Vaccines<\/p>\n
Respiratory viruses<\/p>\n
Federal agencies<\/p>\n
New in medicine<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Facebook<\/p>\n Tweet<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n Federal officials in the US say that Covid-19 vaccines remain available to everyone, despite new restrictions on the groups that they\u2019re approved for. But experts suggest that claim is misleading, as the more narrow approval may raise significant barriers to access for many Americans.\n <\/p>\n \n On Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved updated Covid-19 vaccines specifically for seniors and younger people who have health conditions that put them at higher risk from Covid-19 \u2013 a much more limited approach than earlier approvals that greenlit the shots for everyone ages 6 months and older.\n <\/p>\n \n FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said in a social media post<\/a> on Thursday that \u201c100% of adults in this country can still get the vaccine if they choose. We are not limiting availability to anyone.\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also said Thursday that \u201cthe FDA decision does not affect the availability of Covid vaccines for Americans who want them. We believe in individual choice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But for healthy people who do not fall into the specified groups, experts say that choice may be limited by who can offer the vaccine and whether insurance covers it.\n <\/p>\n \n To get an updated Covid-19 vaccine for the upcoming respiratory virus season, healthy children and adults younger than 65 will need to get it prescribed \u201coff-label\u201d \u2013 the practice of using a medical product outside of the terms for which the FDA has explicitly approved it.\n <\/p>\n \n This theoretically makes vaccines available but \u201cignores the practical barriers the policy created,\u201d said Dr. Jake Scott<\/a>, an infectious disease specialist with Stanford Health.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cTechnical availability and practical accessibility are very different things,\u201d he said. \u201cThe administration replaced straightforward pharmacy access with a system requiring provider consultations, navigating insurance uncertainty and finding willing pharmacies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The vast majority of Covid-19 vaccinations have typically happened in pharmacies or drug stores<\/a>, but off-label prescribing requires a visit with a physician or other health care provider.\n <\/p>\n \n Some physicians may not be as comfortable prescribing off-label as others, experts say, and pharmacies may take a more conservative approach, too.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn the current environment, where things are turbulent, a bit strict and very uncertain, pharmacies might not want to put their businesses at risk of being accused of giving vaccines inappropriately,\u201d said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University.\n <\/p>\n \n Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as US surgeon general during the first Trump administration, also noted on social media<\/a> this week that about 11% of US adults are uninsured and lack access to a doctor.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cRFK promised \u2013 under oath \u2013 that anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one. Now he says you can only get one if your doctor says so. To be frank and objective, unless he\u2019s also giving everyone access to free healthcare, he seems to be reneging on his promise,\u201d Adams wrote. \u201cMath doesn\u2019t add up.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Insurance coverage for off-label prescriptions can also vary, potentially leaving patients with substantial out-of-pocket costs for a vaccine that has historically been free, experts say.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe idea of having people receive the vaccine prescribed off-label by a physician will work occasionally for some persistent people who have access to money to pay and a cooperative physician, but it is no solution for most of us,\u201d said Dr. Kelly Moore, president and CEO of immunize.org, a nonprofit organization focused on vaccine access.\n <\/p>\n \n Claims of universal Covid-19 access are \u201cdemonstrably false,\u201d Scott said, because there are no options available for children under 5 who don\u2019t have an underlying condition that puts them at higher risk of severe illness. Emergency use authorizations for Covid-19 vaccines are rescinded, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday, which means Pfizer\u2019s Covid-19 vaccine<\/a>, Comirnaty<\/a>, is no longer authorized for children younger than 5. Moderna\u2019s Spikevax <\/a>vaccine is approved for children as young as 6 months, but only if they have an underlying condition that puts them at higher risk.\n <\/p>\n \n More questions remain, as the independent advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, still have not weighed in on the updated Covid-19 vaccines \u2013 and their decisions can affect access in a variety of ways, experts say.\n <\/p>\n \n In some states, CDC recommendations are linked to the authority that pharmacists have to give vaccines.\n <\/p>\n \n In some states, pharmacists are forbidden to administer vaccines that are not recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. CVS said it will offer shots in most states, but in 16 \u2014 Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia \u2014 as well as Washington, DC, it may not be able to offer them due to state policies. But in some of those states, eligible people with an authorized prescriber\u2019s prescription may still be able to get them at CVS pharmacies, a spokesperson said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe confusion will be at the point of service,\u201d Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said at a news briefing Thursday. \u201cThere are so\ufeffme pharmacists and nurse practitioners that, if it\u2019s not on the [CDC vaccine] schedule, by law, they\u2019re not allowed to give it. So that might be a barrier. And then there are some physicians who \u2013 for a variety of reasons, cost reasons, etc. \u2013 don\u2019t keep it in their office. They\u2019ll write a prescription, send you to the pharmacist to get it. But then the question is, can the pharmacist then give it?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Each state\u2019s board of pharmacy may have to discuss this issue, and there may end up being 50 different state solutions, Benjamin said. And some states may require those changes to go through the state legislature, which may not happen until January.\n <\/p>\n \n When it comes to Covid-19 vaccines, the US is \u201cin real uncertain times,\u201d Schaffner said \u2013 but virus trends are much more certain.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCovid is not going away. We anticipate with full confidence, I\u2019m afraid, that there will be a substantial winter increase in Covid and that we will have, as a consequence, hospitalizations, people admitted to intensive care units and some deaths. There\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vaccines Respiratory viruses Federal agencies New in medicine See all topics Facebook Tweet Email Link Federal officials in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-114443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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