Tag: COVID-19 vaccine

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News Blog News Feature

Data: Wolfchase Has Most Active Covid Cases, Germantown Most Vaccinated

Credit: Shelby County Health Department

Over the last two weeks, Wolfchase has had the most active Covid-19 cases; the area around Mike Rose Soccer Complex has had the most tests, and Germantown is Shelby County’s most vaccinated city. 

All of this is according to geographic data from the Shelby County Health Department. The data are updated each week and are meant to give rough estimates of the Covid-19 situation here.   

Credit: Shelby County Health Department, as of Tuesday, October 12th

Covid-19 numbers continue to fall in Shelby County, passing Delta-surge milestones on the way down. The seven-day rolling average for new cases fell below 200 this week after a surge high of more than 800. The number was 186 Monday. The number of new daily cases was 94 Tuesday, the first time the figure has been below 100 in many weeks. 

As of Tuesday morning, the health department was aware of 2,299 active cases of the virus in Shelby County. Of those, 666 were in children aged 0-17. 

Credit: Shelby County Health Department

Children (0-17) had the most active cases per capita than any group in Shelby County, according to the data, at 371 per capita. The 35-44 age range had the second highest active cases here at 369 per capita. 

Credit: Shelby County Health Department

More tests have been given in the 38125 ZIP Code in the last two weeks (see above) than anywhere else in Memphis, according to health department data. The area is just west of Collierville and is roughly bordered by the Mike Rose Soccer Complex, Wyndyke Country Club, Riverdale Road, and the Tennessee/Mississippi border. 

In that ZIP Code, 7,456 Covid tests have been given per capita in the last two weeks. The area is followed closely in testing numbers by 38103 (Downtown), 38104 (Midtown), and 38105 (North Downtown and the Pinch District) combined. There, 7,059 Covid tests have been given per capita in the last two weeks. 

Credit: Shelby County Health Department

Over the last two weeks, active Covid cases have been more prevalent in the northern part of the county (see above), in North Memphis, Millington, Arlington, and more. However, the Wolfchase area (38133) is the hottest spot on the map with 382 active cases. Orange Mound (38114) has had the fewest active cases in the last two weeks with 122 cases reported there. 

Credit: Shelby County Health Department

Germantown is the vaccination champion of Shelby County (see above), the data show. The vaccine rate for 38139 and 38138 since shots have been available is 74,864.1 per 100,000 people. The city has just barely out-vaccinated residents of East Memphis, though. There, (in 38117) 67,9111 residents per 100,000 have been vaccinated. Ranking third, is Collierville with 67,018 residents per 100,000 being vaccinated.  

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Vax It or Tax It

Photo: Debra Millet | Dreamstime.com

For a time when I was younger my mother, sister, and I lived with my Uncle Frank and Aunt Patty in Arizona. Frank was a manager at a Walgreens and worked long hours, so we didn’t really see him too often. But on the odd occasion when we would all go somewhere in his van, he had a little catchphrase he liked to drop on us.

“Click it or ticket,” he would say. Inevitably, this prompt would be met with an eye roll from then-12-year-old me. I always buckled my seat belt. Always. But Uncle Frank’s son was an adult — already moved out, graduated, and employed — and Frank always seemed to view his sister-in-law’s offspring as perpetual toddlers. I get it. He was a few years away from retirement, with a grown kid and a house and a van he’d worked hard to pay off early, and any money he had managed to squirrel away was supposed to pay for time on the golf links, not go to a citation he got because his nephew couldn’t be bothered with wearing a seat belt. Why risk it? Better to remind us.

That phrase, though, comes from a campaign to encourage seat belt use. And if you think Tennesseans see themselves as rough-and-ready, rugged individualists, that Memphians embody the “you can’t tell me nothin’” ethos, boy howdy, let me introduce you to some Arizona wannabe cowboys. They’ll talk about the Wild West, about the showdown at the O.K. Corral, about how tough you have to be to survive in the unforgiving desert. In general, it is safe to say that these are not proponents of government regulations. But no one wants to pay a fee. As far as I know, my Uncle Frank harbors no strong ideals about seat belts one way or the other, but he wasn’t about to pay Maricopa County because of them.

That’s why I think President Joe Biden’s push to mandate vaccines (or weekly Covid tests) for businesses with more than 100 employees, as announced last week, is a good idea. Some people can only be motivated by tangible, predictable negative consequences. Sure, getting sick is a negative consequence, but it might not happen.

Right now, Tennessee leads all 50 states for cases of Covid-19 per capita. Last week, on September 10th, we reported the worst single day and worst week in new cases in the entire length of the still-ongoing pandemic (so far). The Volunteer State is averaging more than 6,800 cases a day, about 100 cases for every 100,000 people. “We’ve had the tools in our hands,” Dr. Diego Hijano, an infectious disease expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, told Flyer news editor Toby Sells in last week’s cover story. “But as we keep resisting vaccination and mitigation strategies, it will prolong the time.”

We have the tools to prevent this; they’re accessible. But we’re volunteering to be sick, to die, to put nurses and doctors and now teachers at risk. Not to mention anyone who has a heat stroke, car crash, heart attack, or any other accident or illness that necessitates immediate medical treatment. Sorry, folks, but the ER is full.

Of course, I recognize I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but it feels wrong somehow to see this information roll in, to have this platform, and to say nothing. There are certainly other things I’d like to write about. (Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ panel discussion last week in which he took swings at tax breaks for businesses, for starters. In Memphis, we’re flat-out addicted to PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes] deals, and it’s a habit we need to break. But being the most dangerous place in the U.S., when it comes to contracting Covid anyway, seems to be a more immediate priority.) With a great pick-up rate, there must also come great responsibility, as the old alt-weekly editor’s credo goes.

“Parents know better than the government what’s best for their children,” Governor Bill Lee tweeted last month. Governor Lee doesn’t believe the government should govern. The government isn’t a monolith though. There are different branches, different levels. The idea that it’s all one thing — all corrupt, all swamp — just absolves our leaders of the responsibility to provide for those they purport to govern. That’s why we need a federal mandate. Because the whims of a few here are putting all of us at risk, on so many levels. (Again, don’t do anything that might land you in the ER for the foreseeable future.)

So I’m all for a federal mandate, for an expensive ad campaign. You think people didn’t grumble about wearing their seat belts or stepping outside to light up a cigarette?

Click it or ticket, man. Vax it or tax it.

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News News Blog

We Have a Shot at Ending the Covid-19 Crisis. Let’s Get It Done.

(Credit: Daniel Schludi/Unsplash)

It is a difficult time to be a healthcare professional in the Mid-South. All of us have had to continuously change as we adapt to a different way of doing almost everything. The uncertainty spurred by the latest Covid-19 surge has created a stressful environment for most of us, and the distress of watching loved ones, friends, and neighbors get sick with the virus is something none of us want.

We are the leaders of Memphis’s top specialist clinics, including Gastro One, Medical Anesthesia Group, OrthoSouth, Semmes-Murphey Clinic, Stern Cardiovascular, West Cancer Center, McDonald Murrmann, Memphis Radiological, and Memphis OB/Gyn. For us, being trusted allies and advocates for patients is a core part of our missions.

In the same way our clinics deliver life-saving treatment and information to our patients on the operating table or in the office, we are urging our community members to protect themselves and to do their part in bringing this stage of the pandemic to a decisive end by getting vaccinated.

We certainly recognize the importance of individuals making informed choices about their care and treatment. However, our hospitals are filling up with patients infected with Covid-19, most of whom were never vaccinated. By getting the vaccine, you are protecting not only yourself but your family, co-workers, and the entire community. You are also helping to ensure that our healthcare facilities retain the capacity to care for patients who are seriously ill with other disorders.

We now know several facts about the vaccine. We know that it is very effective at preventing Covid-19. Although there can be minor side effects for some people such as chills, pain at the injection site, and headaches, overall the vaccine is a key factor, along with masking and social distancing, for controlling the spread of Covid-19.

Together, we urge you to roll up your sleeves for yourself, your family, your friends, and your loved ones. We encourage everyone to ask questions, to share worries, and to discuss doubts with their doctors or other trusted, reliable sources of information. This is how we will get our lives back and defeat Covid-19.

Let’s get it done, together.

Richard S. Aycock, MD, FACG  
Senior Vice President
Gastro One

Jordan Coffey, MD
President
Medical Anesthesia Group

Kevin T. Foley, MD, FACS 
Chairman
Semmes-Murphey Clinic

Steven Gubin, MD
President
Stern Cardiovascular

Sylvia Richey, MD
CMO
West Cancer Center

Aric Giddens, MD
President 
Memphis Ob/Gyn Association 

Mary McDonald, MD
Co-Founder
McDonald Murrmann Center for Wellness and Health

Hollis Halford, MD
President 
Memphis Radiological PC

Kenneth S. Weiss, MD 
Chairman
OrthoSouth

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News News Blog

Hospital ‘Bursting at Seams’ With Covid-19 Patients

Healthcare workers are “strained and stressed” as Covid-19 hospitalization numbers rise in Shelby County. 

That’s according to Kristen Bell, administrative director of nursing at Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital. Bell said usually summer is a time when there isn’t as much cold and virus activity, but Covid-19 hospitalizations here are peaking similar to winter numbers. 

A Methodist spokesperson said that as of Wednesday, 286 patients are hospitalized due to Covid-19 across its system here. That’s the highest number since the start of the pandemic. Of those patients, 73 are in the ICU. 

Bell said that Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital has needed to utilize its expansion department, its Covid-19 units are full, and the emergency department is “saturated.” Morale is down, according to Bell.

“It’s very much a capacity issue,” she said. “We are bursting at the seams. A bed isn’t clean for very long before we put someone else in it.”

Capacity isn’t the only concern, Bell said. The number of skilled workers able to provide specialized care to Covid-19 patients is also limited. 

“People aren’t coming to the hospital because they have a nose bleed or need stitches,” Bell said. “These people are really sick and need a higher level of care.”

Bell said in June she believed the worst part of the pandemic was over, with several days of single-digit Covid-19 hospitalizations. But a couple weeks after the Fourth of July, the numbers started to tick upward again. 

The only way to decrease the number of hospitalized cases is for more people to get vaccinated. The vast majority of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, Bell said. 

“A lot of our nurses are disappointed and frustrated that more people haven’t gotten vaccinated,” Bell said. “The vaccine is our secret weapon. It’s how we get out of this. Why would you not bring your weapon to battle?”

As healthcare workers, Bell said nurses want “nothing more than to heal people, but it’s very hard to heal people once they get this virus.” 

Mask Mandate

Emergency directors of Memphis hospital systems urged the city to reinstate a mask mandate in a letter Tuesday. 

The letter, read to the Memphis City Council by the city’s chief operating officer Doug McGowen, predicts a crisis for hospitals if Covid-19 cases continue to surge. 

The Covid-19 rate of hospitalizations is expected to double by the end of this month and increase six-fold by the end of September, McGowen said. 

“Failure to provide mitigation strategies at this point will be catastrophic to the Mid-South and will affect health care at every level,” the letter reads.

The Shelby County Commission voted Wednesday in favor of a new 30-day universal mask mandate and reinstituting six-foot social distancing indoors. 

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Brand-New Toy Yoda

Photo: Sonya Etchison | Dreamstime.com

When the COVID pandemic sent the Flyer staff home last year, we moved much of our work onto our Slack channels. The notes in the margins of printed-out pages, the style conversations that used to happen in the hallways all moved online. The jokes, too.

Which might help explain why someone posted a newspaper clipping about a woman who thought she had won a “brand-new Toyota” only to discover that she had, in fact, won a “toy Yoda.” You know, the little green Jedi master from Star Wars who speaks in disjointed sentences. Judging by her photo in the paper, the Yoda-winning woman was not at all impressed. I can’t say that I blame her.

There have been times in my life when I’ve been without a car, and it’s never been fun. A new Toyota would have erased a Hummer’s load of worries. In fact, up until about a week ago, I was carless — again.

When it became clear that we weren’t just going to be working from home for two to four weeks, I began to wonder if I needed the old hunk of junk parked outside my house. I wasn’t driving to work — or gigs or the radio station or to go rock climbing or to visit friends. Why pay insurance on an unreliable car I drove only once a week so that it wouldn’t forget how to turn on? So I sold it. One less thing to worry about, right?

Then, in a whirlwind of everything-hits-at-once, I was double-vaxxed and going into the office more or less daily. As editor, I want the Flyer folks to be able to stick their heads in my office and pitch me stories, ask me questions, or just gripe about what ails them. Suddenly, I needed a car again, but this time, I aimed to go about the whole process a little differently.

In years past, I followed the wisdom handed down by my dad: If you “buy” a car by taking out a loan, that’s not your car; it’s the bank’s. Sensible enough, right? So I would search the classifieds, always on the lookout for that rarest of creatures — an old, honest grandad who lived out in the middle of nowhere and was “gittin’ rid of” the Oldsmobile he’d only ever used to go to church and the grocery store.

Sometimes that system yielded wonderful results — cars bought cheap that weren’t much to look at but got me where I needed to go. Sometimes I ended up being the owner of a money pit in constant need of maintenance, with windows that fell off their track at inopportune times (on Walnut Grove in torrential rain, say) and never quite managed a waterproof seal, giving the car its own subtropic atmosphere, somehow more humid and warmer than even the wettest, hottest Memphis summer. Once I even bought a total lemon, a Saturn that lasted roughly two weeks. The body and interior were in perfect shape. The transmission was not. Luckily, I sold it to a used car salesman who specialized in Saturns, and I walked away (literally) with as much money as I’d put into it.

This time, though, I decided to ignore what, in my family, passes for conventional wisdom. On the advice of some close friends whose parents presumably didn’t take Polonius’ speech in Hamlet about lending and borrowing at face value, I took out an auto loan and bought a three-year-old (not 13-year-old, or 23-year-old, but three!) crossover that still isn’t much to look at but doesn’t develop its own interior nimbuses when it rains. It even has a working radio!

Imagine my surprise when our finance columnist, Gene Gard, this week listed an auto loan put toward reliable transportation as one of the few examples of “good debt.” One has to establish credit, after all, and those charming rural grandpas have never responded to my requests for verification of payments.

Sometimes it pays to take a risk on unconventional wisdom. It’s been worrisome to me that we have been in such a hurry to rush back to “normal,” whatever that means. In the last year, we’ve seen unprecedented things. In fact, I’ve seen the word “unprecedented” in so many headlines, it’s starting to sound like a meaningless buzzword. But in the face of major health crises, weather events, globe-spanning social and racial justice movements, and an attack on our national legislative body, maybe it’s time to embrace the unconventional.

Whether the issue is the climate or public health or our relationship to history, we find ourselves at a crossroads. We can muster the courage to take bold action, or we can continue driving around with our heads in the clouds.

You didn’t really think this column would be about cars, did you? Guess you got “toy Yoda-ed.”

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Vaccination Sensation

(Credit: Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash)

Once again, I’m scrapping a half-finished column for this space in favor of something more timely. The other piece was a little more hopeful, a little less serious. It’s evergreen, good beyond this news cycle, so I hope to get a chance to share it with you soon. I will if our state leaders will cool their jets for a week. (Smart bets say you’ll never see it.)

This morning, I read something in The Tennessean that seriously frightened me. On Monday, July 12th, (yesterday as of this writing), the Tennessee Department of Health fired Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the top vaccine official in the Tennessee state government. Fiscus claims she was fired to appease Republican state lawmakers who are angry about efforts to vaccinate teenagers. Maybe you remember the month-old consternation about state health officials “targeting” teens with ads on Facebook and social media? First of all, teens don’t spend too much time on Facebook these days, and, second, “targeting” youth with ads for a life-saving vaccine is a little like “attacking” people with a campaign encouraging them to eat their vegetables and drink eight glasses of water a day. 

Fiscus issued a statement, published by The Tennessean, that recounted the pushback she received for doing her job, for simply trying to protect Tennesseans. Though it deeply disturbs me to think that any of our elected officials would prize political party over the health and safety of their constituents, I would be lying if I said it surprised me. That’s been the play, hasn’t it? The messages have been “get back to work” and “don’t live in fear” and “come visit Tennessee,” totally ignoring that if every eligible Tennessean were vaccinated, we could all go back to work — and to restaurants and on vacation and wherever — with relative safety. 

Why have we wasted time and energy and money pursuing unconstitutional and discriminatory laws about who can use which bathroom? (A law that was in effect for just eight days before a federal judge issued an injunction — those are our tax dollars at work paying lawyers to defend a disgusting piece of legislation.) Why does our governor spend his time on trips to the southern border of the U.S., on promotional videos with Brad Paisley? Wouldn’t it promote travel to Tennessee if our vaccination rate was above 40 percent? Well, sure, but that’s not going to win anyone a spot on a GOP ticket. The game now is to out-Trump the competition, to vie for a sound bite on Fox News, the only currency that matters. 

I think these people are far beyond shame, and I want to use this space for something constructive. So I am again writing an earnest plea for all who can to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

I say “all who can” because I recognize that some Memphians cannot be vaccinated. There are people with health conditions that preclude their ability to get the shot. And of course, there are children younger than 12 years old who can’t legally get the vaccine. Those kids will be back in school this fall. It’s for the sake of those who can’t that the rest of us must do so. 

And I’ll say right now, I’m fully vaccinated. It was quick, relatively painless, and absolutely free. I’m not asking anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself. The side effects were mild. The day after each shot, my shoulder was a bit sore. The day after my second shot, I felt a little tired and muddle-headed. To be honest, I’ve had worse hangovers and far more uncomfortable bouts of the common cold. 

Why am I writing this now? Well, it seems we could use a boost. Hospitalizations and positive test rates are rising. The Flyer’s Toby Sells reports that the seven-day COVID-19 averages have more than doubled since last week. The reproductive rate of the virus is 1.22, the highest it’s been since June 2020. Meanwhile, The Tennessean’s vaccine tracker site reports that about 34.56 percent of Shelby County’s population is fully vaccinated, and the Delta variant is knocking on the door. 

Remember, every single person the virus infects is another chance for it to mutate, to become resistant to vaccines. To undo all the work we’ve done to claw our way back toward being able to see each other in public again. Because an incompletely vaccinated population presents multiple opportunities for this dreadful disease to become more contagious, more resistant to vaccinations and treatment measures, choosing to be vaccinated is in the public interest. It’s not just a personal choice. No, it’s the cost of living in this world with other people. 

Sometimes you have to do things to help protect your neighbors. It’s really that simple.

Jesse Davis
jesse@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Campaign 2022 Has Begun: Pollsters and Polls Signal That the Season is On

Here Criminal Court Clerk Heidi Kuhn (l), looking for re-election, celebrates on Sunday at Neil’s Music Room on Quince with supporters (l to r) former Congressman John Tanner and wife Betty Anne, husband Matt Kuhn, and stepdaughters Kennedy and Chandler Kuhn. (Photo: Jackson Baker)

As Campaign Season 2021-22 beckons, the annual Vanderbilt University poll on social and political issues statewide shows that there is an enormous gulf between the attitudes of Democrats and Republicans. The poll, released on Tuesday of this week, demonstrates the following results about several hot-button issues:

• About 71 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of political independents agree with the statement that “Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election.”

• Overall, 74 percent of Republicans agreed with the statement that the pandemic “is largely over and things should go back to the way they were,” while only 14 percent of Democrats did.

• On the matter of the COVID-19 vaccines, 60 percent of Republicans and 94 percent of Democrats said they had already been vaccinated or plan to be. Thirty-seven percent of Republicans and 30 percent of independents said they had no such plans.

• Asked about President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, only 29 percent of Republicans approved of it, while 96 percent of Democrats approved. But when neither President Biden’s name nor his American Jobs Plan were asked about, Republican approval for infrastructure doubled to 59 percent, while the same percentage of Democrats approved (96 percent).

• Apropos “critical race theory,” 90 percent of Democrats and only 29 percent of Republicans agree with the statement that the legacy of slavery affects the position of Black people in American society today a great deal or a fair amount. Separately, 51 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of Democrats feel race relations in the U.S. are generally good.

• A majority of Republicans (57 percent) and a small minority of Democrats (8 percent) approve of making it legal for those 21 and over to carry a handgun without a permit — the numbers reflecting fairly accurately how Republicans and Democrats in the legislature voted on Governor Bill Lee’s open-carry bill this year.

• On “cancel culture,” 60 percent of Democrats agreed with the practice of withdrawing support from public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive, while only 17 percent of Republicans did so.

The survey of 1,000 residents in Tennessee was conducted between May 3rd and May 20th, with an estimated margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The statewide poll is conducted annually by Vanderbilt University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) and is directed by John G. Geer and Josh Clinton.

• When state Representative Antonio Parkinson (D-District 98) stood with fellow office-holders — City Councilman Martavius Jones, state Representative Joe Towns Jr. (D-District 84), and state Representative Jesse Chism (D-District 85) — in I Am a Man Plaza on Friday and called for prosecution of the Confederate sympathizer who had harassed activist/County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, the aim was to communicate both a sense of solidarity with Sawyer and one of urgency, and to do so, as Parkinson put it, on behalf of Black males in general.

Results were not long in coming. Within a short time after the press conference, the Sheriff’s Department issued a warrant charging George “K-Rack” Johnson with misdemeanor assault. Johnson, a member of a privately organized crew exhuming the remains of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, had verbal exchanges with Sawyer earlier last week, threatening her, she alleges, as she was conducting a press conference on the perimeter of Health Sciences Park (formerly Forrest Park), expressing satisfaction with the fact of the ongoing exhumation, with the decline of Forrest from his bronze eminence, and, in a larger sense, with the fall of the Confederacy as a cause.

And Johnson’s gibes were, in a sense, late salvos of resistance from that same lost cause, well past Appomattox, and he and Sawyer, in her role as avenger, may well figure in some courtroom reprise, which she is bound to win, or at least not to lose. Think of it as justice, or think of it as yet another re-enactment.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Gambler

The view from Idaho (photo by Sydnie Hammer)

Last weekend, my girlfriend Sydnie and I did something we hadn’t done since the first months of 2020 — maybe since the tail end of 2019. We bought tickets. Baby-stepping our way back to events with other people, we caught a Saturday-night showing of A Quiet Place Part II. We bought a couple of local beers and some candy at the concession stand. We oohed and aahed at the remodeled theater — new seats, fresh coat of paint, transparent plexiglass dividers at the ticket booth. In a quarter-full theater, we watched a movie with other people, a communal experience that has been sorely missed. I even liked listening to people crunching popcorn. 

Then, giddy with a new sense of freedom of movement, we bought plane tickets. After more than a yearlong delay, we’ll be going to visit Syd’s family in Boise, Idaho. Of course, purchasing plane tickets requires a more significant investment of time, money, and optimism than ponying up for a pair of movie tickets, but it feels undeniably refreshing to look a few months into the future and decide that it’s not a bad bet to make plans. 

The secret to our newfound confidence is no secret at all. We’re vaccinated. We still wore masks in the theater (when we weren’t swilling Adjective Animal, that is) and we will on the plane. It just seems polite, especially when we’re interacting with theater or airline staff who have no way of knowing our vaccination status, or if we’re thorough hand-washers. Even after taking two doses in the arm, travel at this point is still a bit of a gamble. And, as the vaccine hesitant would point out, we’re choosing to gamble on the efficacy of a bit of medicine we don’t understand fully. 

But I do that every time I get on a plane, every time I drive somewhere. I understand that Bernoulli’s Principle is instrumental in achieving lift, just as I understand that my car is powered by combustion, but that’s about the limit of my comprehension. I choose to trust that the people who design these things know what they’re doing, and that they have an interest in not being wrong. Just as I believe that Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson want to make profits, a goal that is more easily achievable if your product works. 

That doesn’t mean I don’t believe some people have a good reason for choosing not to be vaccinated. I’m simply painting a picture of relatively guilt- and worry-free socialization. There has been no end of noise around this issue, and I hope it might do some measure of good to provide a clear-headed account of my experience. To that end, it’s been a month and a half since I got my second shot, and I’ve had no side effects to speak of. No surprise medical bill arrived at my door. My smartphone, I’m fairly certain, is the only device tracking my whereabouts and page-viewing trends. Best of all, I’m infinitely less worried about accidentally, unknowingly getting someone else sick. As far as I can tell, the risk was worthwhile and has paid off.  

As I write this, Shelby County is not even close to half-vaccinated. I hope we’ll continue to work to improve that statistic, but that’s going to require us to do something besides shame and mock our fellow citizens. I’ll also mention that requiring proof of vaccination status is nothing new — though I’ve not once been asked to prove my own. 

When we were children, my sister and I moved in with our dad, from Phoenix, Arizona, to Chester County, Tennessee, a trip of some 1,400 or so miles that meant we had to change school districts. I vividly remember my dad’s increasingly frantic attempts to secure our vaccination records before the beginning of the school year. Neither he nor my mother were really the record-keeping type, and things were not at their best between them at the time, which complicated the process somewhat. But, complicated or not, we were required to prove we wouldn’t bring disease with us to charming Chester County. And that was 20 years ago in an overwhelmingly conservative rural county. 

When it comes down to it, though, I doubt I can convince anyone to take their shot. I’m no doctor, have no degrees in epidemiology or virology. In this instance, I’m a gambler, but one who likes the odds, who’s willing to bet that good ol’ Bernoulli will keep the plane aloft … even if I’m not sure exactly how.
Jesse Davis

jesse@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

How to Convert Vaccine Skeptics

I am not gonna miss my shot — but have you gotten yours? (Photo: Scaliger | Dreamstime.com)

Now that anyone in this part of the country who wants a COVID vaccine can get one, the difficulty has switched from having to wait to get a shot to convincing the still-unvaccinated to get theirs. We need to achieve herd immunity in order to protect people who truly can’t get vaccinated due to medical issues, and to try to stop the spread of the more deadly and contagious variants, like the ones currently ravaging India as the virus spreads and mutates through millions of hosts.

Some people truly don’t realize how easy getting a shot is, after initial months of long lines and confusing appointment processes. If you are talking to one of them, please help them get vaccinated.

From there, we have to move on to convincing the “vaccine hesitant.” Paradoxically, the people who have been screaming the loudest about wanting life to return to normal are often the most hesitant to take the easiest step to resuming normal life. The people who insist COVID is no big deal seem to be the ones most worried about the potential side effects, which are mainly a day or so of mild symptoms.

We have to convince people to get a shot, as many of them are being bombarded with propaganda to convince them otherwise. And you aren’t going to get someone to change by calling them a moron, even if they are getting medical advice from people like Tucker Carlson or Alex Jones (who have both argued in court that no reasonable person should believe anything said on their shows).

The reason reactionary propaganda is so effective is that it tells people, “You are smarter than everyone else. Your conditioned knee-jerk opinions are wiser than anything any expert says.” So, during a pandemic, we waste time debating about masks and vaccines instead of paid sick leave and universal healthcare.

It doesn’t matter that the talking heads think their audience are idiots, and are willing to get some of them killed if it means they can continue complaining about lockdowns and masks. They disguise their contempt. They’re telling the audience they’re smart. If you’re standing on the other side calling them an idiot, who do you think they’ll listen to? 

To get a reluctant person vaccinated, so we can all move forward, we’re going to have to roll up our sleeves and engage them as a rational person, even if you have to address talking points they pulled from YouTube videos. YouTube is successful because anyone can find confirmation bias for pretty much any belief there. If you want to believe the Earth is flat or the secret to good health is drinking your own urine or even that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, there are videos affirming your opinion. When someone is describing their vaccine concerns using their Fox News, YouTube, and meme-based “research,” we’re going to have to bite our tongue and address these points of view as serious concerns.

Blood clots? The risk from a vaccine is literally one in a million — infinitesimal compared to actually getting COVID.

You can still catch COVID after being vaccinated? There is no guarantee with any vaccine. That’s why herd immunity is crucial. The vaccines are amazingly effective at making sure you won’t get a case that requires hospitalization. They even guard against the variants hitting people who have already had COVID.

Why take a vaccine for a disease 98 percent of people survive? Most of us are vaccinated for a lot of diseases we’d probably survive: mumps, measles, rubella, tetanus, hepatitis A and B. But why suffer through something that’s easily preventable?

Worried about unknown long-term effects and don’t want to be a “guinea pig”? Go read firsthand accounts of COVID long-haulers, those suffering the unknown long-term effects that have doctors and scientists terrified.

A lot of formerly healthy workers are COVID long-haulers who no longer have the stamina for service industry jobs. When people complain that “no one wants to work anymore,” they’re probably referring to those jobs, which require constant hustling on your feet. No one wants to do that for wages that won’t pay their bills.

The service industry spent a year on the pandemic front lines, often dealing with a belligerent, unmasked public. A lot of people got fed up and changed careers. Remember the protestors a year ago demanding everything reopen immediately with signs like, “I need a haircut” and “I want a margarita”? Now they’re mad about the shortage of workers they once deemed expendable.

Craig David Meek is the author of Memphis Barbecue: A Succulent History of Smoke, Sauce & Soul.

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Memphis City Council Members Approve CARES Act Funding

Memphis City Council reallocated $9.9 million of the city’s remaining CARES Act funding Tuesday but some disagreed on a residency requirement for some business owners.

The Trump Administration issued an extension on the funding, which was supposed to end December 2020, to the end of 2021. So, the city has more time to distribute the money to businesses, first responders, education, and more.

Shirley Ford, chief financial officer for the city of Memphis, asked to approve reallocation of that $9.9 million. Some of this money would be used for testing and administering the COVID-19 vaccine, while $2 million would go to hazard pay for level one employees from January through March.

An additional $1.2 million would be set for a stabilization grant for 78 business applications that includes some restaurants and other small businesses. She also asked for approval for $1 million to be added for an emergency relief program to be allocated through the vendor of council members’ choice.

“We approved $500,000 of the CARES Act funding that was allocated to businesses that may be located in Memphis but their owners reside outside of the city,” said council member Martavius Jones. “Of this $1.2 million and of the 78 applicants, are there any restrictions as to where the business owner lives?”

Ken Moody, special assistant to Mayor Jim Strickland, said the grant was for anyone who owned a business in the city of Memphis, no matter where they live. The previous CARES Act allocation to businesses limited grants to $120,000 for business owners who lived outside Memphis. Jones wanted to keep it that way in the current round of grant-making.

Only a total of 10 percent of the Memphis City CARES Act funding could go to counties outside of the city limits. This would mean that business owners who live in Shelby County would receive a fraction of that which those who live within Memphis city limits would. However, Shelby County received its own CARES Act funding for which they can apply.

Council member Chase Carlisle said this logic sounded “arbitrary.”

“The idea is to keep businesses open … it’s like we’re gonna punish someone because they don’t live here,” Carlisle said. “This program isn’t enriching somebody, it’s literally allowing them to keep their doors open so they can employ people in Memphis. So, where the owner resides has no impact on the restaurant operations for the retail operations in which we may employ people.”

Jones rebutted, “I was not elected by anybody outside of the city of Memphis. “So, my first priority will always be — and I will never make any apologies for advocating for — Memphis.”

Council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas supported Jones, noting it was a move to continue the process the council had already approved. Council member Dr. Jeff Warren worried it may hurt businesses and that “what was good for us then may not be good for us now.”

“It just makes sense to give it to them because we don’t have data … if that’s 40 percent people living outside of Memphis or 5 percent,” Warren said. “But we do know that they’re employing Memphians who are paying taxes.”

The committee voted against Jones’ grant-making procedure and the full council approved the overall reallocation of the $9.9 million in CARES Act funding.