Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations

Here's a link to the public comment section of the FDA website with this regulaion. People in the USA can leave a comment here.

https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2025-N-1146-0001

EDIT: I found this page with a template to help you create a comment:

https://peoplescdc.substack.com/p/vaccine-access-is-under-attack-act

Even if it's only 1-2 lines I think leaving a comment will help. You can make your comment anonymous, don't have to enter name/email.

Pushing back on other issues has ended up changing things. Don't think it's impossible to change things!

 

I'm hoping that The Sick Times will report on this issue (restricting COVID vaccines) soon.

 

Moved from USA news

NPR (National Public Radio) now has a story on this:

A stricter FDA policy for COVID vaccines could limit future access

 

The FDA officials responsible for the pronouncement wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2506929) that adults with the CDC risk factors of a poorer outcome would qualify for the next covid vaccine.

This CDC list (link in above article) includes depression and other mental illnesses, and obesity (BMI over 30--which probably includes 40 percent of US adults, smoking or former smoking, among a list of other factors.

Also, physical inactivity is considered a risk factor on the list. So....

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/he...ion-covid-flu-combination-vaccine-2025-05-21/

Moderna has withdrawn its application for approval of its combined COVID-19 and influenza vaccine

Is this because it's more profitable to sell them separately?

 

TBH, I'm not sure this is much different from the current UK approach, except that I think the lower age limit is 75 here? My caree's GP, having read the stuff I sent her about ME, originally put her down as clinically vulnerable - but obviously she's not as high risk as someone who's immunosuppressed due to undergoing chemotherapy, say. She's not received an invitation for a Covid jab this time around, and I, her sole carer, haven't been offered one either. Children don't get the jab either as a rule, but I think that's because the benefit-to-risk ratio isn't as great. I believe Covid jabs probably are available privately if you want to pay for them, but I don't know to what extent you might be discouraged from having one if you don't meet the criteria.

 

I am approaching seventy so don’t qualify on the basis of age for the current booster programme here in the UK. Although my GP had previously agreed to move me up one priority category, I don’t think that was enough to make me currently eligible.

Every now and again I make a half hearted attempt to find out about getting a further booster privately, but at present that seems to cost around £100 and be only available beyond my normal travelling range. My socialising is relatively restricted visiting a restaurant maybe one every six months, a shop maybe once a month and probably most risky a care home for the elderly once every two months. I don’t have many visitors other than my carers, and probably foolishly had slipped into not masking any more.

I have not so far had Covid and have had all the vaccines I was eligible for previously. I have no more home testing kits and no longer ask visitors to test in advance.

However I find myself without sufficient information to balance the ongoing risks of getting Covid against the energy costs and financial costs (including hiring a driver) of getting a booster privately.

(Added. I included full information to set out the equation in my own mind and this is not a request for anyone to advise for or against me personally getting a booster.)