DeKalb drive-thru vaccine event to give flu shot but skip COVID booster

Georgia’s health departments are still waiting for a clear green light on the COVID booster from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those will include three types of shots for adults, and one nose spray for infants over 6 months old. People do not need a reservation ahead of time, according to the DeKalb County Board of Health, which is hosting the event.

If attendees have insurance, they should bring the card. That’s true whether the insurance is private, Medicare or Medicaid, and even if they end up having no out-of-pocket cost.

Flu typically runs on a reliable schedule, with more people getting sick in the winter.

COVID is more variable, and Georgia has been experiencing an end-of-summer wave. But people seeking the COVID vaccine now have encountered confusion.

Kennedy’s Food and Drug Administration approved the new COVID booster for a long list of patients, including anyone over age 65. And last week, Kennedy’s newly installed members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee voted to recommend the COVID booster, subject to “individual decision-making” or “shared clinical decision-making,” where the patient decides.

However, many doctors and pharmacists are waiting to see the CDC acting director’s agreement before they’ll give the shot, out of concern insurance companies may not cover it, or they won’t have standard legal protections if a patient decides to sue.

The acting CDC director could reverse the committee’s recommendation, although that has rarely happened.

Georgia is one of five states and the District of Columbia where CVS said it is still not allowing its pharmacists to give the COVID shot unless the customer has a prescription.

But if the CDC’s acting director signs off on the committee’s recommendations, people will once again be able to come into CVS pharmacies in those states to get the shot without a prescription, CVS spokeswoman Amy Thibault said.

The confusion stemming from the federal decisions is rampant. Even at major Atlanta health systems, some Georgia patients seeking the COVID booster have been told they can get the prescription from their doctor, but then at the appointment the doctor wouldn’t prescribe it yet.

A direct message from a nurse at Anne Goyette's primary care doctor's office at Wellstar Health System was one in a chain preventing her from getting the COVID-19 booster shot even though she is eligible and her pharmacy has it, if she comes in with a prescription. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine changes have sowed confusion. Goyette eventually got the shot at a walk-in clinic. (Courtesy of Anne Goyette)

VACCINATION DRIVE-THRU