Covid vaccine access at pharmacies

[redbird]

Because RFK Jr. is out to get us, CVS (and possibly other pharmacies) isn’t shipping the updated covid vaccine in 16 states. https://www.idse.net/CDC-News/Article/08-25/CVS-stops-COVID-shots/78068



In Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Nevada, state law says pharmacists can’t give vaccines that aren’t CDC-approved. In another 13 states, they can, but it requires a prescription.

UPDATE Sept. 3rd--the governor of Massachusetts has issued an executive order overriding that, effectively writing a prescription for everyone aged 5 and over.

These are state laws, so call your state respresentatives.

Here’s a script, and the Massachusetts phone numbers:


“I’m calling to ask you to change the state law that stops pharmacists from giving vaccines without CDC approval. This law means Massachusetts pharmacies can’t administer the covid vaccine, which is safe, saves lives, and is FDA-approved. Please change this immediately, so we can get this life-saving vaccine.

Thank you.”

Governor Healey's office is at 617-725-4005.

State house members and their office phone numbers:
https://malegislature.gov/Legislators/Members/House
For the state senate: https://malegislature.gov/Legislators/Members/Senate
If you’re not sure what district you live in, you can look it up here: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
Note: State House members share phone numbers, so if the phone is answered with “Committee on such-and-such,” ask for the specific representative’s office/staff. (I haven’t tried calling on the weekend.)


This is in addition to calling your doctor’s office (if you have one) to ask for the vaccine.

Comments

[julian]

Thank you, you are useful. Tried calling Gov Healy's office, they apparently don't have a VM. Sigh.

Did call both my rep and senator.

Per the Globe, CVS Minute Clinics can, for some reason, distribute the vaccine, but CVS in general can't, but they didn't explain why and I'm skeptical.

The states involved are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia, along with Washington, D.C. -- I know it 'only' requires a prescription in most of those states, but people like me who are between doctors, or who don't have one in general, will be up the creek. So people calling their reps in other states can't hurt.

[redbird]

The explanation is that the “minute clinics” are urgent-care locations staffed by doctors or nurses, not just pharmacists, so different laws apply than at the pharmacy. Unfortunately, the Globe article doesn’t say whether those clinics will actuallt be stocking the covid vaccine, only that they’re allowed to.

[julian]

Oh, and so the doctors can do a prescription, then, also? And presumably also nurse practitioners. That makes more sense, but your question at the end does indeed throw that into uncertainty.

[adrian_turtle]

The Minute Clinics usually don't stock any meds. The way it's supposed to work is that they look in your ears, say you need antibiotics, and then send you across the store with a prescription to actually get the antibiotics. (They could prescribe Paxlovid, no problem. And there's no problem with them prescribing metformin off-label to reduce the risk of long covid.) In MA, pharmacists cannot inject a vaccine that is not CDC-approved, even with a prescription.

[julian]

Oh, that makes even more sense. Thank you. (To give it its due, that part, about pharmacists not being able to inject if etc, was explained in the article.)

[hermionesviolin]

Gov. Healey's office does have a voicemail, but I believe it's only turned on 9-5 M-F.

[redbird]

Thanks, I’ve gotten used to calling representatives’ offices to leave voicemail at odd hours, either because that’s when I get to it or because I don’t feel up to an actual conversation, but do want to state my opinion.

[hermionesviolin]

Yeah, I can attest that I have never gotten a real person when I've called the governor's office, if that's any comfort. The voicemail message asks you to leave your phone number, but they don't have the capacity to call back everyone, so they're unlikely to call you back (and you can say in your message that you don't want/need a callback). I learned this week (I did get a callback, as someone who has been calling the governor's office regularly about multiple issues for weeks) that for Gov. Healey's office you can talk about multiple issues in one voicemail and they'll pass the feedback on to senior staff -- as opposed to the guidance I've gotten for reps/senators about one issue per call (Gov. Healey's office's voicemail also lets me talk much longer than my reps'/senators' voicemails).

I still often call my federal reps/senators at off-hours, but my experience calling during business hours is that I have never gotten a live person for Senators Markey or Warren (DC or Boston offices), and have never gotten a live person for Rep. Clark's DC office and sometimes get a live person for Rep. Clark's Boston office.

[julian]

Oh, thank you. I'll try again during the week.

[librarygeek]

Thanks for the information. At least my kid is at a university in NJ.

[chanter1944]

I've put a call in to my GP already, as someone who's healthy and well under the age cutoff but on public transport almost every day and, by virtue of total blindness, much more hands-on in a typical day than a sighted person in a similar living situation. Waiting for a call back, but my GP's got a clue, so fingers crossed.

Deliberate icon is deliberate. The medical practitioners in the icon would be righteously furious and snarkily deadpan, respectively, at RFK Jr. if they met him.

[redbird]

As I understand it, the current guidelines are that disabled or higher-risk people can get the vaccine, and they haven’t specified what they mean by higher-risk. Back in 2021, when the question was who should be vaccinated first, “higher risk” included a wide range of disabilities, physical and mental, as were obesity and current or former smokers. “As I understand it” means I think that was from either Your Local Epidemiologist or Ruth Anne Crystal, and I didn’t keep that email.

With a GP who has a clue, the question is either whether they are getting the vaccine in themselves, or whether there’s someplace they can send you to get it. I think the current situation is that if you’re in Nevada, New Mexico, or Massachusetts, it has to be a doctor’s office or clinic; in 13 other states, your GP could write a prescription to take to a pharmacy, the problem then being that CVS isn’t shipping the vaccines to pharmacies in those states.

[j00j]

Wrote my reps and governor in PA. Suggested they do what Dr. Paul Offit right here at CHOP suggested- “Legally, it makes sense,” said Paul Offit, MD, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “They are following the law, which is that they give vaccines based on ACIP recommendations, and they don’t have an ACIP recommendation for this year’s newly approved COVID-19 vaccine. From the point of view of the pharmacies, the law would have to be changed to enable them to legally give vaccines according to recommendations from the AAP [American Academy of Pediatrics] or ACOG [American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists], for example.”

Following those standards would, I'd think, (I am not a medical professional or a policy expert) also let us keep science backed vaccine schedules for kiddos and similar if RFK institutes changes to those.

[lightbird]

For New Yorkers: Brad Hoylman-Sigal has (1) issued a statement urging NY State's commissioner of health, Dr. James McDonald, to issue a standing order to make the COVID vaccine immediately accessible to as many New Yorkers as possible; and (2) proposed NY State Senate Bill 2025 S7823A, to authorize the State Dept of Health to serve as an alternate source of authority to the CDC with regard to vaccine schedules. So calls to make in NY include Dr. McDonald and your state senator to urge them to vote for this bill.

And if you're in NYC/in a part of NY that is commutable to NJ, you can can get the booster in a CVS there. I scheduled online at the Florham Park CVS (my mom is there): the form asks for your age (I'm under 65), and then the next screen asks if you're high risk (yes/no; they did not ask me for specifics). Choose yes and it will take you to the next page and allow you to schedule the appointment.