BUCHANAN COUNTY, Iowa — Buchanan County Health Department administrator Tai Burkhart is scrambling on a Friday night, trying to contest the state's decision to rescind its shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to the county for next week.
"Yeah, I'm very, very stressed, sorry, I haven't had any sleep," said Burkhart in a phone conversation with Local 5 Friday afternoon.
Burkhart said she was called by officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health Thursday evening, saying she had not reached the 80% threshold for administering the county's weekly supply of vaccine.
Therefore, according to the IDPH official, next week's vaccine doses would not be coming.
The same goes for Washington, Chickasaw, Poweshiek and Hancock counties, according to reporting done by KCRG-TV9.
State Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Hiawatha, also confirmed the information with KCRG-TV9.
KCRG-TV9 reports the governor's office said the doses initially allocated to those counties will be "sent to other vaccine providers with capacity for higher administration rates."
According to KCRG-TV9, the IDPH said the "pause in allocation will allow each county to focus on administering the several hundred unused doses they have on hand during that time."
This week, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced she had set an 80% threshold for county health departments to meet to use their current vaccine supply before they receive their next shipment.
Burkhart called an emergency meeting with her local board of health and board of supervisors. She also got her state lawmakers involved, and by 11 a.m. on Friday, she was on a call with IDPH officials and staff from Gov. Kim Reynolds' office.
"You know, I don't disagree with the governor's decision to hold people accountable to get doses in the arm," said Burkhart. "We want doses in the arms of people."
Burkhart explained that she was informed last week by IDPH officials of the new threshold rules. She had planned clinics for local schools for Friday, and, according to Burkhart, that was fine with IDPH.
"And then last night, apparently it wasn't fine. And so that's the frustrating part, that there was not a grace period when we had a plan," said Burkhart. "We had everything set up. The threshold would have been that today. And they just are looking strictly at numbers at one point in time without looking at the whole picture."
Burkhart said the vaccination process in Iowa has been the most difficult part of the entire pandemic. She said it's unpredictable how many vaccines the county will get in a week, and when they will arrive.
"And so this just adds a whole other layer to that," said Burkhart. "It's out of our control. Local public health isn't making these decisions, the governor is making these decisions. And so it's frustrating. The public doesn't trust us."
In a statement to Local 5, IDPH spokeswoman Sarah Ekstrand addressed the situation in Buchanan County.
"Buchanan County has more than 700 doses of vaccine on hand which remain unused. We've asked them to validate whether the doses have actually been used and the county simply failed to report them. If they can validate that these have in fact been administered, we will work with them on how to accommodate planned clinics for next week.," said Ekstrand.
Burkhart said after the phone call with IDPH and the governor's staff, the question of how to proceed was left unanswered. She said she may have to begin calling to cancel dozens of residents' scheduled vaccines for the Tuesday clinic.
Amber Hunt sits on the Buchanan County Board of Health, and echoed the same concerns as many other local public health officials.
"We cannot get our community vaccinated," said Hunt. "We have all the people it takes. We have all the supplies. We have the space. We just can't get the vaccine."