Missouri Special Populations

Since the COVID-19 Pandemic began, in early 2020, marginalized and vulnerable populations have been especially, adversely, impacted. NASW’s Connect to End COVID-19 initiative was launched to provide equitable training and outreach that promote informed vaccine decision-making on the part of social workers and their clients, particularly among those who are vulnerable, marginalized, and/or vaccine hesitant.

NASW-MO recognizes our potential to promote vaccine confidence across the state, encourage reluctant communities to become vaccinated, and provide valuable resources for our Wisconsin neighbors. We encourage you to explore our Connect to End COVID-19 resources and find ways to encourage positive community health through vaccine promotion in our communities.

Missouri COVID-19 Rates

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has maintained the dashboard of information related to infections, hospitalizations, outbreaks, and deaths since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rates and distribution of vaccinations in Missouri by county are monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Currently Missourians can monitor the levels of Covid-19 within their communities using the Covid By County tool through the CDC, which provides local data to help guide decision-making about risk mitigation strategies in each local area.

COVID-19 Vaccination

Vaccination has not been equally or equitably distributed across Missouri. Certain populations have received vaccination at lower rates. Research suggests that vaccination-hesitancy occurs for a variety of reasons. NASW’s Connect to End Covid-19 initiative provides information, tools and training that can deepen understanding of vaccination hesitancy and help facilitate conversations about vaccination across communities in Missouri.

Communities that have been vaccinated at lower rates include:

• Rural communities, especially predominantly white (in areas such as the Ozarks and north central Missouri)
  • Those that lack transportation, including in urban areas
• Black/African American communities
  • It should be noted that Missouri was recognized nationally as a state that did a poor job of disaggregating vaccination, infection, hospitalization, and death rates of Covid-19 by race and ethnicity. Missouri’s data mishandling makes special population work somewhat difficult to identify and support.

Missouri Vaccination Landscape by Counties updated 9/14/2022 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/missouri-covid-cases.html

This map shows the great differences of vaccination rates across Missouri by county, with some counties having under 30% of their population vaccinated all the way to some with between 60-70% of their population vaccinated.

Missouri Vaccination Rates by Race, Population, Source: https://bphc.hrsa.gov/data-reporting/health-center-covid-19-survey/mo

This chart shows the percentage of the Missouri population that is of a certain race in comparison to the percentage of the total number of people that have gotten their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with the largest disparity being within the Asian and white communities.

Missouri Vaccination Rates by Race, Source: https://bphc.hrsa.gov/data-reporting/health-center-covid-19-survey/mo

This chart shows the percentage of the Missouri population that is of a certain race in comparison to the percentage of the total number of
people that have completed their COVID-19 vaccination series. Black Missourians make up half of the total number of those fully vaccinated despite being little more than 30% of the states population, while almost of half of White Missourians have not completed their COVID-19 immunization series.

Resources

These organizations currently are working to assist with special populations:

• Stronger Together works to provide facts, fight myths, and provide comprehensive information about vaccination locations and barrier reduction for vaccination.
• Missouri Rural Health Association provides transportation connections in rural areas through Missouri and provide vaccination education and toolkits.
• Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis and HealthFund’s Faith in Vaccines project connect members of diverse faith communities to accurate vaccine information to combat community-wide concerns about vaccination.
• Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis provides outreach to black communities, especially in St. Louis metro, where death and infection rates were higher in Black and inner-city communities, despite vaccine availability.