CVS, Walgreens require prescriptions for COVID vaccines in Colorado

Individuals who need to get an up to date COVID-19 vaccine at CVS or Walgreens pharmacies in Colorado this fall might want to current a prescription.

State regulation permits pharmacists to manage vaccines really useful by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a bunch that counsels the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about who will profit from which photographs.

In earlier years, the committee really useful up to date COVID-19 vaccines inside days of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving them. This yr, the committee doesn’t have any conferences scheduled till late September, and should not advocate the shot when it does meet, since Secretary of Well being and Human Providers Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed a number of members with anti-vaccine views after eradicating all prior appointees in June.

The shortage of a advice additionally implies that insurance coverage firms aren’t legally required to pay for the COVID-19 vaccine with out out-of-pocket prices. Most personal insurers will cowl the up to date photographs this yr, although that might change in 2026, according to Reuters.

Initially, CVS stated it couldn’t give the COVID-19 vaccine to anybody in Colorado or 15 different states, due to their ACIP-approval requirement. As of Friday morning, its pharmacies can provide the photographs to eligible individuals who have a prescription, spokeswoman Amy Thibault stated.

As of about 10 a.m. Friday, CVS’s web site wouldn’t permit guests to schedule COVID-19 photographs in Colorado.

Walgreens didn’t reply to questions on its COVID-19 vaccine coverage, however its web site stated sufferers want a prescription in Colorado. A New York Occasions reporter found the same in 15 other states.

The FDA this week really useful the up to date photographs only for people who are over 65 or have a health condition that places them in danger for extreme illness.

The listed circumstances embody:

• Bronchial asthma and different lung ailments
• Most cancers
• Historical past of stroke or illness within the mind’s blood vessels
• Persistent kidney illness
• Liver illness
• Cystic fibrosis
• Diabetes (all sorts)
• Developmental disabilities, corresponding to Down syndrome
• Coronary heart issues
• Psychological well being circumstances, together with despair and schizophrenia
• Dementia
• Parkinson’s illness
• Weight problems
• Bodily inactivity
• Present or current being pregnant
• Illnesses or drugs that impair the immune system
• Smoking