This is no joke, people! Get your head out of…the sand!

At least two Union County people infected with coronavirus died today in the Tupelo hospital.

One of them had cooked for a group of children at a party one week ago today. He went into the hospital on Sunday, two days later, and died today, one week after the party.

It is not known what, if any, symptoms the man had when he cooked for the party seven days before he died.

Our sources do not know how long the other Union County victim of COVID-19 had exhibited symptoms before dying today in Tupelo.

This comes on a day when the Mississippi State Health Department (MSDH) was seven hours later than its own committed deadline of 11 a.m. daily in releasing statistics on coronavirus cases and deaths. The MSDH statistics, finally posted at 6:12 p.m. today, were for cases and deaths as of 6 p.m. yesterday, Thursday, July 2. There were 914 new cases and 11 new COVID-19 deaths in today’s near-record MSDH figures.

The two deaths mentioned above would not be included in MSDH numbers until tomorrow, at earliest, and not necessarily then. MSDH has struggled with producing coronavirus statistics reliably since the pandemic caused its first Mississippi death in March.

This is not to point a finger of accusation at MSDH professionals or its head, Dr. Thomas E. Dobbs, III. Dobbs earned an M.D. degree and a graduate degree in public health. He is a certified epidemiologist. He worked as an infectious disease and internal medicine physician before going to work for MSDH years ago. He is also an associate professor at the UMMC School of Public Health. He and his staff have worked tirelessly for months, and Dobbs himself is looking gaunt and weary. He and others at MSDH have not had a day off work in months.

Fault for any problems at MSDH lies with poor executive leadership, now and for the past several years, from the governor’s mansion, and, as with many state agencies, underfunding by the legislature, which also goes to weak and unengaged leadership from the recent occupants of the state mansion.

In fairness, the current governor seems to have “got religion” and to be urging the extreme dangers of COVID-19 within recent days. He has a long way to go to catch up from his cunctatious leadership in the early days of the crisis and his haste in “opening up” the state too early, against the guidance of public health experts.

At least two Union County people are known to have been infected with the coronavirus by people who brought it back here on Saturday, June 13th, from the Union County Baptist Association’s mission group trip to Sidney, Nebraska. The two we know of are said to be making a satisfactory recovery.

We also have it from probably reliable sources — although sources not well known to NEMISS.NEWS – that several people may have been infected with COVID-19 as a result of direct or indirect contact with people who attended a wedding in June.

A number of other Union County people are known to have recently been infected. As always, NEMISS.NEWS depends only on solid sources for what we report. We do not get any of our information from Facebook, Twitter, or listening at keyholes.

The message here is simple: For God’s sake, stay out of crowds. You don’t know if the other guy has COVID-19- – you don’t even know whether you do. If you absolutely must go out, make it a brief trip and ALWAYS wear a mask.

Group returns to Union County from Nebraska infected with COVID-19
http://newalbanyunionco.com/union-county-baptist-mission-trip-home-with-corornavirus/