Thread by @ashtonpittman

NEW: COVID-19 has now killed more Mississippians than the Great Influenza pandemic did from 1918 to 1919.

We hit the milestone a day after Gov. @TateReeves made clear to @JakeTapper he isn't changing course.

MS is No. 2 worldwide in COVID deaths.
mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

Pandemic Deaths in Mississippi

Great Influenza: 9,234

COVID-19: 9,270

That COVID total does not include more than 3,000 excess deaths since the pandemic began—many or most of which are likely unconfirmed COVID deaths.
mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

With 674k confirmed COVID-19 deaths nationwide, the nation as a whole will likely surpass its death toll from the Great Influenza (675k) today, too.

But while Mississippi's population only grew by 1/3 over the last century, the national population tripled.mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

Gov. Tate Reeves on @POTUS' vaccine mandates:

"What we ought to be talking about is, what can we do to minimize the deaths going forward? (Biden)'s not focused on saving lives. The president’s focused on taking unilateral action to show—to show his power."mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

Jake Tapper: “Governor, if Mississippi were a country, you'd have the second worst per capita death toll in the world. And I'm saying, are you going to do anything to try to change that?”

Gov. Reeves never answered the question, instead criticizing Biden.
mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

Reeves: “Jake, deaths are a lagging indicator. … When you wanted me to come on 3-4 weeks ago, you wanted to talk about our number of cases. And then you want to talk about our hospitalizations. Now you want to talk about a lagging indicator, which is sad.”mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

Tapper: "I’m trying to talk about the dead in Mississippi, is what I’m trying to talk about."

Among the dead in Mississippi are 7 children, including a baby, & 15 pregnant women whose babies were delivered early by c-section just before their mothers died.mississippifreepress.org/15565/multiple…

President Biden on Gov. Reeves: "In the midst of a pandemic that has already taken 675,000 lives, I propose a requirement for COVID vaccines and the governor of that state calls it, ‘a tyrannical type move?’"
mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

President Biden on Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves calling his vaccine mandates "tyranny":

"It’s the worst kind of politics. Because it’s putting the lives of citizens in their states, especially children, at risk, and I refuse to give into it.”
mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…

In 2020 alone, Mississippi recorded more excess deaths than during the entire 1918-1919 Great Influenza pandemic.

I reported that back in February, not long before Gov. Reeves ended most public COVID-19 mitigation measures.
mississippifreepress.org/8979/in-missis…

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