Scott Waller, President & CEO, Mississippi Economic Council (MEC), spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the Club’s August 11, 2020, meeting. The title of his talk was “Securing Mississippi’s Future; Relief, Recovery, Reimagine. The MEC is Mississippi’s Chamber of Commerce.

More detailed information on the three points in Mr. Waller’s presentation is as follows:

• “Relief – Continually assess and address immediate impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on businesses’ operations and employees, advancing best practices
  to help stabilize operations in uncertain times, while seeking economic stability and continuity.

• Recovery – The first phase of recovery focuses on restarting our economy. Restoring confidence in economic activity will be of utmost importance once health concerns are addressed. Recovery truly begins as we work to return economic activity to the pre-crisis levels.

• Reimagine – Reshaping and transforming Mississippi’s economy requires putting Mississippi in a position to optimize opportunities in a post-pandemic economy. Rethinking our sector strategies will lead to steady, long-term growth.”

Waller further elaborated on these three phases of securing Mississippi’s Future:

• Areas to explore during the Relief phase include:

  • Economic Continuity

  • Business Liquidity

  • Regulatory Relief

  • Business Liability Protection

  • Transportation and Logistics

  • Technology Infrastructure

• Areas to explore during the Recovery phase include:

  • Creating Economic Stability

  • Workforce Availability

  • Educational Assessments

  • Tourism & Retail

  • Infrastructure’s Importance

  • Technology Advancement

  • Supply Chain Continuity

• Areas to explore during the Reimagine phase include:

  • Talent Retention and Attraction

  • Workforce & Educational Attainment

  • Educational Innovation

  • Economic Development Realignment

Waller reported the results of a Covid-19 Business Survey Conducted by MEC, Mississippi Economic Development Council, and Mississippi Manufacturers Association. The results were as follow:

• Essential vs Non-Essential

  • 58% reported that their business was designated essential

  • 26% reported that their business was designated non-essential

  • 12 % reported that some parts of their business was designated essential and some parts were designated non-essential.

  • 4% reported that they were unsure or did not know.

• COVID-19 impact on their business

  • 7 % reported no impact.

  • 88% reported a negative impact.

  • 6% reported a positive impact.

• Reducing Staff or hours

  • 7% reported having reduced or planning to reduce staff

  • 17% reported that the hours worked were reduced or they were planning to reduce the no. of hours worked

  • 34% reported that they had reduced or were planning to reduce the number of staff or the hours staff worked

  • 42% had no plans for any reductions.

• Impact on Revenues

  • 12 % reported no impact of CUVID-19 on revenues.

  • 31% reported a 20 - 40% reduction in revenues.

  • 37% reported a 60-80% reduction in revenues.

  • 21% reported a 100% reduction in revenues.

• Top Concerns going forward

  • 45% Business  Financial, Market Concerns

  • 22% COVID-19 concerns

  • 14% Workforce concerns

  • 12% Consumer related concerns

  • 6% Global business concerns

We thank Waller for his presentation and for his work on behalf of Mississippians and Mississippi businesses. He is shown in the following photo during his presentation.

The Sanderson Farms Championship is one of only 49 PGA TOUR tournaments held each year. The tournament has been part of the PGA TOUR schedule since 1968 and is now in its 10th year as part of the FedEx Cup.

This event has raised more than $17 million for Batson Children’s Hospital, through its donations to Friends of Children’s Hospital, and statewide charities, including over $2.2 million in charitable impact 2019. Past champions of the tournament include defending champion Sebastian Munoz,  Cameron Champ, Ryan Armour, Cody Gribble, Peter Malnati, Nick Taylor, Scott Stallings, Chris Kirk, Heath Slocum, 2011 FedExCup Champion Bill Haas, and Payne Stewart.

The2018 and 2019 tournaments won the award for Best Charity Integration among the PGA TOUR’s 49 events, recognizing the Sanderson Farm Championship’s ability to share how proceeds from the tournament impact the lives of Mississippi children treated at Batson Children’s Hospital.  Last year’s event generated more than $2.2 million in charitable impact and a local economic impact of over $26 Million. The 2020 Sanderson Farms Championship will be held September 28 – Oct 4th at the Country Club of Jackson. 

Steve spent most of his time discussing the objectives of the tournament and the success it has had raising money for the Friends of Batson Children's Hospital and other Mississippi charities plus the special plans that are being put in place for this year's tournament given the COVID-19 pandemic. Those plans are still being finalized. We sincerely thank Steve for his presentation, for his efforts on behalf of the Century Club Charities, the City of Jackson, and all Mississippians.

Rotarian Dr. Nelson Atehortua, M.D., Ph.D., M.S. (Dr. A.), Assistant Professor of Environmental and Behavioral Health in Jackson State University’s School of Public Health spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s July 28, 2020, meeting.  Dr. A. is a bilingual-bicultural public health professional. Born and raised in Colombia, Dr. Atehortua started his professional journey at the School of Medicine, University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia where he graduated as a physician (MD). After combining clinical, administrative, and academic work, he received a Master of Science degree in healthcare management (Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia) and began his experiences with public health interventions.

His passion for public health became manifest after realizing that community-level health education, health promotion, and disease prevention approaches can do more to save lives and spare suffering than clinical approaches. After a period of analysis, he decided to immigrate to the U.S. to pursue a Masters in Public Health (MPH degree) with a concentration in Health Education (Western Kentucky University) and a Ph.D. degree in Health Education (Texas A&M University). 

The Subject of Dr. A’s presentation was “COVID-19 updates.” Dr. A. Spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson about COVID-19 on March 31, 2020. Thus, the use of update in the title of his presentation. Dr. A. said that he had originally projected that Mississippi would have nearly 4500 COVID-19 deaths. To date, 4 months into the pandemic, there have been 1500 COVID-19 deaths. The pandemic continues in Mississippi. On July 27, 693 new cases were reported as were 6 new deaths. Cases. As of that date, there were 949 people hospitalized with COVID-19 304 in the state’s ICUs, 166 on ventilators, and 230 suspected cases of COVID-19 hospitalized. Cases continue to increase at a rapid rate in the state. Mississippi is the no. 3 COVID-19 hotspot in the country behind Florida and Louisiana based on cases per 100,000 residents. Mississippi has experienced 9,251 new COVID-19 cases in the past 7 days and has experienced a total of 51,097 cases making it the no. 2 state in cases per capita. Ranked on cases per 100,000 residents, Mississippi is no. 13. 

Dr. A. also reported on the results of clinical trials of medications to treat COVID-19. Remdesivir and dexamethasone are progressing as effective treatments. Previously touted hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin and convalescent plasma have shown no advantages as treatments, Actemra and Tamiflu have shown may be some progress, with Colcrys and Ivermectin being too early to call. 

Vaccines are a hot topic with progress on some fronts. The Oxford University  -  Astra Zeneca vaccine has shown good promise in both safety and efficacy and is entering further testing. Similarly, a Chinese vaccine, Cansino, is entering further testing. A vaccine developed by Moderna is also entering further testing based on efficacy and safety findings. It is expected to enter phase 3 testing later this summer. Based on these positive results, a widely available could be available in 2021. 

The bottom line on what Dr. A. reported is that COVID-19 continues to spread and is causing widespread deaths. There are some promising treatments and effective vaccines are proceeding through the development process.

We thank Dr. A for his update and for his work on behalf of Mississippians. The following photo is from his biographical information on the Jackson State website.