St. Louis, MO – More questions and few answers on why rural counties in Missouri are receiving large amounts of the COVID-19 vaccine, while large urban areas are clamoring for doses.
There have been several incidents and the most recent was Saturday in Putnam County. They received over 4,300 doses, but have a population of 4,979.
Eventually, the Health Department took to social media saying anyone age 18 and older could be vaccinated – trying to prevent more doses from going to waste.
KMOX wanted to talk with Putnam County health officals, but they did not return our calls and instead released a statement saying, they ended up throwing out 143 doses of the vaccine due to dislodged needles, vaccine that expired, no shows, duplicate appointments and problems with Missouri's Vaccine Navigator. More than 1,400 vaccine doses will be redistributed.
Related
Other rural counties have reported similar results.
Yet, officials from urban areas that KMOX talked with did not understand if the distribution is based on population or how these small counties are receiving such large supplies.
Another issue being talked about on social media is the locations of the mass vaccination sites.
Former political candidate Lindsey Simmons on Twitter shared that "Missouri’s new voter suppression plan is to keep vaccines out of the four areas that voted blue in 2020."
A series of tweets pointed out that between the most-populated areas in Missouri –Kansas City, St. Louis City and St. Louis County – there is just one vaccination site:
State health officials maintain the number of doses distributed to areas is based on population.
© 2020 KMOX (Entercom). All rights reserved