Two major pharmacy retailers are reportedly limiting access to updated coronavirus vaccines as health officials in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are scaling back on their use.
According to Fox Business, CVS and Walgreens are making the move due to updated federal guidelines limiting eligibility to senior citizens and people who are considered high-risk, the outlet reported on Saturday.
The news comes after U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in February stopped a Biden-era contract to create updated coronavirus shots.
“The HHS contract is with American biotech company Vaxart Inc., which has been developing a new COVID-19 vaccine that is taken orally. Kennedy did not terminate the contract. Instead, the trial is paused with a 90-day stop-work order issued on Friday,” a Breitbart News report said.
Per the Fox article, CVS has stopped offering COVID vaccine shots in Massachusetts, Nevada, and New Mexico, while Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia have all restricted access.
CVS said it will administer the shots where they are legally permitted inside its pharmacies or MinuteClinic locations.
Meanwhile, a statement from Walgreens said the company is “prepared to offer the vaccine in states where we are able to do so.”
“In regions where distribution is limited, high-risk individuals may still receive the updated boosters if they obtain a prescription from an authorized provider,” the Fox article said.
In May, the CDC removed the coronavirus vaccine from the recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and healthy pregnant women, Breitbart News reported.
Health officials said there was no evidence showing healthy children needed it. The outlet noted, “Indeed, former President Biden not only pushed the coronavirus vaccine on healthy adults — going as far as essentially deeming the unvaccinated unpatriotic and warning that his patience was wearing thin with them — but he also pushed it on healthy children. That push came despite the fact that data showed coronavirus hospitalization and mortality rates among children were incredibly low.”
More recently, President Donald Trump’s administration reportedly has been planning to phase out the COVID-19 vaccine.
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