On Tuesday, Texas became the largest US state to lift its COVID-19 mask mandate, as a number of states have begun loosening restrictions.

Mississippi, Louisiana, and Michigan also announced easing some restrictions this week, while Iowa, Montana, and North Dakota ditched state-wide mask mandates earlier this year.

The drop in coronavirus cases has been cited in decisions to lift restrictions, and, indeed, most states are down from their fall and winter peaks. However, the nationwide decline in case counts seems to be stalling at numbers that public health officials have said are still too high, prompting warnings that it's too soon to drop restrictions.

Infectious-disease experts told Insider that while the dropping case counts were promising, it's too soon to make dramatic changes in restrictions, especially when it comes to masks.

"It's completely too soon," Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California at San Francisco, told Insider.

"It goes against the grain of what President Biden is trying to do, which is a national strategy that we never had," he said. "COVID doesn't restrict itself by state borders."

Chin-Hong said individual states' lifting mask mandates echoed the situation in the US last year, when he said the lack of a national strategy hindered efforts to restrict coronavirus transmission.

Even as President Joe Biden's administration has ramped up vaccinations, Chin-Hong said coronavirus variants were a big concern.

"The vaccine rollout is progressing everywhere, but it probably won't be able to protect the population fast enough," he said.

The experts Insider spoke with all said there were encouraging signs, but that the US was still in a race to vaccinate before virus variants spread more widely.

The uncertainty of the variants

Chin-Hong said some states lifting restrictions are dealing with virus variants, including the more transmissible B.1.1.7 variant. Several cases of that variant have been discovered in states dropping restrictions, including a growing number in Texas.

But he called those cases only "the tip of the iceberg," given the limited work being done to identify the variants.

The B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the UK, is known to be more transmissible than the original strain. British scientists have also become increasingly convinced the variant could be deadlier as well.

The variant has been detected in 46 states, and Chin-Hong said it would most likely be the country's dominant strain by the end of March. If states continue to lift restrictions like mask mandates, it will increase the likelihood for B.1.1.7 to spread.

In states that have dramatically lifted restrictions, which now includes Texas, Chin-Hong said the virus was "probably having a party right now."

B.1.1.7 is just one of many coronavirus variants circulating in the US and it's possible more will emerge, making it an evolving issue with lots of uncertainty.

"We're entering a phase where it's harder to know what the near-term future is like," Andrew Noymer, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California at Irvine, told Insider.

He said his expectations for what would happen throughout the pandemic — such as the summer and winter surges — had largely been accurate. But, he said, for the first time he felt as if he really didn't know what the immediate future would look like regarding the pandemic.

Racing to vaccinate

Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida, agreed it's too soon to be lifting mask mandates.

"The thing is, we still have COVID circulating and don't have the majority of people vaccinated," she said, adding that while case numbers were lower than they were during the holiday surge, they're still not at ideal levels in most places.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the US as of March 3. About 16% of Americans have received their first dose, while about 8% are fully vaccinated.

To reach herd immunity, an estimated 65% to 80% of a population needs to be immune.

The Biden administration is well on its way to achieving its goal of administering 100 million vaccine shots in its first 100 days, and it has plans to further ramp up vaccinations. The president said Tuesday the US will have enough vaccine doses for every US adult by the end of May.

But depending on distribution, it will take months for the doses to be administered.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is also Biden's chief COVID-19 medical advisor, has said priority groups won't finish getting vaccinated until sometime in April. And it could take until late summer for all eligible adults to receive their shot.

If the more-transmissible B.1.1.7 variant becomes the most common strain, that leaves a lot of time for it to circulate in environments with loosened restrictions.

"It is really a race against time," Prins said.

Before dramatically lifting restrictions, she said, states should have a combination of low transmission as well as a high number of fully vaccinated people to reach a "balance where we feel like we're not going to have widespread transmission."

"We'll get to that point," she said. "But we're not there yet."

'Masks should be among the last to go'

Despite concerns over variants, Noymer of UC Irvine said it's reasonable for states to reevaluate restrictions as case numbers drop.

"People are getting antsy," Noymer told Insider. "What you don't want to have is a situation in which people don't want to follow any restrictions because they feel it's all too strict."

Noymer said loosening restrictions could even have an overall positive effect in some situations. For instance, he mentioned California, where an outdoor-dining ban in the fall sparked outrage and even prompted some restaurants and local jurisdictions to flout the rules.

Noymer considers this a significant problem because it risks some restrictions being viewed as meaningless.

Gov. Gavin Newsom reopened outdoor dining in California in January, prompting some to wonder whether the decision came too soon. But Noymer said it just brought the restrictions closer in line with reality in some places, which can go a long way in maintaining the public's trust.

"I'd like to have these orders still have some meaning when in the fall we might face a new wave with variants," Noymer said.

But as far as what kinds of restrictions can safely be lifted, he said "masks should be among the last to go."

He said relative to other aspects of life that had been disrupted by the pandemic, masks were a minor inconvenience relative to their public-health benefits.

"We know that masking is really important for prevention," Prins said, adding that to keep case numbers from rising again it's crucial for people to continue wearing masks and physical distancing until more Americans can be vaccinated.

Masks could be one of the last parts of the pandemic to go away, as Fauci recently said it's possible Americans will be wearing masks into 2022, even after life begins to look a bit more "normal."

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious-disease expert in the US, has spoken out against the reopening of states including Texas and Mississippi, calling their decisions to lift mask mandates "inexplicable."

Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday that Texas would lift its statewide mask mandate next week, making it the largest state to do so. The state would reopen "100%," he said. That same day, Gov. Tate Reeves said county-specific mask mandates in Mississippi would be lifted, alongside many other COVID-19 restrictions throughout the state.

Other states including Michigan, Massachusetts, and Louisiana lifted some restrictions in February, including mask mandates and capacity limits for venues such as restaurants. Public-health experts and some government officials have criticized the states' decisions.

Fauci, who is President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, said it was too early to lift restrictions.

"I don't know why they're doing it, but from a public-health standpoint it's certainly ill-advised," he told CNN on Wednesday.

"Just pulling back on all of the public-health guidelines that we know work — and if you take a look at the curve, we know it works — it's just inexplicable why you would want to pull back now."

Fauci noted that the number of daily new coronavirus cases in the US had plateaued over the past week at a still-high rate of 55,000 to 70,000.

States lifting coronavirus safety measures in the past have caused "troublesome" rebounds, he said. "What we don't need right now is another surge," he said, adding: "I understand the need to want to get back to normality, but you're only going to set yourself back if you just push aside the public-health guidelines."

When the country gets its coronavirus case rate low enough, lifting measures will still cause "little blips," he said, but they would be manageable.

Biden on Wednesday called Texas and Mississippi's decisions"a big mistake," and a result of "Neanderthal thinking."

It's "critical, critical, critical that they follow the science: Wash your hands — hot water, do it frequently — wear a mask, and stay socially distanced," he said Wednesday. "I know you all know that — I wish to heck some of our elected officials knew it."

Dr. Natasha Kathuria, an emergency-medicine physician in Texas with expertise in public health and epidemiology, told Insider's Lauren Frias that Abbott's decision to reopen the state "may have dire consequences."

She said only 7% of Texans had been fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, compared with the roughly 75% she said was required to achieve herd immunity.

The winter storms in February disrupted vaccine operations, as well as wider healthcare facilities, in Texas and nearby states.

"This hurt us in a way that COVID-19 never did, paralyzing many of our hospitals, shutting down labs, halting water and power to some of our hospitals, and preventing ambulance transfers,"Kathuria said.

Despite states rolling back COVID-19 restrictions, some companies, including Target, Macy's, and Kroger, have said they will still require that staff members and customers wear masks.

SEE ALSO: Fast-food workers in LA face unmasked customers and unsafe workplaces, and are punished for speaking up about COVID-19, a damning new report says

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Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee defended Neanderthals after President Joe Biden criticized Texas and Mississippi for lifting their mask mandates and called the decision "Neanderthal thinking."

"I hope everyone's realized by now these masks make a difference," Biden told reporters Wednesday. "The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime everything's fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters."

In a Fox Business interview Thursday morning, Blackburn suggested it was actually a good thing to be called a Neanderthal.

"Neanderthals are hunter-gatherers, they're protectors of their family, they are resilient, they're resourceful, they tend to their own," the GOP senator said. "So, I think Joe Biden needs to rethink what he is saying."

Shortly after she made the comment, fellow lawmakers and members of the public mocked Blackburn and pointed out that her use of the present tense was incorrect given that Neanderthals are extinct.

The president on Wednesday emphasized that it was "critical" for officials to "follow the science."

"Wash your hands — hot water, do it frequently — wear a mask, and stay socially distanced," he told reporters. "I know you all know that. I wish to heck some of our elected officials knew it."

States across the country have begun easing their COVID-19 restrictions as the country continues to see a drop in new cases and hospitalizations. Biden also announced earlier this week that Johnson & Johnson is collaborating with rival pharmaceutical giant Merck to expand the production of J&J's vaccine.

As a result of the partnership, Biden said, the US is on track to have enough vaccine doses for every American adult by the end of May.

Biden added that he hoped the country would be back to normal "by this time next year." But he stressed that Americans need to "continue to be smart" about following COVID-19 guidelines.

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Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, in an interview Sunday defended his decision to roll back the state's mask requirement even as public health officials warn such actions are premature.

"The numbers don't justify government intervention at the levels we are seeing in other states," Reeves, who in the said he still encouraged residents to wear masks, said in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union."

"Unlike President Biden, who wants to insult Americans and insult Mississippians, I actually trust Mississippians to make good decisions," Reeves added. 

Biden on Wednesday criticized leaders in Mississippi and Texas for ending mask mandates, calling the moves "neanderthal thinking.

"I think it's a big mistake," Biden told reporters last week. "Look, I hope everybody's realized by now, these masks make a difference. We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way with which we're able to get vaccines in people's arms."

But Reeves said he viewed his decision as necessary to bolster the state economy and that he never intended to entirely eradicate the disease in his state. 

"Our objective in Mississippi has never been to get rid of the virus," Reeves said. "Our approach has been not only to protect lives but to protect livelihoods."

Over the past seven days, 12% of COVID-19 tests have returned a positive result compared to the 4.2% positivity rate nationally over the past week, according to data analyzed by Johns Hopkins University. In total, there have been 297,321 cases of the disease in the state that have resulted in 6,805 reported deaths. 

Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, warned in an interview Sunday the US may be in the "eye of the hurricane" in a period where new cases are declining from an all-time high earlier this year but before a highly contagious variant first found in the UK causes a potential new "surge" in cases. 

Several states that have rolled back mask mandates, including Texas, Iowa, Montana, and North Dakota, have announced plans to rescind mask mandates. Other states, including Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, or Tennessee, never had a statewide mandate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since April 2020 has recommended the usage of masks to stem the spread of the pandemic and in February recommended double masking to further reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. But throughout the pandemic, mask mandates have remained at the forefront of the fierce debate between health experts and politicians.  

Masks are still recommended by experts, even amid the accelerated vaccine rollout across the US.

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First, Republicans used bathroom bills to go after transgender youth. Now, conservatives have opened up a new front in their assault on transgender rights even as Democrats seek to expand civil rights protections for the LGBTQ+ community.

Republicans in Washington and statehouses around the country have unleashed a barrage of legislation and rhetoric aimed at preventing transgender children from participating in sports that match their gender identity.

Nationwide, at least 37 current state bills aim to curtail transgender athletes from participating in sports using their preferred gender are making their way through state legislatures, according to data provided to Insider by the Human Rights Campaign. Two pieces of legislation — in South Dakota and Mississippi — are on their way to becoming law. 

There are 35 more active bills targeting transgender people in other ways, according to HRC.

And in recent weeks, high-profile political figures including former president Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, a Georgia Republican have used transgender athletes as political punching bags — or punchlines.

To advance this agenda, conservatives argue that allowing transgender athletes to participate on teams that match their gender identities would harm women's sports, a claim that trans activists say is preposterous.

Legislators and activists who talked to Insider said that the people most affected by the proposed pieces of legislation are children.

"Trans youth are just trying to go to school to learn and play on a team to be with their friends like anybody else," said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, deputy executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.  "There's no reason that elected officials should be attacking young people like that. We should be making it easier to be in school and play on teams these days, not harder."

And yet when the Associated Press reached out to more than 20 lawmakers and political groups who sought to ban transgender girls from playing on women's teams, most could not cite an instance where this had been an issue in their state or district. 

The wave of legislation recalls the fights over so-called "bathroom bills," where lawmakers tried to prevent transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponded with their gender identity.

"It is a hundred percent a coordinated strategy by people who are vehemently anti-transgender," Heng-Lehtinen said.

An all-American problem

While anti-transgender rhetoric is not unique to the US, the "saving women's sports" rhetoric sports is all-American, said Katy Montgomerie, a trans activist in Bristol, England.

"One of the best ways the gender critical movement has to radicalize the average person on the street is sports," Montgomerie said.

A new group, known as Promise to America's Children, has emerged to push back against the Equality Act, which would expand protections for LGBTQ people, NBC News reported. The effort is backed by a coalition that includes the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Family Policy Alliance, and others.

Emilie Kao, who directs the Heritage Foundation's program on religion and civil society and is involved with the Promise for America's Children, said that "male bodies are just bigger and stronger and faster and women's bodies are smaller and weaker and slower."

It's an argument repeated by conservatives who insist that transgender athletes endanger women's sports.

While GOP legislators push bills to "save women's sports" by banning transgender girls and women, medical professionals are still determining whether any competitive advantage exists for transgender women to begin with.

Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum, a doctor and strength coach, wrote that any attempt to limit trans inclusion in sports with scientific arguments is a pointless exercise, especially given the lack of long-term research on the subject.

"Effectively regulating sports divisions based on sex using science is impossible," Feigenbaum said. "There is no specific biological characteristic, nor set of characteristics, including genital structures, reproductive organs, or chromosomal arrangement, that can adequately answer this."

Some bills that have been filed have no real shot at becoming law.

But other recent anti-transgender bills are beginning to see success, such as Mississippi's S.B. 2536, which was passed in the state legislature and is headed to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves' desk. The bill, which Reeves has vowed to sign, bans transgender girls and men from participating in women's sports.

Mississippi State Rep. Shanda Yates, a Democrat who opposes the bill, said that the legislation was "without a doubt" a sign of more anti-trans bills to come.

A backlash to growing rights for trans people

Shortly after becoming president, Joe Biden rescinded Trump's ban on transgender people joining the military and issued an executive order to protect LGBTQ people in schools and healthcare services.

Biden also nominated Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania's health secretary and a trans woman, as assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. Levine — who faced anti-trans questioning during her Senate confirmation hearing — would be in a crucial position to influence transgender healthcare and protections at the federal level.

Reeves, the Mississippi governor, specifically cited Biden's executive actions when declaring his intent to sign S.B. 2536.

The anti-trans rhetoric grew more heated as House Democrats prepared to pass the Equality Act, which aims to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. The legislation amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to extend protections to LGBTQ people and also prevents individuals and businesses from discriminating against them based on religious grounds. 

Republican critics say the bill would harm women — who they define as people assigned female at birth, rather than all individuals who identify as women — and infringes on their religious liberties.

The Equality Act passed along party lines in the House on February 25 with only three Republicans voting in favor: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Rep. John Katko of New York, and Rep. Tom Reed of New York. Prior to the vote, Republicans took to the House floor to object to the bill.

Greene, who was stripped of her committee assignments in February for her history of anti-Semitic, racist, and conspiracy-theory laden remarks, said on the House floor without citing any examples of real-world harm, that the legislation would endanger girls' sports and women's rights. 

She claimed without evidence that "biological males" would be allowed in her daughter's "locker rooms, they would  be in her showers, they will be in her bathroom, they will be in her hotel room when she travels with her team."

She later hung a sign outside her office stating that there are "only two genders: male and female"— directly across the hall from the office of Rep. Marie Newman, who has a transgender daughter.

"It's a gigantic red herring, period, full stop," Newman, an Illinois Democrat, said of the anti-trans rhetoric from her Republican colleagues. 

A few days later, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Trump claimed that if transgender women are allowed to participate on teams that matched their gender identity "women's sports as we know it will die, will end." 

He then claimed that transgender women were breaking weightlifting records by "a hundred pounds" before balling his hands into fists and miming weightlifting motions while making a "foomf foomf" noise.

Virginia State Del. Danica Roem, a legislator who helped usher in Virginia's Equal Rights Amendment and Virginia Values Act, likened the GOP push against trans children as similar to the US history of segregation.

"They're using the same playbook that the segregationists used 60 and 70 years ago," Roem said, "almost verbatim in some cases, and playing from the same playbook where people said, 'What's going to happen if you allow black people to use the same restroom as white people? They're going to attack us….' But now they're doing the same thing, right? They're trying to make these trans girls out to be Olympic-level weightlifters or something."

Roem made history in 2017 when she became the first openly transgender person elected to serve in a US state legislature.

'None of this was ever about fairness'

While some of the dozens of anti-transgender bills filed are applicable to both male and female-assigned-at-birth people, many of them, much like Mississippi's S.B. 2536, solely focus on preventing transgender women from participating with cisgender women.

Several of the bills are simply titled the "Save Girls Sports Act," a naming that transgender-rights activists and legislators have referred to as discriminatory. 

One bill, Minnesota's HF 1657, goes so far as to criminalize transgender women playing or even simply trying out for a women's sports team.

"None of this was ever about fairness," Yates said.

"It's an attempt to grab sort of the headline on this sort of national conservative train and say, 'Oh, well, I sponsored that there in the city and we moved it forward and we've done that,'" Yates added. "It's in no way attempting to address an actual issue that's occurring anywhere."

Transgender advocates say the lawmakers pushing such bills are not making efforts to meet with transgender people and understand their perspectives.

At least one GOP governor, Utah's Spencer Cox, has pushed back against such bills making their way through state legislatures and has challenged lawmakers to spend time with transgender youth.

"If you have not spent time with transgender youth, then I would encourage you to pause on this issue," Cox told reporters in February as he anticipated such legislation arriving at his desk. "These kids are, they are just trying to stay alive."

The Utah bill, which would have prohibited "a student of the male sex from participating in an athletic activity designated for female students,"ultimately failed.

Roem said meetings with trans children and people were vital to passing anti-discrimination laws in her state of Virginia, such as HB 1429 that prohibited discrimination in healthcare on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

"Having that dialogue in that consultation about what specific issues trans people face in healthcare and health insurance coverage was so important for us to get another one of my bills passed," Roem said. 

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When Ronald Reagan opened his 1980 general election campaign at Mississippi's Neshoba County Fair, he proclaimed, "I believe in states' rights … And I believe that we've distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to that federal establishment." 

On that distant hot summer afternoon Reagan's message resonated with the audience since it was something they had heard before. "State's rights" was the same phrase used to justify Jim Crow segregation, poll taxes, and literacy tests for Black voters. In the words he chose, Reagan showed that he spoke Mississippi's language.

Reagan's speech was also thinly-disguised racism — and uttered not far from where three murdered civil rights workers were buried in an earthen dam in the summer of 1964 — yet its sentiment of brash independence rang true with those who heard it. 

Today the Republican party dominates Mississippi politics. After a period of racially-integrated governance from 1980 to 2000, Mississippi has now entered a second phase of disenfranchisement — much like the period that followed the two decades of Reconstruction — in which the legislature's mostly Black Democratic minority has been locked out by the entirely white Republican majority. The idea that government can help Mississippians, with policies such as Medicaid expansion, is immediately dismissed. The same can be said about the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has largely avoided government support and public health guidelines during the crisis. 

Although the rallying cry of state's rights has not been used to justify the way the COVID crisis has been handled in Mississippi, it might as well have been. The language used by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and those in his circle of Republican legislators echoes the belief that government cannot interfere in anything, even if it is during a pandemic that threatens the lives of every last citizen of the state. Yet the question remains, can the good the government is seeking to do during this crisis overshadow years of Republican messaging to the contrary?

States rights and COVID

Ever since COVID cases began to rise in Mississippi a year ago, the state has handled the crisis with a complete lack of consistency, with one message from the governor and Republican state legislators and another from local officials who have been seeking to keep their communities safe. Initially, the governor's message was that as a rural state, the pandemic was not going to have the same impact as it was having in large cities, so there was no need for tight restrictions. Gov. Reeves' brand of exceptionalism proved to be wrong, as COVID cases escalated over the summer months, striking the poor and communities of color hard. 

By July, about one in six state lawmakers tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Dr. Thomas Dobbs of the Mississippi Health Department, since most lawmakers flouted mask requirements in the state Capitol, citing their personal freedom as a reason not to wear a mask. 

Then there was Mississippi's patchwork quilt of county-by-county mask mandates and COVID restrictions on bars and restaurants, which ignored that the virus could travel across county lines, since people in rural Mississippi often shop and seek medical attention across those artificial borders. When Gov. Reeves lifted the mask mandate in March, he told CNN's Jake Tapper that while he strongly encouraged the wearing of masks, he did not feel the number of COVID cases in the state "required government intervention." 

Widespread vaccine hesitancy 

Today Mississippi may have vaccinated nearly a quarter of its population, but the mixed messaging from Gov. Reeves over the past year has now kept the needle from moving quickly on getting enough shots in arms. As The New York Times recently reported, there is now a pile up in unclaimed vaccination appointments in the state, and public health officials believe it is a sign of vaccine hesitancy. And this is during a period when anyone over the age of 16 is eligible for the vaccine. 

The state needs to do something to overcome this issue, but the question remains, will a push by the state to get more people vaccinated be viewed as, to use Gov. Reeves's phrasing, "government intervention?" Given the history of the state, an aversion to the idea that government can help the common good stands at the root of the hesitancy. 

Interestingly enough, Mississippi has one of the nation's best child vaccination rates, largely because of a strict mandatory vaccination law that lacks the loopholes found in many states. Mississippi does not allow religious or philosophical exemptions to child vaccination.

But the COVID vaccine is another story.  

Bear in mind that Mississippi is a place defined by a volatile mixture of politics and culture. The white population includes a sizeable number of Republican anti-vaxxers since nationally nearly half of Republican men and 40% of Republicans overall have said in surveys that they do not plan to be vaccinated. Mississippi's Black population, which is roughly 38% of the population of the entire state, includes many who are suspicious of the medical establishment and thus the vaccine. White evangelicals have also expressed resistance to taking the vaccine. 

When you combine all those factors with a populace conditioned to be suspicious of government, it is little wonder that there is a vaccine surplus in the state. I have seen more yard signs in the college town of Oxford, Mississippi commanding me to trust in Jesus during this pandemic than I have seen signs commanding me to wear a mask or urging me to get vaccinated. 

No escaping the past

Since Reagan's speech in Neshoba County in 1980, the message from Mississippi's Republican establishment has been that government is the problem. Now that there is a problem that government can potentially help solve  — a solution that provides the key to herd immunity in a state that has been ravaged by the pandemic — any sign of government intervention is still automatically seen as suspect by a large portion of the population, because, for years, their leaders have steadily sent the message to citizens that a government solution as an intrusion. 

I often say that in Mississippi, nothing is ever escaped. The past and the present live beside each other across the state's landscape and reverberate against each other. If anything has exposed the years of lies about fear of government that the Republican party has inflicted on Mississippi and the nation, it is this pandemic. 

It is time for Mississippians and Americans to learn from our past — and unshackle ourselves from it — rather than continuing to be defined by it. Government help and guidance can help us through this crisis, just as it guided the nation out of the Great Depression. 40 years later, this pandemic has made one thing clear: Ronald Reagan's message of freedom from government has blinded many of us to the realities of the present.

W. Ralph Eubanks is the author of A Place Like Mississippi and is a visiting professor of Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi.

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A record number of people started new businesses in the US last year, ushering in a new class of entrepreneurs. 

New applications for an employer ID reached 1.1 million through mid-September last year, a 12% increase from the year prior, according to an analysis of the US Census Bureau data by The Wall Street Journal. 

It might be the right time to start a new venture for many people, and where you launch can determine certain perks or challenges you'll encounter. 

Swyft Filings, an online business incorporation and compliance provider that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their new companies, built a state-by-state analysis to rank the best entrepreneurial environments. To determine the list, they looked at factors and data points such as business survival rates, filing fees, tax rates, and cost of living.

Texas took the lead spot — thanks to its low cost of living and high rate of entrepreneurship — as high-profile founders flee expensive coastal hubs for the Lone Star state. Meanwhile, Washington, DC, ranked last due to the area's high filing fees and taxes. 

Below are the top 10 states for starting a business, based on Swyft Filings's New Business Index.

10. Colorado

While many people may associate the state with its booming marijuana business, Colorado's business perks extend beyond the leafy green plant. In Denver, the fastest-growing tech industries are artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, and cryptocurrency, according to entrepreneurial community Powderkeg's 2018 tech census. 

The state has strong workforce factors, such as stable educational rates per capita and a lower than average unemployment rate of 6.5%. However, the cost of living is higher than other states: The typical home value in Denver, Colorado's capital, is $506,859, according to Zillow.

Meanwhile, Colorado Springs was ranked one of the best large cities to start a business, according to the personal finance website WalletHub. The company compared 100 U.S. cities across 21 key indicators of startup viability, including five-year business survival rate and office space affordability.

9. North Carolina

North Carolina ranks high on the list thanks to its low taxes and relaxed license policies. 

The corporate net income tax is at 3% flat, sales tax is a flat 4.25%, the personal net income tax rate is a flat 5.75%, and there's no city tax. Additionally, there are no state or city business licenses, making it easier and cheaper for entrepreneurs to start up. 

Meanwhile, Charlotte attracts fintech startups due to its robust banking industry— Wells Fargo has a strong presence in the city and Bank of America is headquartered there. Additionally, Charlotte was ranked 6th on WalletHub's ranking.

8. Iowa

The Hawkeye state packs many perks for business owners. Iowa's cost of living is ranked one of the most affordable in the US and the state boasts a below average unemployment rate of 5.4%. 

Additionally, Iowa has a higher-than-average business survival rate of 81.4% and 65 funding programs throughout the state for business capital. 

7. Indiana

Inexpensive filing fees and low taxes make Indiana an ideal location for frugal business owners. Filing articles of organization costs $100, a $95 base fee, and a $3 online fee for corporations. 

Meanwhile, the corporate net income tax rate is 4.9% and the personal net income tax is a flat 3.3%. The state's affordable cost of living offsets the high sales tax rate of 7%.

6. Mississippi

Mississippi's housing is the most affordable in the nation, with the typical home value in the state's capital at $155,402, according to Zillow. Additionally, Mississippi ranks number one in cost-of-living affordability.  

Mississippi is also growing in several industries, providing ample opportunity for entrepreneurs. Retail accounts for 26% of the state's jobs, according to the National Retail Federation.

5. Michigan

There's a lot to appreciate about Michigan's business climate. The cost of living remains low across the state and Detroit, Michigan's largest city, is in the midst of a post-bankruptcy entrepreneurial boom. 

Retail is a powerful force and accounts for 26% of the state's jobs, according to the National Retail Federation. What's more, businesses that call Michigan home have an above-average survival rate of 80.2%. 

4. Ohio

Retail-focused business owners might want to consider setting up shop in Ohio: 26% of the state's jobs are in the retail market, with a total GDP impact of $130.7 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. 

Another perk of opening a business in Ohio is the low-hassle and affordable business filing experience. It costs $99 to file articles of incorporation — which is legally required for business owners planning to launch a new company as professional corporation, nonprofit corporation, or other classification  — and articles of organization, which establishes a LLC at the state level.

3. Virginia

More than 90% of new businesses based in Virginia survive the first year of operating, compared to the national average of 79.6%, giving the state a competitive edge. 

While the state ranked well across most categories, it's also growing its reputation as a tech hot spot since Amazon announced it would build its HQ2 in Crystal City. Educational institutions, such as Virginia Tech, are investing billions of dollars into satellite campuses near HQ2 as a way to boost local entrepreneurship and talent pipelines.

2. Oklahoma

Founders focused on capital should consider starting up in the Sooner State. Oklahoma boasts 80 financial programs available for new businesses looking for loans, funding, or savings. 

Combine that with low filing costs, an above-average ranking for business survivability, and affordable housing — the typical home value in the capital city of Oklahoma City is $156,689, according to Zillow— and the state seems like a haven for the money-conscious entrepreneur.

What's more, don't ignore Tulsa's remote work program, which lures out-of-state workers to the city by offering a $10,000 grant. 

1. Texas

No, you're not imagining it, a large amount of entrepreneurs are relocating to Texas lately. Tesla's founder Elon Musk and the tech giant Oracle both recently announced they're leaving San Francisco for Texas. 

Meanwhile, a large number of households both moved in and out of Travis County, Texas, which houses Austin, highlighting a shift in the population between 2018 and 2020, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal. 

In addition to a low cost of living — compared to coastal hubs like New York City or the Bay Area — Texas has the highest percentage of residents that start their own businesses, tied with Delaware and California.

Laredo, Lubbock, Austin, Fort Worth, and Dallas, also made the top 20 on WalletHub's ranking.

Alabama

Gov. Kay Ivey announced on Monday that the state was halting its participation in federal unemployment benefits starting June 19. 

Those include the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program for gig workers and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation for the long-term unemployed.

"We have announced the end date of our state of emergency, there are no industry shutdowns, and daycares are operating with no restrictions. Vaccinations are available for all adults. Alabama is giving the federal government our 30-day notice that it's time to get back to work," Ivey said in a press release.

Alabama is also resuming its work-search requirements for recipients, which had been paused throughout the pandemic.

The average weekly benefit in Alabama amounted to $283 in March. Its unemployment rate stands at 3.8%, higher than the 2.8% it had in February 2020.

Alabama is among the seven states that have not raised the hourly minimum wage for workers since the hike to $7.25 in 2009. 

Experts say other factors are keeping workers from jumping back into the labor force, such as a lack of childcare access and fear of COVID-19 infection.

Arkansas

Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced on May 7 that the state would no longer participate in federal unemployment after June 26. 

"The $300 federal supplement helped thousands of Arkansans make it through this tough time, so it served a good purpose. Now we need Arkansans back on the job so that we can get our economy back to full speed," Hutchinson said in a press release, which cited South Carolina's and Montana's separate decisions to opt out of the federal assistance program.

Its unemployment rate is 4.4%, slightly higher than the 3.8% level of February 2020. The average weekly benefit in the state is $248.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, 74.7% of the UI Arkansas disbursed came from federal funds, according to a report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. On January 1 of this year, Arkansas's minimum wage increased to $11 — several dollars above the federal rate of $7.25.

Idaho

Gov. Brad Little said Idaho would no longer draw federal money to fund enhanced unemployment insurance, and the state will cancel its program on June 19.

It's time to get back to work," Little said in a Tuesday statement. "My decision is based on a fundamental conservative principle — we do not want people on unemployment. We want people working."

The state was among those that recently reimposed a job-seeking requirement for people receiving jobless aid.

Idaho's unemployment rate stands at 3.2%, a higher level compared to 2.6% in February 2020. The average weekly unemployment benefit in the state is $355, per the Labor Department.

Iowa

Gov. Kim Reynolds said the state would cancel federal jobless benefits on June 12.

"Federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs initially provided displaced Iowans with crucial assistance when the pandemic began," Reynolds said in a statement. "But now that our businesses and schools have reopened, these payments are discouraging people from returning to work."

The state's unemployment rate stood at 3.7%, still slightly higher than the 2.9% it recorded in February 2020. Iowa's average weekly jobless benefit is $430.

Mississippi

Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Monday that he was pulling out the state from the federal pandemic-aid programs starting June 12.

"It has become clear to me that we cannot have a full economic recovery until we get the thousands of available jobs in our state filled," Reeves wrote on Twitter.

The average weekly benefit in the state is $195, according to the Employment and Training Administration at the Department of Labor.

The state's unemployment rate is 6.3%, a figure still elevated from its pre-pandemic rate of 5.8% in February 2020.

Mississippi is among the seven states that have not lifted hourly pay for workers since the last increase to the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.

Missouri

Gov. Mike Parson announced on Tuesday that Missouri would be ending its participation in federal unemployment on June 12. 

"While these benefits provided supplementary financial assistance during the height of COVID-19, they were intended to be temporary, and their continuation has instead worsened the workforce issues we are facing," Parson said in a statement. "It's time that we end these programs that have ultimately incentivized people to stay out of the workforce." 

The average weekly benefit in Missouri amounted to $258.57 in March. Its unemployment rate stood at 4.2% in March, a drop from 4.3% in February. That's still 0.5% higher than the March 2020 unemployment rate.

Missouri raised its minimum wage to $10.30 on January 1, 2021.

Montana

Gov. Greg Gianforte announced the state was ending federal benefits on June 27.

"Incentives matter, and the vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good," Gianforte said in a statement. "We need to incentivize Montanans to reenter the workforce."

Taking its place will be a $1,200 return-to-work bonus, an amount equivalent to four weeks of receiving federal jobless aid. Workers will be eligible for the cash after a month on the job. The measure enjoys support among some congressional Republicans.

The average weekly benefit in the state is $468 without the federal supplement. The state's unemployment rate has reached pre-pandemic levels, at 3.8% in April.

North Dakota

Gov. Doug Burgum said the state would pull out of federal unemployment benefit programs on June 19.

"Safe, effective vaccines have been available to every adult in North Dakota for months now, and we have an abundance of job openings with employers who are eager to hire," Burgum said in a news release, noting the state had its highest number of online job postings since July 2015.

The state's unemployment rate is 4.4%, still almost double its level of 2.3% in February 2020. North Dakota's average weekly unemployment payment is $480.

South Carolina

Even before the jobs report hit, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said the state would stop its participation in federal unemployment effective June 30.

"This labor shortage is being created in large part by the supplemental unemployment payments that the federal government provides claimants on top of their state unemployment benefits,"McMaster wrote in a letter to the state's Department of Employment and Workforce.

McMaster spoke with Fox News' Tucker Carlson about the expanded unemployment program, saying he believed it's a "counterproductive policy."

The average weekly benefit in the state stands at $228. South Carolina's unemployment rate is 5.1%, still nearly double its pre-pandemic rate of 2.8% in February 2020.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, 76.7% of the unemployment insurance that South Carolina disbursed came from federal funds, according to the report from the Economic Policy Institute. The minimum wage in South Carolina was last raised in 2009, when the federal minimum wage as a whole was increased to $7.25.

Tennessee

Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday that federal unemployment benefits would end in the state effective July 3.

"We will no longer participate in federal pandemic unemployment programs because Tennesseans have access to more than 250,000 jobs in our state," Lee said in a statement. "Families, businesses and our economy thrive when we focus on meaningful employment and move on from short-term, federal fixes."

The state's unemployment rate in March 2021 was 5%, a 0.1% increase from the month before and 1% higher than the March 2020 rate. Tennessee's average weekly unemployment payment is $219.45. Tennessee is one of seven states where the minimum wage remains at the federal level of $7.25.

Utah

Utah is withdrawing from federal unemployment aid programs effective June 26.

"This is the natural next step in getting the state and people's lives back to normal," Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement. "The market should not be competing with the government for workers."

The state has a 2.9% unemployment rate, slightly higher than the 2.5% pre-pandemic level in February 2020. The average weekly benefit in Utah is $428.

Wyoming

Gov. Mark Gordon said the state was scrapping the federal unemployment benefit, along with programs aiding gig workers and those who exhausted traditional state payouts.

"Wyoming needs workers, our businesses are raring to go," Gordon said in a statement. "People want to work, and work is available. Incentivizing people not to work is just plain un-American."

The Wyoming unemployment rate is 5.3%, slightly higher than the 4.8% it once had in February 2020. The state's average weekly benefit is $430.

Are you unemployed and have a story you want to share? Contact these reporters at jkaplan@insider.com and jzeballos@insider.com.

The US Supreme Court on Monday announced plans to take up a major abortion case that could allow it to severely limit or overturn landmark court rulings on abortion, including Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, concerns a law in Mississippi that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, SCOTUSblog first noted.

The Supreme Court will consider "whether all previability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional," according to the court's announcement.

The Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that 34 states could cease to protect abortion rights if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned and local governments took no action.

According to Mississippi Today, the law had been previously overturned twice in federal court.

Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion provider in the state, had asked the Supreme Court not to take up the case, the report said.

The SCOTUS challenged abortion access during the pandemic

This wouldn't be the first time the majority-conservative court had challenged reproductive rights.

In January, the Supreme Court voted to ban the abortion pill from mail delivery, making it the only prescription medication to have such restrictions, until the Biden administration reversed the ruling on April 13.

In July 2020, for the first time, the Food and Drug Administration allowed mail order of the abortion pill on a federal level. The goal was to ensure safe abortion care during the pandemic, when Americans were being urged not to travel and to avoid in-person treatments when possible.

Kate Kelly, a human-rights lawyer who is cohost of abortion-rights podcast "Ordinary Equality,"previously told Insider the SCOTUS ruling was ominous for the future of Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling that says pregnant women have the right to abortions without excessive government intervention.

"They intervened in something that would have naturally expired, because it was an order for during the pandemic," Kelly said.

What would happen if Roe v. Wade were overturned

If SCOTUS rules in favor of abortion restriction in the Dobbs v. Jackson case, it would effectively overturn Roe v. Wade.

In doing so, the US would be ushered back into a context more akin to the 1950s and 1960s, when underground abortions were common, Carole Joffe, a sociologist who cowrote "Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America,"previously told Insider.

At the time, however, there wasn't a widespread movement seeking to penalize people who got abortions — it was done under the radar, Joffe said. Of the estimated 200,000 to 1.2 million illegal abortions each year in the two decades before Roe v. Wade, only a small proportion resulted in charges or sentencing, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Joffe expects that would change: She has argued that legal penalties post-Roe would be more common.

"Prosecution before Roe was very idiosyncratic, dependent on local factors. But if Roe falls, criminal justice officials, from the virulently anti-choice Attorney General Jeff Sessions on down to local police and district attorneys in many jurisdictions, can be expected to avidly pursue those who break the law," Joffe wrote in a 2017 article for Rewire News Group.

In 2016, The Self-induced Abortion Legal Team, a group of lawyers who advocate abortion rights, reported that at least 17 people who sought self-medicated abortions since 2005 had faced arrests or jail time.

There are still many unknowns about cost and access if Roe v. Wade is overturned, Joffe said, since different states can make their own laws about the procedure. One thing seems certain: Abortions will continue, no matter Roe v. Wade's future.

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A Mississippi man was arrested on Thursday, accused of spending COVID-19 small business loans on a variety of luxury items, including a $100,000 Tesla and a $1 million home, federal prosecutors said.

Christopher Paul Lick, of Starkville, got $6 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds by filing false and fraudulent loan applications with banks, according to court documents cited in a news release by the US Attorney's Office of Northern Mississippi on Friday.

Lick lied about the number of people his businesses employed, and his expenses, the documents said.

As well as the Tesla and million-dollar home, Lick invested some of the money in the stock market, the documents said.

He had been indicted by a federal grand jury before his arrest, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

The 45-year-old is charged with four counts of wire fraud, one count of false statements to a financial institution, and eleven counts of money laundering, according to the DoJ. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison if he's convicted.

On Saturday, Lick pleaded not guilty to the 16 counts.

PPP loans were designed to help small businesses pay their staff, rent, and mortgage costs to help keep them afloat during the pandemic. Insider previously reported that the majority of borrowers can receive up to 2.5 times their average monthly payroll costs, but that loans can't exceed $2 million. 

The White House initially launched the program in April 2020, but the $349 billion funding ran out in two weeks. Congress approved another $320 billion in May, and the program stopped in August with around $130 billion in unused funds.

The program was then relaunched in January with $284 billion in funding.

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The US Supreme Court on Monday announced it would hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case regarding a restrictive abortion law in Mississippi. The high court's ruling could have a "disturbing" impact on abortion access in the US and override decades of legal precedent, a lawyer on the case said.

"We always knew it was a possibility, but it's pretty rare that the Supreme Court takes a case that calls into question 50 years of precedent," said attorney Rob McDuff in an interview with Insider on Monday. McDuff represents the Mississippi Center for Justice in the case, told Insider on Monday. 

The case concerns a 2018 Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks in gestation. The law, known as the Gestational Age Act, blocked abortions after 15 weeks except in cases of medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormalities, NBC News reported.

Supporters of the legislation said it was meant to stop "inhumane procedures," according to the report, arguing that fetuses at that stage were able to feel pain. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a fetus does not have the capability to feel pain until at least 24 weeks of gestation. 

Federal courts blocked the law from taking effect after the sole abortion provider in the state sued, but a ruling from the Supreme Court could reverse the decision, challenging decades-old legal precedent.

Read more: How Marjorie Taylor Greene became the Voldemort of Congress. Few lawmakers even want to say her name.

In the past, the Supreme Court declined to review lower court rulings that had blocked harsh state abortion laws from taking effect, making its decision Monday to hear the Mississippi case all the more startling, McDuff said.

"It's quite disturbing that the court is now taking up a case that really questions the reasoning of Roe v. Wade," he said, referencing the 1973 landmark decision by the court that upheld a woman's right to seek an abortion.

McDuff said he couldn't speculate which members of the nine-person bench pushed to hear the Mississippi case, but he said the landscape of the court undoubtedly shifted following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last year.

President Donald Trump nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett to fill in for Ginsburg, who was an abortion rights advocate. Barrett has previously said it was "unlikely" the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, but suggested the rules around abortion could evolve.

"I don't think abortion or the right to abortion would change. I think some of the restrictions would change ... The question is how much freedom the court is willing to let states have in regulating abortion,"Barrett said in 2016, according to the Associated Press.

Barrett, along with the two other judges Trump nominated, Justices Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, have shifted the Supreme Court's ideological balance dramatically toward the right, sounding alarm bells for pro-choice activists.

The Mississippi Center for Justice, of which McDuff is a cofounder, is focused on advancing racial and economic justice. McDuff said anti-abortion legislation put forth in dozens of states, including Mississippi, is at odds with these goals.

"These laws have a particularly pronounced impact on poor women and women of color because it makes it more difficult for them to obtain abortions," he said. "Many can't afford to travel out of state to a place that might have better laws." 

Other pro-choice organizations similarly shared concerns about the court's decision to hear the case Monday.

"If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Mississippi, it will take the decision about whether to have an abortion away from individuals and hand it over to politicians," said Jennifer Dalven, director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, in a statement.

"The American people overwhelmingly support the right of individuals to make this decision for themselves and will not tolerate having this right taken away," she added.

Anti-abortion groups, however, celebrated the court's decision to hear the case. 

"We applaud the US Supreme Court for examining the Mississippi law," said Carol Tobias, president of the anti-abortion group National Right to Life in a statement. "We know more today about the life of a child in the womb than we did fifty years ago. The medical advances made in our knowledge of unborn children and their care and treatment are astonishing."

McDuff said he and others at the Mississippi Center for Justice would work with their counterparts on the lawsuit at the Center for Reproductive Rights, who also represent the plaintiff in the case, to create and execute a legal strategy going forward before arguing the case before the justices later this year. A ruling in the case is expected sometime in June 2022.

It's hard to predict what effect the court's ruling would have on abortion access, McDuff said, but depending on how the court rules, it could be felt instantly in states across the US.

"The potential is really, really disturbing," he said.

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SpaceX is building an offshore launch pad for its Starship rocket in Mississippi, The Sun Herald first reported on Thursday.

Elon Musk's space company bought two oil rigs off the coast of Texas earlier this year with the intention of converting them into ocean spaceports. One of the rigs, Phobos, is now located in Pascagoula, a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, according to The Sun Herald.

It's unclear where the other launch pad, Deimos, will be situated. The ocean platforms, where Starship will blast off from, have been named after Mars' moons.

Shipbuilding and repair company ST Engineering Halter Marine & Offshore Inc. is working on a six-month project to remove drilling equipment from the Phobus oil rig.

"SpaceX is here in Pascagoula," Jeffrey Gehrmann, ST Engineering's senior vice president of operations, told The Sun Herald.

Gehrmann said the oil rig was towed in from Galveston, Texas, after SpaceX called ST Engineering to ask how much the company would charge to remove the drilling equipment from the oil rig.

"Apparently, our number was better than our competitors', and they brought it to us," he said.

Gehrmann couldn't go into further details about the project due to a nondisclosure agreement with SpaceX, The Sun Herald reported.

"This has the potential of being huge," Gehrmann said.

Musk said on May 30 that that Deimos is under construction and could begin launch operations next year.

Both Deimos and Phobus will serve as a launch and landing platform for SpaceX's Starship, a spacecraft that Musk wants to send to Mars. This will be the first time that Starship takes off from an ocean launch pad.

These Starship offshore spaceports follow the success of SpaceX's ocean droneships, including "Just Read the Instructions" and "Of Course I Still Love You," which allow the recovery of Falcon 9 first stages in the Atlantic Ocean.  

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"Surely it won't be me," he thought.

Lee Sanderlin's fantasy football league was determining an appropriate punishment for the unfortunate player who finished last in the pool, and Sanderlin had seen something called "The Waffle House Challenge" on the internet.

The rules of the challenge are simple: spend 24 hours at a Waffle House, the always-open Southern diner chain. For every waffle eaten, one hour gets removed from the sentence.

"That would be hilarious to watch one of the other 11 members of our league go through that,"Sanderlin wrote in a reflection on the experience for the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, where he is an investigative reporter.

"Whatever way you spin it, I ended up screwed," he added.

After finishing dead-last in his league, Sanderlin duly reported to a Waffle House in Brandon, Mississippi, at 4:07 p.m. CT on Thursday and began live-tweeting his marathon eating session.

Armed with books, magazines, and podcasts, he tucked into his first pair of waffles in just over 20 minutes. An hour later, with another pair of waffles down, Sanderlin tweeted he was "dead on the inside."

The fifth waffle vaulted him past 2,000 calories in just three hours. The sixth sent him to the bushes behind the restaurant to… make space.

At 2:25 he had cleared waffle number seven, at which point he settled into his booth to listen to the rest of his podcasts and do crossword puzzles.

Then, shortly after sunrise, Sanderlin ordered what would be his final pair of waffles, which he managed to put away in about 30 minutes.

By Friday morning, his thread had gone viral, was trending on Twitter, and written up in outlets including The Washington Post and the New York Times.

"I'm never eating waffles again,"Sanderlin tweeted at 6:37 a.m. this morning. "That's 9 waffles and 15 hours in this restaurant. [Shoutout] to the staff for letting me hang out on a slow night (I tipped them well don't worry). This was horrible and I recommend no one ever do this."

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Americans received $600 weekly unemployment benefits under the CARES Act in March, but the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found in May that a portion of those funds fell into the wrong hands due to failures in detecting fraud. Mississippi just affirmed those findings on a statewide level — with a number attached. 

Mississippi State Auditor Shad White released a report on Tuesday that found the state had distributed $117,948,403 in improper unemployment insurance claims, or 5.5% of the claims distributed during fiscal year 2020. The report outlined the following characteristics of the incorrect payments:

• Payments made to individuals who never had a reduction in wages;
• Fraudulent payments due to stolen identity;
• Payments made to people in jail;
• And payments made due to international unemployment fraud.

White said in a statement that the report shows "it's more important than ever to understand the mistakes that were made when money was flowing so freely during COVID."

"Nearly every state I've talked to around the country lost millions of dollars to fraud out of their unemployment funds. Mississippi was no exception," White added. "The federal government and state governments around the country do not need to repeat those mistakes the next time we have a recession."

White is correct — a portion of stimulus funds, including unemployment benefits, have not reached the right people due to issues with fraud and technology errors. For example, the OIG found that $39.2 billion in CARES Act funds were likely wasted, citing inefficient state governments that failed to detect fraud. 

And Axios reported earlier this month that as much as 50% of stimulus money may have been stolen, with Blake Hall, the CEO of ID.me, a fraud-prevention service, telling the news service that America has lost $400 billion to fraudulent claims.

Washington, Iowa, California and New York have also lost millions of stimulus dollars to fraud, Axios reported.

While the data on improper payments comes from March's CARES Act, President Joe Biden's stimulus law also included $300 weekly payments through September — although GOP-led states have been ending those unemployment benefits early.

Given that some Democrats are pushing for additional recurring stimulus payments and unemployment benefits, fraud will need to be addressed moving forward, according to the OIG. The office recommended more modernized technology to better detect fraudulent payments, along with working with states to help process claims.

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• A tech startup in Mississippi is mixing harmful algae into plastic foam products like footwear. 
• The company's founder says it cleans up waterways and keeps greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere while reducing demand for plastic.
• He hopes creating valuable products from algae will encourage others to clean up harmful algae blooms.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

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Seven children are currently battling COVID-19 in intensive care units across Mississippi as state health officials warn of a Delta variant surge, ABC News reported.

Two of the children are on ventilators, state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs told ABC in a statement.

It is not clear whether the children, whose ages range from under 1 year old to 17 years old, have pre-existing health conditions.

Read more: Even medical professionals have lost trust in the CDC. That's a public health crisis.

Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with only a third of the population fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Experts warn that the low vaccination rates are putting children more at risk, especially as they are due to return to school in several weeks.

Dr. Jennifer Bryan, chairman of the board of trustees at Mississippi's State Medical Association told CBS News: "In this phase of the pandemic there are really two life choices: it's to vaccinate, or you're going to get COVID. It is that contagious of a virus." 

Hospitalizations and case numbers have continued to increase in the last few weeks as the Delta variant, otherwise known as B.1.617, continues to surge.

Since the start of the pandemic, Mississippi reported more than 325,000 cases and almost 7,500 deaths, according to a tracker by Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson,  said his hospital has seen a "significant increase" in pediatric patients and that they seem to be more symptomatic than the children who became ill earlier in the pandemic, ABC reported.

"These seem to be more classic COVID symptoms -- fever, cough, respiratory illness," he said, according to ABC News. "I suspect that's probably because this Delta variant is importing a little more severe illness in the pediatric population than those earlier strains that were circulating."

While the Delta variant may be making COVID-19 more common in kids, more severe infections are still rare, Insider reported previously. 

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The state of Mississippi has asked the Supreme Court to overturn landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade in a case set to be argued in the court's next term.

Mississippi wants Roe v. Wade to be overturned so it can uphold its own restrictions to abortion access, according to a brief filed Thursday.

The legal brief by the state of Mississippi makes an explicit argument to throw out the pivotal 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. Lawyers for Mississippi called the Roe ruling "egregiously wrong" in the brief, and argue that it's outdated. 

"Today, adoption is accessible and on a wide scale women attain both professional success and a rich family life, contraceptives are more available and effective, and scientific advances show that an unborn child has taken on the human form and features months before viability," the brief says. 

"The conclusion," the filing says, is "that abortion is a constitutional right has no basis in text, structure, history, or tradition." 

Lower courts have blocked Mississippi's state law, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks into a pregnancy. Mississippi currently has only one abortion clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization in Jackson.  

The brief follows another still-pending Mississippi case attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade 

The challenge, which can be rejected, builds on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a pending case the Supreme Court took up in May addressing whether a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks is constitutional. 

That case is deciding "whether all previability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional," the court's announcement said. "Fetal viability" is believed to begin around 24 weeks. The medical consensus is that something akin to pain is first felt at 28 weeks, despite past efforts to restrict abortion access after 20 weeks on the basis that that's when the fetus feels pain. 

On a June panel, Shannon Brewer, the director of Jackson Women's Health, said her organization is on "pins and needles" about the decision. "But we've always been on pins and needles, with all the new laws that keep coming. It's a constant battle here actually, because as soon as we get through one hurdle, there's something else that pops up."

SCOTUS is expected to hear arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health case in November or December, according to the Washington Post. 

What would happen if Roe v. Wade were overturned 

Since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last year and conservative judge Amy Cohen Barret has been appointed, fertility doctors have worried the court's makeup will threaten access to reproductive services including birth control, IVF, and abortion. 

The Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that 34 states could cease to protect abortion rights if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned and local governments took no action.

In that case, the US would be ushered back into a context more akin to the 1950s and 1960s, when underground abortions were common, Carole Joffe, a sociologist who cowrote "Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America," previously told Insider.

There are still many unknowns about cost and access if Roe v. Wade is overturned, Joffe said, since different states can make their own laws about the procedure. One thing seems certain: Abortions will continue, no matter Roe v. Wade's future.

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The University of Southern Mississippi will pay some students in tuition and housing costs if they get vaccinated, the school said in a statement Thursday.

The incentive program is intended to encourage students to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Over the next 12 weeks, five vaccinated students will be randomly selected each week to receive rewards. The items students can win include Fall semester tuition, which costs $4,602; $2,000 in housing credits; and $1,000 in dining credits, among other things.

"The best way for our students to stay healthy, stay connected, and stay in class this fall is by getting a COVID-19 vaccine. I urge all of our students to do their part and get vaccinated for COVID-19 now, if they haven't already done so," Dr. Dee Dee Anderson, USM Vice President for Student Affairs, said in the announcement.

Read more: Don't punish the vaccinated — make it harder to choose to be unvaccinated

Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates of any state, with only 34.5% of its residents fully vaccinated, according to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention data compiled by the Mayo Clinic. Only Alabama has a smaller portion of its residents fully vaccinated.

Mississippi is also seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations as the Delta variant spreads. Some intensive care units in the state are near capacity, the Clarion Ledger reported.

Some states have offered incentives to getting the vaccine, including vaccine lotteries in states like California and Ohio.

President Joe Biden called on states and local governments this week to pay people $100 to get inoculated.

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The Delta variant is spreading rapidly across five states with the lowest vaccination rates in the country. 

Officials in the five states — Alabama, Louisiana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Mississippi — are warning that positive coronavirus cases are shooting up. In Alabama, only 26 of the more than 11,000 COVID-19 deaths in the state since the pandemic began were people who were vaccinated, according to the Associated Press.

Just 44.7% of Alabama's total population has received at least one dose against the coronavirus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracks the 50 states and Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Following Alabama are Louisiana with 44.1%, Wyoming with 42.3%, Idaho with 41.6%, and Mississippi dead last at 40.8%.

These figures pale in comparison to national stats. About 58% of the US population has received at least one dose against the coronavirus. When it comes to adults, about 71% have received at least one dose.

In Mississippi, the state with the worst vaccination rate in the country, a top health official on Thursday said the Delta variant is spreading "like a tsunami." 

"If we look at our trajectory, we see that it's continuing to increase without any real demonstration of leveling off or decreasing," State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said at a press briefing.

The other four states are also facing dire circumstances. 

A top medical official said Louisiana is "in the worst place we've ever been in the pandemic," adding that hospitals are overwhelmed to the point where resources are highly limited. 

Federal assistance teams arrived in Louisiana to help curb the spread of the coronavirus and help people recover from it. But the gaps in resources and hospital room availability are so large that these teams are unable to make much of a difference. 

The Delta variant has now become the dominant strain in Idaho and Wyoming.

Scientists and health officials are attributing most new coronavirus cases to the Delta variant, a press release from the Wyoming Department of Health says. 

"We are deeply concerned. The Delta variant has really changed the COVID fight we have on our hands. Unfortunately, Wyoming's low vaccination rate makes our state more vulnerable to this highly contagious variant,"said Dr. Alexia Harrist, state health officer and epidemiologist in Wyoming.

Federal and state health officials continue to urge people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. In response to surging cases brought on by the Delta variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended once again that Americans — including people who are already fully vaccinated — mask up in indoor spaces. 

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Every US state is at "high risk" or worse from COVID-19, with Arkansas,Louisiana,Mississippi, and Florida at the highest "severe" level, according to data from a nonprofit. 

Massachusetts, New York, and Minnesota are among the 23 states deemed "high risk," the third-highest level, by COVID Act Now's US COVID-19 risk and vaccine tracker, which mostly uses Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Texas, California, and Nevada are among 23 states deemed "very high risk," the second-highest level.

There are five risk levels. No state fell into the fourth or fifth risk levels.

COVID Act Now's risk calculations are determined by the number of new daily cases, infection rate, data quality, ICU capacity, percentage of people vaccinated, and people's vulnerability to COVID-19, including socioeconomic factors.

It uses a data tool from Surgo Ventures, a nonprofit with expertise in behavioral and data science that's partnered with Stanford, Harvard, and Georgetown universities, to calculate a state's vulnerability. 

The 23 "high-risk" states are: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine. 

The 23 "very-high-risk" states are: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Vermont, and New Hampshire. 

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Below is a breakdown of COVID Act Now's data on the four states at the "severe" level. "Positive test rate" is the percentage of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing that comes back positive. It's a measure of COVID Act Now's confidence in the underlying data — more than 20% suggests inadequate testing.

Arkansas

New COVID-19 cases each day: 75.7 per 100,000

Infection rate: 1.11

Positive-test rate: 11.9%

Population fully vaccinated: 37.7% (US average is 50.3%.)

ICU capacity used: 79% — 404 of 1,050 (38%) COVID-19 patients

Vulnerability to COVID-19: higher than most states — 36% of the population in a "high-vulnerability" area

Louisiana

New COVID-19 cases each day: 115.7 per 100,000

Infection rate: 1.24

Positive-test rate: 16.3%

Population fully vaccinated: 37.6%

ICU capacity used: 84% — 759 of 1,763 (43%) COVID-19 patients

Vulnerability to COVID-19: higher vulnerability than most states — 43% of the population in a "high-vulnerability" area

Mississippi

New COVID-19 cases each day: 79.5 per 100,000

Infection rate: 1.28

Positive-test rate: 22.1%

Population fully vaccinated: 35.2%

ICU capacity used: 86%  — 366 of 856 (47%) COVID-19 patients

Vulnerability to COVID-19: one of the most vulnerable states — 52% of the population in a "high-vulnerability" area

Florida

New COVID-19 cases each day: 127.3 

Infection rate: 1.24

Positive test rate: 20.1%

Population fully vaccinated: 49.7%

ICU capacity used: 90% —  2,754 of 6,552 (42%) COVID-19 patients

Vulnerability to COVID-19: one of the most vulnerable states — 62% of the population in a "high-vulnerability" area

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