‘You need somebody who’s at the table’: Black leaders discuss vaccination disparities

Two Black health care leaders with Tupelo-based nonprofit Project ELECT believe accessibility and trust are key to addressing current vaccination disparities in Mississippi. As of Friday, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported that only 15% of the COVID-19 vaccines distributed throughout the state have gone to Black people, far below their 37.8% share of the population.Daily Journal, Read More.

Nonprofits help uninsured Mississippians patch together health care services

More than one in five Mississippians don’t have health insurance. “We screen people to see if they are eligible for Medicaid or if their children are eligible for Medicaid,” Mitchell said. “There are little-known ways to gain Medicaid eligibility that we have found over the years to find people eligible for Medicaid,” he said. “We’ve had to do a lot of Medicaid outreach. We’ve done it not just with providers but also hospitals.”If individuals don’t qualify for Medicaid, Tammy Bullock, Medicaid consumer advocate with Mississippi Health Advocacy, said she checks to see if they can sign up under the Affordable Care Act. “But a lot of these people work part-time jobs,” she said. “In rural areas, they don’t even make enough to afford the premiums.”Mississippi Today, Read More.
40,000 residents of South Mississippi now have tested positive for COVID-19

More than 40,000 people in South Mississippi have tested positive for the coronavirus since the first case in the state was identified on March 11.That means 8.2% of the 491,305 estimated residents in the six counties of South Mississippi have tested positive for COVID-19. The figures show that 1.9% of those who tested positive in South Mississippi died from the virus.Sun Herald, Read More.