Missouri Gov. Mike Parson lashes out, again. This time at vaccine critics, journalists

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson lashed out at a top St. Louis health official and the press Thursday as he sought to quell concerns that urban areas had been passed over in favor of rural regions in the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts.

Parson’s principal target at his weekly news conference was Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Pandemic Task Force. Garza said earlier this week that the St. Louis region was not getting an equitable share of vaccine doses, given that it constitutes 37 percent of Missouri’s population.

“Quite frankly I am tired of leaders like Dr. Garza misleading the people of St. Louis,” Parson said. “He has led with fear and panic rather than a sense of balance.”

It was the latest in a series of grievances aired by Parson, asserting that he has been unfairly treated. In a Jan. 29 letter, he accused House GOP leaders of a “purposeful and disgusting scheme to embarrass me,” by canceling a joint session of the General Assembly where he was to deliver his State of the State address. COVID-19 concerns led lawmakers to move the Jan. 27 speech to the Senate chamber.

On Wednesday, he complained about press coverage of the state’s vaccine numbers in a virtual meeting with a handful of Missouri mayors.

“The media does this a lot, they will take a worst-case scenario of a metric,” he said during the call, which was attended by reporters.

When Pleasant Valley Mayor David Slater offered the cities’ help in distributing vaccines, Parson asked them to instead spread a positive message.

“The media is pounding you enough,” he said. “People need a little positive thing right now from all of us.”

On that call he also dodged an offer from the mayors to intervene in tension between himself and House Speaker Rob Vescovo.

While Parson blasted Garza’s statement as false, he and health director Dr. Randall Williams did not provide the state’s estimate of how many vaccines really went to the St. Louis region.

Garza had said the region’s hospitals only received 15,600 doses of vaccine this week, along with smaller amounts to local health centers and clinics, far from 37% of the nearly 90,000 doses the state has each week. Williams said that number does not include additional doses provided to the region outside of high-capacity hospitals.

“I think it’s a perception problem,” Williams said. “I look at it, and as of Jan. 26, it was identical. The population in St. Louis was identical to the amount of vaccine they got.”

A spokeswoman for the St. Louis task force said the total regional number was a little more than 20,000. She issued a statement on Garza’s behalf.

“We are confident in the way we estimate the number of doses received by Region C, and our goal has always been to ensure fair and equitable distribution of vaccine with all of our partners,” he stated.

Parson also said doses to the region that includes St. Louis will increase. St. Louis County’s health department will directly receive 3,000 doses of the vaccine next week.

State health officials this week said between hospitals, other clinics and mass vaccine events, that region will receive 33,200 vaccines or 34% of the state’s doses.

Parson also accused Garza and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of “cherry-picking facts” when pointing out rural counties that have a higher percentage of their population vaccinated than urban counties.

“When you do mass vaccinations in a county their percentages are going to go up because you did it in those areas,” Parson said. “Trying to just pick one metric or one data point you are always going to get false information.”

As of Thursday, Jackson County’s vaccination rate was 6.9%, behind the state’s average of 9.4%

State leaders have rebuffed concerns that urban areas were not getting proportionate access to vaccines.

They said they deliberately scheduled mass vaccine events, held by the National Guard in more rural areas of the state’s nine regions, as a way to balance the distribution efforts of high-capacity hospitals in urban areas. The National Guard also is holding two smaller, 500-dose vaccine events per week in underserved communities in Kansas City and St Louis.

“The idea that because I come from rural Missouri and there’s some kind of magical divide, that I’m taking care of rural Missouri more than I am urban areas is just false,” Parson said.

On Thursday, he also called out the Missouri Independent and The Kansas City Star over coverage and commentary on who he will appoint to the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

“I have no respect whatsoever for the organization you represent. I do not think you are a Missouri media outlet,” he said to a Missouri Independent reporter who asked for Parson’s comments on the appointment.

Parson referred to a Star column on partisan competition for the pick, which cited the Missouri Independent’s reporting on the issue.

“The only thing you asked is because of The Kansas City Star, which is totally biased toward any Republican or any conservative,” Parson said.

Reached for comment, Missouri Independent founder Jason Hancock, a former Star reporter, said the outlet’s “journalism speaks for itself.”

In a statement, Star managing editor Greg Farmer said: “The criticism of the column by Dave Helling shows Governor Parson lacks an appreciation for the role journalists play in ensuring good government. Dave Helling is an opinion writer for The Star, and his argument to keep the Missouri Board of Curators apolitical was based on deep reporting and established facts.”