An Idaho regional public health department no longer offers covid-19 vaccines to residents of six counties after a narrow decision by its board.

Southwest District Health appears to be the first in the nation to be banned from administering COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccinations are an essential function of a public health department.

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while Texas decision makers banned health departments from promoting COVID vaccines and Florida’s surgeon general overruled the medical consensus to recommend against the vaccine, government bodies across the country have not blocked vaccines outright.

“I’m not aware of anything like that,” said Adriane Casalotti, head of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said health departments stopped offering the vaccine because of cost or low demand, but not based on “a judgment of the medical product itself.”

The six-county district along the Idaho-Oregon border includes three counties in the Boise metropolitan area. Demand for COVID vaccines in the health district is down — with 1,601 administered in 2021 to 64 so far in 2024. The same is true for other vaccines: Idaho has the highest rate of childhood vaccine exemptions in the nation, and last year , South West District Health Department rushed to control a rare outbreak of measles that sickened 10 people.

On Oct. 22, the health department’s board voted 4-3 in favor of the ban — despite Southwest’s chief medical officer testifying about the need for the vaccine.

A syringe sits next to vials of COVID-19 booster vaccines at an inoculation station in Jackson, Miss., Friday, Nov. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

“Our request to the board is that we would be able to carry and offer those (vaccines), recognizing that we always have these discussions about risks and benefits,” Dr. Perry Jansen said at the meeting. “This is not a blind approach, everyone gets a shot. This is a careful approach.”

Opposing Jansen’s plea were more than 290 public comments, many of which called for an end to vaccine mandates or taxpayer funding of vaccines, neither of which happen in the district. At the meeting, many people who spoke are nationally known for making the rounds to testify against COVID vaccines, including Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist who sells “emergency contagion kits” that include ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine – drugs that have not been approved to treat COVID-19 and can have dangerous side effects.

Board President Kelly Aberasturi knew many of the voices that wanted the ban, especially from previous local protests against pandemic measures.

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

He said the board overstepped the relationship between patients and their doctors — and possibly opened a door to blocking other vaccines or treatments.

Board members in favor of the decision argued that people can get vaccinated elsewhere and that providing the vaccines is tantamount to signing away their safety. (Some people may be reluctant to get vaccinated or may be motivated by misinformation about vaccines, despite evidence that they are safe and have saved millions of lives.)

People getting vaccinated at the health department — including the homeless, people who are housebound and those in long-term care facilities or in the immigration process — had no other options, Jansen and Aberasturi said.

“I’ve been homeless in my lifetime, so I understand how difficult it can be when you’re … trying to get by 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.”

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State health officials said they “recommend people consider the COVID-19 vaccine.” Idaho health department 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 people who are uninsured.

Aberasturi said he plans to ask at the next board meeting if the health department can at least be allowed to vaccinate elderly patients and residents of long-term care facilities, adding that the board should take care of “the health and welfare. ” of the residents of the district. “But I think the way we went about it is that we didn’t do that due diligence.”