Covid-19 vaccines have been banned by a US health agency for the first time amid claims the risks now outweigh the benefits.

An Idaho health department voted last week to stop administering Covid vaccines, becoming the first in the U.S. to do so.

The Idaho Southwest District Health Department board voted four to three to stop providing the vaccines to residents in six counties across the state. All Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized or authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) across the United States.

The Idaho regional board's decision will likely provide ammunition to vaccine skeptics and anti-vaxxers who have opposed the U.S. vaccine rollout. It is likely that other public health authorities could follow suit. Similar campaigns were carried out in Europe, including the United Kingdom, but were unsuccessful.

Texas has banned health departments from administering Covid vaccines, while Florida's surgeon general has recommended no longer using vaccines, but Idaho's regional health department has gone a step further and banned widespread administration.

Only 64 doses were administered this year

The health authority ignored the advice of its own medical director, who had presented evidence of the continued need for the vaccine. Demand for the vaccines had fallen tremendously since the virus peaked in 2021. While more than 1,600 doses were administered in 2021, there have only been 64 so far in 2024.

Vaccines are given when the benefits outweigh the risks of side effects. It is widely accepted that the rollout of Covid vaccines globally saved almost 20 million lives in its first year.

At the Idaho Regional Board meeting at the end of October, Dr. Perry Jansen, the medical director, directly told the seven-member board not to ban the Covid vaccines.

He said: “Our wish to the board is that we can lead and offer these (vaccines) in recognition of the fact that we are always having these discussions about risks and benefits.” This is not a blind approach where everyone has a chance has. This is a thoughtful approach.”

But the board voted four to three in favor of the ban. More than 290 people and organizations submitted comments opposing the continued rollout of the vaccine in the six counties.

Chairman supported but “disappointed”

Kelly Aberasturi, the board chairman, said he supported the board's decision to ban the Covid-19 vaccines but was also “disappointed” by it.

Among the participants of the meeting was Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist who sells “contagion emergency kits” containing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine – drugs that have “Covid-19 outside hospital settings” or are not approved to treat Covid-19 and can have dangerous side effects have.

Adriane Casalotti, director of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said: “I'm not aware of anything like this.”

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.

State health officials have said they are “recommending people to consider vaccination 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.

In Britain, the country's own vaccine, developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, was withdrawn worldwide. The vaccine is credited with saving about six million lives in the first year of the vaccine rollout. AstraZeneca has insisted the withdrawal was for purely commercial reasons and that the vaccine was safe.

But AstraZeneca is being sued for tens of millions of pounds by grieving relatives and people who became very seriously ill from the vaccine over an extremely rare side effect that caused blood clots. AstraZeneca has denied liability in a case that will be closely watched. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine never received approval in the United States.