Today was one of the saddest days in my recent memory, as I heard that my niece, JoEllen, has died from COVID-19 and complications.
Only 32 years old, JoEllen Flanagan Engelbart, an assistant prosecuting attorney in Jackson County, Missouri, had COVID-19 and went into a hospital in Missouri a few days before Christmas. We first heard that news on Christmas morning. She and Matt were expecting their first child, a son, Ross, who was delivered prematurely by C-section on Dec. 29. The baby went to the neonatal intensive care unit of another Missouri hospital.
JoEllen Engelbart
We were all heartbroken when we heard the news from the family that she died about 3:10 p.m. today. We heard from the family that her asthma and other complications made it a difficult struggle.
JoEllen was a talented young attorney who had received many awards. She served on the Missouri Bar Young Lawyers Section Council. She received the Up and Coming Public Service Award from the Missouri Lawyers Weekly in 2017. She was active in the Association of Women Lawyers, Kansas City Chapter. She was honored as an outstanding law student while attending the University of Missouri at Kansas City. During her undergraduate years at Truman State, she was the recipient of the President’s Medallion.
JoEllen was passionate about helping victims, and she also volunteered at the Rose Brooks Center.
We hadn’t seen her during the past year, as everyone is staying home, and with her extremely busy life, we didn’t see her very often at all. She wasn’t able to attend our Christmas dinner in December 2019, but we saw her two brothers that day. We didn’t invite people over for Christmas 2020 because of the pandemic. Probably the last time we saw her was at her brother’s wedding and related events in May 2019. She organized a bridal shower, and did a wonderful job with it, as she did with everything. She had an extremely demanding career.
Today I wondered if JoEllen knew that her late paternal grandfather, Thomas Flanagan Sr., also my father, had survived a bout with the flu in the pandemic of 1919, the year he was born.
Born in Kansas City, Kansas, JoEllen moved when she was a child with her family to Missouri, which also was where she and her husband later made their home. The oldest of three children, as a youngster she was always keeping her little brothers in line, and was very responsible. She also had a great sense of humor, and was very intelligent.
One thing that impressed me about JoEllen was what she said as a child when she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said she wanted to be President. I certainly think that she would have been a great President.
An accident was reported at 8:50 a.m. Wednesday on eastbound I-70 just north of the 5th Street exit ramp in Kansas City, Kansas, according to a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper’s report.
A Toyota Corolla was going about 10 mph when it tried to take the exit ramp to 5th Street in the far right lane, according to the trooper’s report. It was struck by a Dodge Ram truck that was pulling a trailer, the report stated.
The Corolla left the roadway and hit an exit sign, according to the trooper’s report.
The driver of the Corolla, a 46-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, man, was taken to a hospital with a possible serious injury, the report stated.
The driver of the Dodge truck, a 41-year-old man from Hyattsville, Maryland, had no apparent injury, according to the report.
Curtis Robinson, a 77-year-old UG Health Department volunteer, received the first COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday at the Health Department site at the former Kmart building at 78th and State Avenue. (Photo from UG Health Department)Fifty-four UG Health Department workers received a COVID-19 vaccination on Wednesday at the Health Department’s site at the former Kmart building at 78th and State Avenue. (Photo from UG Health Department)
After getting her COVID-19 vaccination today, Nicole Garner said she was glad she did.
Garner, a Unified Government Health Department employee, said she was a little nervous before getting the Moderna COVID-19 vaccination at the Health Department’s site at the former Kmart building at 78th and State. She spoke during a Zoom meeting Wednesday afternoon.
She said she did her research on the vaccine, and for her, the vaccine is “about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“I’m very excited, elated, not only for myself but for the community,” she said. She urged people to research the vaccine and then to get it.
“Don’t be afraid,” she advised others who are considering whether to get a vaccine.
This vaccine can impact the community in a number of ways, she said. Getting the vaccine is a way to bring back the normalcy that everyone wants to happen, she added.
As a person of color, it was important to her to lead by example, she said.
Fifty-four vaccines were given today to health care workers at the Health Department, according to Bob Bennett, COVID-19 vaccine operations director with the UG Health Department.
Bianca Garcia, also a Health Department employee who just received the vaccine, said she was a little nervous, but, like Garner, she had done some research about the vaccine’s development and side effects before receiving it.
Garcia said the team was incredibly welcoming and friendly, and it was reassuring that someone was monitoring them afterward for 15 minutes in case anyone had a reaction.
“It was not an easy thing to make a decision to come and do, but it’s the important thing for us to move forward as a society and combat the virus head on,” Garcia said.
She said she really wants the vaccinations to be the thing that brings them to the end of the pandemic.
The first person at the Health Department to get a vaccine today was volunteer Curt Robinson, who has volunteered at the Health Department since last spring. He has been greeting people who come in to the testing and vaccine site at the former Kmart building. Robinson said it was an honor to be a participant in the launch of vaccinations.
“I think this is something we really all need to do to stop this pandemic from going on,” Robinson said. “I want to help the community.”
He said he thinks everyone should get the vaccine because it’s going to help the community in a big way.
Mayor David Alvey said the effort to get the testing and vaccination site running showed the dedication of the UG and its employees to provide this service to the community. Many departments were involved in getting the site running. He said the UG was out in front of other metro area communities in providing this service.
“This is a great sign of hope for us, because we waited so long for us to try and get back to normal,” Alvey said.
The stay-at-home order and mask order were necessary to protect residents and their loved ones, and prevent community spread, he said. Wyandotte County has a very high case rate, with 50 percent higher than surrounding communities, he said, so Wyandotte County had a special interest in this. Also, many residents have to be out on the front lines working, so they are exposed to the virus, he added.
The mayor said he is looking forward to his turn to get the vaccine.
“If we just each person take responsibility to neither get nor give the virus, we can get back to normal so much sooner,” Mayor Alvey said.
He thanked the residents and businesses of Wyandotte County who have really taken a hit from the pandemic.
“We’re fighting back now, and the vaccine is our best opportunity to fight back,” he said.
Juliann Van Liew, Health Department director, said it’s hard to put into words what this means for a team of people who have worked constantly for the last 10 months.
For them, it’s about the public’s health, protecting Wyandotte County and moving forward, she said.
“It’s also about us as human beings,” Van Liew said. “The staff of the Health Department are also mothers and fathers, and sisters and brothers.”
On a personal, professional and public health level, it’s an incredible moment of hope for them, she said.
“This is truly a testament to what can be built in a short amount of time if you have a team that has a shared goal and wants to get it done,” she said. “And they have done just that.”
She said the former Kmart building is a beautiful site that is ready to receive hundreds of people a day within the next few weeks, then they will be ready to add two other sites as well, to make sure the vaccine is geographically available to the population.
“This is about giving Wyandotte residents what they deserve, which is the best,” she said, and as soon as they can get it.
Mayor Alvey said as soon as the Health Department receives more guidance from the state on the rollout of the vaccines, they will move forward.
In the first group of those who receive vaccines are health care workers who are most at risk and long-term care facility staff and residents.
They want to get the vaccine to the front-line emergency medical personnel and first responders, those who are most at risk, he said.
As more vaccine becomes available, they will continue to expand it, he said.
Bennett said they are currently focusing on vaccinating health care providers, and that next week, they will be vaccinating EMS and many front-line essential responders, especially those who have been going to homes to help transport COVID-19 patients to the hospital.
They will get ready to inoculate many medical professionals, he said. Hospitals are inoculating their own staff members.
The Health Department is planning to give the vaccinations to doctors, nurses, janitorial staff and office workers from the local doctors’ offices and clinics, Bennett said. From there they will continue with the CDC guidance, he said.
Van Liew said everything is still up in the air at this time on the vaccination schedules in the next phases.
If the Health Department gets weekly allocations of vaccines, which appears likely within the next few weeks, then they can move into that phase in mid to late January to vaccinate age 75 and older, specific sectors in the essential workforce, educators and child care workers, with a few other categories, she said.
“We have to follow the guidelines put out by KDHE, we have to wait so we know specifically what they’re going to require,” Van Liew said.
She said she’s hoping next week they can vaccinate 800 to 1,000 health care workers and EMS staff, then do another 1,000 in the following week. They want to have 2,000 to 2,500 completed by the second week of January, she added.
Health care workers in Wyandotte County may contact the Health Department to get on the list, she said. The Health Department is using lists from their resources, and also lists from the various medical associations in the state, to identify people and let them know that they can be vaccinated, according to Van Liew.
She added they know they’ll miss some providers, and health care workers can call the Health Department, let them know they need a vaccine, and they will be directed in the right direction. People can call the 311 information number in Wyandotte County and can reach the Health Department from there.
When the Health Department’s site at 78th and State opens again on Monday morning, they will be ready with hundreds of doses for health care workers and EMS staff, Van Liew said.
Mayor Alvey said public access was very important in selection of a vaccine site, and there is a bus stop on State Avenue in front of the Kmart building. Public transit access was a concern of a local group of pastors that are advising the mayor and Health Department, he said.
As they move to other sites later, public transit access also will be part of the consideration, he said.
Van Liew said the Health Department will be using every means available to let people know when vaccines are available to the public. There will be announcements in traditional media, social media and announcements to specific populations, she said. On Tuesday they had a constructive meeting with the Area Agency on Aging, on how to reach the 75 and older population.
Mayor Alvey wanted residents to know that “the virus itself is the enemy.” The community must do what it can to stop the virus, he said, because it’s the virus bringing the pain to people, not other people causing it.
He said he was “very hopeful of what we’re going to be able to accomplish with widespread adoption of the vaccination.”
