight would be the budget …,” House Speaker Philip Gunn said when talking about the recently completed 2021 session. “Obviously, revenue continues to be good. This allows us to fund all state agencies. It actually has allowed us to restore the cuts made last year.”

Last year, in the midst of COVID-19 and fearing what the pandemic would mean for the state economy, legislators cut most state budgets. The overall cut was $125 million or almost 2%. But the impact on the state economy and especially on revenue collections has not been as negative as once feared.

While there have been recent downticks in the state economy in terms of job losses, most economist believe that the outlook for the coming year is bright. Revenue collections through February are 9.5% or $338 million above the amount collected through the same period last year.

Gunn cited “good conservative, budgeting practices” over time for what he described as the budget highlight achieved during the 2021 session.

Truth be known, legislators might have had a little help in reaching that budget highlight, and it came via government spending, not conservative policies.

Economists cite the multiple federal stimulus packages passed to address the pandemic for fueling the Mississippi economy and revenue collections. After all, the average Mississippian has received at least $3,200 in direct payments from the federal government. And thanks to enhanced federal unemployment payments, many Mississippi workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic most likely were making more money than when employed in the state with the second-lowest per capita income.

“We attribute much of this (economic) performance to the federal transfers,” economist Corey Miller of the University Research Center wrote back in September, even before the latest two rounds of stimulus were passed by Congress.

It should be noted that legislators did use a significant portion of that additional revenue to invest in that priority of education. According to figures compiled by the staff of the Legislative Budget Committee, funding for kindergarten through 12th grade education was increased almost $72 million or about 2.8%. When lottery revenue is added, the total additional funding for public education will be about $102 million.

In addition, funding for the eight public universities was increased $47.6 million, or 7%, and funding for the 15 community colleges was increased $16.7 million, or 7.9%.

Nearly every agency garnered additional funding when compared to the amount they received last year. Modest pay raises of about $1,000 a year were provided to teachers. Enough funds were appropriated to provide pay raises of 3% to most state employees and 1% for community college and public university faculty and staff. It should be pointed out not all state employees and university staff will receive those raises.

Importantly, the Legislature provided the funds to cover the increase in costs in the state health insurance plans to ensure the premiums paid by state employees and teachers would not go up. If the Legislature had not covered the increased costs, state employees and teachers would have had to, resulting in a reduction in their take home pay.

Another one of the big-ticket items in the state budget — Medicaid — was essentially funded at the same level as last year, about $900 million. The level funding was made possible, in large part, because the federal government, through the COVID-19 relief packages, is picking up more of the costs for the states’ Medicaid programs — another example where the work of Mississippi legislators was made easier by the largess of the federal government.

Despite all that, when the dust clears, Mississippi still will be near the bottom in funding of teacher, state employee, university faculty pay and in many other areas.

The post Mississippi lawmakers get big budget assist from feds appeared first on Mississippi Today.

I’m so old I remember when Secretary of States supported voting. Read the story behind the cartoon here.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Voting appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson has drawn criticism and national attention this week for comments made on WLOX-TV that the automatic voter registration provision of the federal For The People Act would lead to “woke” and “uninformed” college students voting. 

“Think about all these woke college university students now who would automatically be registered to vote, whether they wanted to or not,” Watson said during an appearance on News This Week on the Coast television station. “Again, if they didn’t know to opt out, they would be automatically registered to vote. And then they receive this mail-in ballot that they didn’t even know was coming because they didn’t know they registered to vote. You have an uninformed citizen who may not be prepared and ready to vote, automatically it’s forced on them. Hey, go and make a choice and our country’s going to pay for those choices.”

The bill Watson decried during the interview was passed by the House mostly along party lines last month and now faces unified Republican opposition in the Senate. If passed, the bill would represent the largest expansion of federal election rules in decades. 

The passing of the bill represents the largest effort by Democrats to push back against Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country pushing legislation that restricts ballot access. The moves at the state level have been criticized by Democrats as blatant power grabs by Republicans using false claims of rampant election fraud in the 2020 presidential election as cover. 

If the bill were to become law, states would be required to automatically register eligible voters. These potential voters would not be forced to cast a ballot, as Watson stated. Among other sweeping changes to how elections are conducted, the bill would also expand early voting for federal elections and make it harder to purge people from voter rolls.

Watson supported a bill proposed during the 2021 Legislative Session that would have started the process of  purging a voter from Mississippi voter rolls after they failed to cast a ballot for two consecutive election cycles. The legislation passed in the Senate on a party-line vote in February, but was later killed by the House Elections Committee.

During the WLOX interview, Watson joined the chorus of Republican elected officials in characterizing the For The People Act as an unprecedented overreach of the federal government into how states manage their elections. He also acknowledged it as an existential threat to his party, saying “I don’t know if a Republican could win another national election” if the bill were to pass. 

Watson’s decrying of certain eligible populations casting a ballot is reminiscent of a comment made by Cindy Hyde-Smith after a campaign event in 2018 where she supported making voting “a little more difficult” for certain “liberal folks.”

“And then they remind me that there’s a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who that maybe we don’t want to vote,” Hyde-Smith said to supporters. “Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. So I think that’s a great idea.”

Watson’s comment has been criticized by voting rights groups and activists. 

“We should be empowering students who take an interest in learning about our political processes and are putting in the effort to make it better and more equitable for everyone,” the civic engagement organization Mississippi Votes said in a statement. “It does all Mississippians a disservice to discount the intelligence of our young people.”

The post Secretary of State Watson faces criticism for saying ‘woke, uninformed’ college students shouldn’t vote appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Hospital Association’s board of governors on Friday voted to join in the drive to put Medicaid expansion — Initiative 76 — before voters in 2022.

“We will start by May 1 collecting signatures,” said MHA president Tim Ford.

Mississippi is one of 12 states that has refused to expand Medicaid via the Affordable Care Act, with the state’s GOP political leadership rejecting at least $1 billion a year in federal funds that would provide health coverage for hundreds of thousands of working poor people in the poorest state in the country. Health advocates and hospitals have lobbied lawmakers and governors for years to no avail and now will push to let voters decide.

Moore and others created the Healthcare for Mississippi nonprofit and recently filed the initial paperwork to try to put the issue before voters. Now, those involved would have to collect about 106,000 signatures of registered voters to put the issue on the 2022 midterm ballot in Mississippi.

READ MORE: ‘Let voters decide’: Mississippi Medicaid expansion ballot initiative filed

MHA represents 115 facilities, including about 100 acute-care hospitals in Mississippi that employ nearly 60,000 people. Moore said he expects numerous other groups that have championed Medicaid expansion to sign on and help with the initiative drive.

“I’ll be on the phone starting Monday morning,” Moore said. “It’s going to take a lot of folks — from the business community to all the health care community — a lot of effort.”

Many health advocates have pushed for Mississippi to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act and draw down billions in federal dollars to a state already heavily reliant on federal spending. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has highlighted health care disparities in the state, which is home to one of the highest percentages of uninsured residents in the nation. Congress further incentivized Mississippi to expand Medicaid in its latest stimulus package, upping the federal match to the 12 states that have resisted expansion.

But state GOP leaders, starting with former Gov. Phil Bryant, have opposed the move, saying they don’t want to help expand “Obamacare” and that they don’t trust the federal government to keep footing the bill, eventually leaving state taxpayers on the hook.

Meanwhile, hospitals — especially smaller rural ones — say they are awash in red ink from providing millions of dollars of care each year to uninsured and unhealthy people in Mississippi. The cost of uncompensated care for Mississippi hospitals was about $600 million in 2019. Some hospitals in recent years have gone under, while others teeter on the brink of bankruptcy.

Gov. Tate Reeves this week reiterated his opposition to Medicaid expansion upon news of the ballot initiative push. He noted the initiative “is a long way from getting on the ballot, much less approved.”

Mississippi voters last election took matters in hand on another long-running health care issue, overwhelmingly approving a medical marijuana program by enshrining it in the state constitution.

The post Hospital Association backs Mississippi Medicaid expansion ballot initiative appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Ole Miss and Mississippi State baseball teams will enter the weekend ranked in the top five in the nation in various polls. Southern Miss is in the top 25 of RPI ratings. Jackson State is undefeated in the SWAC. Delta State remains a Division II power.

Many assume this college baseball excellence is a relatively modern Mississippi phenomenon and that college baseball has become a point of state pride only in recent decades.

Such an assumption is dead wrong. Today’s story is about a Mississippian who pitched at Mississippi A&M, now Mississippi State, 112 years ago, long before metal bats, before luxury suites and before any pitch was known as a split-fingered fastball or a circle change. This was seven decades before Raffy and Will slugged for State, before Donnie and Archie went into the hole to throw out runners for Ole Miss. This was more than six decades before Ray Guy overpowered hitters for Southern Miss and Oil Can Boyd dazzled hitters for Jackson State. This was even three decades before the great Boo Ferriss became the first fully scholarshipped college baseball player in Mississippi. 

This was even a few years before Casey Stengel, the New York Yankees’  “ol’ perfessor,” actually coached the Ole Miss baseball team. (That was in 1914. As Casey, himself would have told you: “You could look it up.”)

This is Willie Mitchell’s story and of all the wonderful history chronicled in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, this is one of my favorite chapters. Mitchell made his way to Starkville in 1906 from the tiny Panola County town of Pleasant Grove (near Sardis). Willie apparently was an outstanding student, entering the college at age 16. By the time he was 19 and a senior, he had become something of a left-handed legend. Boo and Oil Can, future Boston Red Sox stars, would have nothing on Willie.

One spring weekend in 1909,the A&M baseball team took the train to Baton Rouge to face LSU in a doubleheader. Mitchell took the mound in the second game and pitched what must remain the most perfect game in the history of perfect games.

MORE: Mississippi Stories: Rick Cleveland

Mitchell struck out 26 of 27 LSU batters and retired the 27th on a ground ball to second base. You read right: Only one LSU batter hit a fair ball.

If you are wondering how Mitchell did it, the line forms behind the guy typing these words. One hundred and twelve years later, we have only hints. The Revielle, State’s yearbook, tells us Willie’s favorite pitch was “one that has a very sharp downward break, which is called the ‘Willie Ball’ for the simple reason that no batter has been able to connect with it.”

Was it a spitball, legal in those days? Was it a split-fingered fastball, before they knew there was such a thing? We will never know.

Now those Bulldogs – actually they were called Aggies then – were good. They would finish the 1909 season with a 22-4 record, which even today’s Bulldogs can appreciate. Willie Mitchell was better than good. He had a 6-1 record with 97 strikeouts in just 56 innings. Remember, he was only 19.

Naturally, professional scouts were intrigued. The Cleveland Indians – they were called the Naps then – won the prize and signed Willie. He started his pro career with San Antonio in the Texas League. Just a couple months after striking out 26 LSU hitters in one game, Willie struck out 20 Galveston Sand Crabs in a Texas League game. By September of 1909, still 19, he was in the Big Leagues.

One of his first games was against the Washington Senators and the legendary Walter “Big Train” Johnson, he of a record 417 Major League victories and one of the first five men inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Big Train got one of his 417 that day, but it took him 12 innings in a head-to-head battle with a 19-year old rookie. The Senators eked out a 2-1 victory.

WIllie Mitchell turned 20 three months later.

He went on to pitch 11 Major League seasons, most of those with bad baseball teams. He averaged 12 victories a year with an outstanding earned run average of 2.88. His best year was 1914 when he was 14-8 with a miniscule 1.98 earned run average. That season, he became the first Major League pitcher to strike out Babe Ruth. We can only assume he used the Willie Ball. Ruth, a pitcher then, won a 4-3 pitchers’ duel. A couple years later, Willie beat the Babe 1-0.

Of Mitchell, none other than Shoeless Joe Jackson said this: “Willie Mitchell is the hardest pitcher in the league for me to hit. He has a ball that looks like a balloon and the only thing I’ve ever been able to do is to get it on the handle and break all my bats. I’ve given up trying to hit him. The cost of bats adds up.”

Mitchell’s career was interrupted – and shortened – by injuries suffered in a Germany mustard gas attack in France during World War I. He tried to pitch, without much success, after the war. 

He returned to Mississippi where he lived in Greenville and worked for many years for Standard Oil. He died in 1973 at the age of 83 near his childhood home in Sardis. Thankfully, the legend of Mitchell and his Willie Ball lives on.

The post In a season of baseball excellence, we should recall the ‘Willie Ball’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.