Virus Surges in Missouri as Vaccination Rates Remain Low

ST. LOUIS (CN) — A potentially lethal combination of low vaccination rates, popular tourist attractions with a high transient rate and the highly contagious delta variant has fueled a Covid-19 explosion in Missouri.

While Florida leads the nation in total number of cases at 5,095 for the last seven days due to its large population, Missouri is second with 2,276 cases and has a higher infection rate at 174 per 100,000 residents compared to 149.6 per 100,000 residents for the Sunshine State, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The hardest hit area is southwest Missouri, with major hospitals in Springfield and Joplin reporting large increases.

“The trajectory we see right now, if we don’t see changes of the behavior of the virus that we would find unexpected, then we could easily be close to, at, or exceed, the peak we saw earlier this year and a very late part of last year,” said Dave Dillon, a spokesperson for the Missouri Hospital Association, in an interview.

Of particular concern are two tourist hotspots – the Lake of the Ozarks and the Springfield/Branson area – which are in Covid red zones.

“This has the potential to just explode, and we know it already exists in communities throughout the state, the delta variant does,” Dillon said. “The lake area, the surrounding counties are similar to southwest Missouri with rates of vaccination, with I think Camden County being the highest and about 30%. So, if you've got 20% of vaccination, and you've got a major outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19, you're on borrowed time.”

Dillon said the demographics with this outbreak have dramatically changed.

Unlike last year when Covid-19 ravaged nursing homes and claimed the lives of many elderly victims with underlying health conditions, this version is hitting people in their 30s to 50s with no underlying health issues.

“We're seeing otherwise perfectly healthy people come in and within a matter of days, expire, and that is absolutely alarming,” Dillon said. “The worst part is that in many cases, evidence suggests that this is preventable” with a vaccine.

The vast number of hospitalizations are coming from unvaccinated people. Dillon estimates the percentage of unvaccinated people seeking emergency care for Covid is well into the 90s compared to vaccinated individuals.

While hospitals from Springfield to the Lake of the Ozarks to Kansas City are seeing rapidly increasing numbers of Covid patients, Governor Mike Parson seemed to take a jab at health care workers in those regions on Tuesday.

Parson, a Republican who is a Covid-19 survivor, said during a stop in Kansas City that health care workers shouldn’t try to use scare tactics to coerce people into getting vaccinated.

Health officials should try to encourage people to get vaccinated but should not resort to “trying to force people to take a vaccine or literally just scare them into taking a vaccine because we know that doesn’t work," Parson said, according to the Associated Press.

Parson refused to issue a statewide mask mandate during the virus’ peak in 2020, repeatedly saying that a one-size-fits-all approach is not right for Missouri.

The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment on the virus surge.

“You have to almost try to avoid the opportunity to get vaccinated,” Dillon said. “So, for health care workers, it's extremely frustrating to be reliving the beginning of what it looked like last year and there's criticisms out there now that hospitals are using scare tactics and it's unfortunate.”

Hospitals are also dealing with less resources and space than they were during the first surge in 2020.

Dillon said Kansas City area hospitals were already near maximum bed capacity with non-virus patients before the numbers started to surge. Higher summer hospitalization rates coupled with pent up medical needs that were put off during the 2020 wave have stretched resources.

And as the delta variant becomes the dominant strain in the state, the rate of transmission has skyrocketed.

“The curve on the front side of the spike that we saw last year took months,” Dillon said. “What we're seeing now with Delta is compressed into weeks. The month equivalent is now the week equivalent relative to the rapid nature [of transmission].”

Data shows the Covid-19 surge is spreading up I-44 toward St. Louis, where hospitals and local health departments are starting to see higher numbers.

The St. Louis County Health Department issued a public health advisory on July 1 regarding the rising numbers. On Monday, the agency issued a press release stating that new cases have risen to over 100 a day, fueled by spikes in young people, Blacks and other demographics where vaccination rates are low.

The release said there have been multiple outbreaks in daycares and summer camps driven by unvaccinated adults who are passing it on to children, who are then transmitting it among each other. It noted that children are passing the virus at a higher rate than last year.

“We are truly at a crossroads. We have a raging variant of a deadly virus, and a vaccine that can prevent serious illness. The only way to slow the variant and to keep our hospitals from overflowing is to get more people vaccinated,” St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said on Wednesday while announcing a new vaccine initiative with local barber and beauty shops in Ferguson, one of the region’s hotspots.

He continued, “In some parts of Missouri, the number of Covid-19 cases are exceeding any numbers they've seen at any time during this pandemic. And with a very contagious delta variant here in St. Louis County, we have grave concerns about the impact it could have here.”

Dillon worries that the delta variant’s high rate of transmission will outpace even the most aggressive vaccine efforts.

“The best time to get vaccinated was when you were eligible several months ago,” Dillon said. “The second-best time is today.”

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