Wearing a face mask will not necessarily protect you from COVID-19, but your mask might help keep that other fellow from getting it.
District 33 state Rep. Tommy Reynolds (D-Water Valley) was that other fellow.
The 65-year-old Charleston attorney recently battled the novel coronavirus.
“I’m over it, thanks be to God,” he said. “Nobody wants that stuff. I’m telling you, you do not want it.”
Reynolds is all but certain he contracted the virus in June, during the last hectic weeks of the regular legislative session at the state Capitol in Jackson. The session ended July 1.
Reynolds said he consistently wore a face mask.
“I wore a mask every single day in the Legislature,” he noted. “A goodly number didn’t.”
Not only were many of the 122 House and 52 Senate members frequently unmasked, they also stood or sat close together instead of maintaining distance between themselves and others.
“There was so much going on, and you were constantly in the chamber and around folks a lot,” said Reynolds. “If you’re going to get something done for your people, you have to be around others involved in the decision-making process.”
Eventually, the gathering of hundreds of people in close proximity to one another began to take a toll.
“A lot of us got sick those last couple of days,” Reynolds noted.
So many legislators and Capitol personnel exhibited symptoms that drive-thru testing for the virus was set up on the Capitol grounds. Reynolds was among those tested.
At about 7 a.m. on July 4, Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs phoned Reynolds with the unsurprising news that he had tested positive for COVID.
His symptoms included fever, fatigue, cough, night sweats and loss of taste.
“For about 10 days it was bad,” Reynolds noted.
For three weeks, Reynolds practiced self-isolation at his home in rural Yalobusha County — except for one day when he traveled to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson to give blood plasma for ongoing research there.
“I didn’t want to undershoot,” he said, explaining why he isolated himself for one week longer than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of two weeks.
Dobbs reported last week that a total of 49 state lawmakers had tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks. Four of them were hospitalized, and three of those spent time in intensive care.
Reynolds said 14 legislative support staff personnel also contracted the virus.
When the Legislature reconvened on Aug. 10 to settle some budget matters, almost everyone wore a mask, and most of them tried to spread out in the Capitol for social distancing purposes, according to news reports. At least in this venue, they had learned their lesson.
Reynolds returned to work at his Charleston law office during the last week of July and is thankful to have overcome COVID-19.
“I’m 65 and I made it,” he said. “You don’t know what it does to the lungs long term, but I’d assume they’re fine.”
As attorney for both the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors and the Charleston Board of Commissioners, Reynolds is well aware of the steady stream of rules and regulations that governments at all levels have adopted in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
Two weeks ago, Gov. Tate Reeves issued a statewide mask mandate and an order to limit social gatherings and activities to a maximum of 10 people indoors and 20 outdoors, excluding churches, schools and a few others.
“Once the governor did an order, the Board of Supervisors adopted an order and I think the city adopted an order trying to comply with the state order,” said Reynolds.
In addition to personally advising everyone to “wear a mask,” Reynolds said local government has a duty to enforce the law and to address any violations of the mask mandate.
The lawmaker urged people to stop searching for ways to circumvent the COVID-19 orders which, he admitted, “may not be popular, but the law is the law” and “it may help to save some lives.”
Because so many people are asymptomatic — infected with the virus without having any symptoms — Reynolds said it is extremely important that everyone wear a face covering. Doing so will help lessen the chance that they may inadvertently spread the virus to others, particularly the elderly and those with weakened immune systems and certain illnesses that would predispose them to more serious consequences, he added.
“'Honor your father and your mother' is a commandment, and I would think that extends to grandparents,” Reynolds noted. “Most people are going to want to do the right thing. If you ask people in the right way, they will do it, and they want to protect their parents and grandparents, too.”
