Mississippi
Why Mississippi, a Covid Hot Spot, Left Millions in Pandemic Aid Unspent
![Why Mississippi, a Covid Hot Spot, Left Millions in Pandemic Aid Unspent Why Mississippi, a Covid Hot Spot, Left Millions in Pandemic Aid Unspent](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/01/31/multimedia/00dc-pandemic_7-cwfh/00dc-pandemic_7-cwfh-facebookJumbo.jpg)
JACKSON, Miss. — When the coronavirus first scythed via the nation in early 2020, few locations wanted assist combating it greater than Scott County, Miss., a rural patch of rooster processing crops and pine forests an hour east of the state capital, Jackson.
The poverty price for the county’s 28,000 residents was far above the nation’s. So, too, had been charges of diabetes and different continual diseases that worsen the danger of extreme Covid-19. But Mississippi’s well being division, struggling underneath big finances cuts ordered by the state’s Legislature, had deployed simply two nurse practitioners to cowl a quarter-million residents in Scott and eight different counties.
So when the Biden administration gave Mississippi $18.4 million in mid-2021 to rent public well being employees — a part of $2 billion in grants to bolster the Covid work power at state and native well being companies nationwide — it appeared that assist had, in the end, arrived.
However as of January, 18 months later, Mississippi had spent simply $3.6 million of its grant — lower than a fifth. Its makes an attempt to rent epidemiologists, nurses and different troopers within the warfare in opposition to Covid had largely fallen flat. The state has misplaced one in 224 residents to Covid-19, one of many nation’s worst demise charges, together with 122 folks in tiny Scott County alone.
Mississippi’s woes are an acute instance of a bigger public well being failure that’s reprised practically each time a significant well being menace grabs headlines. The issue, specialists say, is that Congress starves state and native well being companies of money for even fundamental wants in quiet instances. Then, when a disaster hits, it floods them with thousands and thousands and even billions of {dollars} earmarked to battle the illness of the second. And the sluggish equipment of Capitol Hill usually ensures that many of the support arrives solely after the worst of the disaster has handed.
The $2 billion in Covid hiring grants is the newest instance. Nationwide, states and localities had spent solely $371 million of the cash by December, or about 19 p.c, in accordance with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the conduit for the funds.
Well being departments discovered it practically inconceivable to bulk up their skeletal staffs from a standing begin. Seasoned employees, in excessive demand all through the well being care system, balked at taking jobs that had been assured solely till the federal funds ran out. Well being departments now face a July deadline to make use of the cash, however uptake has been so sluggish that the C.D.C. is letting them ask for a one-year extension.
The file is replete with different such fumbles.
Six months after the World Well being Group declared the H1N1 influenza pandemic over in mid-2010, states and localities had used only a third of the $1.4 billion in federal funds that they had acquired to fight it. The outbreaks of the Ebola virus in 2014 and the Zika virus in 2016 additionally led to funding windfalls, however well being specialists say many of the cash arrived late.
In Mississippi, Dr. Thomas E. Dobbs, who ran the state’s well being division from 2018 via final July, mentioned a number of the company’s leftover Zika and Ebola cash “mainly rotted on the shelf” as a result of it couldn’t be shifted to different wants regardless that the threats had subsided.
When the coronavirus started spreading in Mississippi, “it felt like we had been the U.S. earlier than World Struggle II, simply completely unprepared,” he mentioned. “We couldn’t rent anybody for months.”
The nation’s first Covid instances had been detected in January 2020, however Congress didn’t authorize the funding that led to the $2 billion in grants till March 2021. When the C.D.C. pushed the cash out the door that July, greater than 600,000 folks in the US had already died.
“You don’t have something up entrance,” Dr. Dobbs mentioned. “You’re mainly making an attempt to outlive off baling wire and duct tape. After which, as soon as it’s virtually over, a giant pot of cash is available in. It’s not solely ridiculous, it’s wasteful and inefficient.”
Extra on the Coronavirus Pandemic
It’s inconceivable to measure how a lot the staffing shortages worsened the pandemic’s toll, mentioned Dr. Judith Monroe, who leads the C.D.C. Basis, an unbiased nonprofit group that attempted to plug Covid staffing gaps.
However “on the finish of the day,” she mentioned, “it value Individuals their family members.”
Invisible Companies
On the root of continual underfunding of public well being, specialists say, is a basic lack of knowledge of its mission.
Employees at state and native well being departments monitor and attempt to restrict a number of threats, together with preventable accidents, infectious ailments and continual illnesses like diabetes. These duties come atop a drumbeat of different extra routine however important duties, akin to restaurant inspections.
Success produces no headlines. And in lean instances, well being departments are straightforward targets for presidency cutbacks.
“Public well being at its most interesting is prevention — it’s invisible to the general public,” Dr. Monroe mentioned, including, “No one wakes within the morning saying, ‘I really feel so grateful right this moment I don’t have smallpox.’”
Public well being is so neglected that nobody is aware of precisely how a lot cash the nation’s roughly 2,800 state and native well being departments spend or how many individuals they make use of. Some states like Mississippi centralize their operations, whereas in others, counties train extra management.
The end result is a big patchwork of companies and techniques. However specialists usually agree on one level: Within the run-up to the pandemic, public well being companies took successful.
One research by tutorial researchers discovered that state public well being spending both stagnated or declined from 2008 to 2018. The de Beaumont Basis, a nonprofit well being advocacy group, estimated that state and native well being departments shed about 40,000 jobs between 2008 and 2019.
The C.D.C., which helps preserve state and native well being companies afloat with billions of {dollars} yearly in grants and different funding, additionally misplaced floor earlier than the pandemic. Within the decade that resulted in 2019, the company’s finances fell by 10 p.c when adjusted for inflation, in accordance with the Belief for America’s Well being, a nonprofit advocacy group.
Public well being specialists have lengthy argued that steady federal funding would give state and native well being departments a sturdier basis and would free officers from submitting limitless grant functions. The Obama administration tried to reply these pleas by making a devoted fund for public well being as a part of the Inexpensive Care Act, which grew to become regulation in 2010.
The fund began with $500 million, and its annual allotment was presupposed to develop to $2 billion by 2015. But it surely was raided for different functions, together with throughout the Obama administration itself to assist avert a minimize in Medicare funds to physicians. The fund leveled off at about half of its $2 billion goal.
Fax Machines, Mould and a Snake
Confronted with falling revenues attributable to revenue and company tax cuts, Mississippi’s Republican-controlled state authorities put its well being division on the chopping block. It lowered the company’s state financing from $36 million in 2016 to about $19 million in 2018, former state officers mentioned.
Republican legislators mentioned fewer sufferers had been searching for care on the greater than 80 well being clinics the division operates throughout the state. Dr. Mary Currier, who led the division from 2010 to 2018, mentioned lawmakers had been blind to the company’s mission. “They don’t see it as essential,” she mentioned. “And they also don’t actually care if it fails.”
Public well being nurses left in droves. Some counties had been pressured to share nurse practitioners, and sure packages concentrating on continual ailments, like screening for hypertension, had been curtailed or deserted, present and former officers mentioned. County clinics minimize hours, and infrastructure wants took a again seat.
Dr. Dobbs instructed state lawmakers in December 2021 that fax machines had been ubiquitous and a few clinics had been past restore. He displayed a photograph of Scott County’s clinic with a gaping gap in an exterior wall. One other picture featured a snake slithering throughout the ground. Pictures of different clinics confirmed leaking ceilings, moldy doorways and dilapidated bogs.
“Is that this the place you’d wish to take your loved ones for well being care companies?” he requested.
The state additionally stored the wages of public well being employees so low that as of 2020, about one-fourth of the well being division’s jobs had been unfilled, in accordance with Dr. Dobbs, now the dean of the College of Inhabitants Well being on the College of Mississippi Medical Middle. Essentially the most extremely skilled epidemiologist might earn not more than $62,000 a 12 months, he mentioned — roughly $17,000 beneath the median wage within the career. The company employed solely a handful of them when he took it over, he mentioned.
“That left our foundations actually weak coming into Covid,” Dr. Dobbs mentioned.
Some states tapped cash from a coronavirus reduction package deal enacted in March 2020 to rent extra public well being employees. The C.D.C. additionally dispatched its personal specialists to the sector.
And it routed $290 million from that package deal and one other one a 12 months later to the C.D.C. Basis, which recruited and dispatched 3,900 public well being employees to the states, together with 27 to Mississippi. That effort sidestepped obstacles like wage caps that hampered hiring by state and native companies, though most employees solely arrived after mid-2021.
The largest effort — the $2 billion in hiring grants awarded in July 2021 — additionally got here late. However the want was nonetheless urgent.
Covid vaccination pictures had turn out to be obtainable lower than seven months earlier. The Delta variant was spreading, and Omicron, which might unleash a recent wave of demise and illness, lay forward.
Mississippi’s vaccination price was then, and nonetheless is, one of many nation’s worst. Dr. Dobbs mentioned that with extra employees, “indubitably we might have accomplished a greater job getting folks vaccinated quicker” and saved extra lives.
However Michael S. Sparer, a professor at Columbia College’s Mailman College of Public Well being who has been researching the $2 billion program, mentioned that Mississippi, Indiana, Kentucky and different states struggled mightily to make use of the cash, particularly due to competitors for employees from hospitals that would pay extra.
By the tip of final November, Washington State’s well being division had spent lower than $3 million of its $45.5 million grant, although like Mississippi, it has earmarked a number of the unspent cash for future use. “You’re not going to have the ability to get an epidemiologist simply sitting on the facet of the road,” mentioned Dr. Umair A. Shah, who leads the company.
Mississippi officers mentioned that the $18.4 million grant allowed the well being division to rent 157 new employees members however that the company nonetheless had sufficient cash for 97 new positions that remained vacant.
Dr. Daniel P. Edney, who changed Dr. Dobbs final summer season, declined to be interviewed for this text. Former officers say the company tries to maintain a low profile lest state lawmakers additional tie its fingers.
However in a November speech to the Mississippi Public Well being Affiliation, Dr. Edney mentioned, “I would like to rent 150 nurses right this moment.” He added, “We want nurses and social employees and nearly each place you possibly can consider.”
A Fading Sense of Urgency
Many specialists hoped that the lack of 1.1 million folks in the US to Covid would power a reckoning over the nation’s public well being system.
“We’ve by no means actually stepped again and requested, ‘How can we make investments correctly in a sustainable method to verify our public well being system can reply in public well being emergencies?’” mentioned Dr. Julie Gerberding, who served as C.D.C. director underneath President George W. Bush.
The pandemic did produce some modifications. Excluding one-time infusions of funds, the C.D.C.’s finances has grown at a quicker price throughout the Biden administration than it did for the earlier decade.
Importantly, the C.D.C. reserved $3.2 billion in pandemic reduction funds for state and native companies to make use of in a extra versatile vogue. The cash, awarded in November, can be utilized over the subsequent 5 years for a wide range of important wants, together with extra employees.
However specialists say state and native companies want way more — $4.5 billion extra per 12 months simply to satisfy fundamental public well being wants, the Belief for America’s Well being says. The de Beaumont Basis estimates that these companies want to rent 80,000 extra employees.
In an interview, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C.’s director, mentioned the $3.2 billion program “is a terrific begin, however I feel the wants are a lot better than that.”
But the sense of urgency sparked by the pandemic is fading. The White Home requested Congress to extend the C.D.C.’s finances for the 2023 fiscal 12 months by 27 p.c, however lawmakers agreed to an increase of solely 9 p.c.
“I’m simply apprehensive now, even now, when persons are nonetheless affected by this pandemic, that they’re forgetting how dangerous it was, and the way it didn’t must be as dangerous because it was if we had extra capability,” mentioned Dr. Anne Schuchat, who retired because the C.D.C.’s principal deputy director in mid-2021.
Significantly alarming to well being specialists is the exodus of public well being employees. Many toiled to exhaustion throughout the pandemic. Some resigned after opponents of how the Covid battle was being waged threatened their security.
On the Mississippi well being division, 47 p.c of positions had been unfilled as of December — roughly twice the prepandemic emptiness price, Dr. Dobbs mentioned.
“We’re simply approach, approach, approach worse off from a public well being preparedness perspective than we had been earlier than,” he mentioned.
Kitty Bennett and Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.
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Mississippi
Arizona State eyes first win against an SEC opponent vs. Mississippi State
Mississippi State at Arizona State, Saturday, 10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
BetMGM College Football Odds: Arizona State by 6 1/2.
Series record: First meeting.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
Arizona State and Mississippi State both had dominant wins in the season-opening weekend and now have a tougher challenge when they face each other on Saturday night. The Sun Devils are trying to build off an impressive 48-7 win over Wyoming and prove they might be a factor in the Big 12 race. Arizona State has never beaten an SEC opponent. Mississippi State plays its second game under new coach Jeff Lebby. The Bulldogs beat Eastern Kentucky 56-7 in their season opener..
KEY MATCHUP
Mississippi State QB Blake Shapen vs. the Arizona State defense. The Sun Devils scored a touchdown on the second play of their opener when Zyrus Fiaseu picked off a pass and returned it to the end zone. It was one of two interceptions on the day for Arizona State. Shapen had a great debut against Eastern Kentucky but will face a much tougher defense on Saturday.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Mississippi State: Shapen had a terrific first game with the Bulldogs, throwing for 247 yards and three touchdowns while also running for 44 yards and a TD against Eastern Kentucky. The 6-foot-1 senior played the previous three college seasons at Baylor with mixed success. Shapen has thrown a TD pass in 12 consecutive games dating to this time at Baylor in 2022.
Arizona State: RB Cam Skattebo led a balanced rushing attack against Wyoming, gaining 49 yards and scoring a touchdown. Skattebo was a do-it-all player for Arizona State last year, spending time at quarterback, running back and receiver. The Sun Devils might not need him to be as versatile this season, but he’s still a threat from just about anywhere on the field.
FACTS & FIGURES
Mississippi State had six different players score touchdowns against Eastern Kentucky. … The Bulldogs’ 93.7 passing grade in the opener was the second-best mark in all of the FBS, trailing only Purdue, according to Pro Football Focus. … Mississippi State’s Kevin Coleman Jr. returned five punts for 117 yards last week. … Arizona State was credited with just two missed tackles on defense in the opener, tied for the third-lowest tally among FBS schools. … Skattebo is 270 rushing yards away from reaching 3,000 in his career. He is 342 all-purpose yards away from reaching 4,000 and 202 receiving yards away from reaching 1,000.
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Mississippi
How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff
![How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff How Mississippi State football is preparing for Arizona State weather, late kickoff](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/03/PNAS/75060541007-usatsi-24129028.jpg?auto=webp&crop=5472,3078,x0,y0&format=pjpg&width=1200)
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football is preparing to play a team that, at least through one game, looks vastly improved from last season.
Coach Jeff Lebby admitted on Monday, and Bulldog players have noticed it too after Arizona State (1-0) thumped Wyoming 48-7 in its opener.
MSU (1-0) must also factor in the late kickoff that is scheduled Saturday (9:30 p.m. CT, ESPN) at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Mississippi is hot, but so is Arizona — a different kind of hot, too.
Modifications and remedies are being made, such as the team leaving Starkville on Thursday instead of how it normally would on a Friday for a Saturday game.
“For our guys, just knowing exactly what we are getting into,” Lebby said. “We continue to talk about that through yesterday and this morning and (are) having those conversations to understand what it’s going to look like late in the week. We got to do a great job from a preparation standpoint of how we are hydrating, how we are eating and how we are resting to give us the ability to go on the road on this flight and be able to be at our best Saturday night.”
Just this week, Phoenix broke a record with its 100th straight day of 100-degree temperatures. According to AccuWeather, the high on Saturday in Tempe will be 107 degrees with a low of 86. The temperature should dip to around 91 near kickoff with a humidity of 24%.
“Coach Lebby has already been harping on that,” tight end Justin Ball said. “We’ve already been hydrating and making sure we are getting rest every single day. We leave on Thursday, so we already talked about the plan to make sure we are hydrating the entire plane ride there, making sure when we get there we get acclimated as quickly as you can and just staying together. Making sure we’re focused, make sure we keep the goal first and then execute the game plan.”
MORE: Jeff Lebby says Mississippi State football didn’t put on a good enough show. Here’s how he’s wrong
Mississippi State played well the last time it played in Arizona
The Bulldogs played Arizona in Tucson two seasons ago. They squandered a pedestrian Wildcats team 39-17. Kickoff for that game was at 8 p.m. PST though the temperature was 84 degrees at game time.
Not many players remain on Mississippi State’s roster from that 2022 season. But the ones who are, like linebacker Nic Mitchell, can benefit from the experience and also share it with teammates.
“We know it’s going to be a long flight, so we know we got to be hydrated,” Mitchell said. “It gives people experience that have done it before and they can tell the young guys how it’s going to be in the flight, how you got to hydrate and stuff like that.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
Mississippi
Playing for Mississippi State not an option for Arizona State back Kyson ‘Sipp’ Brown
Arizona State forces 3 turnovers in win over Wyoming to start 2024
All offseason, coach Kenny Dillingham preached getting turnovers. Forty seconds into the season’s first game, the defense produced its first one.
Sophomore running back Kyson Brown is one of the faster players on the Arizona State football team. But Brown seems to have a little more pep in his step this week. Why? Well, the Sun Devils (1-0) are set to take on Mississippi State (1-0) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium.
Sure an SEC opponent is enough to get any athlete fired up. But the 6-foot, 200-pounder hails from Tupelo, Mississippi, which is where he got his nickname, Sipp. Tupelo is 67 miles north of the Mississippi State campus in Starkville that Sipp has visited a handful of times.
“I have family, growing up they were all Mississipp State fans and some Ole Miss fans,” he said. “Some of my family are debating whether they want to cheer for me or not. It’s going to be good. A lot of hometown friends. Got a couple guys I went to high school with there. It’s going to be good seeing those guys and hopefully, we compete at a good level and get the W.”
Brown, a mechanical engineering major, is enrolled in ASU’s Barret honors program, He emerged as one of the team’s most improved players. He saw some time on special teams as a true freshman in 2023 and has set himself up for a bigger role, although the ASU backfield has a lot of depth.
In the last week’s 48-7 win over Wyoming, Brown pitched in with six rushing attempts for 25 yards and two receptions for 73 yards. His 68-yard touchdown reception was the longest play from scrimmage that ASU had on the night.
“It felt amazing just to get back in the end zone again,” Brown said. “You come out of high school, you know I’m used to being in the end zone every game, all the time. That play, I knew — once I made the first guy miss — I knew I wasn’t going to let anybody catch me.”
Brown lived in Mississippi until moving to Lancaster, Texas, outside of Dallas, after his sophomore year of high school. He sat out junior year after the transfer. As a senior he averaged 9.5 yards per carry, finishing with 707 yards and 11 touchdowns on 74 carries while adding 14 receptions for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
Sitting out his junior year hurt his recruiting, but he still had notable offers from Purdue, Missouri and Houston. The balance of his options were lower-profile schools. Mississippi State didn’t offer.
He is happy with the end result. A place on the ASU football roster. In the offseason, he worked on his agility, flexibility and catching the ball, which was evident in his recent scoring play.
“We all have the big-play potential,” he said of his fellow running backs. “I feel my role is to make plays, wherever they put me be able to perform.”
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