A regional health agency in Idaho will no longer provide COVID-19 vaccines to residents in six counties following a narrow decision by its board.

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

While Texas policymakers barred health officials from promoting COVID vaccines and Florida's surgeon general defied the medical consensus and rejected the vaccine, government agencies across the country have not completely blocked the vaccines.

“I’m not aware of anything like this,” said Adriane Casalotti, MPH, director of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She said health authorities stopped offering the vaccine because of cost or low demand, but not because of an “assessment of the medical device 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 has declined – from 1,601 in 2021 to 64 so far in 2024. The same goes for other vaccines: Idaho has the highest childhood vaccination exemption rate in the country, and last year in the Southwest the county health department struggled to get one to contain a rare measles outbreak that sickened ten people.

On Oct. 22, the Health Department's board voted 4-3 in favor of the ban — even though Southwest's medical director reiterated the need for the vaccine.

“Our wish to the board is that we can carry and offer these (vaccines) in recognition of the fact that we are always having these discussions about risks and benefits,” Dr. Perry Jansen at the meeting. “This is not a blind approach where everyone has a chance. This is a thoughtful approach.”

There were more than 290 public comments opposing Jansen's plea, with many calling for an end to vaccination mandates or for taxpayer funding of the vaccines, which is not the case in the district. At the meeting, many speakers were known nationally for making the rounds to testify against COVID vaccines, including Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist who sells “contagion emergency kits” containing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Board President Kelly Aberasturi knew many of the voices calling for the ban, particularly from previous local protests against pandemic measures.

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

He said the board had overstepped the boundaries of the relationship between patients and their doctors — and potentially opened the door to blocking other vaccines or treatments.

Board members who supported the decision argued that people could get vaccinated elsewhere and that providing the shots would amount to an endorsement of their safety. (Some people may be hesitant to get vaccinated or get a booster shot because of misinformation about the shots, even though there is evidence that they are safe and have saved millions of lives.)

The people getting vaccinated at the health department — including unhoused people, homebound people and people in long-term care facilities or in the immigration process — have no other options, Jansen and Aberasturi said.

“I've been homeless my whole life, so I understand how difficult it can be when you're … trying to make ends meet and get ahead,” Aberasturi said. “This is where we should intervene and help.

“But we have some board members who have never been there, so they don’t understand what it’s like.”

State health officials have said they are “recommending people to consider getting vaccinated against COVID-19.” Idaho Department of Health spokesman AJ McWhorter declined to comment on “business with the public health district” but noted that COVID-19 vaccines continue to be available to the uninsured at community health centers.

Aberasturi said he plans to ask at the next board meeting whether the health department could at least be allowed to vaccinate elderly patients and residents of long-term care facilities, adding that the board should be concerned with the “health and well-being” of residents District. “But I think the way we approached this was we didn’t do that due diligence.”