CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – During a weekly webinar on Friday, several provincial officials shared their frustration with the Iowa Department of Public Health for giving little or no warning about the changes announced Thursday, which would allow vaccination for people 64 and younger, with a medical condition identified by the CDC as potentially serious illness due to COVID-19.
An email received by KCRG-TV9’s i9 Investigative Unit shows that the Iowa Department of Public Health only warned the county Department of Health that it had extended the vaccination criteria for COVID-19, 8 minutes before the announcement is made.
The health department said during the webinar that it expects the recently announced change to add about 1 million people who are eligible to receive a vaccine. The department does not give priority to people with certain diseases, although individual provinces can do so. The state also intends to rely on people attesting to their medical condition or smoking history. It will also vaccinate this new group and at the same time vaccinate the levels set in January.
The department said it made the decision after nearly 12 provinces said they had vaccinated their population aged 65 and older.
Kelly Garcia, the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said the move was made to ensure public appointments were filled.
“I know that not every country is going to be in the same space, and that the move to open things up is actually about the idea that an insignificant number of pharmacist partners and local public health agencies have had open appointments,” she said. “And that was our goal, our common goal from the beginning, to fill as many appointments as possible and get into arms as quickly as possible.”
The new guidelines will take effect on Monday 8 March. Each province has the flexibility to start vaccinations for people under 65 with a medical condition.
The department has also indicated that it is looking into state-run vaccination clinics and does not expect changes to be made to the Governor’s next emergency proclamation.
It is also said that the Infectious Diseases Advisory Board, which advises Iowa on which populations to vaccinate, has no plans to meet again in the future.
Communication problems
Christy Roby Williams, who is the director of public health in Muscatine County, said an earlier warning would give her more time to prepare her department.
“I would respectfully request that the Iowa government consider communicating with state and local public health departments when the phases are going to change (before the change),” she said in the interview. “So that we can better prepare our communications, call centers, employees and provide a quick response to the community.”
Many others on the call agree with this sentiment, including Becky Wolf. Wolf is the best health official in Greene County.
‘If you give ten minutes’ notice before you release it, there’s big problems locally, especially Friday! We deserve better. We appreciate everything you do for us in this impossible time. ”
Tim Richmond, who is the Wapello County emergency coordinator in Wapello County, said it was a repeated complaint from local health agencies.
“Locals need to be aware of important changes beforehand so that we can manage local messages,” he said. ‘By not doing so, local residents are unnecessarily against stat partners. I do not think this is done on purpose, but was a recurring complaint during this whole pandemic. ”
Ken Sharp, who chairs the Infectious Diseases Advisory Board. acknowledges that local public health departments have had few warnings about changes.
“We hear you and we heard you every time,” he said. “And we realize that everything is so compressed and that it just stays that way. We do everything in our power to give so much knowledge. And we realize that we just were not able to get to a place where a few days notice was not something we could do. ‘
After Sharp responded, two different public health officials said they only wanted a warning longer than ten minutes.
Redistribution of vaccine doses to provinces that have not finished vaccinating people aged 65 and over
During the transition from Phase 1A to 1B, IDPH required everyone in a phase throughout the state of Iowa to receive a vaccine before any country in the next group of people could begin vaccinating. This is no longer the case and several health departments in the province have asked the state to distribute the vaccination of doses to provinces that have not yet vaccinated people over 65.
Ken Sharp said about 12 provinces said people aged 65 or older had been vaccinated. Dana Cockrell, who is the assistant administrator of the Monroe County Department of Health, asked why the counties could not wait for their doses.
“If the minority of the provinces meet their need, can they not be sent?” She asked in the conversation. ‘We only planned to plan to award to eligible agricultural sectors, and now the crowd eligible for vaccine has grown exponentially. Give us their vaccinations so we can vaccinate those who are eligible. Do not saturate the field any more. ”
Cockrell said the state puts the local health department in a position to fail.
“You are increasing our chances of success,” she wrote in the chat. “Once again we went from successful plans to behind the 8-ball.”
Sharp said it would not wait for every province in the state to complete a phase before expanding the qualification.
“We are trying to find a balance between a number of provinces that could come through their waiting list,” he said. ‘And it’s not just small, small provinces, it’s a wide variety of provinces, including some that we would consider large provinces by Iowa standards. We are therefore trying our best to find the balance so that provinces can continue through their populations.
Sharp also said he was trying to keep the promises made in the past that it would not diminish the allocation so that provinces could plan the appointments properly. Sharp said this is a criticism that IDPH received from the public health in the province when it redistributed doses to other provinces to catch up as it transitions from phase 1A to 1B.
Charity Loecke, who is the Delaware County Public Health Coordinator, said the state should increase its allocation if the qualification is going to increase.
“I ask that if you extend the admission, we should increase the allocation of vaccines !!”, she wrote in the chat. “It feels to us that vaccines need to be re-administered in other provinces.”
Sharp replied that he is looking at allocation strategies and working to increase allocations to provinces, but this will take time due to the slow implementation of the vaccine.
Other people on the call also told the state that it needs more doses of the vaccine and that they have the ability to handle more doses.
IDPH actively investigates mass vaccination tests
Kelly Garcia, the interim director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, said during the call that the state was investigating the offering of massive vaccination clinics as supply increased.
Helen Eddy, director of the Polk County Department of Health, asked if the state was considering state-run mass vaccination clinics specifically at the Test Iowa site.
Garcia replied it is and also wants to work with provinces.
“We are thinking of hosting some of the countries,” she said. “We would like to work with provinces or a group of provinces that want to keep one together.”
Johnson County wants to divide those with pre-existing conditions into smaller age groups
Two different provinces wanted IDPH to divide those who were just eligible for a vaccine into smaller age groups.
Sam Jarvis, who is a divisional manager at the Johnson County Public Health Department, has requested that age groups of ten years be in place for the additional expansion.
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