Video of Governor's briefing posted below.
Governor says there is a blacklash against C-19 restrictions.
Wearing masks "helluva lot better than widespread economic shutdown."
The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 393 new cases of the Wuhan virus yesterday as well as 1 new deaths. The total number of cases is 36,680. The virus has caused 1,250 deaths. Nursing home deaths comprise 48% of overall Covid-19 deaths in Mississippi. There are 22,167 recoveries. More information and a complete list of infected counties can be found at the MSDH website. The Rt factor is 1.13.
Hospitalizations and ICUs surge yet again.
A reader was kind enough to provide these charts that provide a better picture of what is taking place.
Governor Tate Reeves defended the new restrictions today on Facebook:
Today, we have stricter measures going into effect in 13 counties as we face down the threat of COVID-19. We have suspended elective procedures in our hospitals, to prevent them from becoming overwhelmed. I’ve pushed back in the past months when people claimed an increase in cases was a spike in Mississippi. Make no mistake: we are in the middle of a spike.
I hope that, throughout this, people have been able to see me as an honest broker. I have avoided hyperbole at all times. I have never said anything in an attempt to scare people—only to plainly state what we are seeing. There are plenty of people who have said we have not gone far enough. Others have said we are going too far. I’ve always tried to show restraint. I’ve also taken steps I never imagined.
I only say all that in the hopes that people will trust me when I tell you this: this is the worst that it has ever been for case spread in Mississippi. It is the most stressed our hospital system has been.
Right now, there is a backlash against coronavirus mitigation. It’s understandable. The “sky is falling” predictions of the spring were not realized. That is partly because there were some who spun themselves up and could not control their rhetoric. It is mostly because back then, just a few weeks ago, we all took this at least somewhat seriously. Some took extraordinary measures to protect themselves and their loved ones. But everyone did something.
Right now, it seems like there is a good number of people who have resigned themselves to spreading the virus. Or they believe that it is not real. I hear that all the time. I’m telling you: It is very, very real. You can see it in our death toll. We are in the thick of things.
The best way that we know to avoid the shutdowns of schools, sports, and work right now is to wear a mask. I know that some people have trouble believing that. There was a concerted push at the beginning of this pandemic to discourage mask use—from the highest levels of the health community down. It makes guys like me, who are already skeptical by nature, have a hard time believing this time around.
I am telling you that I have directly asked every hard question you’ve wondered about. Why the change in tone? Are they really effective? We’ve looked at every tool. I promise you: This is the best weapon we have. It’s not fun, but it’s a hell of a lot better than widespread shut downs. And that’s the trajectory we’re on.
The President is wearing a mask. I’m wearing a mask. We’re all doing it. It’s got to happen, or we’re going to find ourselves in a place as bad as we can imagine.
Scientists have gotten things wrong. Models have been flawed. Experts and pundits have been overly confident and overly dramatic at different times. That whiplash is confusing. I get it. It’s been confusing for me too. But I’m telling you: this is not a hypothetical. We don’t know the effects of this virus from experiments or other states. We’re seeing it right here, right now.
It is deadly. It is spreading. In fact, our experts believe that we are witnessing a more contagious strain tear through our state right now. It’s above my level of expertise, but they’ve analyzed it. They believe that the virus is mutating and getting more powerful.
This is Mississippi’s moment. This is our time to fight. I believe it’s coming for every corner of this country at different times. We are in the middle of ours. Stay calm, but stay in control. Don’t panic, but persevere. We can beat this thing together, and save lives. That is what you are doing every time you wear a mask. Every smart move you make. Every sacrifice. Every little action. You are saving lives.
We can do this. We have to do this. We will come through together.
33 comments:
If we don't get serious with mask.
It's time to really start thinking about how you can help your kids get through distance learning. Additionally year round school has to be considered for several years so kids can catch up.
As for fall sports on the high school level, you may be able to play 5 or 6 games but forget about many fans or having championships.
Where would we be without JJ's anonymous 'authorities' like @6:39?
Yall have fun having your little munchkins at home for another 12 months. Hope your employer is as accommodating as they were for a few months earlier this year.
Too many will pay a heavy price for a handful of young folk who can't stay out of bars and each others pants every weekend.
These young folks will be the first to scream when life isn't easy during the upcoming depression.
So many not wearing masks! It’s time for some stiff prison sentences!
" So many not wearing masks! It’s time for some stiff prison sentences! "
But first we have to release the killers to make room for the people that believed Dr. Fauci.
(The first time he lied.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PmKxA5NMhI
What?! No one posted something “witty” followed by 3...2...1...?!
If our plan as a state is to “mask” our way out of this, then we are truly screwed. While masks play a part in bringing down the number of infected, it will not impact that number enough to allow the state’s existing supply of regular and ICU beds to cover all Covid-19 sick people during peak times unless you want to shut down major sections of all other medical procedures. We know bad peaks are coming in Fall and Winter months, and we may be in the middle of one right now. So, the question is what are we doing to increase hospital capacity to address a pandemic? Not a lot it seems. Let’s think about these questions:
1. Executive Order 1477, signed in March, required all hospitals to reserve 25% of all operational capacity to serve Covid patients. Gov. Reeves stated in a press conference last week that part of the reason we are in a bad spot now is that hospitals did not follow the order. If they had, there would be enough capacity reserved to more than cover the current hospitalization and ICU numbers for Covid. Why did the MSDH allow this to happen? Shouldn’t they be monitoring this? This is a failure on Dr. Dobb’s part.
2. If reserving 25% of capacity for Covid patients causes shortages or requires other procedures to be cancelled, that means we do not have enough capacity in our statewide hospital system. MDSH has had 5 month to come up with an answer for this and I don’t see any game plan on the table. This is a failure on Dr. Dobb’s part.
3. The statewide system has existing beds that are not being currently used. What is the coordinated statewide plan to staff these beds when they are needed? This is a failure on Dr. Dobb’s part.
4. If money is needed to increase capacity or staffing, where was the request to the legislature for the money from the CARES Act funds? There was no such request from MSDH when Dr. Dobbs addressed the legislative committees. This is a failure on Dr. Dobb’s part.
5. If you believe contact tracing can have any effect at this point, why are we 5 months into this pandemic and MSDH is saying they are still at least 100 employees short? This is a failure on Dr. Dobb’s part.
6. If there really are no beds and ICU spaces, why haven’t Camp Shelby or Itawamba CC facilities been opened, since we were told that was going to be an overflow plan?
7. Why is UMMC the only hospital that is willing to go on TV with Dr. Dobbs when he is saying there is no available hospital space?
8. Why do the bed numbers reported in the media when they talk directly to hospitals differ from what we are being told in press conferences?
Somebody needs to be asking these questions, and we deserve answers.
Wonder how soon we'll see over 1,000 hospitalized because of COVID-19. I bet it is before the end of July. Go ahead and write off fall sports, there is absolutely no way they can take place with the epidemic spreading like it is and with such a large amount of irresponsible people. There is just no way the general public can be trusted to act reasonable.
Governor needs to follow the lead of other states and shut down bars and indoor restaurants again. Maybe that will get people's attention.
"So many not wearing masks! It’s time for some stiff prison sentences!" As if that will happen. Murders are out on Bond, you gonna make not wearing a mask a No Bond crime. Boy, talk about Lawyers getting rich for violation of Constitutional Rights. Guess the President could declare Martial Law and suspend the Constitution, but doubt that. I say shut it down until the new year, that ought to do it. The economy and us tank, so be it. If it doesn't stop by then, we all need to take that as an ominous sign. But, we all will die no matter what we do. You sheep are funny.
Lets hear from our lauded and lettered experts on this blog about how long we will be isolated and masked up this time. The idea of no sports is fine we me and others I have spoken with. The idea of kids doing distance learning is ok with them and quite a few of the parents I've listened to on the Madison County Schools web site. We get our school computer this week, and it is still a go for school, but who knows. The science changes daily around here.
I don't think 8:12 really likes Dr Dobbs...
Wwhy aren't you people having your provisions and ammo delivered to your door while making your living day trading stocks and mining crypto?
Are you all stupid?
It's not whether you like or don't like Dr. Dobbs, but whether our leadership is doing what needs to be done. Thirty days ago, on June 12, there were 684 Covid hospitalizations (confirmed and suspected), 160 Covid ICU cases, and 103 Covid ventilators in use. Nobody was panicking then. Nobody. It is simply unimaginable that thirty days later, in a state with 3 million people, that an increase of 340 hospital beds, 50 ICU beds, and 7 ventilators should be causing mass hysteria if we were adequately prepared. MSDH has simply done very little to nothing to manage and/or increase hospital capacity since all this Covid stuff began. This is just incompetence.
So now, when we have to do business shut downs, no school, limited medical procedures at hospitals, etc., Dr. Dobbs and the Governor will be up there telling us that the reason they had to do it is because citizens would not wear masks. And they will avoid taking any responsibility for failing to have us adequately prepared. So I wish people would stop focusing only on the mask issue and start asking about other pieces of problem that really need to be addressed.
The virus is doing the job China intended it to do. Fear, panic, confusion and descension in our leadership, and with no solution that isn't a political minefield.
If we do teeter off into another economic Depression, the virus will be a whisper of a memory compared to the civil unrest that will unfold - regardless of who is President.
"The original coronavirus we were dealing with in March was still mighty dad gum contagious". Now if that's not a Mississippi spin on things I don't know what is!
12:22 it’s because of the known lag time between positive test and hospitalization. Look at the number of new cases a day on that day in June vs. now. That’s why they are freaking out.
Rather than focus on the Rt, I look more at the underlying infection rate. Right now, according to the Washington Post, Mississippi has a positive case rate of 26 per 100K (11th highest in the nation) and a COVID mortality rate of 0.64 per 100K (2nd highest in the nation). Rt could go below 1 for a while and we would still be among the worst states in terms of COVID.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/?itid=hp_hp-top-table-main_gfx-virus-tracker%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans
Another two weeks should do the trick.
Yes, infections are up (along with testing).
Weekly deaths rates are down 86% nationally from the peak in late April. Over 81% of COVID-19 deaths are from the 15.5% of the US population than is age 65 and over. If you are old, shelter yourself. Otherwise wash your hands, don't be dumb and live life.
12:22 - Critical Care Nurse here. Efforts to prepare HAVE been taken. The problem is not only do people refuse to wear a mask, they also congregated in large groups for the Father's Day and 4th, they had large parties on the res/river, etc. I can pretty much guarantee they did NOT social distance at these gatherings, and I'm pretty sure they aren't worried about washing their hands. Lots of people interpreted the lifting of restrictions as COVID being gone, or they are still convinced it's not real (trust me, it's very real).
On top of that, people with chronic illnesses have postponed or cancelled doctor's appointments or have chosen to not seek treatment when their condition worsened due to fear of COVID, so now many of them are hospitalized. And people still have accidents, heart attacks, etc.
And think about this. Just because someone is a nurse, it does NOT qualify them to work with vent/critical patients. This requires special training, believe me, you do NOT come out of nursing school or floor nursing knowing how to do this. Staffing is also a problem everywhere, not just in MS.
You are placing the blame for ALL of this at the feet of our leadership, but there are many other factors in play that cannot be ignored. I can't say I agree with how they have handled everything, but if you can make the right choice every time when dealing with a situation in which you have to make decisions based on lots of unknowns, then please, run for office........
9:17 About half the deaths are from nursing home residents. How do you propose they should shelter themselves any more than they already do?
You prevent the deaths by preventing the spread of the disease among the general population. The virus jumps from person to person and can easily be inadvertently transmitted to an at-risk person. The way to control it is by a combination of distance and preventive measures by everybody.
@6:39 what is the death rate doing? Is it increasing or decreasing? Wouldn't it be logical to think that hospitalizations would soon follow?
10:04 The death rate is increasing. It is a lagging indicator though. Hospitalizations increase first and then the deaths follow a week or two later. As noted above, Mississippi has the second highest COVID mortality rate in the U.S. and it is going nowhere but up.
What ever happened to the "two weeks to flatten the curve" message in March?
It is preposterous to claim that the CDC, hospitals, doctors and scientists are all lying about the seriousness of the pandemic, the need to wear masks, etc. Why in the world would they do that? I know Trump says they all or lying just to defeat him in November, but there is zero proof that is the case. In any event, Trump is doing a great job defeating himself.
It is time for Tate to make wearing masks in public mandatory in all 82 counties. The virus does not respect county lines.
9:54 What should nursing homes do? They are doing it already, hence a death rate decline of 86% (per the US Dept. of Health & Human Services). Sequester the high risk, others wash your hands don't do crazy things. Crazy things to include shutting down an economy.
10:41 Here was how it was supposed to work. Everyone stays home for two weeks except for quick trips to the store and genuine emergencies. That would give a full incubation period for the virus to be brought under control and for contact tracing to be able to identify hotspots in the future. Continued reasonable mitigation efforts would allow the curve to remain flat until a vaccine or treatment could be developed. This is what European countries did and are doing.
Here's what really happened in America. A decent portion of the population ignored the recommendations and continued to socialize without taking precautions. Conflicting orders from various states ensured there was no coordinated effort among everybody at the same time. Community spread was never controlled. Then, rather than exercising social distancing, limited gatherings, and wearing masks in public; people just went back to things like they were before. Huge gatherings with no mitigation on Labor Day and July 4. Fully 2/3 of Mississippians not wearing masks.
If you look at rt.live you can see the curve was flattened during the month of April, but afterward it took back off. Keeping the curve flat was always going to be an ongoing process, but Americans weren't capable of it.
Amen 9:53and 11:09.
@11:23 I don't expect the nursing homes to do anything different at this point. The only way to cut down on the deaths is for everybody to practice mitigation techniques and reduce the community spread. The choice is pretty clear, either social distance and wear masks or face the prospect of mandatory shutdowns.
I think the virus is real and very serious for certain people. I have a suppressed immune system due to an underlying health condition. I have been exposed twice. Once to someone who was sick with symptoms and once to someone who was asymptomatic. I tested negative both times. I know this is not the case for everyone and understand that. I do feel we are being given false information or information to make you believe something other than the truth. Don’t just look at the headlines of the stories, read the articles. We are made to believe by the headlines that we have 36,000+ cases right this minute. That’s the total number from day one. Also the death count in high but it’s combined data from a period of time. The state shut down their reporting for a short time because they had data issues. Once reports started back our numbers were off the charts!! How many positive cases are asymptomatic and people aren’t sick vs people sick with symptoms. Also, is every ICU patient a Covid-19 patient or are they including the numbers of regular ICU patients and COVID-19 ICU patients in the numbers reported. We have to use common sense here. Take precautions and keep living life. If you don’t feel safe, don’t get out. Keep yourself isolated. If you get out, use common sense.....
The only way to change the dynamics of nursing home deaths is to reverse the aging process and that ain't happening. Immune system decline is a product of advanced age. Fauci, Cuomo and Schumer may be magicians, but their talent in this arena is limited.
Two things have led to the resurgence. No coordinated federal government strategy or leadership. Stupid people who think they know more than healthcare professionals. The virus will be with us until both change.
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