It’s more than a little ironic that Mississippi is being bailed out by the federal government for a health crisis the state helped to manufacture.
This past week, more than 1,000 health care workers were dispatched to this state to help shore up hospitals that are understaffed and overwhelmed by the fourth wave of COVID-19.
This help, apparently, is not going to cost the state treasury a penny. Because the pandemic has been declared a federal disaster, the state, under the terms of the Stafford Act, will be eligible to be reimbursed for the entire cost of bringing in the medical reinforcements, according to Gov. Tate Reeves.
Had the state done a better job of managing this crisis, perhaps the need for emergency help would not have become necessary.
Mississippi’s vaccination rate has been at or near the bottom ever since vaccines became widely available. As a result, the fourth wave has been wicked in this state, producing a highest-in-the-nation infection rate and record-setting hospitalization and ICU numbers. Those numbers are a reflection on Reeves’ own poor leadership.
Although the Republican governor did a reasonably good job in the early stages of the pandemic walking the tight rope between the health crisis and the economic one, he has adopted a posture of equivocation ever since, one that seems rooted in his unwillingness to aggravate his conservative base.
Rather than mandate masks again in schools, Reeves has pawned that decision off to the school districts and has encouraged parents who dissent. He has been weak in his endorsement of vaccines, telling the unvaccinated to consult with their doctors and make the right decision, rather than forcefully stating what the obviously right decision is.
Mississippi is fortunate that the Stafford Act does not include a disqualifier for self-induced disasters.
- The Greenwood Commonwealth
