when federal health officials approved a new covet booster earlier this month and recommended it for
anyone six months or older doses were expected to be available in pharmacies within days but
two weeks later many people are having trouble finding the vaccine and if they do find it some
are having trouble getting Insurance to pay for it and some nursing homes which are more vulnerable
to covid haven't even begun vaccinating residents yet and may not until November Caitlin gentalena
is a University of Texas epidemiologist and author of the popular newsletter your local
epidemiologist Caitlin why is the rollout of this new booster a little messier than
the previous rollouts yeah it's been messy to say the least like you said and this is because
of a massive shift coming out of the emergency that covid-19 vaccines are now commercialized
so in other words the US government is no longer responsible for purchasing or Distributing these
vaccines means so this means we have now multiple pairs I.E insurance companies and changes to the
delivery system which has unfortunately resulted in this slow rollout and fragmented and Equitable
and quite frankly imperfect system General Perna was in charge of it during the pandemic he was the
chief operation officer of operation warp speed um and I think a lot of people under appreciate
including me the massive task of getting 330 million people a vaccine quickly um I think it was
24 hours after the initial rollout in December of 2020 and it saved lives this week the Health and
Human Services secretary Javier Becerra called in the insurance company Executives to remind
them or get them to recommit to paying for these vaccines is that uh also a a factor or a result of
this moving from from the government to commercial yeah commercial is very confusing because covet's
also not our normal flu vaccine but bottom line to the general population no one should be paying for
a covid-19 vaccine private insurance companies are mandated to cover this vaccine with no co-pay now
insurance companies are no longer required to pay out of pocket so this may mean you have to
eat your vaccine at your doctor's office opposed to a pharmacy that's not a network and then under
an uninsured people on CVS and Walgreens are required by federal law to give you a vaccine
at no cost thanks to this new federal bridge program there was a Kaiser Family Foundation
poll that found that 46 percent of those surveyed said they either definitely or probably will get
this new booster and that's above what it was for the the previous booster at the beginning
of the year but also below what it was for the initial vaccine is that good news or bad news
that number you know I think it's good news I'm actually pleasantly surprised it's about 50 and
that's about out what we see with the flu vaccine every year pre-pandemic and during pandemic and I
think that if we can get up to those flu vaccine numbers we're a whole lot better than we did last
fall which was about one in four Americans getting their fall boosters you talked about the three
vaccines that are out there this fall for people covid seasonal flu and RSV the respiratory virus
walk us through what people should be thinking about this about when to get them which ones
to get can you mix them can you get two or all three at the same time let's start with covid yeah
everyone over six months and older are eligible to get the covid-19 vaccine you can get it with your
flu you can also get it with your RSC vaccine which cuts down the number of visits you have
to the pharmacy or the doctor's office the most challenging thing with covid-19 vaccines is timing
when should you get your covid-19 vaccine um and this is dependent on of course your
risk calculus how long do you want to wait um it depends on how at risk you are so those over 65 I
um tell people to get their vaccine right away and it also depends on the last time you were infected
um so we suggest people getting their vaccine about three to at least three to four months
after infection and the RSV vaccine people are are eligible if they're over the age of 60 and
pregnant people are now eligible to have the vaccine in their last trimester of pregnancy
to help their newborn and we also have monoclonal antibodies and this isn't a vaccine but it's more
like an antibody medication that little kids under eight months old can get in their first RSV season
RSV doesn't Wane as quickly the protection doesn't oin as quickly as covid-19 or flu vaccines so you
should get it right away and it'll be durable throughout the season and even maybe into next
season we're waiting to see data on that seasonal flu vaccine there's always or at least I've heard
this debate about whether you get it early or get it late what's your recommendation yeah so
everyone over six months is eligible for flu does Wayne I would say not as quickly as covid-19 and
so particularly among older adults we suggest getting the vaccine in October so all this is
really confusing to keep in mind but I think the bottom line is if you're eligible get the flu
covid and RSV vaccine before Halloween and you should be pretty darn protected going into this
winter Caitlyn jennelita your local epidemiologist thank you very much thanks for having me