The late Rep. Barbara Cooper of Memphis gets vaccinated against COVID-19 in February 2021. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
The former leader of Shelby County’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout has lost a legal bid to declare she was wrongly blamed for allowing hundreds of doses to expire during the pandemic.
Judy Martin, Shelby County’s former chief of nursing and immunizations, lost her job amid public fallout over the lost doses in early 2022.
Martin had reported 1,000 expired doses she discovered during an inventory. With even more doses set to go bad, she loaded hundreds of vaccines into her car to take to a local prison. But a snowstorm in Memphis scuttled those plans. She left 700 doses in the car and told nobody, legal filings said.
When news broke that Shelby County had allowed even more doses to expire than initially reported, Martin retired in order to avoid being fired.
“I learned that the information regarding the level of vaccine that expired in Shelby County was not accurate,” Mayor Lee Harris soon tweeted. “We have terminated the site manager who managed the relationship with the pharmacy and allegedly provided the initial false information.”
Martin sued the county alleging the tweet was defamatory and asserted her right to a “name-clearing hearing.” A federal court in Memphis dismissed those claims, siding with the county.
On Tuesday the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals again sided with the county in a ruling that concluded Martin had not suffered any harm from the mayor’s tweet. The ruling noted Martin had received community support amid the controversy, the nursing board took no disciplinary action against her and that she was able to land quickly in another job.
“Getting fired is unpleasant,” the ruling said. “And having that termination broadcast is even more so. But the Constitution of the United States says little about lost jobs and nothing about this one.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
The State of Tennessee spent $11 million on messaging before firing Dr. Michelle Fiscus for spreading the message approved by Gov. Lee’s office. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Tennessee’s ex-vaccine chief settled with the state for $150,000 in her name-clearing lawsuit.
Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the former medical director of the state’s Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and Immunization Program, filed the suit shortly after her firing in July 2021, which came as state health officials rolled out a campaign to get more people vaccinated against the coronavirus.
She claimed health department officials unfairly disparaged her by releasing her personnel file and a termination memo that falsely claimed she committed improper behavior in her state position.
Fiscus initially sought a name-clearing hearing, but instead took a settlement.
State health department officials dismissed Fiscus after she circulated a memo to health care providers saying they were allowed to give vaccines to adolescents without their parent’s permission, referred to as the “mature minor doctrine.”
The memo was published during the state’s rollout of a campaign to get more people vaccinated for COVID-19. The campaign was supposed to include outreach to teenagers, but state Republican lawmakers complained and raised concerns about Fiscus’ memo.
The state stopped promoting vaccinations after Fiscus’ firing.
In a termination memo released to the public, officials indicted they fired Fiscus because she had improperly directed state funding to a nonprofit she created and circulated the mature minor document without permission from her bosses.
But the nonprofit was similar to those already operating in other states and did not include Fiscus on its board or payroll. Fiscus’ bosses previously praised her for taking the initiative to create it, according to court filings. Court filings also showed that a health department lawyer in senior leadership helped Fiscus create the mature minor memo.
After her firing, Fiscus and her family were subject to a slew of angry social media posts, emails and death threats. She has since moved from Tennessee.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
When Jairia Cathey switched from teaching elementary school to pre-kindergarten more than a decade ago, it was a tough adjustment. Some students didn’t know how to hold a pencil or a fork, she recalled. Some didn’t know their parents’ names, or even their own. And some didn’t know how to color.
“I was like ‘what did I get myself into?’” Cathey said. “I thought every child knew how to color.”
But those challenges didn’t come close to what she would experience trying to educate and engage with 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds during the depths of Covid-19 pandemic — or what it would take to try to get them caught up in the aftermath.
When schools closed abruptly in 2020, derailing education for students across Memphis and the country, Cathey, a teacher at Evans Elementary, scrambled to provide virtual learning any way she could think of. She sent parents pictures of worksheets and activities from her classroom. She searched Pinterest for other learning materials. At a certain point, she set up times to visit each of her students at their home, with a face mask on.
“I just had to lay eyes on them, and I know they had to lay eyes on me,” Cathey said. “Even if it was just giving them a pencil or a coloring book or just a hug, I had to do it.”
Plummeting enrollment in MSCS early childhood programs during the pandemic left just a handful of students in her class. When classrooms reopened in the spring, the families of Cathey’s four students decided to keep them learning remotely. And by the time students returned to her classroom after 18 months of distance learning, the few students who came arrived with a severely disrupted preschool experience or having attended no school at all, at risk of falling behind academically, socially, and emotionally.
Now Cathey and co-teacher Lisa Patterson are part of a mobilization across Memphis-Shelby County Schools to get early childhood learning in the district back on track. The effort is focused on the classroom, but it’s also counting on community groups, advertising, family engagement specialists, and multiple offices within district headquarters, with the goal of getting more students enrolled in early childhood programs and making sure they are kindergarten-ready.
The task is daunting. After bottoming out at 4,430 in 2020-21, enrollment in MSCS’ pre-K programs has ticked back up to 4,776 this year. But it’s still far below pre-pandemic levels of above 6,000.
Meanwhile, just 32 percent of students starting kindergarten last school year were considered ready overall, as measured by early reading and math assessments. That’s down from 40 percent in 2020-21, and 46 percent before the pandemic.
A 2020 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children who are not adequately prepared for kindergarten are more likely to struggle for the rest of their academic career — in later elementary school, high school, and beyond.
“I’ve seen the results of when we get it wrong,” said Divalyn Gordon, a former kindergarten and first grade teacher who has also worked at alternative high schools and now heads MSCS’ early childhood office.
“Those students later drop out of school … they’re making tally marks and counting on their fingers because they don’t know any multiplication facts. They can’t read to learn or comprehend. Those foundational skills are vital for student success as they matriculate through high school,” Gordon said. “That’s why I push so hard for pre-K. We’ve got to get this right.”
District officials have made early childhood education a centerpiece of their strategy to improve the district’s academic performance and recover from the pandemic. Test score data helps explain the emphasis.
The April data shows that even amid steep declines in kindergarten readiness across the district, students who attended MSCS pre-K scored significantly higher in reading, math, and overall readiness compared with those who did not attend.
The same was true for students who are considered economically disadvantaged. And their higher performance followed them into third grade. Students from low-income families who attended a district pre-K program were slightly more likely to be proficient in English and language arts in third grade than those who did not participate in the program, according to the report.
The third-grade performance is critical, because a new state law that takes effect this year requires schools to hold back third-graders who aren’t considered proficient in reading. The law has added pressure on districts to intervene early.
MSCS prioritizes students who come from economically disadvantaged households for pre-K enrollment. But interest in the program dropped off dramatically after Covid hit and instruction went online. And persistent concerns about Covid led many parents to decide it was safer to keep their child at home than to send them to an optional program.
Because of that, Cathey said she is getting her students later, and they’re far behind — academically and otherwise. She has had to adjust her instruction accordingly.
Small group instruction has always been a critical piece of early childhood education, but given the delayed progress for some students, it’s more important than ever, Gordon said.
Gordon pointed to Cathey’s classroom as an example: Cathey’s 19 students were divided into four groups based on their skill levels, but named for different colors. On that December morning, Cathey and her co-teacher Patterson circulated through the room, giving individualized attention and instruction to students in each group, depending on what they were working on and what they needed.
At one point, Cathey sat cross-legged on the floor next to one girl, and they talked about a book she was paging through. In another corner of the room, Patterson helped two students completing a spelling puzzle.
“You have to make those real-life adjustments when students don’t get it or don’t have the necessary foundation,” Gordon said.
And if teachers don’t, she said, “those kids fall through the cracks.”
With pre-K enrollment across MSCS recovering slowly, Gordon said, the district is laser-focused on attracting more students to the program.
The district continues to work with the Salvation Army Purdue Residential Facility, a Memphis homeless shelter for women, and the Shelby County Division of Corrections to identify and enroll pre-K-age students who could particularly benefit from early academic intervention, Gordon said.
MSCS has also beefed up its advertising efforts, from billboards to social media ads, Gordon said. “The journey begins with pre-K,” the ads on Facebook and elsewhere in the community usually say. “Get your future scholar started early on their academic journey.”
Meanwhile, it has expanded its family engagement team to a staff of over 100 specialists who are charged with encouraging families who begin the online application process to finish it.
Family engagement specialists also help parents find another location if the school they requested is no longer available. Sometimes that means connecting families with other early childhood education providers in the community, Gordon said.
To ensure quality — the bigger challenge in Memphis, which does not have an acute shortage of child care services — the district requires those providers to follow the same bid process it uses for other services, and beginning this year, administrators visit the campus in person to confirm that best practices are being used in classrooms.
It’s part of a broader district effort, outlined in February by then-Superintendent Joris Ray, to increase community-wide collaboration in early childhood education.
The district has two representatives — Gordon and Angela Whitelaw, the district’s deputy superintendent of schools and academic support — in a community consortium dedicated to improving early literacy. The consortium includes prominent early childhood organizations and child care providers from across Memphis, including the Urban Child Institute, Porter-Leath, Literacy Mid-South, First 8, Next Memphis, and the Hyde Family Foundation, among others.
Since early childhood became a top priority for the entire district, collaboration with other departments across the massive district has also improved, said Detris Crane, director of MSCS Head Start programming.
“The district has realized that these pre-K families are the same ones who come in for K-12, and that the earlier we intervene, the more we can improve outcomes for both children and their families,” Crane said. “I collaborate with everybody in the district now, in every department.
“I used to be on a little island,” Crane said. “Now we’re on the mainland.”
Beyond the academic fallout, trauma related to Covid and poverty continues to loom large among MSCS students and families, several MSCS teachers said.
Ida Walker, a pre-K teacher at Douglass Head Start in northeast Memphis, said the social and emotional tolls of the pandemic have been the most noticeable among her students.
Many of them “have something going on at home,” said Walker, who’s been a Head Start teacher since 2018. Some lost family members or caregivers in the pandemic. Others’ families have yet to recover from the deep economic consequences of Covid.
Pre-literacy skills remain a large focus in Walker’s classroom. As she read aloud to one small group of students, her co-teacher Tequila Lockett helped two other groups of students draw koala bears as part of the class’ two focuses that week, the letter K and “awesome animals.”
But so are students’ social and emotional needs. Walker has rearranged her classroom to create a “cozy corner” where her students can take time away from whatever they’re doing to regulate their emotions and seek support from Walker or her co-teacher throughout the day.
Walker hopes her students learn how to express and process their feelings. If their social and emotional needs are met now, the rest will come later, Walker said.
“They pick it up fast,” she said with a smile.
Cathey takes a similar approach in her classroom — what she hopes is a “safe haven” from whatever children are dealing with at home. Beyond teaching them early literacy and math skills, she strives to build relationships with students and their families and ensure their social and emotional needs are met.
Cathey and Patterson also try to model caring for one another to their students, so that even if one of them isn’t nearby when a child is struggling, their classmates know to step in. Now, if a student falls or looks sad, Cathey said, their peers are quick to ask, “Are you OK? Can I help you?”
“It is a joy seeing students come in at the beginning of the year, complete blank slates. We introduce literacy. We promote language, math skills, teach them how to take care of themselves, and take care of others,” Cathey said. “When they leave, they’re writing sentences, they’re making words, they’re adding and subtracting, They learn how to work out their feelings, and it’s just so amazing to see them so independent.”
“It’s just so rewarding,” Cathey added. “We’re getting them ready for the rest of their lives.”
This story is the third and final installment of a Chalkbeat Tennessee deep dive into the role early childhood education can play in improving literacy in Memphis and across the Volunteer State. This effort is supported by the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program. Check out the first and second stories of the series.
Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
2021 was twice as deadly as 2020 for Covid-19 in Shelby County. In 2020, 903 died of Covid here. In 2021, 1,807 passed from the virus.
A consent decree forced Horn Lake leaders to approve the construction of a new mosque.
Family members wanted $20 million from the city of Memphis; Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW); and the Memphis Police Department (MPD) for the 2020 beating death of a man by an MLGW employee.
New DNA testing was requested in the West Memphis Three case for recently rediscovered evidence once claimed to be lost or burned.
February
An ice storm knocked out power to nearly 140,000 MLGW customers.
The new concourse — in the works since 2014 — opened at Memphis International Airport.
Paving on Peabody Avenue began after the project was approved in 2018.
Protect Our Aquifer teamed up with NASA for aquifer research.
A prosecutor moved to block DNA testing in the West Memphis Three case.
March
A bill before the Tennessee General Assembly would have banned the sale of hemp-derived products, like Delta-8 gummies, in the state. It ultimately provided regulation for the industry.
The project to fix the interchange at Crump Ave. and I-55 resurfaced. Bids on the project, which could cost up to $184.9 million, were returned. Work did not begin in 2022 but when it does, it could close the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (the Old Bridge) for two weeks.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee temporarily cut sales taxes on groceries.
April
The Mississippi River ranked as one of the most endangered rivers in America in a report from the American Rivers group.
Critics lambasted decisions by Memphis in May and Africa in April to honor Ghana and Malawi, both of which outlaw basic LGBTQ+ rights.
The federal government announced a plan to possibly ban menthol cigarettes.
Lawmakers approved Gov. Lee’s plan to update the state’s 30-year-old education funding plan.
Tom Lee Park (Photo: Memphis River Parks Partnership)
May
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi prepared for the likely overturn of the Roe v. Wade decision, ending legal abortions in the state.
The Greater Memphis Chamber pressed for a third bridge to be built here over the Mississippi River.
Cooper-Young landlords sued to evict the owners of Heaux House for “specializing in pornographic images.”
The Memphis City Council wanted another review of Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) plan to remove coal ash from the shuttered Allen Fossil Plant.
June
New research showed Memphis-area women earned 83 percent of their male counterparts income in the workplace from 2000-2019.
Gov. Lee ordered schools to double down on existing security measures in the wake of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
MPD arrested four drivers in an operation it called Infiniti War Car Take-Over.
A key piece of the Tom Lee Park renovation project won a $3.7 million federal grant, which was expected to trigger nearly $9 million in additional funds.
Tennessee Republican attorney general fought to keep gender identity discrimination in government food programs.
Jim Dean stepped down as president and CEO of the Memphis Zoo and was replaced by Matt Thompson, then the zoo’s executive director and vice president.
Locals reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
July
Memphian Brett Healey took the stage at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Eating Contest.
One Beale developers returned to Memphis City Hall for the fourth time asking for financial support of its luxury hotel plans.
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) board placed Superintendent Joris Ray on paid leave as they investigated whether he violated district policies with relationships with co-workers and abused his power.
The project to forever eliminate parking on the Overton Park Greensward got $3 million in federal funding.
Tennessee’s attorney general celebrated a win after a federal judge blocked a move that would have allowed trans kids to play sports on a team of their gender.
Tennessee’s top Pornhub search was “interracial” in 2021, according to the site.
August
A panel of Tennessee judges did not give a new trial to Barry Jamal Martin, a Black man convicted in a Pulaski jury room decked out in Confederate portraits, flags, and memorabilia.
Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert caught flak from the Tennessee Comptroller after traveling to Jamaica while her offices were closed to catch up on the controversial backlog of license plate requests from citizens.
MSCS superintendent Joris Ray resigned with a severance package worth about $480,000. Finance chief Toni Williams was named interim superintendent.
Officials said the Memphis tourism sector had made a “full recovery” from the pandemic.
A new bail system unveiled here was touted by advocates to be “one of the fairest in the nation.”
Eliza Fletcher (Photo: Memphis Police Department)
September
Memphis kindergarten teacher Eliza Fletcher was abducted and murdered while on an early-morning run. Cleotha Abston, out of jail early on previous abduction charges, was arrested for the crimes.
MLGW’s board continues to mull the years-long decision to, possibly, find a new power provider.
Ezekiel Kelly, 19, was arrested on charges stemming from an alleged, hours-long shooting rampage across Memphis that ended with four dead and three injured.
A Drag March was planned for the “horrible mishandling” of a drag event at MoSH. Event organizers canceled the show there after a group of Proud Boys arrived armed to protest the event.
October
Workers at four Memphis restaurants, including Earnestine & Hazel’s, sued the owners to recover alleged unpaid minimum wage and overtime.
Shelby County was largely unfazed by an outbreak of monkeypox with only about 70 infected here as of October.
Animal welfare advocates called a University of Memphis research lab “the worst in America” after a site visit revealed it violated numerous federal protocols concerning the care of test animals.
While other states have outlawed the practice, Tennessee allows medical professionals and medical students to — without any kind of permission — stick their fingers and instruments inside a woman’s vagina and rectum while she is under anesthesia.
Joshua Smith, a co-defendant in the election finance case against former state Sen. Brian Kelsey, pleaded guilty in court.
The Environmental Protection Agency told South Memphis residents little could be done to protect them from toxic emissions from the nearby Sterilization Services facility.
West Tennessee farmers struggled to get crops to market because of the record-low level of the Mississippi River.
November
Groups asked state officials for a special investigator to review the “very real failures that led to [Eliza] Fletcher’s tragic murder.”
A group wanted state officials to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park.
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional.
A plan to forever end parking on the Overton Park Greensward was finalized by city leaders, the Memphis Zoo, and the Overton Park Conservancy.
December
The Commercial Appeal dodged layoffs in the latest round of news staff reductions by Gannett.
Federal clean-energy investments will further ingrain Tennessee in the Battery Belt and help develop a Southeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (H2Hubs).
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee criticized Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (MLH) for canceling gender affirmation surgery for a 19-year-old patient.
State and local officials investigated an alleged milk spill into Lick Creek.
MLGW rejected Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 20-year rolling contract but will continue to be a TVA customer “for the foreseeable future.”
Former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s law license was suspended after he pled guilty to two felonies related to campaign finance laws last month.
Visit the News Blog at memphisflyer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.
Tennessee Republicans are continuing the fight against vaccine mandates, especially for healthcare workers and those in the military.
Covid vaccine mandates began to roll out in September 2021, the first for federal contractors. A mandate came a month later for healthcare workers at facilities participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs. Another mandate came in November 2021 for Head Start employees and for employees of private-sector companies.
Lawsuits for each of these moves began almost as soon as they were announced. Tennessee GOP leaders either joined the fight or led the way on them all, citing “constitutional concerns about these mandates.” Some of the lawsuits prevailed, removing mandates for private employees and Head Start workers. But the GOP continues to remind about and fight the mandates, even though they are a thing of the past for most.
This week Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a coalition of 21 states to request that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) repeal the “unlawful federal vaccine mandate“ for healthcare workers.
“Evidence continues to mount that the ongoing mandate is an unprecedented overreach of the federal government and has exacerbated shortages of healthcare workers in Tennessee and other states,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “This office will relentlessly protect Tennesseans from federal overreach.”
Skrmetti accused CMS of using the spread of the Delta variant of the Covid virus “to sidestep both notice-and-comment rulemaking” and obligations to consult with state agencies on the “unprecedented” vaccine requirement for healthcare workers. He said CMS has still not consulted the state about the situation after nearly a year.
He said the mandate now “only serves to exacerbate the shortage of healthcare workers and put vulnerable Tennesseans at risk.” Further, the mandates encroached on states’ “traditional police power” without authorization from Congress and “exceeded its authority.”
Tennessee is joined in the request with attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) threw heat at the Biden Administration over military vaccine mandates and slipping in a catchphrase from television game show host Donald Trump.
“President [Joe] Biden said it himself: the pandemic is over,” Blackburn said in a statement Monday. “So, why is his Department of Defense (DOD) willing to look at the brave men and women who volunteered to serve our nation and say ‘you’re fired’ all because they chose not to get the Covid shot?”
Blackburn said U.S. military recruitment “has reached an all time low.” Every branch of the military has struggled to meet its recruitment goals, she said, and is facing a troop deficit of 21,000 next year. Blackburn said the National Guard will be down by about 12,000 recruits next year and expects to discharge up for 14,000 by 2024 for refusing the Covid shot.
Blackburn warned that the U.S. is depleting its armed forces, especially with a vaccine mandate that she called a “shameful waste of talented manpower,” while a “New Axis of Evil” — China, Russia, and North Korea — “grows bolder by the day.”
“Now is not the time to drag our service members into a political battle,” Blackburn said. “Now is the time to bolster our national defense. The New Axis of Evil is threatening the safety and security of the United States and our freedom-loving partners across the globe, and our military must remain ready to respond.”
Grecian Gourmet Taverna will close its doors on South Main in November, citing customer bases that have not yet rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Greek restaurant announced the move on Facebook Tuesday morning, calling it a “very difficult decision.”
“We’ve worked so hard to build back, but we had to [take] stock of our life and time spent in the restaurant…
Grecian Gourmet
”Covid was hard on all of us, but especially the small businesses that survive on local business lunch and tourism, neither of which have yet rebounded to pre-pandemic numbers — and we’re tired,” reads the post. “We’ve worked so hard to build back, but we had to [take] stock of our life and time spent in the restaurant, and decided it’s time to focus on how we started — and make it even better.”
The restaurant began in 2017 in the Memphis Farmers Market. The owners signed a lease for the South Main restaurant space in December of that year.
The restaurant will be reborn as “Grecian Gourmet Kitchen” and focus on retail and catering from a new space in East Memphis.
The restaurant’s last open day downtown will be Wednesday, November 23rd.
Face masks are no longer required in vehicles or on properties from the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA).
The move follows federal court action Monday that struck down the mask mandate for public transportation issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Also, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it would no longer enforce the mandate after the federal court decision.
“This means that passengers and MATA employees will no longer be required to wear a mask on vehicles and transit properties,” the agency said in a statement issued Tuesday.
However, MATA said it was unclear whether or not the U.S. Department of Justice will appeal the decision, and it will monitor the situation. Masks are still welcome on MATA vehicles and in its facilities and “anyone needing or choosing to wear one is encouraged to do so.”
No new Covid cases were reported to the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) Tuesday. The last day no new cases were reported was March 12, 2020. That was two years, three weeks, and three days ago.
But the figure does not mean Covid is gone in Shelby County. The seven-day rolling average of new cases was 31 Tuesday, and 14 new cases were reported on Monday.
Credit: Shelby County Health Department
However, nearly all Covid metrics have been trending down here for awhile now. For example, the test positivity rate — the average number of all positive Covid tests reported to the health department — was .6 percent last week. That figure was at a record-high 45.5 percent in December, at the height of the Omicron surge.
Credit: Shelby County Health Department
Chip Washington, the health department’s public information officer for the Covid-19 Response Team said “there could be any number of factors” for the zero new cases reported Tuesday. He said the figure could be because of a lower number of people being tested, people doing at-home tests and not reporting to the SCHD, increased vaccinations, and more.
As of Tuesday, only 230 people were reported to the SCHD to have Covid; 43 of those were pediatric cases.
As of Tuesday, 3,251 people had died of Covid since March 2020.
Last supper? (l-r) Jesse Davis, Sydnie Hammer, and Donna and Pete Prunkl in early March 2020 (Courtesy Jesse Davis
Two years and a week ago, I went to the Flyer’s Beer Bracket Challenge award ceremony at the Young Avenue Deli. It was an odd time, as the reports of Covid-19 on the news were creeping closer and closer to home. People weren’t quite sure how to act. Some of us shook hands, while some people opted for a more sanitary fist bump or even just waving at each other. Our film editor’s wife had to keep reminding him not to touch his face.
It was the beginning of a working vacation for me. No, I don’t mean the time I spent working from home. I had planned to take a week to go visit family in North Carolina and, while there, interview barbecue pitmasters for a cover story for Memphis magazine. Again, no one was quite sure how to act. Some people shook my hand; some didn’t. But I ate a lot of great barbecue, had many interesting conversations about the history of different regional variations, and occasionally worried about this strange new disease everyone was talking about.
After the North Carolina portion of the trip, my fiancée and I stopped in Martin, Tennessee, where my sister and brother-in-law lived at the time. My mother was in town from Arizona. We were worried about her being in a full airplane, of course, but we weren’t sure just how worried we should be. And she had already bought the tickets — months ago, in fact. So we stayed home or went to the park.
With each day, the situation became more dire, until my work email started blowing up. We would be working from home. Everyone should come to the office, pick up their computers, and take ’em somewhere isolated and with internet. The Flyer’s then-editor Bruce VanWyngarden joked, “See you in June,” thinking we’d be home for two weeks, tops.
When I left Memphis for nine days of barbecue “research” and visiting family, Covid felt like something I should be vaguely concerned about. By the time I returned, the World Health Organization had declared Covid a worldwide pandemic. The Flyer offices were a ghost town when I ventured there to retrieve my computer. It felt somehow wrong. Newsrooms, even ones as small as ours, are loud and no little bit chaotic. It was just me, the humming of fluorescent lights, and the accumulated dust, made obvious by the hastily packed-up computers and personal possessions.
We all have our own stories. For most of the world, the first few weeks or months of the pandemic were truly individual experiences. The guidelines seemed to change so quickly, at the mercy of rapidly progressing research into a new virus and the whims of an unprepared supply chain. We worried about our loved ones. We worried about the state of the nation. We worked, and our professions gave us a degree of safety — or they put us in harm’s way. I’ve worked as a cook, a dishwasher, a package handler — I can imagine what it must have been like to be on the job as one of those people in March and April 2020. Let alone a nurse, doctor, or other healthcare professional. Or a grocery store worker.
Then, it seemed at least that we settled into a pattern of waiting. There were portions of the pandemic that seemed distinct from others — the Tiger King binges, the bread-baking, the long walks outside. Even if you weren’t binging or baking (I wasn’t), you couldn’t help hearing about it.
So much has changed, now, two years after the pandemic was officially declared. Frankly, I don’t think things will ever be as they were before. In the U.S. alone, 964,000 people have died from Covid. Globally, that number is more than 6 million.
We have lost people we’ll never get back, an incalculable loss. But the rest of us have to carry on, and forge some kind of equilibrium, a “normal.” It will just look a little different; it will take time. People have lost loved ones, friends, businesses. Young people have lost out on formative experiences. But I hope that we have gained things as well, though it will likely take just as much time to find perspective, to help us realize just what they may be. I hope that, in some aspect, virtual meetings will stick around. I hope we will be more aware of others’ health, of the need for inclusivity — of what we lose without it.
More than anything, I hope we can be patient with each other as we try to emerge from this pandemic hole. And that we refuse to leave anyone behind.
Data suggest the Omicron wave is receding in Shelby County.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases reported by the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) has fallen by 480 in the last week. That figure was 2,321 last Wednesday, January 12th. The figure reported this morning (Wednesday, January 19th) was 1,841. This means the county is averaging hundreds of fewer Covid cases almost every day.
Credit: Shelby County Health Department
Data show a quick fall in new cases based on the day their samples were collected. New Covid cases based on samples taken on New Year’s Day show a pandemic-record high of 2,625.
Credit: Shelby County Health Department
The number fell to 2,613 on the next day and has continued to fall (with some slight increases) to 1,813 new cases recorded last Wednesday, according to the latest data from the health department.
The average rates of new positive tests are falling, too. More than 43 percent of all tests given in Shelby County the last week of December 2021 resulted in a positive Covid case, a pandemic record. That number fell in the first week of January to about 36 percent, according to the latest data from the SCHD.
