As federal officials narrow the approval of COVID-19 vaccines and pharmacies limit who can receive them, some states are taking steps to make sure that residents can still access the shots.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, on Sept. 5 signed an executive order that lets pharmacists in the state administer COVID-19 vaccines.
“By signing this executive order, we are sending a clear message that when Washington Republicans play politics with public health, New Yorkers can still get the care they need, close to home, from trusted providers in their own communities,” Hochul said in a statement.
Officials in New Mexico said on Friday that pharmacists can prescribe COVID-19 vaccines to any people who want them.
CVS had said that state law prevented the company from prescribing COVID-19 vaccines, absent new recommendations from a federal committee. The New Mexico Board of Pharmacy in response issued updated protocols, and the New Mexico Department of Health released new guidance that bases COVID-19 vaccine prescriptions on state guidelines, rather than federal recommendations, officials said.
“This action will ensure New Mexicans have access to the vaccine if they choose,” Cheranne McCracken, executive director of the board, said in a statement.
Massachusetts officials said on Sept. 4 that the state’s health commissioner, rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will decide which vaccines can be administered by pharmacists in Massachusetts and that an order makes clear that individuals aged 5 and up can receive a COVID-19 vaccine, while younger kids can receive one from their pediatricians.
They also said in a bulletin to insurers that companies are expected to cover vaccines recommended by the state.
Officials said the steps were taken in response to moves by officials acting under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump.
“In Massachusetts, we will not let Donald Trump or Robert Kennedy get in the way of patients and the care and the treatments and the medication that they want and need,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, told a briefing on Thursday.
In Colorado, acting at the direction of Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, officials issued orders that enable pharmacists to administer COVID-19 vaccines to people aged 6 months and older without prescriptions.
“I’m taking action to ensure that Coloradans who want to can easily and conveniently get the safe and effective updated COVID vaccine, along with the flu vaccine, this Fall without having to go to a doctor first,” Polis said in a statement on Wednesday.
That same day, the Pennsylvania State Board of Pharmacy said that pharmacists in the state can follow vaccine recommendations from four entities, rather than only the CDC and its vaccine advisory panel. Those entities include the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recommends that many children receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which advises pregnant women to receive one.
“Health care decisions should be up to individuals—not the federal government,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a statement.
The Food and Drug Administration recently rescinded emergency authorization for the COVID-19 vaccines while updating approvals that limited clearance to the elderly and younger people who have one or more risk factors, which the CDC says puts them at higher risk of COVID-19.
The CDC’s advisory panel has not yet issued recommendations on the newly approved vaccines, which have updated formulations. The panel is scheduled to meet in mid-September to discuss the matter.
Under laws in some states, such as Massachusetts, pharmacists cannot administer vaccines absent those recommendations, CVS had said. In other states, pharmacies could only provide the vaccines with a prescription verifying people fell into one of the groups that received clearance from the FDA.
That resulted in CVS and Walgreens halting administration of COVID-19 vaccines in multiple states and limiting the shots to those with a prescription in others, including Colorado and Pennsylvania.
“Anybody can get the booster,” but “it’s not recommended for healthy people,” Kennedy told a hearing in Washington on Thursday.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said the consequence of that position is that in many states “you can’t walk into a pharmacy and get one,” and that insurers will not cover the vaccines if they are administered.
“We’re not going to recommend a product for which there are no clinical data for that indication,” Kennedy responded.
Regulators said, when issuing the new approvals, that there are no data to support giving the vaccines to younger, healthy people.
A CVS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the company is now offering COVID-19 vaccines in all states, including Massachusetts, although some people will need prescriptions to access them. Walgreens has not returned requests for comment.
The actions by New York, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Pennsylvania come after California, Washington state, and Oregon formed a new alliance that officials said would develop immunization recommendations independently from the CDC.