Mass vaccination at Arrowhead can’t disguise the continuing COVID-19 mess in Missouri
Gov. Mike Parson is expected in Kansas City Friday to kick off a mass COVID-19 vaccination event. Roughly 8,000 people with appointments are expected to get the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the Truman Sports Complex.
It’s the first mass inoculation event in Kansas City south of the river, and it comes weeks after the region began begging for the same treatment as many rural communities.
However successful the two-day event turns out to be, though, it can’t disguise the continuing failure of the state government, and Parson personally, to equitably and efficiently deliver essential COVID-19 protection. Missouri’s distribution effort remains a mess.
As of Monday, one study showed, Missouri ranked 44th in the nation in the number of people fully vaccinated.
That is a failure. And there is simply no good explanation for it.
“I am concerned,” Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said this week, in a joint news conference with Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri. “We don’t want Kansas (39th) or Missouri to be at the bottom of the list.”
Confusion and frustration continue to be a part of the vaccine hunt in the state, particularly among older Missourians, the poor, and urban residents. Many lack the time or resources to schedule appointments, or find rides to remote vaccine locations.
Stories of residents searching for a vaccination can be found everywhere on social media. People who live in urban areas such as Kansas City and St. Louis are driving hours for their shots, and must drive back for a second dose in many cases.
“When people are driving 4 hours from St. Louis to get the vaccine, we have a massive problem,” one Missourian said on Twitter. In some rural counties, doses have been discarded.
“Wasted time, money and doses have been hallmarks of Parson’s vaccine rollout,” wrote Deborah Baker of St. Louis County.
Facebook groups and Twitter bots have surfaced which enable residents to learn about available vaccines. The digital tools are welcome, and the volunteers who put them together deserve our thanks.
But it’s beyond ridiculous that Missourians must rely on ad hoc efforts to find vaccines. Missouri should have offered these tools from the beginning. It should be easy to find a vaccination site and set up an appointment, without facing long drives or uncertainty.
Rural areas get more shots, but aren’t using them
Missouri’s failure in this regard has drawn national attention.
Parson has insisted that all areas of the state have been treated equally. “There is no one area getting more vaccine than the other,” he said in late February.
As we’ve reported, that’s not true. Kansas City-Jackson County is lumped in with 12 other largely rural counties when vaccines are passed out, so the count is skewed. Parts of Kansas City are vaccine deserts.
But even giving the governor the benefit of the doubt, it’s clear rural areas aren’t using the vaccine at the same rate as urban and suburban communities. In some southern Missouri counties, vaccination rates are half the rates in populated central Missouri.
That reluctance has been obvious for weeks, and should have prompted the governor to send more shots where they’re wanted. It makes no sense for people to travel to vaccines. Vaccines should travel to people.
This weekend’s mass vaccine event at Arrowhead, and similar events in St. Louis, are encouraging signs that someone has gotten through to the governor. But much more must be done.
“One mass vaccination event is not enough,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said last week. “Kansas Citians need clarity and consistency, not just a one-off event.”
Kansas Citians don’t want special treatment, and they don’t begrudge their rural neighbors the vaccines that can slow the spread of COVID-19. But the city’s need is real and obvious, and Gov. Parson, who has underplayed and mismanaged this crisis from the start, must do far more to respond.