ST. MARY PARISH, La. – She gasped for her last breath in her living room recliner, her lungs choked by coronavirus.
It was Aug. 1 at 4:30 a.m. when St. Mary Parish coroner Dr. Eric Melancon got the call, another COVID-19 death on the Cajun coast. In this parish of 51,000 residents, Melancon had rolled out to six COVID-19 deaths in July, a 200 percent increase compared with June.
And that was just the beginning.
In the first six days of August, COVID-19 and its more contagious delta variant claimed 10 lives.
This parish in southern Louisiana, which is bisected by the Atchafalaya and Calumet rivers, has one of the highest statistical rates of COVID-19 cases (135 per 100,000 population in the last seven days) and one of the lowest vaccination rates (just 30 percent) in the South.
Despite a statewide mask mandate, the restaurants, hair salons, dry cleaners and car dealerships on the bayou are filled with people without masks.
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Around here, they call St. Mary Parish the “Middle of Everywhere” because it is 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, 70 miles south of Baton Rouge and 70 miles southeast of Lafayette. Currently, it is ground zero for one of the deadliest coronavirus delta variant outbreaks in the South.
On that steamy Sunday morning, coroner Melancon drove past cypress trees bearded with Spanish moss to claim the body of Melanie Bias. She was 54 years old, a fact that resonated with Melancon.
“I’m 53,” he said, adding that he didn’t know Bias.
He didn’t know how many people Bias inspired during her life. He didn’t know how she liked to dance.
Not enough places for the dead
St. Mary Parish has only six stainless steel coolers to keep bodies. Four of those are in the parish morgue, a white cinder block rectangle that once was part of a fire station. The other two coolers are at a nearby funeral home.
If the death toll continues to climb, “we’ll stack ’em,” Melancon said. He never has had to stack bodies.
Bias was the 67th person of African-American descent to die in St. Mary Parish from coronavirus. While Black people make up about one-third of the population, they represent just less than half the deaths.
Her friends called her Mel. A tree was planted in her honor.
Seven of the 10 corona virus deaths so far this month were among the unvaccinated.
The spike in August has Melancon concerned, escalating from a total of 33 coronavirus deaths from January through July in St. Mary Parish.
“It’s nuts,” Melancon said. “The delta strain is badass.”
In the last week of July, Melancon, who is also an internist, gave 51 patients coronavirus tests, and 35 came back positive (69 percent).
Since the pandemic hit the South nearly 18 months ago, he has not seen positivity rates that high.
Nearly half of the U.S. population, 49.9% or 165.6 million people are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
About 93 million Americans are eligible for the vaccine and remain unvaccinated.
A message for the unvaccinated
Dr. Gary Wiltz, CEO of the Teche Action Board, a collection of community health clinics on the bayou, said the death rate is going to be a great motivator.
“It’s getting personal here,” Wiltz said. “People are going to wakes and funerals. It has to hit them personally before they are more receptive to the vaccine.”
Two weeks ago, one of the dental assistants on Wiltz’ staff lost her husband to COVID-19. He said she told him she felt guilty because she didn’t do more to convince him to get the vaccine.
Death seems to be everywhere in this parish, like gumbo.
At the Forest restaurant in Franklin, a town along Highway 90, owner Al Kuhlman lost his father-in-law to COVID-19 in January.
He’s mad at the anti-vaxxers.
“They are the ones that are going to infect others,” he said. “They are going to hurt us all.”
Kuhlman and his father-in-law were members of the local golf club. Of the club’s 60 members, three have died of coronavirus.
“He laid there for nine days in the hospital and died alone,” Kuhlman said, referring to the no-visitor protocols hospitals have because of the pandemic. “That’s the saddest thing about this disease.”
Frank Jones, a friend and patient of Melancon, was in the hospital for 98 days before he died of coronavirus on March 9. “He still owes me 100 bucks,” the coroner said with a laugh. It is evident humor is how Melancon gets through these days.
Jones’ wife, Monica, had to beg the St. Mary Hospital CEO to see him one last time. She was granted a half-hour with him.
“I told him I love him,” she said. “He couldn’t talk, but he knew who I was.”
Monica Jones has a message for people who haven’t been vaccinated.
“I’m begging people,” she shouted. “Do not go through what I went through. If you love yourself … if you love your family, take the vaccine.”
‘Not trying to be hard-headed’
Sarina Morales, 27, of Bayou Vista, is adamantly opposed to the vaccine. “I just don’t believe what they’re telling me,” she said. “If you’re healthy, I don’t see a reason to take the shot.”
She said that she is trying to keep her distance from people, and wears a mask most of the time she’s out, so she doesn’t think she needs to get vaccinated.
“It’s not that I’m trying to be hard-headed,” she said. “I don’t want to be anybody’s guinea pig.”
Morales, the mother of a 6-year-old boy, said she thinks the vaccine was developed too quickly and, despite no evidence, thinks it will harm her reproductive health in the future.
She said she doesn’t get news or information from television or newspapers. She forms her opinions after talking to friends and reading what is posted on social media. When asked what she thought of the pro-vaccine recommendations of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leader of U.S. coronavirus response, her face went blank.
“Who is he?” she said.
Her grandmother, who has been vaccinated and is recovering from quadruple bypass surgery, begs her to get the shot. “She’s shoving that shot down my throat,” Morales said.
Morales can no longer go in her grandmother’s house. With rising virus and delta strain cases in the last month, they visit outside on the patio. They don’t hug.
Her son started first grade at Bayou Vista Elementary on Friday, where masks are required but COVID-19 vaccines are not. A mandated coronavirus vaccine would be a deal-breaker, she said.
“I would let him do homeschool and spend my nights working to keep him from getting a shot I know nothing about,” Morales said. “I would change my whole life to prevent him from getting a covid shot.”
No time to be hesitant
Wiltz said the time for skepticism about the vaccine was a year ago when it was still being developed. He was a skeptic in the beginning. Then he saw the studies, and he became convinced it was needed.
“The vaccine wasn’t an overnight witches’ brew,” he said. “The Lord has provided for us. The vaccine is a gift.”
Melanie Bias was a diabetic, and she told her daughter, LaTisha Smith, that she didn’t get the vaccine because she feared it wasn’t safe for people with diabetes. The opposite is true. The virus is more dangerous for people with diabetes, making the vaccine more important, Melancon said.
“We didn’t know how the vaccine would affect her,” Smith said, who also hasn’t had the vaccine.
Even after her mother’s death, she described herself as “hesitant.”
30 years helping children
Schools opened in St. Mary Parish on Friday.
On the Facebook page for B. Edward Boudreaux Middle School was a somber message.
“The BEB family mourns the loss of Melanie Bias.”
Melanie Bias was a teacher for 30 years, her daughter LaTisha Smith said.
Last week, she was preparing for the new school year.
Some of the Facebook comments: “Such a sweet person,” “I will truly miss you,” “Prayers for everyone at school to heal their hearts.”
“Everybody loved her,” Smith said. “She was very outgoing. Very outspoken. She was the life of the party.”
Smith said a week before she died, Bias was having a little trouble breathing and was tired. She had headaches and chills.
Because she was a diabetic, she refused to get the vaccine because she thought it would be dangerous for her. There is no evidence to suggest the vaccine is dangerous for anyone, including diabetics.
“We didn’t know how the vaccine would affect her,” Smith said, who also hasn’t had the vaccine.
Then last Friday, Bias went for a coronavirus test.
When it came back positive, Bias was her typical upbeat self. But she told her daughter, she had changed her mind.
“She decided to get the vaccine,” Smith said.
Reach Keith Sharon at 615-406-1594 or ksharon@tennessean.com or on Twitter @KeithSharonTN and Leigh Guidry at Lguidry@theadvertiser.com or on Twitter @LeighGGuidry.
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