The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently published data concerning COVID vaccination rates across the country.

According to the report, Iowa ranks 42nd nationally in vaccine doses delivered and 46th in doses administered. Guthrie County Public Health Director Jotham Arber says he consistently reinforces to his staff  that Guthrie County is all that they should worry about.

“I remind my staff of that all the time. We have been given 200 doses and this opportunity to serve our residents. We’re not going to let any doses go to waste; 100-percent of those doses will be used by the end of the week. I joke with them, ‘Even if that means I have to get in the back of a pickup truck and find someone on the street to get this to, that’s what we’re going to do.’  That’s what keeps us going because it is very disheartening to hear that you’ve been doing all this work, but Iowa’s still in that bottom chain.”

Arber was also quick to point out that it’s taken the community as a whole to run these vaccinations as smoothly as they’ve gone.

“Our pharmacies are fantastic. Our local physicians, providers, the hospital. All of us working together is how we create a healthier tomorrow. I just want to put a great thank you out to our community and community partners because the Health Department alone couldn’t do this. Playing along with the same playbook, using the same lists, making sure we’re getting to everybody, all the vulnerable people. That’s what healthcare is about, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

For more information about the Guthrie County Health Department’s strategies for vaccination, visit www.healthyguthrie.org/immunizeguthrie or check out their Facebook Live video series answering questions every Tuesday.