Why getting a COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be more complicated this year

Will you get a COVID-19 vaccine? That has become a complicated question for many people.

The answer may depend on your age, insurance coverage, health, and finding a health care professional who will give you the shot.

A once-straightforward seasonal vaccine process has become muddled this year because of new federal guidance on who can get the shots. It raises questions about whether pharmacists will provide the shots and if insurers will cover them.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has OK’d new shots from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax, but the approvals came with some new caveats. And it’s not clear yet how that will play out.

What has changed?

The shots were approved for people who are 65 and older and those who are younger and have a health condition that makes them vulnerable to severe COVID-19.

The built-up immunity means your body will respond faster to an infection or vaccination than it did in the pandemic’s early days, said Andrew Pekosz, a virus expert at Johns Hopkins University.

“That’s one of the reasons why COVID hospitalizations has gone down: That population immunity is high,” he said. “But population immunity isn’t perfect, and it does wane over time.”

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