Idaho needs to figure out and fix why we’re at the bottom for the COVID-19 vaccine

Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s announcement that Idaho will begin tracking and reporting COVID-19 vaccine doses that have come into the state and into the arms of Idahoans is a good start to figuring out and solving Idaho’s dismal performance in administering the vaccine so far.

Idaho is dead last in the U.S. in percentage of people who have received the first dose and near the bottom in percentage of people who have received both doses.

But Idaho is also near the bottom in the number of doses it has received from the federal government, putting Idaho at a disadvantage right off the bat.

Little addressed that concern during a press conference Thursday, saying Idaho’s per-capita dosage allotment was based on the number of adults. Idaho has a higher percentage of children than many other states, and Little also speculated that the population figures being used to calculate Idaho’s allotment may be outdated.

All of that combined has translated to a rough start for Idaho’s vaccination program.

Idaho has dispensed only about half of the doses it has received, again near the bottom. Idaho has received about 210,000 doses and administered roughly 100,000, according to The New York Times COVID-19 vaccine tracker and the Idaho Division of Public Health, meaning we’ve got a “stockpile” of 100,000 doses waiting for arms.

Idaho is dead last in the country in the percentage of people who have received even the first dose of the vaccine, at just 4.8%, according to the tracker. The national average is 6.5%

The percentage of Idahoans who have received both shots is 0.9%, about 20,000 people, among the worst in the country (thank you, Mississippi and Alabama, for being worse). The national average is 1.3%.

Idaho’s use of roughly half the doses it has received, according to the Times, is not the worst mark in the country, but it’s far short of some states, such as West Virginia at 81%, North Dakota at 76% and South Dakota at 74%. The national average is 54%.

It’s understandable that perhaps in the early stages of vaccine distribution, Idaho was cautious and planned out meticulously who would get the vaccine and when. Now is the time, though, to speed up that process, ramp up distribution and deliver vaccines as quickly as possible.

With COVID-19 continuing to kill Idahoans every day and new variants of coronavirus making their way across the country, time is of the essence.

Idaho has taken a hands-off approach from the top, relying instead on individual public health districts and the free market of health care providers to administer the vaccine. Private pharmacies, such as Walgreens and CVS, have been tasked with administering the vaccine in long-term care and assisted living facilities, and it’s unclear how many doses they have compared with how many they have administered.

At this point, it’s hard to tell where the bottleneck is or whether it’s a matter of a few thousand doses here and a few thousand doses there adding up to 100,000 doses waiting to be administered.

Little’s tracking initiative should help.

The tracking and transparency tool is intended to hold providers and public health districts accountable for doses and getting shots in arms within seven days of receiving the doses.

“My executive order requires health districts and providers to regularly report the number of vaccine doses that have been allocated, how many shots have been given and how many doses they have in inventory to ensure vaccine is getting out in a timely fashion,” Little said. “If it appears providers are not administering their allocated doses quickly enough, we will step in to ensure they speed things up. I will review this information daily to ensure the doses are distributed equitably across Idaho, and the providers and public health districts have the operations in place to be able to give shots within seven days of the doses arriving.”

Idaho must do better. At the very least, Idaho must do better than worst in the nation.

We’ve been patient and we’re willing to give the benefit of the doubt. We recognize that this is going to take time. But Idahoans who are 65 and older are eligible to receive the vaccine starting Monday, which will put further pressures on the system.

“The senior population in Idaho includes more than 265,000 people,” Little said Thursday. “Idaho currently receives just 24,000 first doses per week. Based on our current allocation, it could take two months for eligible people to receive their first dose. So I ask: Please be patient.”

But as time goes on and Idaho continues to settle to the bottom of the barrel, it’s time to sound the alarm.