Missouri shorted KC region 40,000 COVID vaccine doses, local health department says
In Missouri’s distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the Kansas City region has been shorted about 40,000 doses, the director of the Kansas City Health Department said Monday.
The region has received 20% of the state’s allocation, but makes up 23% of the population, putting it about 40,000 doses behind, data from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services shows.
Rex Archer, the director of the Kansas City Health Department, said the situation hasn’t been improving. Two weeks ago, the region was 26,000 doses behind and last week, it grew to 31,000 doses.
“Until our vaccine is more than 23%, we can’t close the gap,” Archer said.
Since Missouri’s vaccine rollout began in December, Gov. Mike Parson has faced criticism that the distribution strategy is inequitable, leaving people living in cities scrambling and driving to more remote areas of the state to get their shots. Reports have circulated of thousands of doses going unused at mass vaccination sites in rural towns.
Records obtained by The Star showed that 16.4% of vaccines at mass vaccination events in rural Missouri went unused. Most were sent to other providers and few were wasted, but some officials have questioned the state vaccine plan.
Last week, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas asked the federal government to step in and establish mass vaccination sites in the city.
Archer said there are other problems with a distribution strategy that only considers population.
“If you also make the adjustment that the folks that are more likely to take the vaccine, are in the metro areas ... then you could argue they should have been allocating even more because we wouldn’t be wasting it,” Archer said.
Parson’s office said Monday that two mass vaccination teams will operate in the Kansas City region by April 1.
“The teams are being shifted out of rural regions where demand has recently been lower for some mass vaccination events,” spokeswoman Stephanie Whitaker said. “Vaccine availability in Missouri remains exceptionally limited.”
Archer also said urban areas should be a priority because of population density, which makes it more difficult to quash outbreaks.
He said he would like to see a mass vaccination site created at Arrowhead Stadium with 15,000 doses given for three weeks in a row.
“In three weeks, we could at least get more to par with the rest of the state,” Archer said.
But so far, there are no concrete plans for such an initiative.
As of Monday, Missouri has administered 1,535,954 doses of the vaccine, covering 16.4% of the state. The Kansas City region lags behind — 14% in Clay County have been vaccinated while Kansas City sits at 14.3% and Platte County at 9.9%.
Atchison County, the northwestern most county in Missouri, has the highest proportion of its population vaccinated at 23.1%.
This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 3:43 PM.
