80 of 99 Iowa counties declined all or part of next week’s vaccine allotment

Iowa’s state health officials this week confirmed that 80 of the state’s 99 counties have declined all or part of their weekly allotment of coronavirus vaccine for next week.

According to Iowa Public Radio, demand for vaccinations has continued to decline rapidly in the state. Just 21 counties declined part of their allocation on April 8, but that increased to nearly 43 counties declining their full allocation of vaccines on April 15.

State data shows that less than half of Iowa’s Wayne County adult population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. However, Shelley Bickel, the county’s health department administrator, said that she has declined the county’s allocation for this coming week, noting declines in demand.

“I think part of the problem is the 18 to, probably, 50-year-olds,” she told Iowa Public Radio. “Those are probably the ones we’re not getting it to like everybody else. They don’t want it.”

According to Bickel, those who are not high risk for contracting the virus in the state are uninterested in getting the vaccine. She noted that one pharmacy in her county has struggled to distribute its vaccine allocation from two weeks ago, Iowa Public Radio reported.

“We were always busy,” she told the outlet. “We were constantly busy, until, let’s see, about a week and a half ago.”

Local leaders and state health officials have said that they are working toward determining the cause of the decline and how they can continue to educate the public on the vaccines, the news outlet noted.

“We are hopeful that lifting the pause of the J&J [Johnson & Johnson] vaccine will also contribute to more vaccines being administered in the state, especially among individuals who prefer the convenience of a single dose,” Sarah Ekstrand, the spokesperson for the state health department, told Iowa Public Radio.

“We want to vaccinate as many Iowans as possible while doing everything we can to avoid vaccines sitting on shelves.”

More than 87,000 Iowans had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday morning, according to state data.