An Idaho Health Department Is Barred From Offering Covid Shots

Experts worry the unusual move, driven by vaccine misinformation, could fuel further efforts to interfere with immunizations.

An Idaho health department is no longer offering Covid-19 shots after its board voted last month to restrict the department from doing so, an unusual step driven largely by misinformation about the side effects and safety of the shots.

The ban will make it harder for some people to access Covid vaccines in the six-county region in southwestern Idaho, which include Adams, Canyon, Owyhee, Gem, Washington and Payette counties and covers over 300,000 residents. But doctors and public health officials also worry that the move will have a far broader effect, by giving credence to false claims about the vaccines and fueling further efforts across the nation to stop people from getting vaccinated.

“This is a real challenge for us, because I don’t think it’s going to be the last department that’s going to be directed to do that,” said Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He added that the decision could further undermine trust in public health institutions.

Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation have hampered the uptake of Covid shots since they were first rolled out, but doctors say that pushback against the vaccines appears to have gained even more momentum very recently. This week, Donald Trump suggested that he may be open to banning some vaccines if he wins the election, and said he would discuss the idea with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine critic. And last week, Senator JD Vance, Mr. Trump’s running mate, voiced concerns about Covid vaccine side effects on an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

A handful of state and local health officials have also shared similar sentiments. The state surgeon general of Florida, for example, advised residents against getting an updated Covid vaccine this fall.

The decision in the Idaho district came after a three-and-a-half-hour meeting on Oct. 22 in which members of the public — both Idaho residents and people who called in from out of state, including several anti-vaccine activists — voiced concerns with the shots. In addition, nearly 300 people submitted written comments in advance of the meeting.

Many repeated false claims that vaccination against Covid is a form of gene therapy (some vaccines are made with mRNA, a type of genetic material, but they do not modify a recipient’s DNA). Several raised concerns over myocarditis, or inflammation in the heart. While the vaccines have been linked to a slightly increased risk of myocarditis in adolescent boys, doctors say the risk of it is higher after a Covid infection than after vaccination.

There is a wealth of studies “refuting the same tired, old, fabricated fear-mongering,” said Dr. David Pate, the former president and chief executive officer of St. Luke’s Health System in Idaho. “It’s just unfortunate that we’re at that point.”

In Idaho, the move is most likely to affect people without health insurance, said Kelly Aberasturi, the chairman of the board that voted to stop providing the vaccine. (Mr. Aberasturi was one of three members who voted to continue to offer it; four voted to stop doing so.) That includes people who are homeless or undocumented, who often rely on public health department clinics for vaccines, said Taisha Bergman, the deputy director of CATCH, an organization that provides services to people who are homeless. People will still be able to seek out vaccines at other community clinics and health centers, but now have fewer options.

Some doctors in the area also worry that the move could further compound the vaccine skepticism that is widespread in Idaho, where childhood vaccination rates are already low compared to the rest of the country.

“If my patients have decided they don’t want the Covid vaccine, it’s really hard to talk them out of it,” said Dr. Penny Beach, a family medicine doctor in Meridian, Idaho. “It’s just getting harder and harder.”

Jodi Peterson-Stigers, the executive director of Interfaith Sanctuary, which runs an emergency shelter in Boise, Idaho, said she was concerned that the move would further jeopardize the health of homeless people, who are already at higher risk for communicable diseases.

Medical experts stress that while the Covid vaccines, like other immunizations, can lead to serious side effects in rare cases, Covid itself poses a far more dangerous threat. “The benefits clearly and definitively outweigh its risks,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the Food and Drug Administration on vaccines.

Dr. Osterholm compared the risks from vaccines to those of seatbelts. There may have been very rare instances when someone died because a seatbelt was jammed after a car crash, and the passenger was unable to leave the car in time.

But “we wouldn’t for a second think about removing mandates on seatbelts,” he said. “Because overall, the number of lives saved are remarkable compared to any possible harm that might occur.”