By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Governor Mike Parson encourages Missourians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Parson says he has a message for those hesitant to get vaccinated.
“I would encourage anybody to just shut out the clatter, keep it out of your head for a little bit, go to your doctor, go to people you trust, go to your pastor, go to people in your own community you trust and say, ‘Hey, what’s the best route for me?” Parson tells reporters during a recent stop in St. Joseph.
Missouri has vaccinated more than 93,000 residents the past seven days. The state has a positivity rate of 13.3%. Slightly more than three million Missourians, a bit more than half the state population, have initiated vaccinations with 2.7 million completing the coronavirus vaccination. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots for full effectiveness. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is only one shot.
Parson says he wants to see the state vaccination rate go up.
“I think the whole thing, this whole thing, every time we get in these situations, it becomes very political,” Parson says. “The bottom line, people know what the situation is out there, if you want a vaccine, if you need it, we encourage people to get that vaccine. I believe it works. I will do that. But I also believe in the people who say hey, I don’t want to take one, I don’t want to take one. Nobody’s going to force them to take it.”
Parson expects the coronavirus pandemic to hang around for a while.
“So, this is not a short haul by no means,” according to Parson. “This is going to be a while to get through this, because there’s always going to be a number of people out there that’s not going to take the vaccine. So, we’ve got to be able to move forward with that.”
The St. Joseph Health Department on Monday reported 140 new cases of COVID-19 and one virus-related death in Buchanan County since Friday. The death was a woman in her 90s, putting the county’s virus death toll at 207. The county’s positivity rate has dropped a bit. It's now at 12.8%, a 1.2% drop from last week. The Missouri positivity rate is at 13.3%.
Mosaic Life Care is treating 47 COVID patients in its system as of Tuesday morning, with 42 in St. Joseph, three in Maryville, and one in Albany.
While approximately 44% of the Missouri population has completed vaccinations, only around 21% of Buchanan County residents are fully vaccinated.
Parson says he would like to see the number of vaccinated Missourians rise.
“But again, this is going to be a while,” Parson says. “So, we have to stay the course here. We’ve got to make sure from the state level we’re giving everybody the supplies they need on the local level to try to keep everybody moving forward.”
Missouri is offering incentives to get the coronavirus vaccination. A program called MO VIP offers prizes through a drawing for vaccinated Missourians. More than 540,000 vaccinated Missourians have entered MO VIP. Those vaccinated have until tomorrow to enter in the latest drawing. This will be the second of five drawings for $10,000.
Parson says the program seems to be working with weekly vaccinations increasing in Missouri.
The deadline for new entries for this second drawing will come two days after FDA’s announcement today of its approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 16 years of age and older.
Anyone who has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the deadline can enter for the drawings at MOStopsCovid.com/win.
There will be a total of 900 winners overall with a cash prize of $10,000 awarded to 800 adults. Those between the ages of 12 and 17 will be eligible to win an education savings account through the Missouri State Treasurer’s MOST 529 program in the amount of $10,000.