news,
cu l
storytelling & re, ir tu
“Somehow, the system is failing those people who really need help at this time. My release is in the spirit of calling attention to a system that still fails many Mississippians at one of the worst moments of their adult life. They need help. And they can’t access it. Understand those pleas.”
TALK JXN
@jxnfreepress
@jacksonfreepress
@jxnfreepress
ce eren rev
- U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson on MDES overload
Jackson Attorney with COVID: ‘A False Sense of Protection Here’ Jackson attorney Felisha Sheppard, pictured here with her sons Aaron Evans and Camry Watkins, shared her positive COVID-19 diagnosis in the hope that it could help put a face on the disease and support others who are navigating the pandemic.
throughout the nation and the prioritization of people showing more severe symptoms, Sheppard expected the nurse to turn her away. “That’s enough to consider that a fever,” the nurse answered instead, and then set up an appointment the next day for Sheppard to get a COVID-19 test. At the Mississippi State Fairgrounds, health professionals conducted a swab test on an energetic, healthy-looking Sheppard, who couldn’t believe that she had the virus. On April 1, Sheppard learned that she had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The diagnosis prompted her to revisit some of her earlier symptoms, ones that she had been ignoring because they seemed minor: congestion, loss of taste and smell. She also began to experience headaches after her diagnosis.
Sheppard is now going public with her story to urge other Mississippians to exercise precautions, practice social distancing and, above all, not assume that they or others do not have the disease simply because they are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. “I think people are expecting to see symptoms in someone, maybe even coughing or just looking sick,” Sheppard said in the interview. “Obviously, I could have and still could be carrying the virus and not have looked sick.” Sheppard said she had continued to go to the grocery store to stock up on supplies before her diagnosis, because she had no reason to believe she may be a carrier. It wasn’t until the day she learned she had the virus, on April 1, that Gov. Tate Reeves signed a shelter-in-place order, limiting interactions that could cause the spread
of the debilitating and often-deadly novel coronavirus. ‘A False Sense of Protection’ Since diagnosing its first COVID-19 positive patient on March 11, Mississippi had seen 6,342 cases of the novel coronavirus as reported April 28, when this story went to press. Of those people, 229 have died, the vast majority of whom are black. In Hinds County, 435 people had tested positive, and seven died. State and private health providers had administered tests to 64,412 Mississippians so far—0.02% of the state’s population of 2,976,149. Despite the mounting rates of infection, for weeks Mississippi saw the absence of a state-wide shelter-in-place policy to prevent the spread of the virus. As a result, more JACKSON ATTORNEY, p 8
April 29 - May 12, 2020 • jfp.ms
Don’t Assume the Best Sheppard began to worry after watching a segment of “CNN Tonight with Don Lemon” that Friday evening, in mid-March. A congressman appeared on the show and revealed that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. His only symptoms were loss of taste and smell. Sheppard confided in a friend, who told her to download the C Spire Health app the following day. It took about three minutes for Sheppard to submit her symptoms through the app—she could only check one, so she checked loss and taste of smell—and make contact with a nurse. The night before, Sheppard had felt hot under her blanket, despite the fact that her home was at a relatively low temperature. When the nurse called Sheppard within five minutes of her submitting her symptoms, Sheppard mentioned the night sweats. Given the lack of widespread testing
Courtesy Felisha Sheppard.
F
elisha Sheppard had been mourning the loss of a close friend in the weeks leading up to the Mississippi primary election on March 10. She had remained by her friend and former ClarionLedger columnist Eric Stringfellow’s side at the hospital after doctors diagnosed him with cancer in January. When Stringfellow passed in February, Sheppard did not leave her Jackson home for weeks. When Sheppard did go out the week of March 8, Jackson was buzzing with events. The Jackson native and attorney attended an election-watch party and Toastmaster’s Club contest, among other local gatherings. Sheppard, who lives alone, started experiencing congestion a week later on a Sunday. She chalked it up to a minor cold. She began to lose her sense of taste and smell, which she suspected was due to the cold. “I really convinced myself for five or six days that is exactly what that was. Obviously, I had no fever, no shortness of breath, any other requirements for being tested for COVID,” she told the Jackson Free Press during an interview in early April.
by Seyma Bayram
7
