(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has signed the State of Iowa onto three separate lawsuits that are challenging Biden Administration Covid vaccination requirements in the workplace. “We’re going to keep fighting for Iowans to give them the opportunity to make their own choice about their health care,” Reynolds says. In response to one lawsuit, federal courts have temporarily blocked an OSHA rule to require businesses with more than 100 employees to ensure workers are vaccinated for Covid or tested regularly.

“We’ve got a pretty good chance,” Reynolds says. “Our goal right now, really, is to just — and I’ve let businesses know this — to really take the temporary stay and make it permanent until we can get it litigated through the courts, so we can really have our chance to make our case in court and to just pause what I feel is tremendous overreach and we believe it’s unconstitutional as well.”

The latest lawsuit Reynolds has joined was filed by 10 states on Wednesday and challenges a requirement that most U.S. health care workers get vaccinated. Reynolds says a Covid vaccine mandate for employees in facilities that treat patients receiving Medicare or Medicaid benefits could be devastating to Iowa’s nursing homes as some workers are threatening to quit rather than get vaccinated.

“They’re already stretched so thin and they are a phenomenal example of the heroes that have been on the front line from the very beginning and, you know, they don’t get to shut down for a couple of days like a restaurant or a manufacturing facility,” Reynolds says. “They have vulnerable older Iowans that they need to take care of. And so if you don’t have staff to do that, what do we do?”

An A-A-R-P analysis released yesterday (Thursday) indicated 71 percent of Iowa nursing home staff have been fully vaccinated, an increase of about four percent from early October. Reynolds got a dose of Johnson and Johnson’s Covid vaccine on live television and has encouraged Iowans to get vaccinated. She says the reluctance some Iowans have about getting a Covid shot is based on an array of factors, including what she says is an arbitrary decision to choose businesses with 100 or more workers for one of the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandates — and to exempt Postal Service workers.

“You know, people get an annual flu shot and they don’t think anything about it, but it’s been vetted. It’s been there for a long time,” Reynolds says, “so I just think there’s a lot of just frustration and confusion with the mixed messaging.” Reynolds made her comments to Radio Iowa after appearing at a Veterans Day ceremony at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery.

Officials in the Biden Administration say the federal government clearly has the authority to protect workers from grave danger and — with about 13-hundred Americans dying of Covid daily — the threat from the virus is ongoing and overwhelming. Some of the nation’s largest companies have Covid vaccine requirements. Tyson Foods announced in late October that more than 96 percent of its employees were vaccinated.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston report one person was arrested following a collision Thursday night. Authorities say 57-year-old Todd Earl Jackson, of Creston was eastbound on Adams Street, responding to an active fire, with his lights and siren on. When he slowed for the intersection of Elm and Adams Streets, he believed the intersection was clear.

A southbound 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 69-year-old Gary Forrest Stonehocker, of Afton, pulled out into the intersection and failed to yield to Jackson’s 2013 Chevy Silverado pickup. The pickup struck the Jeep at the intersection. No injuries were reported. Damage to the vehicles amounted to $6,000.

Following an investigation, Stonehocker was arrested for OWI/1st offense. He posted a $1,000 bond, and was released from the Union County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – State public health officials say Iowa’s overall vaccination rate is inching up, but parts of the state are lagging behind. Seventy-one percent of Iowans over the age of 11 have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Ken Sharp of the Iowa Department of Public Health says the vaccination rate is lower among middle-aged white men and 20 to 30 year olds in general.

“We still have, as everybody recognizes, a ways to go, but we are making progress,” he says. “…We continue to see new Iowans come into that dataset to get their first vaccine, so we’re just going to continue to kind of grind away at getting those numbers as high as we possibly can.”

Sharp says about 7000 Iowa kids ages 5 to 11 got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday. Pfizer’s pediatric dose of the vaccine was approved last week, making more than 280,000 Iowa kids eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

IDPH chart

“There are some, I think, frustrations we’re hearing that parents weren’t able to get the vaccine where they would normally go to get the vaccine and I think it’s just a matter of timing,” he says. “We’re still taking that as positive news that parents are excited about getting their kids vaccinated and looking for that vaccine very quickly.”

Officials say Iowa received 99,000 pediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its first shipment, and 24,000 more have been ordered. Some major pharmacy chains were able to order thousands of additional doses on their own.

The number of Covid patients hospitalized in Iowa and the number of Iowans testing positive for the virus has increased since last week. By the middle of this week, state officials had confirmed 7166 Iowans have died of Covid since the pandemic began.

(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – After major flooding in 2019, a small western Iowa town is making progress toward building a protective flood barrier, with construction of a berm scheduled to start in the spring. Hornick Mayor Scott Mitchell says the Woodbury County town is putting the finishing touches on its plan to prevent future flooding.

“For me, it truly isn’t going to sink in until we start moving dirt,” Mitchell says. “Then I can say we’re to that point where we know it’s going to be built and we’ve climbed all them hills and have made it through all the things that have made it difficult through the way.” The town has been discussing the construction of a berm since 1996, but only received the two-point-one million dollars needed to fund the project through the 2019 Flood Recovery Fund.

Mitchell hopes to see construction complete by the fall of next year. Hornick was inundated by the West Fork of the Little Sioux River nearly three years ago.

(reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Some rural E-M-S directors are looking toward a new state law to help train more volunteer medical responders and keep them on the job. The law allows counties to declare E-M-S an essential service like police or fire and collect taxes to pay for it. Julie Scadden is the ambulance service director for Dysart in east-central Iowa. Scadden says her department is depending on fundraisers and Medicare fees from transporting patients.

“We can’t rely on it from year to year because you just don’t know,” Scadden says. “With COVID, Dysart as an example, we dropped 46-percent of our transport during 2020 and so our revenue dropped 46-percent.” About 80-percent of the medical responders in Dysart are volunteers. Scadden says the program was already shorthanded before seven people stopped volunteering last year over concerns they could be exposed to the coronavirus.

“That, I think, is one of our biggest struggles, trying to get the volunteers to come back,” she says, “and because workforce issues for all jobs, regardless of whether it’s EMS or not, are just really tough for everybody right now.” Scadden says local taxes could help rural programs cover the cost of training and equipment. She says Dysart is in the early stages of organizing an emergency E-M-S resolution. The law requires approval from county supervisors and at least 60-percent of voters. Scadden made her comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, “River to River.”

(reporting by Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)