CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – During a weekly webinar on Friday, multiple district officials shared their frustration with the Iowa Department of Public Health that they received little to no warning about the changes announced Thursday, making people eligible for vaccines. 64 and younger with a medical condition that the CDC has determined may be serious illness caused by COVID-19.
An email received by KCRG-TV9’s i9 Investigative Unit shows that the Iowa Department of Public Health has only warned county health departments that it was expanding the criteria for COVID-19 vaccinations 8 minutes before the announcement was made .
During the webinar, the health ministry said it expects the recently announced change will add about 1 million people who are eligible for a vaccine. The department does not prioritize people with certain illnesses, although individual counties can. The state also intends to rely on people who testify truthfully to their medical condition or smoking history. It will also vaccinate this new group while also vaccinating the levels set up in January.
The department said it made the decision after nearly 12 counties said it completed vaccinating their population aged 65 and older.
Kelly Garcia, who is the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said the move was made to ensure outstanding appointments were fulfilled.
“I know not every county will be in the same space and the move to open things up is actually around the idea that a significant number of both pharmacy partners and local public health authorities had open appointments,” she said. “And it has been our goal, our collective goal from the very beginning, to fulfill as many agreements as possible and get weapons as soon as possible.”
The new guidelines will take effect on Monday, March 8. Each province has the flexibility to initiate vaccinations for people under the age of 65 with a medical condition.
The department also indicated that they were looking at state-run vaccination clinics and do not expect any changes to be made to the governor’s next emergency proclamation.
It also said the Infectious Disease Advisory Council, which advises Iowa on which populations to vaccinate, has no plans to meet again in the future.
Communication problems
Christy Roby Williams, Muscatine County’s director of public health, said an earlier warning would give her more time to prepare her department.
“I would respectfully ask the Iowa government to consider communicating with state and local public health departments when the phases are going to change (prior to the change),” she said in the chat during the conversation. “So that we can better prepare our communications, call centers and employees and respond quickly to the community.”
Many others in the conversation agreed with this sentiment, including Becky Wolf. Wolf is the top health officer in Greene County.
“Notifying 10 minutes in advance before it is released to the press creates HUGE problems locally, especially on Fridays! We deserve better. We appreciate everything you do for us in these impossible times. “
Tim Richmond, Wapello County’s emergency management coordinator in Wapello County, said this is a repeated complaint from local health authorities.
“Locals need to be notified in advance of any significant changes so that we can manage the local posts,” he said. If you don’t do this, the local population will have to unnecessarily compete with state partners. I don’t think this was done on purpose, but it is a repeated complaint throughout this pandemic. “
Ken Sharp, who is the chair of the Infectious Disease Advisory Council. acknowledged that local public health departments have received few warnings about changes.
“We hear you and we’ve heard you every time,” he said. “And we recognize that everything is so compressed and it stays that way. We make every effort to try to notice as best we can. And we recognize that we just have not been able to get to a place where we have not been able to do with several days’ notice. “
After Sharp responded, two different public health officials said they only wanted a warning of more than ten minutes.
Redistribution of vaccine doses to counties that have not yet finished vaccinating people 65 and older
During the transition from phase 1A to 1B, IDPH demanded that everyone at a phase across the state of Iowa receive a vaccine before any county could begin vaccinating people in the next group. This is no longer the case, and several county health departments asked the state about redistributing vaccine doses to counties that had not finished vaccinating people over the age of 65.
Ken Sharp said about 12 counties said it had completed vaccinating people 65 or older. Dana Cockrell, the assistant clerk of the Monroe County health department, asked why those counties can’t put their doses on hold.
“If the minority of the provinces have met their needs, can’t their shipments be put on hold?” She asked in the chat. “We were just planning to allocate to eligible agricultural sectors and now the number of eligible vaccines has grown exponentially. Give us their vaccines so we can vaccinate the people who qualify for them. Don’t saturate the field anymore. “
Cockrell said the state is allowing the local health department to fail.
“You’re ruining our chances to progress and succeed,” she wrote in the chat. “We went from successful plans to eight-ball again.”
Sharp said it won’t wait for every county in the state to complete a phase before expanding eligibility.
“We are trying to balance a number of counties that have passed their waiting list,” he said. “And these aren’t just small, small counties, this is a wide variety of counties, including some that we would consider large counties by Iowa standards. So we try to do our best to find that balance so that the provinces can keep growing through their population.
Sharp also said it is trying to live up to past promises that it would not cut allocations so the counties can plan properly. Sharp said this was a criticism IDPH received from the county public health when it reassigned doses to other counties to catch up during the transition from phase 1A to 1B.
Charity Loecke, who is the coordinator for Delaware County Public Health, said the state should increase its allocation if eligibility increases.
“I ask that if you extend the eligibility, our vaccine allocation should be increased !!” she wrote in the chat. “This feels to us that the vaccine should be reassigned to other provinces.”
Sharp replied that it is looking at allocation strategies and is working to increase allocations to counties, but it will take time due to the slow rollout of the vaccine.
Other people on the call also told the state that it needed more doses of the vaccine and had the capacity to handle more doses.
IDPH is actively seeking mass vaccination tests
Kelly Garcia, who is the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said on the call that the state is considering organizing mass vaccination clinics as the supply increases.
Helen Eddy, who is the director of the Polk County Health Department, asked if the state was considering state-run mass vaccination clinics, specifically at the Test Iowa site.
Garcia replied that it is and is also looking to collaborate with provinces.
“We are thinking of hosting some people from the United States,” she said. “We would like to work with provinces or a group of provinces that want to keep one together.”
Johnson County wants to split people with pre-existing conditions into smaller age groups
Two different provinces wanted IDPH to split those new vaccine candidates into smaller age groups.
Sam Jarvis, who is a division manager in the Johnson County Public Health Department, requested a ten-year age bracket for the exclusion of the additional expansion.
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