Northwest Iowa — Lyon and Osceola counties are on a list of counties that the Iowa Department of Public Health says have “refused” shipments of COVID vaccine. But at least one county health department says that’s not exactly the situation.
State officials say 20 county health departments “refused” doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that they could have received this week, so those doses have been reallocated to other counties. The reasoning given was lack of demand.
Health Services Of Lyon County Public Health Administrator Melissa Stillson says that is almost, but not quite, the situation. She says, “Our Public Health office has seen a decline in the demand for the vaccine in the past few weeks. Due to the low demand in our county, we have chosen to accept a smaller allocation. We have not decided to not accept any vaccine at all.”
We asked Stillson about the low demand and asked why she thought demand had declined. She says it could possibly be due to varying factors that may include vaccine hesitancy; many that were interested have been vaccinated through the tiers already completed, and some people will just choose to not be vaccinated.
Stillson says that the Iowa Department of Public Health will be hosting a vaccine education webinar series to offer an opportunity for Iowans to ask questions of medical providers and learn more about the COVID-19 vaccines that are available. She says they will continue to strive to educate county residents on the importance of being informed about the vaccines.
Stillson says, “As Local Public Health it is important that if our county residents have concerns about the COVID-19 vaccines, they know we can be a resource to answer their questions as well. The vaccines that are available will be another tool in the fight to prevent severe illness.”
We have reached out to Osceola Health Services Agency Director Pam Juber about this as well. She says they refused a shipment last week, but they have a clinic coming up and they had the demand, so they accepted a shipment this week.
Other counties that the IDPH says “refused” doses include
Adair
Cass
Clay
Crawford
Davis
Decatur
Floyd
Franklin
Hancock
Humboldt
Jackson
Jefferson
Keokuk
Kossuth
Sac
Union
Webster
Winnebago
Woodbury
