• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Lost Prairie Press

Lost Prairie Press

Trending News from the Midwest - IA, IL, KS, MO, NE

  • Home
  • Midwest
  • Illinois
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Missouri
  • Nebraska
  • About Us
    • Contact Us

Scores Of St. Louisans Travel To Rural Missouri Seeking COVID-19 Vaccine – St. Louis Public Radio

February 16, 2021 by LPP Reporter

Nadine Hutson pre-registered for the COVID-19 vaccine at a dozen places around Missouri before she scored one of the prized shots.

The advice from her friends was: The more rural, the easier it is to get a dose. Fewer people live in those counties, Hutson reasons.

After scouring the internet for vaccine appointments for nearly 10 hours, she spotted a clip in a Perryville newspaper announcing a vaccination event Jan. 29. “First come, first serve,” it read. Hutson, 67, who lives in south St. Louis County, left at 2:30 a.m. to drive south to Perry County and stand in line.

“It was a process, but I think it paid off,” Hutson said.

Vaccine doses have been so scarce near St. Louis that many area residents desperate for a shot have started traveling to rural parts of the state to find one. These trips can take an entire day and often must be planned with only a few days’ notice, making them nearly impossible for many eligible people with strict job schedules or who rely on public transportation to get around.

Loading…

The undersupply has prompted local health officials to question the Missouri governor’s office over the state’s distribution of the vaccine. Doctors say the state has shorted the St. Louis region on doses despite the region having the largest share of Missouri’s hospital systems, coronavirus deaths and population.

Gov. Mike Parson has defended the state’s allocations as fair and based on population, but most counties in the St. Louis metro area are below the statewide average for vaccinating residents. As of Monday, 10.3% of Missourians have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 7.1% of St. Louis County residents, 8.1% of St. Charles County residents and 9.1% of St. Louis residents have had their first shots.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced plans Thursday to increase the region’s weekly vaccine shipment to 33,200, beginning this week. A majority of those doses are headed to hospital systems; others will be administered by local clinics and counties and at mass vaccination events operated by the Missouri National Guard and local health departments.

That larger weekly allotment is still dwarfed by the 700,000 people in the St. Louis metro who Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, estimates are eligible for the vaccine.

“If we had the appropriate amount of allocation within [the St. Louis region], then perhaps people wouldn’t have to travel to go and find vaccine in some of these more rural areas,” Garza said last week.

‘A privilege’

For every one person Overland resident Mary Dunger knows who has found a shot in St. Louis, she says she knows five who have traveled outside the region for one.

Dunger, 75, was vaccinated at a Missouri National Guard event in Cape Girardeau on Jan. 29. She said she knows traveling to obtain a vaccine dose can be a costly, unrealistic endeavor for many people.

“I can see that there’s a privilege there that I don’t feel good about, but I didn’t create the situation,” Dunger said. “Anybody I know that’s done it has had internet access and been able to easily, once they become aware of the possibility, they’re able to get online and pursue it.”

Reporter Kayla Drake Discusses Vaccination Road Trips on St. Louis on the Air

St. Louis Public Radio interviewed six residents from the St. Louis area who traveled to Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville, Columbia, Hannibal, Rolla or Perryville to receive shots. All are white; most are retired. Dozens more responded to an email newsletter with their experiences of driving to find a coveted dose. Many heard about vaccination sites through broad social networks. Word of vaccination events traveled through a grapevine of Facebook posts and emails forwarded along by friends and acquaintances.

That’s how it worked for Jim Warren. He discovered from a Facebook post in January that Cape Girardeau’s health department had appointments available.

Immediately, his wife scheduled a time slot for him and his 88-year-old father-in-law to make the two-hour drive south. Warren took photos of the moment nurses stuck their arms and posted them to Facebook. He said he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

021621_kdrake_ivyallen

Jim Warren

88-year-old Ivy Allen receives his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine in Cape Girardeau in late January. His son-in-law, Jim Warren, drove down so they could be vaccinated.

The ethics of traveling for a shot

If you can travel outside your region to get the vaccine, should you?

Among the things to consider is whether you might be crowding out people in rural areas, said bioethicist Nancy Berlinger, a researcher at the Hastings Center, a New York-based think tank.

Traveling long distances for a dose is not an option for most people with the highest health risks.

“It’s not a strategy that helps people most at risk for COVID,” Berlinger said.

Rural areas in Missouri have large populations of older people with chronic illnesses, and many counties lack adequate health care systems. People traveling to rural areas could be taking appointments from locals, whom the shots are intended for, Berlinger said.

Jane Wernsman, Cape Girardeau’s Health Department director, she doesn’t mind that people are coming to her town for the vaccine. But she would rather they receive a vaccination closer to home “so that we’re able to vaccinate a few more individuals from within the region with vaccine and give them the opportunity to not have to travel.”

Follow Kayla on Twitter: @_kayladrake

View Source

Filed Under: Missouri

Primary Sidebar

More to See

Missouri plans mass vaccination event for KC area Wednesday – KMBC Kansas City

Advertisement Missouri plans mass vaccination event for KC area Wednesday The clinic will be held at the Cerner campus in North Kansas City on March 3. Share Shares … [Read More...] about Missouri plans mass vaccination event for KC area Wednesday – KMBC Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri, records third homicide of the day – KSHB

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, recorded its third homicide of the day on Sunday just before 10 a.m. The Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department is working a scene near the 400 block on … [Read More...] about Kansas City, Missouri, records third homicide of the day – KSHB

Chilly first day of March 3/1/2021

March 1, 2021 7:05 am We are starting off this new work week with temperatures in the 20s and 30s! Currently most of southeast Nebraska has light winds and mostly clear skies. This has resulted in … [Read More...] about Chilly first day of March 3/1/2021

Footer

WELCOME!

Thanks for visiting Lost Prairie Press!

We hope you’ll enjoy news and perspective from the Midwest – specifically, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri.

About/Contact

Privacy Policy

Recent

  • LIVE: Gov. Ricketts and NE Attorney General
  • Teddy Allen leaves Nebraska basketball program
  • Lane closed through March for South Beltway project

Search

Tags

above average Attorney General basketball Boys Basketball breezy Channel 8 Eyewitness News Weather chilly clear skies Commentary cooler COVID-19 COVID-19 deaths districts Doug Peterson Forecast Gov. Ricketts high school hoops High School Sports husker hoops Huskers Husker Sports JBS Lancaster lincoln Lincoln sports meatpacking plants Minnesota missing child Nebraska News Nebrasketball News paid sick leave President Trump road closure senior night Smithfield Foods South Beltway Sports Teddy Allen Texas Top Stories US & World Weather Weather Team Working + Economy

Copyright © 2021 · Lost Prairie Press