Covid cases rise in the US as vaccination access remains limited
For many Americans, the new COVID-19 vaccine guidelines from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), spearheaded by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his highly controversial Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement, have added another layer of stress to an increasingly inaccessible healthcare system.
The agency authorised Covid vaccines for people 65 and older, who are known to be more at risk from serious illnesses from Covid infections, but younger people will only be eligible if they have an underlying medical condition that makes them particularly vulnerable.
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With this upcoming fall and winter – the first where the US government hasn’t recommended widespread Covid vaccinations – these changes have introduced a creeping sense for many that their ageing or immunocompromised loved ones are in danger.
For Madison Heckel, a 33-year-old attorney in the final stretch of wedding planning, the stakes feel personal. She has struggled with frequent illness ever since first contracting COVID in 2021.
New guidelines
“Ever since then, I just catch everything,” she said. Though she expressed her frustrations with a weakened immune system, she had her doubts that she would qualify for vaccine coverage under the new guidelines.
Her immediate worry is simple: not being bedridden on the day she says “I do”. “Weddings are expensive, and I don’t want to be sick that day if I can prevent it, and so I just want to get the vaccine,” she said. “I’ve gotten my booster every year.”
Yet the new rules have complicated what was once routine. Instead of stopping by CVS, as she has in past years, Heckel found herself on the phone with her insurer, navigating coverage questions and learning she would need to go to a different pharmacy.
“I just am really hoping that I don’t have to risk being sick on my wedding day,” she said.
Though she was relieved to find out her vaccine would still be covered in some capacity, she’s still worried that her wedding – attended by people of all age groups – will probably host a significant number of guests who won’t be vaccinated. She doesn’t want anyone to get sick because they were there.
“I don’t know how many of the people who will be at my wedding are trying to get vaccinated, or how many qualify,” she said. “It just feels like it’s so much more complicated than it’s ever been before to get a vaccine.”
For 18-year-old student Zeke Fraser-Plant, the new guidelines heightened concerns he already carries daily. His parents and a close friend continue to live with long-term effects from contracting Covid: “My father has a lot of problems with brain fog. My mother loses her sense of smell completely. It comes back off and on.” His friend, who caught Covid as a teenager, struggles with memory.
