After White House backlash, Missouri says it never rejected door-to-door vaccine outreach

The Kansas City Star via MSN ^ | 7/08/21 | Jeanne Kuang

[Libloather]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - After the White House rebuked Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday for saying Missouri would not welcome a federal door-to-door vaccination outreach strategy, the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services appeared to walk back the governor's statements.

On Wednesday evening Parson tweeted: “I have directed our health department to tell the federal government that sending government employees or agents door-to-door to compel vaccination would NOT be an effective OR welcome strategy in Missouri!”

But late Thursday, the department struck a more conciliatory tone.

“We do not have an email or message sent to the federal government regarding these efforts,” DHSS spokeswoman Lisa Cox wrote in an email to The Kansas City Star.

“Door-to-door outreach is not an action we have taken at the state level, but that’s not to say it hasn’t been utilized at the local level,” Cox wrote. “As with many issues through the pandemic, there is no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for every single community.”

Cox put the state back in step with the White House message as a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist arrived in Springfield - at the Parson administration’s request - to help southwest Missouri combat an aggressive outbreak of the delta COVID-19 variant that is overwhelming the region’s hospitals.

Dr. Cameron Webb, White House senior policy adviser for COVID-19 equity, told the Star on Wednesday the federal “surge response team” efforts could include encouraging local door-to-door vaccination outreach, “in the places where we think that kind of approach is going to be impactful.”

“There’s no one-size-fits-all with this pandemic,” he said.

[Harpotoo]

Will they put goat’s blood on the doors of those not vax’ed?-)