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The Idaho Department of Health can no longer administer Covid-19 vaccines – experts say this is a first

The Idaho Department of Health can no longer administer Covid-19 vaccines – experts say this is a first

Idaho’s regional public health department is no longer providing Covid-19 vaccines to residents in six counties after a narrow board decision.

Southwest District Health appears to be the first facility in the country to be banned from administering Covid-19 vaccines. Immunization is an essential function of the public health department.

While policymakers in Texas banned health departments from promoting Covid-19 vaccines and Florida’s surgeon general defied the medical consensus to recommend against the vaccine, government bodies across the country did not outright block vaccines.

The regional public health department is no longer providing Covid-19 vaccines. REUTERS
The health department board voted 4-3 for the ban. SWNS

“I don’t know of anything like that,” said Adriane Casalotti, head of government and public affairs at the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

She said health departments stopped offering the vaccine due to cost or low demand, but not based on “an evaluation of the medical product itself.”

The six-county district along the Idaho-Oregon border includes three counties in the Boise metropolitan area.

The health district’s demand for COVID vaccines has dropped, from 1,601 administered in 2021 to 64 in 2024. The same is true for other vaccines: Idaho has the nation’s highest childhood vaccination waiver rate, and last year the Southwest District Health Department rushed stopping a rare measles epidemic that sickened 10 people.

On Oct. 22, the health department’s board voted 4-3 for the ban — even though Southwest’s chief medical officer testified that the vaccine was necessary.

“Our board request is that we can carry and offer these (vaccines), keeping in mind that we always have discussions about the risks and benefits,” Dr. Perry Jansen said at the meeting. “It’s not a blind approach where anyone can try it. It’s a thoughtful approach.”

There were more than 290 public comments opposing Jansen’s allegation, many of which called for an end to vaccine mandates or taxpayer funding for vaccines, neither of which are taking place in the district.

At the meeting, many of the people who spoke are known across the country for making the rounds to testify against Covid-19 vaccines, including Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist who sells “infection emergency kits” containing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine – drugs that have not been approved for use to treat COVID-19 and may cause dangerous side effects.

Southwest District Health’s chief medical officer does not support the ban. REUTERS

Board president Kelly Aberasturi was familiar with many of the voices in favor of the ban, especially from previous local protests against the preventive measures.

Aberasturi, who told The Associated Press he is skeptical of Covid-19 vaccines and the nation’s public health leaders, said at the meeting and in an interview with the AP that he supported the board’s decision but was “disappointed.”

He said the board overstepped the boundaries of the relationship between patients and their doctors and likely opened the door to blocking other vaccines or treatments.

Board president Kelly Aberasturi believes the board crossed the line between patients and doctors. SWNS

Board members in favor of the decision argued that people could be vaccinated elsewhere and that administering the vaccines was tantamount to signing an agreement on their safety. (Some people may be reluctant to get vaccinated or get a booster because of misinformation about vaccines, despite evidence that they are safe and have saved millions of lives.)

People vaccinated at the health department — including those without housing, homebound, in long-term care facilities or in the immigration process — had no other choice, Jansen and Aberasturi said.

“I’ve been homeless my whole life, so I understand how difficult it can be when you’re… trying to cope and get ahead,” Aberasturi said. “This is where we should step in and help.

“But we have some board members who have never been there, so they don’t understand what it’s like.”

State health officials said they “recommend that people consider the Covid-19 vaccine.” Idaho Department of Health spokesman AJ McWhorter declined to comment on “public health district business,” but noted that Covid-19 vaccines are still available at community health centers for the uninsured.

Aberasturi said he plans to ask at the next board meeting whether the health department can at least get permission to vaccinate elderly patients and residents of long-term care facilities, adding that the board is expected to look after the “health and well-being” of the district’s residents. “But I think the way we approached this case was that we didn’t do our due diligence.”