Overview
- On October 6, the CDC adopted ACIP’s guidance replacing a blanket booster recommendation with provider–patient decision-making for COVID-19 shots.
- The decision restores pharmacist administration, reopens state ordering through Vaccines for Children, and requires insurer coverage without patient cost sharing.
- ACIP weighed but narrowly rejected a prescription requirement for the updated vaccines, with guidance highlighting the greatest benefit for older adults and people at higher medical risk.
- Access remains uneven as pharmacies and clinics ramp back up, with VFC shipments delayed but Massachusetts expecting deliveries by the end of this week or early next week.
- A new ACIP workgroup will reassess childhood and adolescent vaccine schedules, ingredients and timing, the October ACIP meeting was canceled and shifted to a 2025 date to be determined, and pharmacies can vaccinate pregnant patients under the updated guidance.