About 10% of Iowans have sufficient COVID vaccination

The number of Iowans who have up-to-date COVID-19 vaccinations has plummeted in recent months, after the threat of the disease reached a pandemic low and federal officials ended a public health emergency declaration.

But now the spread of the disease in the state is “very high,” according to a recent report by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

As of last week, about 10.4 percent of Iowans were considered immunized against COVID-19, according to HHS data. That is calculated using the state’s database of immunization records.

More than 60 percent of Iowans were vaccinated during the worst throes of the coronavirus pandemic, but those initial vaccinations have become less effective over time. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends updated vaccines that boost immunization and are meant to target currently circulating strains.

The CDC issued an alert this week to health care providers that warned of low vaccination rates for COVID, influenza and RSV, a leading cause of hospitalizations among infants.

“Low vaccination rates, coupled with ongoing increases in national and international respiratory disease activity … could lead to more severe disease and increased health care capacity strain in the coming weeks,” the CDC warned.

There were 345 new hospital admissions of people with COVID-19 in Iowa last week, according to CDC data. That is higher than any weekly total in December last year and the highest since August 2022.

The largest number of new weekly admissions in Iowa happened in November 2020, when there were more than 1,500. That was before COVID vaccines were widely available.

The CDC urged health care providers to vaccinate their patients and to recommend antiviral medications to those with flu or COVID. It provided a “vaccination conversation guide” to help allay patient concerns.

And it’s issuing that advice using vaccination estimates that paint a rosier picture in Iowa: The CDC estimates that about 28 percent of the state’s adults are vaccinated for COVID. Taking into account the CDC’s separate estimate for how many children are vaccinated, Iowa’s overall vaccination rate is about 22 percent.

The CDC figures are based on telephonic surveys that indicate about 17 percent of the country’s adults have received an updated COVID vaccine since the middle of September.

Its Iowa estimate is out of step with vaccination reports earlier in the pandemic, which the CDC based on data from those who administered the vaccines. That data indicated Iowa’s vaccination rates were significantly behind other states such as California, Oregon and New York. The new estimate places Iowa ahead of those states.

HHS said the CDC estimate is not comparable to the state data because their sampling methods differ and the state’s figure is based on significantly more information. However, the department noted that it does not regularly receive updates from federal agencies — including the Bureau of Prisons, Department of Defense and the Veterans Health Administration — about their vaccinations of Iowans.

The CDC attributes the overall low vaccine uptake to a lack of proactive recommendations by health care providers, concerns about side effects and simply forgetting to get vaccinated.

HHS did not immediately respond to questions about whether it considers Iowa’s vaccination rate low and whether it has a vaccination percentage goal.

The state’s most-populous county said this week that vaccination against respiratory diseases should be a priority for residents ahead of the Christmas holiday, given the low vaccination rates and increasing hospital admissions.

“With the increasing hospitalization rates we’re seeing with respiratory viruses, we urge the community to get their updated respiratory shots,” said Helen Eddy, Polk County’s public health director. “Getting the updated shots will not only protect you, but protect our community’s health and prevent hospital overwhelm.”

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.