September 29, 2023 – If you’re having trouble getting the newest COVID-19 booster shot, you’re not alone.
As the rollout of the brand new vaccine now begins in earnest, many Americans are encountering obstacles while federal authorities urge everyone to be patient and get vaccinated 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 him 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 worth of supplies, which ultimately only lasted a few days,” says 56-year-old Tofig.
Although appointments proceed to be canceled, opinion The vaccines were released after a gathering between U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and senior medical health insurance company officials that said greater than 6 million vaccines have been shipped to pharmacies and a couple of million Americans have received their shots thus far.
And in line with a opinion From Moderna, the maker of one in all two approved vaccines, the corporate has delivered tens of 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.”
In parallel with the issues with vaccine supply, those that have been capable of receive the vaccination are having problems getting the prices covered by insurance. According to reports resulting from technical problems. In a letter from large medical health insurance corporations assured Customers were told that these technical issues have been “largely, if not completely, resolved” and that the corporate is committed to “fully covering the new COVID-19 vaccinations as required, with no cost-sharing, when consumers get them through an in-network provider or get them through an out-of-network provider when in-network options are not available.”
Dotty Johnson was one in all many who did not get the vaccine. She is a 73-year-old retired college professor in Pennsylvania. She recently accomplished chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, which increases her risk of more serious consequences from COVID disease. For her and her husband, there may be an urgency to get the brand new monovalent vaccine.
Johnson and her husband received the RSV vaccination in mid-September. At that point, the pharmacist told them that CVS didn't yet have the COVID vaccine in stock and that they need to make an appointment to return back. The Johnsons made an appointment for last Tuesday, but received a text message the night before saying CVS didn't have the vaccine in stock the following day they usually needed to reschedule. When Johnson checked online, there have been no vaccination appointments nearby and the earliest appointment was in late October.
She and her husband made an appointment on Tuesday to get a flu shot. But CVS's Medicare system was down, in order that they had a alternative: reschedule or pay out of pocket. They decided to pay $110 each for the flu shot.
CVS really helpful they proceed to call to seek out out when the COVID vaccine can be available of 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 identical bad luck. In preparation for an upcoming wedding, the couple planned to shoot just a few days prematurely. But an hour before their scheduled appointment for the updated COVID vaccine and flu shot, they received a call from CVS telling them that they had run out of vaccine doses. By the time Cohen and Shaw-Faber began searching for one more available pharmacy that day, every pharmacy within 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 Disease Foundation, for instance, received his flu and COVID vaccinations individually “based on availability,” he said on the press conference.
A “shaky” supply chain
“This is a total disaster. It's bad enough that we've had pandemic fatigue and anti-science sentiment and everything else, but this rollout is just a curse,” said Dr. Eric Topol, founding father of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, and editor-in-chief of Medscape, WebMD's sister site for healthcare professionals.
The distribution chain for the COVID booster shot is “really shaky,” Topol said, and delivery volumes are lower than many expected on the time. An unexpected consequence is that the “eager ones” who are frequently vaccinated in the primary few weeks are usually not immunized.
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 one-size-fits-all system. That ended when the national health emergency led to 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 healthcare providers order it and manufacturers and distributors ship it.