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Dec. 17, 2020Iowa City, Iowa |  By: AP

Key Iowa vaccine panel will keep meetings closed to public


IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - A panel of experts that will help decide which groups get the coronavirus vaccine first in Iowa has been holding closed meetings, circumventing the state open meetings law.

The Iowa Department of Public Health convened the Infectious Disease Advisory Council to develop recommendations on how to use the vaccine when supplies are limited in the coming weeks.

The panel will recommend which groups of health care workers, essential workers and people at risk for severe COVID-19 illness should be considered higher priorities than others.

Department interim director Kelly Garcia says she does not believe the council is bound by the open meetings law. She says she wants the group to have a "free flow of conversation" outside public scrutiny.