02/15/21 - Missouri Mondays - We must protect Missouri’s children! Pass HB 560 and HB 557!
Over the past several weeks, the Kansas City Star and other news outlets have reported on the horrific abuse suffered by children under the control of faith-based residential schools in the state of Missouri. Representative Keri Ingle, who was featured on Dateline NBC this past week, reports “Several men and women testified that, as children, they were beaten, restrained, slammed into concrete, taken off prescribed medications, denied food and water, and sexually abused in these facilities in Missouri and in other states. More than one witness described children being forced to eat their own vomit.” To read more about these abuses, read NBC’s coverage HERE. Missouri is currently one of only two states in the country that fails to regulate these facilities, which has led to many organizations moving to Missouri to evade regulation.
Ingle goes on to tell us, “These victims are still dealing with the trauma they suffered. Hearing their stories Wednesday and over the past few months has shaken me, but the most horrifying thing is that these abuses are likely still occurring in Missouri.”
Representative Keri Ingle and Representative Rudy Veit, R-Wardsville, have presented House Bill 560 (Ingle) and Bill 557 (Veit) that would allow the state to regulate these facilities and protect the children who reside there. These bills will be discussed by the House Children and Families Committee shortly.
Tell your Representative and members of the House Children and Families Committee to support this bi-partisan effort to end this tragic problem in our state.
TO FIND YOUR Missouri senator and representative enter your address here: https://house.mo.gov/legislatorlookup.aspx
House Children and Families Committee
Representative Mary Elizabeth Coleman, Chair
573-751-3751
MaryElizabeth.Coleman@house.mo.gov
Representative Dottie Bailey, Vice Chair
573-751-0562
Representative Keri Ingle, Ranking Minority Member
573-751-1459
Representative Shamed Dogan
573-751-4392
Representative Tom Hannegan
573-751-3717
Representative Jonathan Patterson
573-751-0907
Jonathan.Patterson@house.mo.gov
Representative Randy Pietzman
573-751-9459
Representative Brenda Shields
573-751-3643
Representative Sarah Unsicker
573-751-1285
Representative Yolanda Young
573-751-3129
Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic
The House impeachment managers powerfully proved their case against Trump for inciting the violent insurrection on Jan 6 to stop the certification of electoral votes and prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Seven Republican senators courageously upheld their oath and voted to convict Trump and hold him accountable. Predictably Missouri GOP Senators Blunt and Hawley voted to give Trump a free pass and future lawless presidents license to do this again. Write Senators Blunt and Hawley to let them know you saw them turn their backs on democracy and the constitution and that you will remember when it’s time to help defeat them at the ballot box!
Sen. Blunt - blunt.senate.gov/contact/contact-roy
Sen. Hawley - hawley.senate.gov/contact-senator-hawley
MO COVID UPDATE
Our thanks to State Rep. Keri Ingle for this important information! Vaccine Distribution Here in the Kansas City region the majority of vaccines will be distributed to some of our major health systems including HCA, Saint Luke’s Health System, and Truman Medical Centers. The Biden administration will be sending additional doses directly to select pharmacies - some Walmart/Sam’s and Health Mart Systems pharmacies may receive the vaccine. If you are in Phase 1A, 1B Tier 1& 2, you currently qualify for the vaccine. If you would like to get your vaccine, I recommend calling your primary care provider, your local pharmacy, and reaching out to one of the health systems that has been deemed a high throughput allocation site. For more information on the states vaccination plan, please visit https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/. Please note that many of the vaccination distribution sites have not received vaccines or do not have contact information. Right now they are only vaccinating Phase 1A, Phase 1B - Tier 1, Phase 1B - Tier 2. You can view the tier levels here - https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/priority/. The state has an estimated 2 million Missourians left to offer the vaccine to before they move on to the next tier, hopefully by April. Please be patient, continue to keep distance from others, wear your masks, and wash your hands. COVID Navigator - https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/navigator/ is a secure registry tool to assist Missourians in receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. You can also call the COVID-19 hotline at 877-435-8411 for registration assistance.
New MO COVID Vaccine Plan
The state is divided into nine Highway Patrol Divisions and those regions are how the Department of Health and Senior Services have identified the allocation regions. Here in the Kansas City metro we are in Region A, which is 23% of the state's population. You can view the map of each division here - https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/events/.
The state is estimating they will only receive 85,000 total doses each week from the federal government. This weekly allocation must be used on the first and second doses and our supply will be allocated as follows:
53% of our region's vaccinations will go to locations that can give up to 5,000 vaccines per week. In our region the state is sending vaccines to hospitals in our area in groups. One week 5,000 doses will be sent to Truman Medical, 4,500 will be split between Liberty Hospital and North Kansas City Hospital. The next week 4,800 will be split between Boothwell, Cass Regional, Fitzgibbon, and Golden Valley and 4,800 will be split between HCA and Saint Luke's. That is at least 9,600 vaccines each week that will be allocated in our area. They will repeat this for the last two weeks of February. Vaccine wait list signup links (Hospital/Pharmacy) are as follows:
TRUMAN WAIT LIST SIGNUP - https://www.trumed.org/forms/covid-19-vaccine-wait-list/ 816-404-CARE
HCA WAIT LIST SIGNUP - https://researchmedicalcenter.com/covid-19/covid-19-vaccine-information/covid-19-vaccine-distribution.dot
WALMART WAIT LIST SIGNUP - https://www.walmart.com/cp/1228302
SAM’S CLUB WAIT LIST SIGN UP - https://www.samsclub.com/pharmacy
23% of our region's vaccination allocations will be directed to Mass Vaccination Events. There will be several locations across the region and they will repeat those locations three weeks after the first visit so you can get dose one and three weeks later dose two. Last week there was not one for our region listed. They are supposed to post early in the week next week where the next location will be. You can sign up at https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/events/.
8% of our region's vaccination allocation will be sent to local public health departments - such as the Jackson County and Kansas City Health Departments.
Jackson County Residents sign up: https://form.jotform.com/203524953651153
Kansas City Residents sign up: https://hipaa.jotform.com/210117358088152 If you don't have access to fill out digitally, call the Health Dept. at (816) 513-6152 and someone will assist you.
8% of our region's vaccination allocation will be sent to federally qualified health centers. These are community-based health care providers who provide primary care services in underserved areas.
Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Waitlist https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=WYw-ckSF30ei2eXLBBAfJSZy6fvP_mhBpLKAX9-FudlUNko2VDFBWEtMSVIyQlo0NUJXTko2RlZUTCQlQCN0PWcu
8% of our region's vaccination allocation will be sent to any other enrolled providers, or “community providers,” requesting vaccines. While the system is not up and running yet with the exact providers who currently have vaccines on hand, you will be able to view a map and look up local, approved vaccinators at https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/map/.
According to MO Dept of Health and Senior Services as of Sat Feb 13 total of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Missouri rose to 471,241 and the total number of confirmed deaths rose to 7,455 For comparison the New York Times database reported as of Feb 14 at 9:08pm ET at least 508,622 cases and 7,875 deaths in Missouri since the beginning of the pandemic. This is far from over so please continue to social distance, wash your hands, and always wear your mask in public!
THANK YOU! for answering the Missouri Mondays CALL TO ACTION!
Invite your friends and neighbors to join us and sign up for Indivisible Missouri and this Missouri Mondays email at indivisiblemo.com/signup
