More than 12,000 Mississippians have lost their lives to COVID-19.
Vermont, on the other hand, has only lost about 600 total residents. While Vermont may be a less populous state, if Mississippi’s per-capita death rate was the same, the state would only have lost 2,000 people, outgoing Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs told Columbus Rotarians on Tuesday.
Dobbs announced earlier this month his last day in the role will be at the end of July.
“If we put it into context, during the Vietnam War, Mississippi lost less than 400 folks,” Dobbs said. “This is really a big impact.”
While these deaths have proven to be a tragic situation for the state, he said Mississippi is in better shape now than it previously has been.
Almost every Mississippian has some sort of immunity to COVID-19, Dobbs said, with the majority of citizens being vaccinated, the remainder having natural immunity and some people having a combination of both. While this immunity will help moving forward throughout the pandemic, Dobbs said it will not last forever.
“The bad news with COVID, like other viruses, is that immunity is not long-lasting,” Dobbs said. “It does wane. It doesn’t go to zero, but you don’t have strong, robust immunity.”
To combat the virus, he said the best solution when testing positive for COVID-19 is to receive one of the various treatments now available. Just like when someone is sick from the common cold or the flu, that person should go to the doctor, get tested and take or receive medicine, such as monoclonal antibodies or the oral-based Paxlovid.
“We’ve got to be ready to deploy those treatments when they come so we don’t have the severity of illness,” Dobbs said.
Dobbs said while he expects cases to rise slightly during the summer, he does not believe the state will see the same case explosive numbers or mortality rates. While the BA.2 variant is on the rise in Europe, he said he does not think it will greatly affect Americans because it has a similar cross-immunity protection as the Omicron variant.
Medical marijuana
The Mississippi Legislature recently passed a bill allowing for the growing, dispensing and usage of medical marijuana throughout the state.
While counties can choose to opt out of this initiative, Dobbs said while the state is calling the marijuana “medical,” he believes it will be more widely spread and used than for pharmaceutical purposes.
“If we look at who’s using it in other states, it’s not really medical folks using it,” Dobbs said. “It’s recreational folks. Some people who have medical problems will benefit from it, but just get ready. There is going to be a lot of pot out there.”
There is no limit for dispensaries or growers. Dobbs said the bar to receive marijuana is set very low.
In order for someone to obtain medical marijuana, a provider or doctor has to be certified to properly diagnose someone for medical marijuana usage, a computer system will approve them, the dispensary will then recommend what to take and give it to them. It is not like a prescription with particular instructions, Dobbs said, but rather a general distribution of the product based on the dispenser’s recommendation.
“It’s not like your doctor says, ‘Take three (weed) gummy bears a day,’” Dobbs said.
Dobbs said he believes the average medical marijuana user is going to be a younger person who does not have many issues. He said this new program is going to be a grand experiment for the state, and it will change Mississippi in both positive and negative ways.
“Put your seatbelt on and get ready,” Dobbs said. “It’s going to be a wild ride for a few years because it’s really going to be different.”
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