State Screws Up, Some St. Louis County Residents Might Have to Wait on Vaccine

St. Louis County started preparing several COVID-19 mass vaccination locations last week in preparation for a shipment of thousands of vaccines, but those vaccines still haven’t arrived.

The county was expecting 3,900 doses to arrive this week and had scheduled appointments to distribute them, according to the county. This is the third week in a row that the county has not received any direct shipments of the vaccine from the state of Missouri. The doses given out at the mass vaccination sites last week were all redistributed from a local hospital.

“St. Louis County continues to be uncertain when and whether it will receive vaccine doses,” County Executive Sam Page said in a press release. “This makes it incredibly difficult to plan a distribution network and effectively communicate with those who have signed up and are anxiously awaiting an appointment.”

St. Louis County is scheduled to run out of vaccine doses tomorrow and doesn’t know when to expect a shipment from the state. They did, however, work out a deal with a local hospital group today and expect to receive 1,950 doses from them later this week.

In a post on Facebook containing the press release, Page writes this:

“St. Louis County continues to be uncertain when and whether it will receive vaccine doses. This makes it incredibly difficult to plan a distribution network and effectively communicate with those who have signed up and are anxiously awaiting an appointment.

*Please know that if you have received your first vaccine dose from The Saint Louis County Department of Public Health, we have reserved your second vaccine dose.*”

The poor COVID-19 response by the state of Missouri continues to be an ongoing issue. In his State of the State address on January 27, Governor Mike Parson attempted to defend Missouri’s vaccine response.

“The bottom line is that we have been working day in and day out to fight COVID-19 while also dealing with civil unrest, violent crime and a difficult budget,” Parson said.

The same week he gave that speech, Missouri was ranked last in the entire nation for vaccine rollout.


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