Following a COVID-19 outbreak among state legislators after weeks of in-person sessions at the state Capitol, many state lawmakers of the Golden Triangle delegation have now tested negative for COVID-19, while others still await results.
The outbreak, some local lawmakers said, may be a result from working with each other in close quarters, the nature of in-person legislative debates as well as lax to no precautionary measures some legislators took when working at the Capitol.
Statewide, at least 30 legislators — including House Speaker Phillip Gunn — and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann tested positive after the Legislature adjourned on July 1, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said during a Tuesday press conference. A total of 41 cases have been linked to the outbreak, he said.
District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson (R-Starkville), who told The Dispatch Tuesday he tested for COVID-19 on July 3 and went into self-quarantine, said he is still waiting on his results but believes he contracted the virus during the legislative session. His wife and son, he said, have both tested positive.
“For me, it’s been very sore, no energy whatsoever, having a cough and congestion,” he said. “For one minute … you start feeling a little bit better, and the next you are just exhausted. I’ve slept more than I believe I slept since I was a child. It’s been rough.”
Roberson said his health conditions have now begun to improve, and he has gained back some energy, he said.
Apart from Roberson, almost all other lawmakers from the Golden Triangle delegation told The Dispatch they have tested negative, including District 16 Sen. Angela Turner-Ford (D-West Point), District 17 Sen. Chuck Younger (R-Columbus) and District 39 Rep. Dana McLean (R-Columbus).
District 38 Rep. Chiekh Taylor (D-Starkville) said he is still waiting on his results but displays no symptoms. District 41 Rep. Kabir Karriem (D-Columbus) could not be reached for comment.
‘People get very comfortable’
When they first returned to Jackson in June after the pandemic hit, some lawmakers said, several precautionary measures were taken at the Capitol to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
But as time passed, they said, some quit following the rules to the letter.
At the beginning, legislators were separated from each other and seated in groups of no more than 10 according to their last names, with some watching the live broadcast of the session from their office, Taylor said. Legislators did not all have to swarm to the floor to vote, he said. The default vote was set to be “Yea,” he said, and only those who voted “Nay” would have to go change their votes.
Senators sat in the Gallery above the Senate floor, said Turner-Ford, and many legislators were wearing masks.
But as the session went on, she said, legislators grew more relaxed. Some members did not wear a mask at all toward the end, she said, and legislators who were assigned different seats slowly returned to their own desks on the Senate floor.
“Everyone occupied their normal seats, I don’t even know how that occurred. There was no formal announcement,” Turner-Ford said. “I just looked up one day and everybody was back to their desk. … I remember a vote taking place and I actually went down to the floor, and I just remember feeling anxious, tense and afraid with my mask on, that there was business being conducted and I had to be present.”
Turner-Ford said she “regrets” not wearing a mask the day Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill into law that retired the 126-year-old Mississippi state flag featuring a Confederate battle emblem. Many who were present, including Hosemann, Gunn and Reeves, also did not wear masks.
Taylor also said his colleagues in the House became more comfortable with not wearing a mask as the session stretched on, which he thinks contributed to the spread.
“I think people get very comfortable in close spaces. It becomes a culture not wearing (personal protective equipment), not having safety mechanisms in place as far as how we are voting, how we are debating on the floor,” he said. “People tend to get more and more relaxed as the session goes on.”
McLean shared Taylor’s observation. She told The Dispatch she has been wearing a mask “religiously,” which she believes helped prevent her from getting the virus. She said she feels lucky to test negative, because Rep. Jill Ford of Madison County, who worked next to her desk, tested positive. Desks on the House floor were not six feet apart from each other.
The session, McLean said, also stretched a bit longer than she had expected, which she thinks added to the chance of infection among lawmakers.
“We went on for days and weeks. I think that was one reason,” she said.
Roberson said working in close proximity with his colleagues aided the spread of the virus as well.
“I think when you put that many people in a location, at some point there is going to be a spread if you’ve got something like this,” he said.
Hardship
While almost all local lawmakers agreed to the importance of mask-wearing and other precautionary measures, some said it proved hard during the session.
Roberson, who said he wore a mask only “about 30 percent of the time” during the session, now encourages people to wear masks especially after his own experience of the virus.
“Your inconvenience is a small price to pay to keep someone safe,” he said.
However, Roberson said he thinks the nature of legislative debates, which often requires lawmakers to engage with each other while making arguments, makes it hard to communicate with others with a mask on and standing far away from each other. Mask-wearing, he said, also makes it hard for him to gauge others’ facial expressions.
“You communicate your thoughts through … more than just your words. Facial expressions, hand gestures, all these things are part of the communication process,” Roberson said. “To suggest that you could continue this kind of behavior with masks (on) forever is just not real.”
Seated at the northeast corner on the Senate floor, Younger said he did not feel the need to wear a mask unless more people joined the senators in the room. He would wear one, he said, whenever he came close to people.
“It makes it harder to understand people when they are talking,” Younger said. “It was an extra burden.”
Legislators were scattered around the Capitol, Roberson said, which also made it harder to gather all lawmakers into a room.
Taylor acknowledged the hardship for legislators to conduct a session remotely online, or physically away from others. Each legislator, for example, only has five minutes to get to the floor and change their votes. That difficulty, he said, pulled many legislators back on the floor toward the end of the session.
“Even though people would be mindful (of the virus), you still had to be engaged because of the flag issue and talking across the aisle,” Taylor said. “We didn’t have the luxury of separating our (legislators).”
Taylor said he hopes some health regulations at the Capitol can be changed to create a safer environment for legislators when they resume the session. He said he hopes to see daily distribution of medical-level personal protection equipment, weekly testing sites and restriction of visitors.
“We need to go back to some of those things that were implemented in the very beginning,” he said.
Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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