Alex Smith
Alex Smith began working in radio as an intern at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. A few years and a couple of radio jobs later, he became the assistant producer of KCUR's magazine show, KC Currents. In January 2014 he became KCUR's health reporter.
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Missouri now has over 1,000 COVID cases per day, an infection level not seen in months.
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Data collection for race and ethnicity vary among states, complicating efforts to distribute COVID-19 shots to all groups. In Missouri, health officials have questioned the data's usefulness.
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Absent statewide mandates, local communities should continue to use preventive measures to ensure safe working conditions, an expert said.
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Excess deaths in Missouri well exceeded the official count of residents killed by the coronavirus.
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Polling suggests that attitudes and misunderstandings among political conservatives and people with limited health care coverage may pose the biggest challenges to mass vaccination.
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The Missouri health department has acknowledged that it has used national data to estimate Missouri’s racial breakdown, rather than data based on the state's population. That information has been a source of frustration for local health officials working to ensure that vaccine distribution is equitable. State officials now plan to use 2019 U.S. Census data from Missouri but say some parts of the data remain problematic.
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State officials provided no explanation why they used national racial percentages rather than data based on Missouri’s population.
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Though Missouri has been vaccinating seniors for months, nearly half haven't received COVID-19 shots.
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Racial data on COVID-19 vaccinations provided to media outlets by Missouri lacked dates or definitions to indicate what the numbers meant.
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Many Kansas City residents have made hours-long road trips to get COVID-19 vaccines when none were offered locally.