Now that Governor Kathy Hochul has signed an executive order allowing pharmacists to give COVID-19 vaccines, New Yorkers should be able to get the shot at most pharmacies without a prescription.
But there's another potential barrier driven by new federal restrictions on the shot: insurance coverage.
Under federal law, insurance companies are required to cover all vaccines recommended by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which has always recommended the coronavirus vaccine in the past.
But Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all the members of the committee and replaced them with his allies, many of whom have a history of anti-vaccine views. ACIP usually meets within a few days of the Food and Drug Administration approving new shots. But this year, they're not scheduled to meet until September 18 and 19, and when they do, they may narrow recommendations for COVID vaccines.
That has left insurance companies to make their own decisions on whether to cover the shot—and led to widespread confusion.
Unlike Massachusetts and Connecticut, New York has not mandated that insurers cover the updated vaccine.