State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, right, listens as Gov. Tate Reeves discusses updated COVID-19 orders on Dec. 11. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Gov. Tate Reeves, who has received broad public criticism in recent weeks over his COVID-19 response, asked his followers on social media to help him decide when he should get the vaccine.

“Interesting debate… I get endless posts from skeptics like ‘If you want us to take the vaccine, why won’t you take it?’” Reeves tweeted and posted on Facebook Tuesday morning. “I’m ready — but don’t want to be accused of cutting in line. What do you think is the better action by leaders? Show confidence or let others get access first?”

Interesting debate… I get endless posts from skeptics like “If you want us to take the vaccine, why won’t you take it?”

I’m ready—but don’t want to be accused of cutting in line. What do you think is the better action by leaders? Show confidence or let others get access first?

— Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) December 15, 2020

The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the state this week, and many leaders have volunteered to publicly take the vaccine to quell any doubts about the effectiveness or perceived dangers among Americans.

READ MORE: The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines has arrived in Mississippi. What’s next?

While many people — including in Mississippi — doubt whether the vaccine is safe or effective, health experts and scientists have reiterated the vaccine is safe and has been subjected to comprehensive trials.

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the top health official in Mississippi, became the first person in the state to take a vaccine on Monday. He and two other top Mississippi State Department of Health officials were inoculated in a public press conference.

COVID-19 spread continues to set new peaks both nationally and statewide. Health officials have warned that ICU capacity in Mississippi is “full and many hospitalizations on the way.”

Reeves, who is solely responsible for issuing statewide orders like mask mandates and crowd size limits, has received criticism in recent days for appearing at fundraisers and hosting Christmas parties, despite those events seemingly violating many of his own orders.

READ MORE: Partying in the pandemic: Gov. Reeves says mansion parties will adhere to COVID-19 orders.

Meanwhile, Dobbs and the health department have warned Mississippians to avoid holiday gatherings beyond closest family and to avoid any groups beyond school, work or “essential gatherings.”

Dobbs called the holidays a “perfect storm” for “explosive outbreaks” of COVID-19 and warned, “We will see deaths, absolutely, around holiday gatherings.” Health officials warn that Mississippi hospitals are overloaded with patients as pandemic cases spike to record levels.

In response, Reeves has said that his parties “allow us to send a message to the people of Mississippi that you can return to life as somewhat normal, but you’ve got to do it in a way that minimizes risk.”

READ MORE: Photos show Gov. Tate Reeves partygoers not adhering to his COVID-19 orders.

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COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 2,205 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 15, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Tuesday, December 15:

New cases: 2,205| New Deaths: 48

Total Hospitalizations: 1,255

Total cases: 183,300| Total Deaths: 4,252

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 54 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 2

After a record reporting of 2,457 new cases on Wednesday, the current seven-day average of 1,605 is now far past Mississippi’s summer peak. 

During a news conference yesterday, Gov. Tate Reeves denied that Mississippi had hit a new record for case spread, even though the rolling average had already surpassed the previous high of 1,381 in the summer. 

On Wednesday, the state health department issued new guidelines on distancing, recommending that people avoid all social gatherings with people outside of their home or nuclear family.

Mississippi also hit a new high for confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations on both Sunday and Monday, with the rolling average having increased 68% since the start of November. The rolling averages for ICU patients and people on ventilators are up 45% and 88%, respectively, in that time. Total hospitalizations, which includes suspected and confirmed cases, are still below the record set in August. 

Thirteen major hospitals are without ICU capacity, according to this week’s health department numbers. Currently, 86% of the state’s ICU beds are full — including 96% capacity among the highest level COVID-care centers — and COVID-19 patients are filling 30% of those spots.

On the county level, Choctaw (17% increase in the last week), Kemper (15%), Rankin (14%), Jefferson (12%) and Stone (12%) counties saw the sharpest rise in cases this last week. 

The Delta continues to accumulate the most cases per capita out of anywhere in the state. Of the 15 counties with the highest rates, 11 are in the Delta. 

The state health department reported 128,746 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 2,205 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, right, wears his “Trump” mask as he waits while Secretary of State Michael Watson tends to the official duties overseeing the casting of Mississippi’s votes in the electoral college at the state Capitol in Jackson on Dec. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Gov. Tate Reeves and Secretary of State Michael Watson defended the presidential electoral college and questioned the validity of election results in other states Monday morning as Mississippi’s six electoral votes were cast for incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

Watson, the state’s chief election officer, referred to the electoral college as “a shining example of the brilliance of our founding fathers” as Mississippi joined the nation’s other states and the District of Columbia in meeting Monday to solidify the results of the Nov. 3 general election in which former Vice President Joe Biden defeated Trump.

Both Reeves and Watson were in attendance Monday as the electors voted in a Capitol committee room known for being the location of a statue of Theodore Bilbo, a former governor and one of the state’s most notorious segregationists.

Under the electoral college process, each state gets the number of electoral votes equaling their two United States senators and their U.S. House members. In Mississippi, like most states, all of its electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins the state’s popular vote.

Watson and Reeves both touted the electoral college for ensuring smaller, less populated states like Mississippi have a larger say in the election of president. Detractors say the electoral college is counter-intuitive to democracy since in recent years the candidate who won the popular vote has not often won the presidency.

For instance, the Democrat has won the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections, but the Republican won the electoral college and thus the presidency in two of those elections.

This year, Biden defeated Trump by more than seven million votes, but was on pace Monday to win the same number of electoral votes — 306 — as Trump won in 2016 when he lost the popular vote by almost three million to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“For those individuals around this county who want to change the electoral college because they believe it will benefit them, I argue… they fundamentally misunderstand the principle we live in a republic not a true democracy because our founding fathers recognized the importance of not only the big states, but the small states as well,” Reeves said. Reeves said elimination of the electoral college would “disenfranchise” Mississippi voters.

Reeves and Watson both defended a lawsuit entered into by state Attorney General Lynn Fitch to throw out millions of ballots in four key swing states in an effort to throw the election to Trump. The lawsuit was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the electoral college vote, Reeves cited “a safe and fair election here in Mississippi — not upended by last-minute schemes to radically alter voting methods. Election integrity is vital.”

Reeves and Watson voiced frustration with the judiciary for putting in place election changes to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic that violated the Constitution. But they offered no examples that would have changed the results in any of the swing states that gave the election to Biden.

Mississippi’s vote of the electors — all white males — was uneventful. The six electors, all chosen by the state Republican Party since Trump won Mississippi, were Frank Bordeaux, John Dane III, Francis Lee, Terry Reeves, E. Bruce Martin and Johnny McRight.

Bordeaux is the newly elected chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party. Lee is one of Reeves’ largest individual political contributors. Terry Reeves is the governor’s father.

The governor said it was a testament to the country that his father, who grew up one of 11 children in a two-bedroom home in Lincoln County, could be an elector for the president.

The post Mississippi electors vote Trump, top officials cast doubt about election results in other states appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Sandra Lindsay, left, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, is inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by Dr. Michelle Chester on Dec. 14, 2020, in New York. Lindsay was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, Pool)

Mississippi’s top health officials, including State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, received the first COVID-19 vaccines in the state in a press conference on Monday.

Dobbs, State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers and Director of Health Protection Jim Craig were the first in the state to receive the vaccine.

“Proud and privileged,” Dobbs tweeted on Monday, adding in a press conference that the shot “felt like a butterfly with a little sting.”

First COVID vaccination in MS – proud and privileged pic.twitter.com/wVl4ifJGjN

— thomas dobbs (@TCBPubHealth) December 14, 2020

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COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,648 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 14, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Monday, December 14:

New cases: 1,648| New Deaths: 5

Total Hospitalizations: 1,264

Total cases: 181,095| Total Deaths: 4,204

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 54 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 2

After a record reporting of 2,457 new cases on Wednesday, the current seven-day average of 1,605 is now far past Mississippi’s summer peak. 

During a news conference yesterday, Gov. Tate Reeves denied that Mississippi had hit a new record for case spread, even though the rolling average had already surpassed the previous high of 1,381 in the summer. 

On Wednesday, the state health department issued new guidelines on distancing, recommending that people avoid all social gatherings with people outside of their home or nuclear family.

Mississippi also hit a new high for confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations on both Sunday and Monday, with the rolling average having increased 68% since the start of November. The rolling averages for ICU patients and people on ventilators are up 45% and 88%, respectively, in that time. Total hospitalizations, which includes suspected and confirmed cases, are still below the record set in August. 

Thirteen major hospitals are without ICU capacity, according to this week’s health department numbers. Currently, 86% of the state’s ICU beds are full — including 96% capacity among the highest level COVID-care centers — and COVID-19 patients are filling 30% of those spots.

On the county level, Choctaw (17% increase in the last week), Kemper (15%), Rankin (14%), Jefferson (12%) and Stone (12%) counties saw the sharpest rise in cases this last week. 

The Delta continues to accumulate the most cases per capita out of anywhere in the state. Of the 15 counties with the highest rates, 11 are in the Delta. 

The state health department reported 128,746 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,648 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,500 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | December 13, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Sunday, December 13:

New cases: 1,500| New Deaths: 19

Total Hospitalizations: 1,264

Total cases: 179,447| Total Deaths: 4,199

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 54 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 2

After a record reporting of 2,457 new cases on Wednesday, the current seven-day average of 1,605 is now far past Mississippi’s summer peak. 

During a news conference yesterday, Gov. Tate Reeves denied that Mississippi had hit a new record for case spread, even though the rolling average had already surpassed the previous high of 1,381 in the summer. 

On Wednesday, the state health department issued new guidelines on distancing, recommending that people avoid all social gatherings with people outside of their home or nuclear family.

Mississippi also hit a new high for confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations on both Sunday and Monday, with the rolling average having increased 68% since the start of November. The rolling averages for ICU patients and people on ventilators are up 45% and 88%, respectively, in that time. Total hospitalizations, which includes suspected and confirmed cases, are still below the record set in August. 

Thirteen major hospitals are without ICU capacity, according to this week’s health department numbers. Currently, 86% of the state’s ICU beds are full — including 96% capacity among the highest level COVID-care centers — and COVID-19 patients are filling 30% of those spots.

On the county level, Choctaw (17% increase in the last week), Kemper (15%), Rankin (14%), Jefferson (12%) and Stone (12%) counties saw the sharpest rise in cases this last week. 

The Delta continues to accumulate the most cases per capita out of anywhere in the state. Of the 15 counties with the highest rates, 11 are in the Delta. 

The state health department reported 128,746 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,500 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi is one of few states to impose a grocery tax. As leaders debate the state’s tax structure, many ask: Is our tax on food fair?

Mississippi is among just 13 states that place a sales tax on groceries.

If Gov. Tate Reeves and Speaker Philip Gunn get their way, Mississippi will remain among the minority of states taxing groceries but will become the 10th state that does not tax earned income.

Reeves has proposed that in addition to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic during the upcoming session that the Legislature also pass a bill to phase out the state’s income tax. Gunn has said he supports the effort.

“We have been trying to find ways to develop a more solid, fairer tax structure,” Gunn said recently.

Many believe Mississippi’s 7% tax on groceries, bread, milk and baby food is about as unfair as a tax can be.

No other than the late Alan Nunnelee, as respected in conservative circles as any Mississippi politician in recent years, said as much during his tenure in the Mississippi Senate where he championed the reduction or elimination of the tax on food.

Nunnelee, who died in 2015 while serving in the U.S. House, told the New York Times in 2007 the sales tax on groceries “is just the most cruel tax any government can impose.”

The argument, of course, is that it is much more of a tax burden for a poor person to buy that gallon of milk, loaf of bread or baby formula than it is for a wealthy person. But both the wealthy and poor are going to buy essentially the same gallon of milk or loaf of bread.

Reeves and Gunn believe that eliminating the income tax will spur economic development and, apparently, is also a “fairer” endeavor to undertake.

Of eliminating the income tax, Reeves said, “Right now, the global economy is chaotic. We have the chance to attract investment and high-paying jobs. We need to produce more products here and grow our population. We need to make a bold move to capitalize on the growth possibilities.” That bold move is phasing out the income tax.

Mississippi first enacted a sales tax during the Great Depression when the existing meager income tax was not producing enough revenue to fund state services.

Michael Leachman, vice president of state fiscal policy for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, points out that former Mississippi Gov. Mike Conner, who proposed the sales tax increase, said, “There are today in Mississippi thousands of people who pay no taxes, but who enjoy all the rights and privileges of citizenship. These people will be glad of an opportunity to share in the responsibility of maintaining the government of the state in which they live.”

There has long been the argument that the sales tax is fair because people who own no property to tax or who have no income to tax still will have to pay the sales tax when they buy food.

Leachman argues that Mississippi, which he said enacted the first modern day sales tax, did so at least partly for racial reasons. Even if Mississippi politicians are given a huge benefit of the doubt on the issue of race that history tells us they might not deserve, it is fair to assume that a high percentage of people whom Connor was referencing as paying no taxes were African American. After all, because of the higher levels of poverty among Black residents, they had then and have now less property and income to tax.

Many of the states where the higher sales taxes can be found are in the South. And only three states levy as much sales tax on food as they do on other retail items. Two of those also are southern states — Mississippi and Alabama — with the other being South Dakota.

In the 2000s, the Mississippi Legislature, led by then-Republican Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and by other Republicans, such as Nunnelee, did vote to phase out the sales tax on food. But then-Gov. Haley Barbour, who shared the views of Gunn and Reeves that it would be economically advantageous and fairer to reduce the income tax, vetoed the legislation.

Barbour never got the opportunity to reduce the income tax during his tenure — in large part because of the economic and financial conditions the state faced.

Some question whether Mississippi in 2021 can afford to phase out the income tax, which accounts for about one-third of state general fund revenue, at a time when there are so many other needs.

Another question might be: Which is fairer for Mississippi to cut — the tax on income or on food? The answer to that question depends on who you think should be paying taxes.

The post Some see grocery tax as ‘cruel.’ Others, including top state leaders, believe it is fair. appeared first on Mississippi Today.