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Health officials battling misinformation as vaccine eligibility expands

The Polk County Health Department has had to turn away some residents for not following the rules and booking the wrong type of vaccine appointment in recent weeks.

POLK COUNTY, Iowa — 1.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Iowa as of Monday afternoon.

More than 408,000 Iowans are fully vaccinated: either with a single Johnson & Johnson shot or two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Polk County, Iowa's largest county, opened up appointments for individuals with underlying medical conditions Monday.

One of the key points is making sure people who book an appointment know if it is a first or second dose appointment, and if a second dose, that it is the same brand of vaccine.

The Polk County Health Department has had to turn away some residents for not following the rules and booking the wrong type of vaccine appointment in recent weeks.

"It's very much a concern for us to make sure the right people are getting vaccinated," Nola Aigner Davis with the Polk County Health Department said.

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Misinformation has also become a huge obstacle, according to PCHD.

"Last week at our clinic we had a lineup and we didn't understand why we had a lineup because we didn't have appointments that day," Aigner Davis said. "And someone had posted on Craiglist that there was vaccine appointments. You can trust things like that because you don't know if that information is accurate."

While the county won't verify or ask you to prove if you have a medical condition, they say jumping the line would have a huge impact on those who need it most.

"You could be taking away the vaccine away from someone who greatly needs it," Aigner Davis told Local 5. "Think about someone who needs the vaccine and that could greatly harm them if they got COVID."

"So we really want our community to make smart decisions about the vaccine."

Watch: Full interview with Nola Aigner Davis with the Polk County Health Department

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