MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Mississippi Delta - it's two hundred (200) miles long, seventy (70) miles across its widest point. So, why did Local 24 News Weeknight Anchor Katina Rankin choose the Delta to see how people are trying to get shots in arms? It's simple. Healthcare there is ranked 50th in the U.S.
Many call the Delta 'The Home of the Blues' where on any given day you hear guitars and harmonica sounds. On this day what stood out was birds chirping on a sunny summer day. And blight - homes with shattered glass, others boarded up.
According to the annual report from U.S. News and World Report, Mississippi's poverty rate is 19.7%. It ranks the Magnolia State dead last in the U.S., not just as the poorest state as it relates to the economy, but in healthcare too.
July 4th is just around the corner, and President Joe Biden wants at least seventy (70%) percent of adults to have at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot by then. To reach that goal, he's asking organizations to help those who can't get the shot.
In rolls Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
"We're here. We're educating. We're vaccinating. We're asking people to participate in this so we can save lives. It's lifesaving," said International President and Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated Dr. Glenda Glover.
Dr. Glover calls the initiative, the Mississippi Health Project II.
"It's do or die, for us especially. We're here in an area that's often overlooked. It’s underserved, so as a service organization that's what we're here to do. We're here to serve," said Dr. Glover.
The sorority is traveling around the Mississippi Delta, Mound Bayou and Greenville, to answer the president's call of participating, communicating, educating, and vaccinating residents in underserved areas - folks like Greenville Resident Jamiya Carter.
"Since this event is going on, let me go now before I develop that moment in my mind when I'm like. ‘Naw, I'm not going to do it’," said Carter.
Jamiya is a second-grade teacher that had some hesitancy about taking the vaccine before the organization began educating residents on its importance.
"This event really helped me, pushed me to go ahead and take it now," said Carter.
Only thirty-two (32%) percent of Mississippians are college-educated. The median income just over 23 thousand ($23,000) dollars, well below the national median income of 33-thousand-seven hundred ($33,700) dollars. It equates to poverty, a direct tie to poor health care. For mobile drive through clinics like this one to come to their town, it means not just COVID vaccines. It means being able to get checked for other medical conditions too when out of town help comes. Eye checks, blood pressure testing. and HIV tests.
"Since they said they were giving other test, I said I was gone take it and anything that came for free like today, you should take it," said Greenville Resident Wendel Braxton.
"We say if we can save one life with this, one would have met our mission, achieved our goal," said Dr. Glover.
So, while the Mississippi Delta is known for its blues, the birthplace of Kermit the frog, or where we get our catfish, residents here are more grateful for the opportunity to get a vaccine - any medical attention. They say the opportunity is as golden as their fields of corn.
The first one hundred (100) people in line got twenty-five (25) gift cards, and they had a chance to win a sixty (60) inch flat screen TV.