- Posted
- August 21, 2020
HHS OKs pharmacists administering shots to boost vaccine rates
The federal Department of Health and Human Services is giving permission to pharmacists nationwide to administer all scheduled shots to children as young as 3, including the flu vaccine, a measure intended to boost childhood vaccination rates that have sagged during the coronavirus pandemic (Source: “New Measures Aim to Boost Vaccine Rates for Flu and Children’s Shots,” New York Times, Aug. 20, 2020).
The new emergency rule allowing state-licensed pharmacists to give federally scheduled vaccines to children ages 3 through 18 is supposed to encourage widespread immunization as schools open during the pandemic and to resolve a patchwork of state laws that govern shots and age limits.
The Department of Health and Human Services noted that a federal report in May said that childhood vaccination rates had dropped precipitously in the first months of the pandemic. New York City’s numbers had especially plummeted. At the time, many parents were afraid to venture out to doctors’ offices and many pediatricians restricted their hours to emergency cases.
Protecting against the impending flu season in the United States is foremost on the minds of public health officials, who worry about the confluence of cases of flu and Covid-19 hitting hospitals this fall and winter. On Wednesday, Massachusetts announced that it will require all students, ranging from 6-month-olds in day care centers to those under 30, to get flu shots by Dec. 31. It is the first state to institute such a sweeping requirement for the shot, which is rarely mandated in the U.S.