Fremont County health department disputes vaccination rate with the state

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — According to the state’s website, Fremont County has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Colorado. Out of 64 counties, Fremont County ranks 53rd in the state with 37.4% of the eligible population receiving at least one dose.

However, the Fremont County Department of Public Health & Environment is calling on the State health department to correct those numbers, saying they're extremely flawed. The discrepancy comes down to the number of inmates in Fremont County. 

Kayla Marler is the director of the Fremont County Department of Public Health & Environment. She says prisoners are included in the county’s overall population, but their vaccination status isn’t included in the data reported by the state.

“So we were not getting credit for those vaccine efforts,” said Marler. “However, the inmate population is counted in our county population.”

“We have even provided suggestions that we take the inmate population out of denominator and move forward with just reporting on Fremont County residents that are not tied to a facility,” said Marler. “At this time, we’ve been told because of the methodology, they cannot do that.” 

Between the Department of Corrections and Bureau of Prisons footprint, multiple facilities account for about 7,200 inmates and Fremont County residents.

“We have guidance and we have recommendations that are coming down and a lot of it is being tied to where a county is with their vaccine rate,” said Marler. “I don’t actually believe that we can put that in guidance or utilize that as a tool or an incentive for any county or any school if we don’t even have the data correct.”

Marler says with the way COVID-19 recommendations from the State have developed within the last few months, school districts might become responsible for their own COVID-19 mitigation plans come fall. It's also likely that local health departments will e tasked with implementing any public health orders going forward. But with inaccurate data on Fremont County's vaccination rate, Marler is worried she won't have the tools to make educated decisions.

The discrepancies in the numbers are nothing new. Marler says she first brought it to the Colorado Department of Public Health’s attention at the start of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Colorado.

Thursday, a spokesperson for the state says they're working on a solution:

"We are working closely with Fremont County. Vaccination records typically are tied to an individual’s home address. The Colorado Immunization Information System does include the vaccine records for individuals who are incarcerated, but that vaccine record typically includes their home address upon intake at a correctional facility, not the address of the correctional facility. That can be confusing when trying to track the vaccinations administered in a county where there are correctional settings.  

We recently received aggregate county-level data from the Bureau of Prisons, so we can now include these doses in Fremont County’s data on the website. With both federal corrections and the state Department of Corrections doses included, Fremont's rates would be 49.1% for individuals who have received one dose of the vaccine and 45.3% for those who are fully vaccinated. 

We are working toward including this in our publicly-facing data so that it will more accurately reflect Fremont County’s COVID-19 vaccination status."

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment

The coming solution will be a relief to Fremont and other counties affected by the discrepancy. Still, Marler remains frustrated that 13 Investigates had to step in to get real answers to the issue. Email records show the Fremont County health department director has been working on a solution with the state since April.

"How do our numbers - Fremont County - increase by 12% now that I made it public? I have been asking for this for months," said Marler, after 13 Investigates showed her the state's response.

These discrepancies in vaccination data aren't just affecting counties with jails. The state’s website shows 51% of the eligible population in El Paso County has received one or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, a spokesperson for El Paso County Public Health says anyone vaccinated through the Veterans Administration or Department of Defense won’t be included in the state’s numbers.

El Paso County Public Health estimates 59.4% of the eligible population is at least partially vaccinated if you factor in the VA and DOD.