JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — Health departments throughout the St. Louis region say they are begging the state for COVID-19 vaccines.
One St. Louis area county feeling the squeeze is Jefferson County where the percentage of people vaccinated is lower than every county around it, according to state data.
Part of the problem could be that the county is not big enough to have multiple large hospitals to help with vaccine distribution and not small enough for the state to set up a National Guard-run mass vaccination site meant to help rural areas.
While the county's largest hospital and other community centers have administered a first dose to more than 10,000 people, the county health department just received its first shipment from the state on Wednesday of just 500 doses, county health director Kelley Vollmar said.
"So, we have 225,000 residents in Jefferson County and 500 [doses] is not even really a drop in the bucket as far as trying to meet the need," Vollmar said.
She can see the counties around her on the state's vaccine dashboard getting more doses and vaccinating larger percentages of their populations – roughly double the rate in at least one case.
Vollmar said part of the problem is the state's plan – sending vaccines to large hospitals that can handle large vaccination events and sending the National Guard to rural areas.
Jefferson County is home to Mercy Hospital Jefferson which Vollmar said has done the bulk of vaccinations in the county, but not at the rate multiple hospitals can serve an area like St. Louis County. And, at the same time, she said the state has not yet sent help like it has to more rural parts of Missouri.
"Our size might be one of the things that works against us," said Vollmar. "We literally are in the middle size of things. We don't have the resources St. Louis and that metro area really has in terms of the hospital systems and private providers. But on the flip side of it, we're not considered a rural county."
In Jefferson City Wednesday night, lawmakers pressed state health officials for answers and the state officials, including the director of the Department of Health and Senior Services Dr. Randall Williams, pointed to the federal government's supply of vaccines, so far.
"That's the frustrating part about it, is wanting to help and not feeling like we can do everything that we know we can," said Vollmar.
She said right now Jefferson County has so little vaccine that while other counties have moved on to vaccinating people 65 and older, it is still trying to get a shot to every first responder who wants one.
And, to make matters even more urgent, Vollmar said there are a lot of people with chronic diseases and at higher risk of severe cases of COVID-19 in her county that will make demand even higher.
