This Year's COVID Vaccine Rollout is Off to a Bumpy Start, Despite High Demand

By Yuki Noguchi, Carmel Wroth

When federal health officials recommended the next round of COVID-19 boosters for anyone 6 months old or older, doses were supposed to be available right away at pharmacies. But two weeks later consumers are reporting problems. Some people are finding some stores just don't have doses yet, or insurance coverage is not straight-forward.

"The rollout has hit some snags," says Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at the Kaiser Family Foundation or KFF. "On the one hand, some of this was anticipated, but it has seemed to be a little bit more chaotic than expected.

Kates herself was looking to get vaccinated at her pharmacy this week but her appointment got canceled. She tried going in, anyway.

"The very nice pharmacist said, 'Yeah, we just don't have the supply. We're not getting enough in and we're still letting people schedule appointments,' " Kates says.

The new COVID boosters are coming: Here's what you need to know
There's plenty of demand for the shots. Around half of all U.S. adults intend to get the new COVID vaccine this fall, according to a survey out Wednesday from KFF, including two-thirds of seniors. That's much higher than the uptake for last year's bivalent boosters – about 17% of Americans got those.

And the vaccine manufacturers say they've got sufficient doses available – the problem seems to be with distribution, Kates explains. Unlike year's past when the federal government purchased the vaccines and made them free to consumers, this year pharmacies had to buy the vaccines from suppliers.

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