Last week, the Food and Drug Administration approved two COVID-19 vaccines earlier than expected due to record-breaking surges of the virus. Instead of releasing them in the fall, following the pattern of previous coronavirus vaccine roll outs, they are available as early as this week. However, for some people, time is already running out to get the updated shots.
For the nearly 27 million adults who do not have health insurance, the new coronavirus vaccines will only be available for free until August 31. That’s because the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Bridge Access Program, which provided free coronavirus vaccines to uninsured adults, will end. Over the last year, the program provided free vaccines for nearly 1.5 million people since it launched in September 2023. Without insurance, the vaccine can cost at least $115.
“Uninsured adults are going to have more difficulty accessing the vaccines this fall,” Dr. Kelly Moore, president and CEO of Immunize.org, a nonprofit organization that works to increase vaccination rates and is funded by the CDC, told Salon. “Budget cuts on the federal government side have eliminated that program, and the amount of money available to purchase the COVID vaccine and offer it to people who are uninsured is quite limited.”
While the program was meant to be temporary, the original termination date for the program was slotted for December 2024. However, the fiscal 2024 government funding bill rescinded $4.3 billion in COVID-19 funding, some of which was being used for the program, as reported by The Hill in May. After August 31 of this year, local health departments might have a small amount of free vaccine available, but supply is expected to be limited for those without health insurance. While the Biden administration advocated for a more permanent solution in 2025, Congress hasn’t agreed to appropriate the funds.
"The amount of money available to purchase the COVID vaccine and offer it to people who are uninsured is quite limited.” "
“We hoped that the Bridge Access Program would be a bridge to a more permanent solution, a safety net program that would ensure affordable access to recommended vaccines for uninsured adults,” Moore said. “But unfortunately, it's turned out to be a bridge to nowhere.”
The ending of the program comes at a time when public health officials will be tasked with the assignment of getting vaccines into more peoples’ arms. The optics of last year’s vaccine roll-out was chaos, and not as many people received the vaccines as health officials hoped. Only about 28% of Americans received updated shots last year, a decline from 69% when the first round of vaccines were released.
In a statement to Salon, a spokesperson for the CDC said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has started a campaign called "Risk Less. Do More." to increase uptake of vaccines, including for COVID. The public health agency said it is also "providing additional resources to support access to COVID vaccines this fall and winter season to serve needs of the most vulnerable populations, including uninsured adults, farmworkers, tribal populations and others."
"Much of that support will be provided to the 64 state and local public health departments through their immunization programs," the agency said.
This year, the two new vaccines are updated versions of the mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, They are specifically designed to vaccinate people against the KP.2 strain, which has been driving a large proportion of infections this summer. For the last several weeks, related but different strains KP.3 and KP.3.1.1 have been the ones most responsible for infections lately. The vaccines still offer cross-protection against these variants, but it's another indicator that this virus will always be changing, evolving new ways of evading our immunity.
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“They have an updated vaccine formula, and that's a good thing,” Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and author of the newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist, told Salon. “This virus mutates incredibly quickly, and so we need to patch up our immunity walls to make sure we can recognize this vaccine or recognize the virus as it changes, and that is one driving factor why we have updated vaccines every fall.”
The vaccines are recommended for everyone six months and older, with a few exceptions. If you’ve had a recent COVID-19 infection, officials recommend waiting two to three months to get the vaccine. For everyone five years old and older, even if they’ve never been vaccinated against the coronavirus before, these two new vaccines only require one shot. Anyone younger than five may have multiple doses depending on whether they’ve been vaccinated before or not and what vaccine they received.
“The reason that we're no longer recommending multiple doses of vaccines for people who've never been vaccinated is that if you've never been vaccinated at this point, it's almost certain that you've had at least one infection with the coronavirus virus to prime your immune system,” Moore said. “So your immune system is already familiar with this virus, and it just needs to be reminded and updated with the latest vaccine.”
Moore said it’s most important for people who are older than 65, the age group where most serious COVID disease occurs, to receive the latest vaccine. According to the CDC’s data tracker, weekly deaths from COVID-19 have steadily risen across the country and wastewater viral activity has increased since May. Currently, the national level is “very high,” according to the CDC. One bit of good news is that the federal government plans to offer each household four free at-home COVID-19 tests again starting at the end of September.
Moore said aside from vaccine access being limited to uninsured Americans, she expects this year’s roll-out to be less chaotic than last year’s because people might have been experiencing “vaccine fatigue.”
“There was also a lot of distraction, in a positive way, about the offering of a new RSV vaccine available for the same sort of populations, older adults, 60 and over,” Moore said. “So there was a lot of focus on the RSV vaccine, and I think people just have been tired of thinking about COVID, and that's unfortunate because the vaccine is our best defense against COVID infection and the risk of long COVID.”
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Jetelina said it will be “interesting” to see if more people get vaccinated this year, especially since the HHS has a big vaccine campaign coming this fall that will target high-risk people.
“I'm curious if that will move the needle, but I will say I'm not holding my breath,” she said. “I don't think a lot of other things have changed since last year, people are still tired of hearing about COVID, there's still a lot of confusing information out there, and I don't know how many minds we can really, truly change from season to season.”
Jetelina said she is also concerned about the Bridge Access Program ending.
“We know the easier we make these vaccines, the more accessible these vaccines are, the more people will get them,” Jetelina said. “And they are expensive, especially for uninsured people; the whole access issue is a major challenge.”
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