COVID-19 vaccine confusion a preventable scourge

For too many people, getting a COVID-19 vaccine this fall may be unnecessarily fraught, leading some patients unable to get a shot or decide it's too much bother. And that could lead to an increased spread of COVID, additional hospitalizations and even more severe consequences, especially for those already at greater risk.

As of now, CVS, for instance, will require a doctor's prescription for any New Yorker and those in 13 other states to receive this year's COVID-19 vaccine, and some other pharmacies may as well. That's an extra hurdle that will do more harm than good.

Beyond that, questions swirl regarding eligibility, availability and insurance coverage, especially for those under 65 or without underlying conditions. Children fall into especially unclear territory, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn't recommend the vaccine for healthy children, while the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that all children ages 6-23 months, in addition to older children with risk factors, get vaccinated.

Such discrepancies come even though children under 2 are hospitalized for COVID-19 more than any other pediatric age group, with more than half such hospitalizations among those who do not have underlying medical conditions. 

The chaos surrounding this year's COVID shot is preventable. It's not helpful to patients, parents or physicians and it's potentially dangerous as new COVID strains emerge. But it may be exactly what Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants, since it feeds into the skepticism and doubt he has consistently seeded from the beginning. This week, President Donald Trump added to that doubt, posting that drug companies should "justify the success of their various Covid Drugs" and questioning whether his own Operation Warp Speed, which produced the vaccines, was "as 'BRILLIANT' as many say it was."

This isn't the way to manage a nation's public health. Questioning and sowing doubt in proven science and medical advances only damage the nation's trust in medicine and vaccination. Years of data and research have illustrated that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives and considerably lowered hospitalization risk. To continue that success, the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration must provide definitive guidance, so doctors, pharmacists and insurers can take next steps, and so patients of all ages know what to expect. Such guidance should broadly allow those who want and need the COVID-19 vaccine to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Parents who want to protect their children, and senior citizens and other adults who must protect themselves or their family members, should be able to do so without jumping through unnecessary hoops.

Every day, hundreds of New Yorkers are still in the hospital due to COVID, with dozens of patients in the ICU. Those numbers could worsen considerably if vaccines are unavailable or inaccessible. Our public health professionals must end the confusion and ambiguity, and provide clarity and reassurance, while giving the public what it needs: access to and trust in the vaccines that can and will save lives.