With his 80th birthday approaching, Dale Copps figured it was time to sign up for the latest COVID-19 booster vaccine that received federal approval last month. He sent a message through the myDH patient portal to his primary care doctor at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in Lebanon to set up an appointment.
A nurse at APD, which is part of the Dartmouth Health system, responded fairly quickly. “We have not heard as of yet when we will be getting the Covid vaccines if at all,” the nurse wrote in her message that Copps shared with me. “Check with your pharmacy.”
Not the answer that Copps, who lives in Enfield, was expecting, but he called the pharmacy at Centerra Marketplace in Lebanon. What did the pharmacy, another cog in the DH system, tell him?
“They didn’t know when, or if they’d have it,” Copps said.
At that point, Copps said he “just assumed there wasn’t any vaccine anywhere” in the Upper Valley.
A few days later, however, Copps learned the vaccine is in stock and shots are being given at CVS, Walgreens, Kinney Drugs and other chain pharmacies in New Hampshire and Vermont. Appointments can be made online and some pharmacies are taking walk-ins.
This week, I stopped by a half dozen chain pharmacies. Most seem to be low-keying the rollout, forgoing banners or signs trumpeting the lifesaving vaccine’s arrival. (On the other hand, Walgreens in West Lebanon displayed a poster that let people know it had the Yellow Fever vaccine.)
Pharmacies’ hesitancy to heavily promote the updated COVID-19 vaccine is understandable. In previous years, like the annual flu vaccine, COVID boosters had been recommended for all healthy adults and children.
That was before the Trump administration took over.
“We’re in uncharted territory with the new administration,” Anne Sosin, a public health practitioner and researcher who lives in Thetford, told me. “We’re seeing a very patchwork approach to public health and vaccination.”
With Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a 71-year-old environmental lawyer with no medical experience, running the federal Health and Human Services, the strategy is arguably to make sure that getting vaccinated against the coronavirus is no easy task.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration announced it was limiting COVID booster shots to mainly adults age 65 and up. Younger people with underlying health conditions are also eligible, but proving they have a qualifying condition, such as asthma, can be a daunting task in itself.
Kennedy, known for spreading false vaccine safety claims, recently posted on X that COVID boosters would remain available for adults under age 65, but they must first consult with a doctor.
At the moment, as Dale Copps discovered, no matter what your age, good luck finding a hospital or physician’s office to administer the vaccine anytime soon. Along with DH’s hospitals, including its flagship Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, UVM Medical Center in Burlington has yet to secure its allotment.
Gifford Medical Center in Randolph seems to be the exception. Its shipment having already arrived, the hospital expects to have the vaccine available for eligible adults in its doctors’ offices within the next couple of weeks, a spokeswoman said Friday. Dartmouth Health hopes to have the vaccine on hand by the end of the month or early October, but that is still “tentative,” spokeswoman Audra Burns said.
The holdup has a lot to do with the federal government. Unlike pharmacy chains, which buy directly from a drug manufacturer or distributor, hospitals and doctors’ offices tend to get vaccines through their state health agencies, which purchase in bulk from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Gifford Medical Center purchased its vaccine for adults directly from Pfizer, the manufacturer.)
For largely political reasons, the CDC advisory committee that must recommend the vaccine before it’s shipped to states has yet to act. Public health officials hope the committee with give its OK when it meets next week and vaccines could be on their way shortly thereafter.
Still there’s a level of uncertainty. “Nothing has been normal this year,” Merideth Plumpton, the Vermont Department of Health’s immunization program manager said in a phone interview Friday.
Adding to the confusion is whether private insurers will pick up the cost. Most do, but a pharmacist told me that she’s heard of one person who faced a co-pay of $80. (On a personal note, I got stuck — pun intended — with a $50 co-pay for my shot last week.)
In spite of Kennedy’s efforts to downplay the benefits of vaccination, the CDC, which is part of the health secretary’s domain, is still working to get the message out about the potential harmful effects associated with the coronavirus. Updated vaccines give people the “best protection from the currently circulating strains,” the CDC posted on its website in June.
Even when the vaccine becomes more widely available, there’s no guarantee that people will be willing to roll up their sleeves.
A national poll conducted by KFF, a leading nonprofit for health policy research, found nearly 60% of the public would “probably not” or “definitely not” get the booster. Meanwhile, one-third of adults said they were concerned that the vaccine wouldn’t be available to them.
People who are most at risk of both severe flu and COVID-19 are those who will face the steepest barriers in accessing vaccines, said Sosin, the public health researcher. “Your savvy, mobile, and likely healthier younger person motivated to get vaccinated will travel an hour to get vaccinated. Your rural senior with more limited transportation, mobility, and access to care will face greater challenges to accessing vaccines,” she said.
On Wednesday, I wandered around the large parking lot at the Walmart in Woodsville, where the retailer was offering the vaccine at its pharmacy.
Linda Marsh, 71, of Bath, N.H., was the first person who I spoke with. Had she come to get the vaccine, which is free to Medicare recipients? I asked.
“No, and I never will,” she told me. “I don’t believe in it. It has a whole bunch of junk in it.”
Herbert Hatch, 85, of Groton, Vt., represented the other end of the vaccine spectrum. “Let people believe what they want,” he said. “I’ve always (had the vaccine) and I haven’t gotten sick yet.”
Did you hear that Mr. Kennedy?