While the pandemic continues, some residents and researchers have questioned COVID-19 data produced by the Missouri Department of Health. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strain on nearly every state resource in Missouri, including the Department of Health and Senior Services. When the virus reached Missouri, the department had to create a website to track, among other things, the number of cases, deaths, and now vaccinations.

Matthew Holloway is a Data Researcher in Southwest Missouri, who’s been tracking the pandemic since it reached the state, he says the pandemic has illuminated the attention to data reporting from DHSS. “I’ve spoken with state officials, I’ve spoken with folks at hospitals all around Missouri, at health departments all around Missouri. Just the tracking and logging of each individual case has been really challenging and it’s changed course a couple of times. They did a major software system update.” Holloway believes that Missouri was exposed from a technological standpoint because of the pandemic not being able to track COVID-19 data in real-time. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro