Raising Our New State Flag and Other Topics

Good morning!

Well, it sounds like a broken record, but we continue to watch with growing concern as the number of COVID-19 cases creeps higher in Mississippi.  On Wednesday, we reached a seven-day rolling average in excess of 1,000 new cases a day, which the state hasn’t seen since August.  Hospitalizations, which normally lag new cases by a couple of weeks, have also been rising.  Our COVID inpatient numbers have been holding steady in the 40s and low 50s – manageable for now.  Higher numbers tax our staff, our capacity and our resources in ways that are difficult to sustain.

Mississippi has likely benefited from a long stretch of warm weather, allowing people to continue to be outside.  But as cooler weather – and televised football – bring more people indoors we can expect to see additional spread. Outbreaks in schools also appear to be contributing to rising case numbers.

A couple of items of good news: The vaccine developed by Pfizer and its research partner showed extremely promising efficacy in a Phase 3 clinical trial – greater than 90 percent effectiveness against the virus.  Although it would still be well into 2021 before the vaccine would be widely available, we are hopeful that certain high-risk populations, including nursing home residents and front-line health care workers, could receive it earlier.  Although the prospect of a safe and effective vaccine is a huge relief, I would caution everyone to hold firm in all of their public health mitigation measures – mask wearing, social distance, hand hygiene, etc. – until the broader population is vaccinated.  That will be a while.

It’s worth noting that we have started enrolling participants in our own multi-center NIH-sponsored vaccine trial.  Information about the study can be found on UMMC’s Clinical Trials page. Joshua Agee (jagee@umc.edu) or Courtney Gomillia (cegomillia@umc.edu) are points of contact for the trial. 

The other news that caught my eye this week was updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that use of masks provides substantial protection against the virus to wearers as well as to those around them.  As we’ve learned more about how the virus is transmitted, I think all of us intuitively believed that to be true, but that scientific fact has been borne out now in a number of studies.  All the more reason for everyone to wear masks, whether mandated or not.

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It’s unfortunate, but perhaps inevitable, that we are having a turbulent aftermath to the presidential election.  The closeness of the vote, the intensity of the rhetoric and the deep divisions between our political parties are all fueling additional discord.

I would encourage everyone to have patience and let the process run its course.  This is not the first closely contested election in our history.  By its nature, democracy can be messy.  It can be argumentative.  It can be so frustrating!  At the end of the day, we must all join together and do what’s best for our country.

Even as I say that, I hope we can get past this episode as quickly as possible so that we can all keep the focus on the real-life problems confronting our nation, e.g., the pandemic.

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Congratulations are in order to all those involved in UMMC’s discovery enterprise.  Dr. Richard Summers, associate vice chancellor for research, reports that our research teams produced the best first quarter ever in terms of the number of grants awarded and total funding.  The $39 million in funding since the beginning of July through September was more than double that of two years ago and $9 million ahead of last year’s total.  The total number of projects funded, 103, compared to 66 two years ago and 88 last year.  This is on top of a very strong FY20 performance of $82.3 million in research funding for the whole year, just shy of the record.  I’m so proud of everyone involved in this stellar performance.

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Finally, we chose Wednesday, Veterans Day, as our moment to raise the new state flag in two campus locations – the Student Union and University Hospital.

The new flag, with its stylized magnolia blossom in the center, received overwhelming support from voters in last week’s election.  It replaced the previous Mississippi state flag, which was retired by the state Legislature in June after 126 years of use.

We also used the occasion to replace our American flag, which was a little frayed around the edges, with a new one.

Raising the new state flag was an important occasion, and we asked a group of UMMC veterans representing our students, faculty and staff to join members of our police department in doing the honors.  This ceremony, which is captured in a video, was a nice debut for our new flag and a fitting salute to all our wonderful veterans.  We appreciate their service, embodied in this quote from President Abraham Lincoln, which was read that morning:

“Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause.  Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.”

We are all here to serve, in ways large and small, the betterment of our brothers and sisters.  Thank you for your service.  Thank you for remaining #UMMCStrong