CVS and Walgreens pharmacies are withholding Covid-19 vaccines in more than a dozen states in response to the ongoing uncertainty about federal vaccine policy.
Amy Thibault, a spokesperson for CVS, said on Thursday that the vaccine is not available in 16 states due to the “current regulatory environment” in the federal government and unclear messaging from the Food and Drug Administration.
On Friday, the company issued an update to her comment, saying that it could administer the vaccines in 13 of the 16 states and the District of Columbia, so long as those seeking the shots had a prescription from a doctor or other medical provider, according to theNew York Times.
In Massachusetts, Nevada, and New Mexico, CVS pharmacies cannot offer the shots to anyone under any circumstances, Thibault said.
Walgreens offered a statement as well, noting that its pharmacists were “prepared to offer the vaccine in states where we are able to do so” so long as recipients meet the newly narrowed FDA criteria determining who qualifies for the shot.
A reporter at the NYT attempted to schedule appointments to get shots in all 50 states and the Walgreens website reportedly said that customers need a prescription in 16 of the states.
While there is some overlap, the NYT reports that there are differences between the states CVS restricts and the states Walgreens restricts.
The uncertainty at the pharmacies is fallout from Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr’s recent insistence on changing vaccine policy. President Donald Trump fired former CDC head Susan Monarez earlier this week after she refused to go along with RFK’s policy agenda.
The states where CVS will requiring a prescription for those seeking vaccines are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia, according to Thibault.
Walgreens is reportedly requiring prescriptions in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington State, West Virginia and Wisconsin, based on the NYT experiment.
Covid vaccine use saw a sharp decline after the pandemic. Only 23 percent of adults and 13 percent of children reported getting an updated Covid vaccine last flu season, according to the CDC.
Cold and flu season is around the corner and with it will come another spike in Covid cases. Dr Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told the NYT it was “really unconscionable” that pharmacies would limit vaccine availability this close to cold and flu season.
He noted that the increasing difficulty of actually acquiring a vaccine is likely going to drive down the number of Americans who take the shots.
“It’s just raising more and more barriers,” the doctor said. “It’s like an obstacle course.”
