A COVID-19 vaccine is administered in Chicago in March 2021.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times, Dossier
When COVID-19 vaccines entered the advertising market, the federal government introduced a program to make vaccines available to others with limited or uninsured policy. That program, which provided millions of free vaccines to low-income people, is now on hold, U. S. fitness officials said. U. S.
The Bridge Access program will end in August, months earlier than planned through local fitness departments and fitness centers, as Congressional investment during the pandemic expires. Biden administration officials are seeking permanent investment so that the vaccine regimen can remain free for adults, through a program. similar to the long-standing Vaccines for Children program, an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an email.
Leaders of fitness centers and departments said that without the Bridge Access Program, they are concerned about how they will get the investment in vaccines in anticipation of the winter season for respiratory viruses, when hospitalizations and deaths tend to rise. Many low-income Americans may not be able to create vaccines against the novel coronavirus and its myriad variants. Updated vaccines will be formulated to combat those strains, but the pandemic-era investment will be gone.
Leaders of the National Association of Community Health Centers, a nonprofit advocacy group, said they knew the program was temporary, but were surprised to learn it would end in August. During the colder months of the year, fitness centers will continue to vaccinate others on a daily basis, Sarah Price, the association’s director of public fitness integration, said in a statement. “Health centers will inventory those vaccines or reference resources within their network, with the goal of overcoming barriers to access and completing the cycle,” he said.
Since its launch in September 2023, Bridge Access has provided more than 1. 4 million COVID-19 vaccines released through retail pharmacies, network fitness centers and public fitness departments across the United States, said David Daigle, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . email. The CDC responded to questions about whether the company had informed fitness centers and departments that the Bridge program would end in August.
Vaccine makers Novavax and Pfizer said in an email that they plan to compare their accessibility features for U. S. consumers as a result of the replacement and make sure the vaccines are available to uninsured or underinsured patients. Moderna did not respond to a request for comment.
The loss of the program has led Fitness to worry about a surge in cases.
“This creates a barrier that can lead to much larger COVID resurgences,” said Dr. Walter Orenstein, associate director of the Emory University Vaccine Center. Orenstein has previously served as director of the U. S. National Immunization Program. The program was introduced in the 1990s and envisions disruption if vaccines are not made more accessible.
“I hope I’m wrong. But I think it’s better to remove barriers to access when we have such effective vaccines than to prevent other people [who want] those vaccines from getting vaccinated.
The U. S. has reached a record high point of uninsured people, the Department of Health and Human Services announced in August. However, about 7. 7% of the population, or about 25 million people, still have fitness insurance. Among adults 18 and older, 11% are uninsured.
In addition, millions of adults have poor health policy from their employers, and many earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. People in this category likely would have had a hard time getting vaccinated against COVID-19 without funding from Bridge Access.
Investment in vaccines ends when Medicaid is canceled in the United States. Nearly 22 million people who were on Medicaid during the pandemic have been canceled since May 10, according to KFF, a nonpartisan fitness policy organization.
The next COVID-19 vaccine circular, designed to target dominant strains, has yet to be released.
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