JEFFERSON CITY, MO (KMOX) - Missouri Governor Mike Parson is accusing the head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force of cherry-picking data, to spread fear.
"Quite Frankly," parson said during a Covid-19 briefing outside his Capitol office, "I am tired of leaders, like Dr. Garza, misleading the people of St. Louis."
Parson accused Garza of making statements about the state's distribution of the coronavirus vaccines, that he says are absolutely false.
"He has lead with fear and panic rather than a sense of balance, and completely ignores the diverse populations of our state and our local communities across this state."
You can watch the full press conference, here:
Parson pointed out that in November, Garza expressed doubts about the state's approach to containing the virus, an approach Parson says has resulted in Missouri having one of the lowest transmission rates in the country.
"Rather than admitting that it was a wrong decision about the path Missouri is on, Dr. Garza is now spreading false information about the vaccine administrated in the St. Louis area, to once more spread fear and panic," Parson says.
And while local officials say they're not getting enough vaccine, Parson says there are 50,000 doses in the St. Louis area that have not been administered.
A Task Force spokesperson says its hospitals have about 40,000 doses on shelves, however, all but 500 of those are second doses that cannot be administered as first doses.
Here's the full response from the Task Force:
"The most important thing right now is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly, safely and equitably as possible. The recent increase in the allocation of vaccine from the state will help us vaccinate more Missourians in our region.
"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.
"We will continue to work with the State of Missouri and our regional partners as we have throughout the pandemic, to care for our community and increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine."
© 2020 KMOX (Entercom). All rights reserved