A regional public health department in Idaho has decided not to give COVID-19 vaccines to people in six counties anymore. This was a close vote by the board.
Southwest District Health seems to be the first health center in the country that can’t give COVID-19 shots. A public health department’s most important job is to give vaccines.
In Texas, lawmakers made it illegal for health offices to promote COVID-19 vaccines, and in Florida, the surgeon general went against medical advice and said the vaccine wasn’t recommended. However, governments across the country haven’t completely blocked the vaccines.
For the National Association of County and City Health Officials, Adriane Casalotti is in charge of government and public relations. She said, “I don’t know of anything else like this.” According to her, health offices have stopped giving the vaccine because it is too expensive or not enough people want it. This is not because of “a judgment of the medical product itself.”
Along the line between Idaho and Oregon, the six-county district has three counties in the Boise metropolitan area. There have been fewer requests for COVID-19 vaccines in the health area. In 2021, 1,601 were given, but only 64 have been given so far in 2024. The same is true for other vaccines. Idaho has the highest rate of children who don’t get vaccinated in the country, and the Southwest District Health Department had to act quickly last year to stop a rare measles spread that made 10 people sick.
The health department’s board decided 4-3 in favor of the ban on October 22, even though Southwest’s medical director said the vaccine was necessary.
“We ask the board that we be able to carry and offer those (vaccines),” Dr. Perry Jansen said at the meeting. “We know that we always have these discussions about risks and benefits.” “This is not a catch-all method where everyone gets a chance.” This is a well-thought-out plan.
There were more than 290 public comments in response to Jansen’s plea. Many of them called for an end to vaccine requirements or government funding of vaccines, which are not happening in the district. Many of the people who spoke at the meeting are well-known across the country for speaking out against Covid vaccines. One of these people is Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist from Texas who sells “contagion emergency kits” with ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, two drugs that have not been approved to treat COVID-19 and can have harmful side effects.
Many of the people who wanted the ban were known to Board Chairman Kelly Aberasturi, especially from earlier local protests against pandemic policies.
The Associated Press reported that Aberasturi has doubts about COVID-19 vaccines and national public health leaders. He told the AP that he agreed with the board’s decision but was “disappointed” with it.
He said that the board had stepped on the line between patients and their doctors, which could mean that other medicines or treatments could be blocked.
Members of the board who supported the decision said that people could get vaccinated somewhere else and that giving them the shots was the same as approving of their safety. (There is proof that the shots are safe and have saved millions of lives, but some people may not want to get vaccinated or boosted because of false information about them.)
Jansen and Aberasturi said that the people getting vaccinated at the health department had no other choice. This included people who were homeless, unable to leave their homes, in long-term care centers, or in the immigration process.
Aberasturi said, “I’ve been homeless in my life, so I know how hard it can be when you’re just trying to get by and get ahead.” And this is where we should step in and help.
“But some people on the board have never been there, so they don’t know what it’s like.”
Health officials in the state have said that they “suggest that people think about getting the Covid-19 vaccine.” A representative for the Idaho Health Department, AJ McWhorter, said they couldn’t say anything about “public health district business,” but they did say that people who don’t have insurance can still get the COVID-19 vaccine at community health centers.
Aberasturi said that he will ask the board at the next meeting if the health department can at least be allowed to vaccinate older patients and people who live in long-term care centers. He also said that the board is responsible for the “health and well-being” of the people who live in the district. “But I think that way we did this wasn’t as careful as we should have been.”
Source: An Idaho health department isn’t allowed to give Covid-19 vaccines anymore. Experts say it’s a first
