Tag: vaccinations

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Tweet That Was …

Laurie Cardoza-Moore

This may seem unlikely to readers of this column who are still clinging to the golf slacks of the former president and write me uncharitable emails, but I actually do research these weekly missives. I copy links to relevant or interesting articles into a “column fodder” folder on my desktop; I save interesting emails; I even look up stuff.

I also reread my Twitter feed, which isn’t exactly research, but sometimes it can capture the zeitgeist of a particular week. To wit: Editor & Publisher posted a story last Thursday about how their publisher had pulled off a stunning deal to buy all 1,100 Gannett newspapers, including The Commercial Appeal. Whoa!

I read through the first couple graphs rapidly, slowing to reread only when I got to this part: “The new Operations Center is to be located about two miles northwest of Lebanon, Kansas, the geographic center of the contiguous United States. Newton will be recruiting retired NASCAR drivers to get the newspapers into each individual market within 72-hours of printing, which is, on average, two-days faster than currently being provided by most Gannett properties.”

Then I remembered the date: April 1st. Got me.

That same day, County Mayor Lee Harris issued a tweet urging all of us to get a COVID vaccine, citing the emergence of a highly contagious and deadlier Brazilian variant, which is definitely no joke. I’m a month post-vaccination and feeling somewhat bulletproof, though I still wear a mask in public. There’s no better feeling, right now. Seriously, if you’re sentient enough to be reading this and haven’t started the process of getting the vaccine, there’s really no excuse left, except “I’m an idiot.”

Later in the week, a Twitter debate broke out about which state had the absolute worst trifecta of governor and senators. Top contenders were Texas (Abbot, Cornyn, Cruz); Missouri (Parson, Hawley, Blunt); Florida (DeSantis, Scott, Rubio); Mississippi (Reeves, Hyde-Smith, Wicker); Alabama (Ivey, Shelby, Tuberville); and Tennessee (Lee, Blackburn, Hagerty). South Dakota (Noem, Thune, Rounds) also got some mention, to be fair, but the South truly owned this competition. So proud!

Speaking of pride, there were lots of tweets about the Tennessee legislature’s appointing Laurie Cardoza-Moore, an anti-Muslim, anti-BLM, 9/11 truther, vax-hoaxer, and all-around nutball to the state Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission, which, among other things, selects the textbooks used in Tennessee’s public schools.

Memphis Senator Raumesh Akbari interviewed the candidate on the Senate floor, picking apart her past lunacy and concluding, after questioning: “I cannot think of someone who is more uniquely unqualified to be in this position.” Senator Brian Kelsey, the ever-reliable GOP tool from Germantown, pooh-poohed the idea that Cardoza-Moore would be a problem, because, well, he’s Brian Kelsey.

Our legislators and governor also bum-rushed through an open-carry law that will allow any mouth-breathing crackpot to take a gun pretty much anywhere his tiny penis tells him to go. The law was opposed by all major law-enforcement organizations, attorneys general groups, and the vast majority of Tennessee voters. After the law’s passage, Governor Bill Lee made a quick call to the NRA to thank them for their support, making it pretty clear whose opinion matters to him. I really hope I live long enough to see these shameless GOP hacks get sent packing.

But it wasn’t all bad news. There were tweets about how the Memphis Fire Department, community advocate groups, and MATA set up a vaccination center for the area’s homeless, and inoculated dozens of folks who are living in the most vulnerable of circumstances. Good for them. And for us.

What else? I met a friend inside an actual restaurant for dinner for the first time in almost 13 months. We had steaks and split a bottle of Bordeaux and bitched and told the usual stories, and for a couple of hours, life seemed normal again — except for our longtime bartender saying we were starting to sound like the two old guys in the balcony in The Muppets.

Tough crowd. Tough year.

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News Blog News Feature

Federal Mass Vaccination Site to Open at Pipkin Building

(Credit: Dreamstime)

A federally run mass-vaccination site will open next week at the Pipkin Building, White House officials announced Wednesday, March 31st. 

The Memphis site is one of three such sites opening next week, Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a briefing Wednesday morning. Other sites will open next week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Greenbelt, Maryland. 

Each of these sites will be able to administer 3,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine each day, Slavitt said. They are also the first federally run mass-vaccinations sites in each of their respective states. 

On Monday, the federal government opened sites in Gary, Indiana, and St. Louis, Missouri. These are among the 25 mass-vaccination sites opened by the federal government. Together, these sites can administer 95,000 doses of the vaccine each day, Slavitt said. 

Slavitt said the sites are to accelerate the vaccine program and to “reach the communities that have been most hurt by the pandemic.”

We need to keep case numbers down so we can save lives and give people the chance to get vaccinated in April, May, and June so we can enter the summer on the strongest footing possible.

Andy Slavitt
acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

“All these efforts are on behalf of one thing: saving lives,” Slavitt said. “We need to keep case numbers down so we can save lives and give people the chance to get vaccinated in April, May, and June so we can enter the summer on the strongest footing possible.”

For the federal vaccination program, Slavitt asked for help from local government leaders. He asked for governors, mayors, and other elected officials to reinstate mask mandates in their jurisdictions. 

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said resources in place now will be directed to other points of distribution (PODs) across the county.

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News News Blog

New Vaccination Site to Open in Raleigh

CREDIT: Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith/Facebook

Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith/Facebook

A new COVID-19 vaccination center will open next week in the Raleigh/Frayser area.

The site will be in the Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith at 3824 Austin Peay Highway. It will be run by Shelby County Health Department (SCHD), the City of Memphis, and Christ Community Health Services.

A Tuesday news release said the new site is meant to “bring COVID-19 vaccinations to underserved and predominantly African American communities in North Memphis.”

“Communities of color have been hit hard during the pandemic and for generations before. Health equity must be a top priority. We believe our vaccine dispensing sites demonstrate that,” said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. “We’ve opened sites in Whitehaven, South Memphis, and now, Raleigh.”

Making vaccinations available in all parts of Shelby County has always been a goal of the health department, said health department director Alisa Haushalter.

“The partnership with Greater Imani Church will not only help us reach a geographic area where vaccinations were not previously accessible, it also achieves another important goal by making vaccination more available in underserved Black and brown communities,” she said.

Links to sign up for appointments at the Greater Imani vaccination site will be posted next week on the health department’s COVID-19 landing page. Those without internet access or who need assistance may call (901) 222-7468 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. for assistance in signing up for an appointment.

Groups now eligible to be vaccinated include first responders, health care workers, funeral/mortuary workers, and anyone age 70 or older.