25% of Mississippians are vaccinated against COVID. ‘Step up,’ state doctors say.
Many Mississippians have been taking a wait-and-see approach to getting a COVID-19 vaccine, but now is the time to step up so the state can reduce transmission, State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said during a news conference Tuesday.
“We’ve got a lot of people sitting on a bench,” Dobbs said. “ . . . We want to get those folks off the bench.”
Vaccinations are helping reduce cases and prevent deaths with minimal side effects, Dobbs said. Vaccines can also help reduce the likelihood that more COVID-19 variants will spring up, he said.
Under any scenario, he said, contracting COVID-19 is much worse than getting a vaccine.
More than 800,000 Mississippians, or 25%, are fully vaccinated and 950,000 residents have received at least one dose. Vaccinations greatly reduce the risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19, Dobbs and state Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said.
Vaccine rates in Mississippi and the Deep South are generally lagging behind other parts of the country, Dobbs said. He said that he could see a return to normal, for the most part, by July if people get one of the three vaccines available: two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Other takeaways from the news conference:
▪ Byers said Mississippi will offer Pfizer vaccines to children 12-15 when approval is granted for that age group, which is expected around mid-May. Currently, any resident aged 16 or older is eligible for vaccination.
▪ Herd immunity from COVID-19 appears unlikely, Dobbs said, but vaccinations will drastically reduce serious illness and death.
▪ COVID cases continue to drop in Mississippi, which Byers said is currently averaging 228 cases a day and 4 to 5 deaths a day over a seven-day period. He credits vaccines with the significant improvement since the holidays, when hospitals filled with patients and deaths mounted.
▪ The doctors also called out numerous myths as false, including that COVID vaccines have killed “a bunch” of older people, cause infertility, contain microchips or will change a person’s genes.
▪ By July, Dobbs hopes Mississippians will be able to resume most activities without masks, but says they should still be worn indoors in public spaces and Mississippians should follow CDC guidelines.
▪ First-dose appointments have dropped off, but up to 3,500 appointments a day are still being made for state drive-thru vaccination sites and vaccines are widely available in Mississippi. The MSDH has a vaccine finder on its website.
▪ Dobbs does not foresee any compulsory COVID-19 vaccination rules, for school children or adults.
▪ The MSDH is willing to enter creative partnerships to bring vaccinations to more people and last week offered vaccinations in partnership with some restaurants.
“The first three answers when you talk about COVID are vaccination, vaccination, vaccination,” Byers said.
