At this time three years ago, cities and counties in Mississippi were busy fashioning their own COVID-19 policies, waiting for Governor Tate Reeves to issue a state-wide order. At that time, the pandemic had claimed the lives of 1,346 Mississippians, and we were all genuinely alarmed and frightened. In early August, Reeves eventually issued a state-wide masking order. Mississippi was the last state to implement a mask order and would be among the first to end the order, which came in March 2021.
At the time, we wondered how history would record the pandemic and how deadly it would be before its end.
We generally thought the pandemic would be one of those historic milestones that people use to measure the end of one era and the beginning of another.
It hasn’t turned out that way, though. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I heard somebody mention COVID-19, even though – with roughly 7 million deaths it will go down as the third deadliest pandemic in history behind only the Bubonic Plague (1346-1353, 75 million dead) and the Spanish Flu (1918-1920, 17 million dead).
To the extent that the pandemic is mentioned at all, it’s usually in the context of the rise of an inexplicable anti-vaccine culture or the pandemic’s continuing effect on the U.S. and world economies, especially as it relates to inflation.
What ought to be the most important part of the COVID-19 story is the least discussed: all those who died. As of Tuesday, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of 13,474 Mississippians. Only close friends or family members seem to think of them at all.
Tate Reeves’ first reelection campaign ad illustrates this point.
Campaign ads are expensive, so a lot of thought goes into the message they send. You can tell much about what a candidate believes to be important and what will appeal to voters by the content of those ads.
That Reeves’ first campaign ad would focus primarily on the COVID-19 pandemic is, well, interesting.
In the ad narrated by the Governor’s wife Elee, she says, “Other states locked down the economy for years, but not in Mississippi. We reopened fast and our kids went back to school,” later saying, “As first lady, I saw it all up close. Tate Reeves was a leader. He pulled us together.”
That Reeves’ first ad would be a victory lap over his handling of a pandemic that claimed the lives of 13,474 Mississippians is a ghoulish reflection of a governor whose politics always takes precedence over people. Mississippi’s per capita pandemic death rate was the 48th worst in the nation.
But, hey, we reopened fast!
I’m sure that’s a great consolation.
His second ad, in case you missed it, was about making sure trans kids don’t play girls sports, something that, as of today, has affected exactly zero percent of the state’s population.
God only knows what absurdity will be the focus of his next ad.
Making sure the working poor don’t have health insurance would be my guess.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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