September 29, 2023 – If you're having trouble getting the newest COVID-19 booster shot, you're not alone.
As the rollout of the newly formulated shot begins in earnest, many Americans are facing obstacles while federal officials urge everyone to be patient and get the shot when possible.
Dana Tofig was lucky. He signed up for the newest COVID-19 vaccine as soon because it became available. When his appointment got here, he stood in line at a CVS in Gaithersburg, Md., and received his shot. Just as he finished, the pharmacy worker told everyone in line behind to go home: There were no more doses available.
He said the pharmacy also needed to cancel all appointments for the next day.
“The woman who gave me the injection said that [the pharmacy] They were given a week's supply, but in the end it was only enough for a few days,” Tofig, 56, said.
Although appointments continue to be canceled, a opinion The vaccines were released after a meeting between U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and senior health insurance company officials that said more than 6 million vaccines have been shipped to pharmacies and 2 million Americans have received their shots so far.
And according to a opinion From Moderna, the maker of one of two approved vaccines, the company has delivered millions of doses to distributors across the country and is “working to support these distributors to ensure the significant amount of vaccines we have already made available to them continue to arrive quickly.” Pharmacies and other care centers.”
Paralleling the problems with vaccine supply, those who were able to get vaccinated have had difficulty getting insurance to cover the cost. allegedly resulting from technical problems. In one letter, major medical insurance firms insured Customers that they have “largely, if not completely,” resolved these technical issues and commit to “full coverage of new COVID-19 vaccinations as needed, without cost sharing, when consumers access or receive them through a network provider.” .”Out-of-network providers when in-network options will not be available.”
Dotty Johnson was one of many who didn't get the vaccine. She is a 73-year-old retired college professor in Pennsylvania. She recently completed chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, which increases her risk of more serious complications from COVID. There is an urgency for her and her husband to get the new monovalent vaccination.
Johnson and her husband received the RSV vaccine in mid-September. At that time, the pharmacist told them that CVS did not yet have the COVID vaccine and that they should make an appointment to come back. The Johnsons made an appointment for last Tuesday, but received a text message the night before saying CVS didn't have the vaccine available the next day and they would have to reschedule. When Johnson checked online, there were no nearby vaccination appointments and the earliest appointment was in late October.
She and her husband kept their appointment on Tuesday to get their flu shots. But the CVS-Medicare system was down, so they had a choice: reschedule or pay out of pocket. They chose to pay $110 each for the flu vaccine.
CVS recommended they continue to call to find out when the COVID vaccine will be available in their area. “I am immunocompromised and over 65. My husband is 75 and doing well. He lives with me and if he gets sick, I’ll get sick too, right?”
CVS has acknowledged some problems with its supply chain.
“We are continually receiving updated COVID-19 vaccines from suppliers and most of our locations are able to meet scheduled appointments,” said Matt Blanchette, senior manager of retail communications for CVS Pharmacy. “However, due to delivery delays from our wholesalers, some dates may be postponed. We apologize for any inconvenience and will continue to offer additional appointments at these locations once shipment is received.”
In New York City, Zoe Cohen and Levi Shaw-Faber had the same bad luck. In preparation for an upcoming wedding, the couple planned to shoot a few days in advance. But an hour before their scheduled appointment for the updated COVID vaccine and flu shot, they received a call from CVS telling them they had run out of vaccine doses. By the time Cohen and Shaw-Faber began searching for another available pharmacy that day, every pharmacy in the New York City area, except one in New Jersey, was either fully booked or dry.
“The good news is that we are in a different place than we were last year,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, said during a Sept. 27 news conference sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Cohen has already had her flu shot and plans to get her COVID shot as well. “Not only as CDC director, but as a mother, wife and daughter, I would not recommend anything to the American people that I would not recommend to my own family.”
Even leading infectious disease experts face some challenges. Robert Hopkins Jr., MD, medical director of the Infectious Diseases Foundation, for example, received his flu and COVID vaccinations separately “resulting from availability,” he said at the news conference.
A “shaky” supply chain
“This is a total disaster. It's bad enough that we've had pandemic fatigue and anti-science and everything else, but this rollout is just a curse,” said Dr. Eric Topol, founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California and editor. Head of Medscape, WebMD's sister site for healthcare professionals.
The distribution chain for COVID boosters is “really shaky,” Topol said, and provide levels are lower than many expected on the time. An unexpected consequence is that the “eager beavers” who are often vaccinated in the primary few weeks will not be vaccinated.
The situation will “only further undermine the coordination of public health authorities in the state’s post-emergency pandemic response.”
Cohen said: “The new updated COVID vaccine has been available for about two weeks, and this year the process is different.”
In previous years, the federal government purchased and distributed the COVID vaccines, so it was a system. That ended with the top of the national health emergency in May. “Now we're returning to what I call 'business as usual,'” Cohen said.
The COVID vaccine is now being purchased and distributed after individual health care providers order it and manufacturers and distributors ship it.