JACKSON, Miss — The Mississippi State Department of Health is now blocking comments on its Facebook posts that relate to COVID-19 because of a "rise of misinformation" about the virus and vaccinations.
State health department spokesperson Liz Sharlot says allowing the misleading comments is "directly contrary" to the state's public health mission.
Sharlot says the comments will be back when the department can effectively halt the harmful and false commentary.
The state has been seeing a new rise in coronavirus cases due to low vaccination rates and the prevalence of the highly contagious delta variant.
Federal regulators have said the vaccines are safe and offer strong protection against contracting the potentially life-threatening disease.
