Kansas City area has hundreds of COVID vaccine appointments. So where are the takers?

Update: Truman Medical Centers/University Health officials announced Monday they have 1,500 vaccine doses available. Story here.

Last week was the first time since the Jackson County Health Department began COVID-19 vaccinations that it did not have enough takers for all of its appointments.

Earlier, the University of Kansas Health System found itself with 8,000 open appointments and put out a call to get them filled.

Operation Safe, a collaborative vaccination effort in the Northland, announced last week that it had “exhausted” its list of eligible Missouri residents wanting a first dose, leaving the site at Cerner headquarters with more than 2,000 appointments to fill.

Even as Missouri and Kansas opened up eligibility to all adults 16 and older, vaccine supply has begun to exceed demand in the Kansas City region, appearing to end the frantic “Hunger Games” rush to get a dose.

But though health officials expected a slowdown in demand, some did not expect it this soon. In both states, about a third of adults have received at least their first dose, officials said.

“This is predictable, but it is concerning,” said Dr. Marci Nielsen, chief adviser for COVID-19 coordination for the state of Kansas. “And the reason it’s concerning is of course we want to reach herd immunity and make sure we can all be safe and prevent the spread of the virus.

“But also we have the development of these variants, and the mutations that we’re seeing in the virus appear to make the virus spread much more quickly.”

How different things looks from even just last month, when people lurked online at all hours to grab an appointment and traveled hours out of town to find a dose.

Two weeks ago, AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, which has administered more than 40,000 shots, filled up 2,300 appointments for first doses in less than two hours, a spokeswoman said. Last week, it took all week to fill half that number of spots.

So now what? With more doses than takers, some vaccination sites are retooling to make getting those shots easier, extending hours and welcoming walk-ins. AdventHealth, which had been hosting mass vaccination events at the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, is moving toward smaller clinics at its primary care locations, hospital officials said Friday.

“One way we are addressing this is looking at restructuring clinic hours and locations to make the vaccine more accessible as people go about their daily lives,” said Mariah Cox, spokeswoman for the Jackson County health department.

“We’re looking to open up our clinic to walk-ins as well. Overall, aiming to make getting the vaccine convenient so that people don’t have to take time off of work or travel very far.”

On Monday, the Unified Government Public Health Department in Wyandotte County is opening its clinics to all eligible Kansans, not just county residents, and adding early morning and evening appointments.

“We knew early on when there was a shortage of vaccine that the problem would be people sort of scrambling to find an open slot,” Nielsen of the state of Kansas said. “Now that we’re getting more and more vaccine, we’ve shifted over to a demand-side problem, and now we know we need to reach out and make sure that we’re getting those slots filled.”

The pause last week for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine did not help health officials trying to encourage fence-sitters off the fence, though they say the slowdown is more of a supply and demand mismatch.

“We know without a doubt that we’re at the point where those who may be a little bit hesitant or questioning whether they’re going to get the vaccine or get it now are the people we really need to work on getting vaccinated at this point, right now,” said Dr. David Wild, vice president of quality and safety for the KU health system.

A ‘Hunger Games’ phase

Mark Logan has been talking about the vaccine’s supply and demand for months as a leader of Comeback KC, a group that’s been working during the pandemic to get Kansas Citians tested, vaccinated and educated.

“For a long time we’ve been in a ‘Hunger Games’ phase. The first phase is scarcity,” said Logan. “And then we’re going to have this really brief, magical moment of equilibrium. It may be a day, it may be a week, it may be a month, where supply and demand are roughly aligned.

“And then we’re going to move into this really, really, long tail that will take months, probably more than a year, where supply will exceed demand, and our efforts are going to get more and more intense and more laborious and more targeted to try to get to a level where we achieve population immunity.”

Kansas City, Logan said, has reached that “really long tail” stage a couple of months earlier than expected.

“What we know is that there were a bunch of us, myself included, who were early, avid seekers of the vaccine. And while we supported the vaccine prioritization, we were chomping at the bit to get our own shots,” said Logan.

“And what’s happened is, just like any other supply and demand curve that you might look at, we sort of burned through that early demand market, the early adopters if you will.

“Those folks all found a way to get their vaccines, and many of them didn’t get them here in Kansas City. They went to rural places in Kansas and Missouri where they were able to get shots because the demand in those rural places was low.”

Now, vaccinators are like “early stage businesses who are surprised when their first wave of demand runs out and now they have to do marketing and connect consumers with their product, because the people who couldn’t wait to get it have already gotten it.

“So I think all this is to say, this is not indicative of any kind of problem or hitting the wall, or anything like that. Just kind of the way that supply and demand works.”

Some people might not know that anyone 16 and older can get the shot, said Logan. Or, these “middle adopters,” as Logan called them, just assumed it would be months before they could get a shot, “so it just isn’t on their to-do list to get vaccinated.

“It’s sort of like when a new model of the iPhone becomes available. Some people don’t even try because it’s going to be too expensive and there aren’t going to be enough. They’ll just wait until it drops a little bit in price and it’s easier to get.

“Price isn’t an issue here with the vaccine. Ease of access certainly has been.”

Taking walk-ins now

Surveys have shown that up to 70% of Americans plan to get the vaccine, but “unless it’s super convenient for them, they’re just not going to get around to it,” said Logan.

“And … vaccinators are going to have to work really hard to eliminate obstacles and to help them know that they can get it in a really convenient way …

“We are going to have to up our communications game and we are going to have to eliminate as many obstacles and barriers for those folks getting the vaccine as possible.”

Nielsen said Kansas officials will work with vaccination sites to make getting the shot more convenient. Taking walk-ins was “problematic” early on when supplies were limited, she said, “because once … you open up a package of the vials, you need to use them. And so there was concern about having long waiting lines and having potentially folks with health problems standing in a line,” she said.

“But also, we had concerns about whether or not we would have the right number of health care providers who could supply those shots. So scheduling appointments was far preferable to walk-ins.

“But as we now have an increased supply and we have a better sense of the process, we do see walk-ins becoming increasingly available.”

Wyandotte County has been offering walk-in services to residents and people who work in the county. Now, anyone who lives in Kansas can make an appointment at one of the county’s vaccination facilities on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the health department announced last week.

“We have the capacity to administer vaccinations to many more people than we are currently seeing in our facilities,” health department director Juliann Van Liew said in a statement.

“It’s time to use that capacity to benefit any Kansas resident who wants to come in and get their free COVID-19 vaccination. To have that capability and not use it would be a public disservice.”

Talk to your friend, doc

With appointments to fill, vaccine providers around Kansas City are putting out calls for arms, in press releases, websites and social media accounts. Comeback KC recently launched a campaign called Two Million Arms KC — it’s at vaccinatekc.org — which will go high-profile this week with billboards around town. T-shirts and other merchandise are coming later.

But health officials also want people who haven’t gotten the vaccine to have one-on-one conversations — talk to someone who has been vaccinated, or who can give sound information, such as a physician.

“If you have questions or concerns, if you’re on the fence still for any reason, please do reach out to anyone you think can help you with the information needed, or maybe reinforcement, or maybe just a little bit of ‘it will be OK’ sort of guidance,” said Wild with the KU health system.

“We aren’t actually near the 80% that we think we need to really see the population benefit of vaccination. And although 30% or approaching a third is great, and we do believe that we could be at a point where the majority of the adult population is vaccinated by maybe mid- or late June.

“That won’t happen unless those who are sort of on the fence do figure out ways to get their questions answered, their concerns addressed, even if they’re not completely alleviated.”

Logan would like people who have been vaccinated to evangelize, start talking to friends and family members who are avoiding the vaccine — and not do it on Facebook.

“I think that’s one thing for vaccinated people to realize is that they still have a really important role to play in the overall vaccination effort,” Logan said. “And that is to have respectful, polite dialogues and listening to their friends who have concerns and reservations and who may be reluctant.

“Hear them out, help them find truthful information, because a lot of them are reacting to rumors and misinformation, and make them feel heard and respected so that, as they become more inclined over time, they’re not so dug in. It feels like a reasonable thing to do.”

How to find the vaccine

HEALTH DEPARTMENTS:

▪ City of Kansas City: kcmo.gov/coronavirus. If you need help filling out the interest form call 311 or 816-513-1313.

▪ Jackson County: jacohd.org/covid-19-vaccine-survey-tool. 816-404-9883.

▪ Johnson County: https://jocovaccine.rsvpify.com/. If you need assistance or a Spanish translator, call 913-715-2819.

▪ Wyandotte County: wycokck.org/COVID-19. If you cannot complete the form online call 311 and dial 1 for the COVID Hotline.

▪ Clay County: Clayhealth.com, the website of the Clay County Public Health Center.

▪ Platte County: County residents should register through the Missouri COVID-19 Vaccine Navigator — plattecountyhealthdept.com. For help, call 877-435-8411.

HOSPITALS

▪ AdventHealth Shawnee Mission: adventhealth.com/coronavirus-resource-hub for alerts about future vaccine clinics. 877-847-8747.

▪ The University of Kansas Health System: kansashealthsystem.com/COVIDVaccineForm. 913-588-1227.

▪ Truman Medical Centers/University Health: trumed.org.

▪ Olathe Health: olathehealth.org.

PHARMACIES

▪ Balls Food, ballsfoodspharmacy.com (includes Hen House, Price Chopper, Sun Fresh and Payless pharmacies).

▪ Hy-Vee, hy-vee.com/my-pharmacy/covid-vaccine

▪ Walmart, walmart.com/COVIDvaccine.

▪ CVS, cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine.

▪ Walgreens, walgreens.com/findcare/vaccination/covid-19