By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Due to a multitude of data entry errors at the state level, the COVID-19 vaccination rate is actually much higher in Buchanan County than what had been previously reported.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services discovered errors and missing information in COVID-19 vaccination records. About 147,000 records were updated to correct the county of residence. About 23,000 of those records were associated with Buchanan County.
That means the percent of Buchanan County residents who are fully vaccinated is actually 35.3 percent - way more than the roughly 22 percent that had been previously reported. That also means over 38 percent of Buchanan County residents have initiated vaccination.
Examples of errors included missing county, incorrect county, misspelling or using the word ‘saint’ instead of the 'St.' abbreviation.
The city of St. Louis also saw a large increase in its COVID vaccination rate because of these errors.