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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – During a weekly webinar on Friday, several county officials shared their frustration with the Iowa Department of Public Health that they received little or no warning about the changes announced Thursday , which open vaccine eligibility to people. 64 and under with a health condition the CDC has identified as potentially causing serious illness from COVID-19.
An email that KCRG-TV9’s i9 investigation unit received shows that the Iowa Department of Public Health only alerted county health departments that it was expanding the eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccinations 8 minutes before the announcement.
During the webinar, the state’s health department said it expects the recently announced change to add about 1 million people eligible to receive a vaccine. The ministry will not prioritize people with certain illnesses, although some counties may. The state also plans to rely on people who can honestly attest to their health or smoking history. It will also vaccinate this new group while simultaneously vaccinating the stands set up in January.
The department said it made the decision after nearly 12 counties said they had completed vaccinating their population 65 and older.
Kelly Garcia, who is the acting director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said the decision was made to ensure open appointments are met.
“I know that not all counties will be in the same space and the movement to open things up is really around the idea that a significant number of pharmaceutical partners and local public health agencies had appointments. open, ”she said. “And that has been our goal, our collective goal from the very beginning to complete as many appointments and get gunfire as quickly as possible.”
The new guidelines will come into effect on Monday, March 8. Each county has the option of starting vaccination for people under 65 with a health problem.
The department also said it is looking for state-run immunization clinics and does not expect any changes to be made to the governor’s next emergency proclamation.
He also said that the Infectious Disease Advisory Council, which advises Iowa on populations to be vaccinated, has no plans to meet again in the future.
Communication problems
Christy Roby Williams, director of public health for Muscatine County, said an earlier warning would give her more time to prepare her department.
“I respectfully request the Iowa government to consider communicating with state and local public health departments when the phases change (before the change),” she said in the chat function of the ‘call. “We can thus better prepare our communications, our call centers, our employees and provide a rapid response to the community.”
Many other participants in the call agreed with this sentiment, including Becky Wolf. Wolf is the senior health official in Greene County.
“Providing 10 minutes’ notice before going to press creates huge problems locally, especially on Fridays! We deserve better. We appreciate all you do for us in these impossible times.
Tim Richmond, who is the Wapello County emergency management coordinator in Wapello County, said it was a repeated complaint from local health agencies.
“Locals should be notified in advance of major changes so that we can manage local messaging,” he said. “Failure to do so unnecessarily pits locals against statistical partners. I don’t think it’s done on purpose, but it has been a repeated complaint throughout this pandemic.
Ken Sharp, who is the chair of the Infectious Disease Advisory Council. acknowledged that local public health departments received few warnings about the changes.
“We hear you and we hear you every time,” he said. “And we recognize that everything is so compressed and it continues to be that way. We are doing everything we can to try to give as much notice as possible. And we recognize that we just couldn’t get into a place where several days’ notice just isn’t something we were able to do.
After Sharp’s response, two different public health officials said they just wanted a warning longer than ten minutes.
Redistribution of vaccine doses to counties not completed with vaccination of people aged 65 and over
During the transition from phase 1A to 1B, the IDPH demanded that everyone in a phase across the state of Iowa receive a vaccine before a county could begin immunizing people in the next group. This is no longer the case and several county health departments have called on the state to redistribute vaccine doses to counties that have not finished vaccinating people over the age of 65.
Ken Sharp said about 12 counties have reported completing immunizations for people 65 years of age or older. Dana Cockrell, deputy administrator of the Monroe County Department of Health, asked why those counties couldn’t withhold their doses.
“If the minority of counties have met their need, can’t their shipments be put on hold?” She asked in the chat. “We were just starting to plan to allocate to agricultural sectors that qualify and now the vaccine-eligible crowd has grown exponentially. Give us their vaccines so that we can vaccinate people who qualify. Do not saturate the ground further. “
Cockrell said the state is putting the local health department in a failed position.
“You reduce our chances of progressing and succeeding,” she wrote in the chat. “We went from successful shots to forming behind the 8 ball once again.”
Sharp said he won’t wait until every county in the state has finished with a phase before expanding eligibility.
“We’re trying to find a balance between a number of counties that were able to get through their waiting list,” he said. “And it’s not just tiny little counties, it’s a wide range of counties, some of which we would consider to be big counties by Iowa standards. So we try to do our best to find that balance to allow counties to continue to progress through their populations.
Sharp also said he is trying to keep promises made in the past not to cut allowances so that counties can properly plan appointments. Sharp said it was a criticism the IDPH received from county public health when it reallocated doses to other counties to catch up when moving from Phase 1A to 1B.
Charity Loecke, who is the Delaware County public health coordinator, said the state would have to increase its allowance if eligibility were to increase.
“I ask that if you extend eligibility our vaccine allowance must increase !!” she wrote in the chat. “It seems to us that we need to reallocate vaccines to other counties.”
Sharp responded that he is looking at allocation strategies and working to increase allocations to counties, but this will take time due to the slow rollout of the vaccine.
Other people on the call also told the state it needed more doses of the vaccine and had the ability to handle more doses.
IDPH is actively studying mass vaccination testing
Kelly Garcia, who is the acting director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said on the call that the state is considering hosting mass vaccination clinics as supply increases.
Helen Eddy, who is the director of the Polk County Health Department, asked if the state is considering state-run mass vaccination clinics specifically at the Test Iowa site.
Garcia has responded that it does and is also looking to partner with the counties.
“We are considering hosting some of those from the United States,” she said. “We would be delighted to partner with any counties or a group of counties that would like to hold a set.”
Johnson County wants to divide those with pre-existing conditions into smaller age groups
Two different counties wanted the IDPH to divide people newly eligible for a vaccine into smaller age groups.
Sam Jarvis, who is a division director in the Johnson County Department of Public Health, has called for ten-year age brackets to be in place for ineligibility for the further expansion.
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