Barely one hour after Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott announced he was lifting all COVID-19 restrictions, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, also a Republican, joined in, tweeting “it is time” to get rid of his state’s mask mandate. Next to a vaccine, wearing a mask is the single most effective action anyone can take to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
“Starting tomorrow, we are lifting all of our county mask mandates and businesses will be able to operate at full capacity without any state-imposed rules,” Reeves declared on Twitter, revealing that he has blocked other “lockdown” protocols. “Our hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed. It is time!”
Governor Reeves, dubbed a “Trump acolyte” by The New Yorker, early on in the pandemic refused to take any action, and worse, overrode local officials who had ordered lockdowns and other protective measures. Instead, Reeves told Mississippi residents to trust the “power of prayer” over the deadly virus. And then he flew to Europe for a family trip.
Reeves has a strong background in finance, and he says he’s looking at the coronavirus numbers, but it appears he isn’t actually looking at the important coronavirus numbers for his state.
At a Tuesday afternoon press conference Reeves said he’s focused on the numbers, he looks at them every morning.
But, he declared, “the total number of daily cases is not the end-all be-all,” If you’re not testing much, like Mississippi, Reeves would be correct – but not in a good way.
“What is the end-all be-all, and the single most important issues, are what do the total number of hospitalizations look like, what are the total number of patients that are in ICU beds, and what is the total number of patients that are on ventilators?”
Those are the “single most important” numbers you would look at if your only goal is ensuring hospitals are not over capacity. They are the most short-term numbers you could look at to manage the pandemic in the worst possible way. Those are numbers to focus on if your main goal is merely preventing “last-mile” problems. They do not take into account “long COVID,” those patients who contract the virus and never fully recover. In fact, they are numbers to look at if you literally don’t care how many people contract the disease, or spread it.
Meanwhile, we did look at the numbers, the really important ones, to determine how well – or poorly – Governor Reeves is managing the pandemic.
It’s not good.
Here are some stats the first-term GOP governor might want to be paying attention to.
Mississippi ranks 32nd in total population across the U.S., but ranks 23rd in total coronavirus cases. That means Reeves’ state is outpacing the average – not good.
Those numbers are probably a lot worse, since Mississippi ranks 36th in per capita coronavirus testing.
Worse, just 14 percent of Governor Reeves’ residents have had their first COVID-19 vaccination shot, which means his state ranks 43rd, per The New York Times. That’s pretty bad.
Governor Reeves claims that “hospitalizations and case numbers have plummeted,” but Mississippi, according to Bloomberg, ranks number 13 in hospitalizations (number one is the worst.)
And here’s the worst number: Mississippi ranks number 5 in per capita coronavirus deaths. There are just four states that are in a worst position.
Despite all this, Reeves is opening up his state, immediately.
Stats via WorldOMeter