New COVID vaccine requirements concern reader

As a 69-year-old with coronary artery disease, I’ve taken every COVID-19 booster. Unlike colds and flu, COVID has the potential to damage the heart and circulatory system.

I assumed getting my updated booster this fall would again entail a quick visit to CVS or Walgreens as in past, but no more. Arizona is one of 16 states that require a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory board — the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP — before our pharmacies can dispense the vaccine.

Earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the entire advisory board and replaced them with vaccine skeptics and anti-vaxxers, so a recommendation at the board’s Sept. 18 meeting  is no sure bet. 

A Republican senator is even calling for the meeting to be indefinitely postponed given the recent personnel chaos at the CDC.

If the local prohibition is not resolved soon, I’m looking to travel to California to receive the booster. With cases in Maricopa County on the rise, with both of the newer variants present, I don’t want to gamble with my health.

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