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As Florida and federal officials continue to change the rules, confusion reminiscent of the pandemic’s early days has returned around the latest COVID-19 vaccines. Pharmacists at places like CVS, Publix, and Walgreens say they’re fielding all sorts of questions about who’s eligible for the shot, and some patients have admitted to lying about their medical history just to get vaccinated in time for the flu and COVID-19 season. Flu activity in the U.S. peaks from December through February, while COVID-19 hospitalizations are typically the highest in late December or early January.
The confusion stems, in part, from early September when Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the intention to end all vaccine mandates in the state, including those for grade-school children; Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy likely did little to curb uncertainty when he called the COVID-19 shot “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seemingly muddled the waters further Monday with a mandate calling for COVID-19 vaccination decisions to be made on an individual basis, rather than being part of the CDC’s seasonally recommended shots for everyone.
“Informed consent is back,” Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement. “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.”
While the initial push to inoculate the U.S. population in the midst of the pandemic reached nearly 85 percent of adults, only 23 percent of adults have followed the CDC’s most recent seasonal booster recommendation, according to its National Immunization Survey.
Many in South Florida have taken the aforementioned updates as barriers to inoculation. In late September, some even took to Reddit to share what lies they had to tell to get the shot.
“I straight face said ‘I’m fat,'” one user wrote of their trip to the pharmacy. “And she shrugged and was like, ‘Cool.’ I got my shot and skipped out the door.”
“I feel no reason to lie. However, if I did need an excuse I would say ‘I work with the elderly,'” another commenter said. “There is a tremendous amount of geriatric work in Florida that I would not need to specify.”
A Broward County physician, who asked not to be named, said the new rules are causing “incredible confusion.”
“It’s amazing that they’ve taken some of the most important inventions in human history and labeled them dangerous. With any vaccine, you’re going to have a microscopic number of people with adverse side effects, but the overall result of mass vaccinations is immunity,” he told New Times. “It’s how we eradicated polio in the U.S. It’s incredibly frustrating as a physician.”
But getting the shot is far easier than Reddit would have you believe, and because the wide array of requisite medical conditions basically opens eligibility up to anyone with a pulse, you actually don’t have to lie to get it. New Times checked with pharmacists at CVS, Walgreens, and Publix in South Florida to see how easy it was to get a COVID-19 shot.
Patients can make appointments online at all three places, but CVS and Walgreens have more streamlined systems requiring fewer questions. Both CVS and Walgreens ask whether patients have any health conditions or risk factors that make them more susceptible to severe COVID-19, which is a requirement for those between 12 and 64 to receive the shot, according to CVS. Publix links to a list of underlying conditions from the CDC, which was last updated in April. CVS and Walgreens allow COVID-19 vaccines for the following underlying conditions:
- Cancer
- Cerebrovascular disease
- Chronic kidney disease (at any stage)
- Chronic liver disease
- Chronic lung disease
- Cystic fibrosis
- Dementia or other neurological conditions
- Diabetes (type 1 or type 2)
- Disabilities
- Heart conditions
- Hemoglobin blood disorders
- HIV infection (human immunodeficiency virus)
- Mental health conditions
- Mood disorders including depression and schizophrenia spectrum disorders
- Overweight or obesity
- Physical inactivity
- Pregnancy (current or recent)
- Smoking (current or former)
- Solid organ or blood stem cell transplant
- Substance use disorders
- Tuberculosis (TB)
Just last month, Floridians needed a prescription from their physician before a pharmacy could administer the COVID-19 jab, but the Florida Board of Pharmacy, which regulates pharmacies statewide, voted to remove that requirement in late September, according to the Florida Phoenix.
Most insurance companies will cover the COVID-19 vaccine free of charge for patients, but those without insurance may incur costs of up to $250.
