Case study: How Missouri’s inaction allowed delta variant to spread

‘Like we’re on an island’: How Missouri’s inaction allowed delta variant to spread As a highly-contagious COVID variant spread across Missouri in June, thousands of pages of public records show growing alarm and frustration among health officials. The Kansas City Star

... Missouri now has the second-highest rate of new cases per capita, according to data compiled by The New York Times, and among the lowest adult vaccination rates among all states.

What went wrong?

A joint investigation by The Kansas City Star and Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation reveals how June became a lost month in the fight to slow the spread of delta across Missouri. Thousands of pages of internal emails and other documents from 19 local health departments trace the growing alarm and a sense of near-resignation among officials about their chances of halting the advance of the variant.

The consequences of the squandered month will last well into summer. CoxHealth, a major Springfield hospital, told The Star it’s bracing for hospitalizations to rise for weeks to come.

Delta is still spreading and has now been found in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas, though state officials hope higher vaccination rates in those places will limit increases in cases. Schools will also begin next month with some parents in open rebellion against imposing mask requirements, even with delta all but certain to continue circulating.

The emails, obtained through records requests by the institute’s Documenting COVID-19 project and shared with The Star, paint a portrait of local health officials eager to vaccinate their communities but encountering resistance from residents, apathy from some politicians and a milquetoast state-level response. They document rising frustration with everyone from DHSS to elected officials to the public. An official in one county even privately mocked a video released by DHSS explaining the delta variant.

“I feel like we’re on an island, all alone in the COVID fight, but I know others in the state are feeling the same way,” Laclede County Health Department Administrator Charla Baker wrote to a DHSS official in late June. “With our community leaders and residents not wanting to take any remedial actions to protect themselves and others, we are just very frustrated and concerned with our current situation.”

The emails also show local leaders sometimes going to extraordinary lengths to win even modest advances in vaccinations, in the absence of new state initiatives. In Joplin, the city manager sought an incentive program for municipal employees but urged city council members to minimize their comments about it to not arouse public anger.

“We’ve alerted our local elected officials and decision makers with very little interest in discussion of mitigation measures,” Taney County Health Director Lisa Marshall wrote to health officials across the state on June 17.

“Our last election cycle saw a turnover in many of our elected officials resulting in a ‘pro-recovery’ focus. We are also seeing low uptake of vaccine in our county despite education and clinic offerings,” she wrote. “Without local support and continued low interest in vaccines, coupled with the welcome sign, I anticipate our numbers will continue upwards.” ...

Missouri’s cases remain below their winter peak but are steadily trending upward. But even as health officials desperately try to engage the public, the messages from the state’s leadership remain mixed.

The Republican-dominated Missouri House in June debated a measure to undercut vaccine mandates for hospital employees. Some lawmakers have also repeated baseless theories that the vaccine affects pregnancy. ...