Under a new Food and Drug Administration policy, only individuals 65 and older, or those with listed risk factors, will automatically qualify for the updated fall COVID-19 vaccine. Healthy people between 6 months and 64 years old will have to wait until more research is completed.
The changes are raising concerns for Dr. Kay Rhee. She studies long COVID in children and is medical director of Rady Children's Hospital’s medical behavioral unit.
“The COVID strain changes every year, sometimes, multiple times a year. And because of that, I think it just behooves us to be a little bit careful about this because we don't know what's going to happen in the future,” Rhee said.
She warned that limiting access to the vaccine could weaken herd immunity, leaving more people vulnerable to infection.
“It's this idea that if enough people in the community are vaccinated so they don't get the infection, it's going to protect all those and other individuals who may not have gotten vaccinated or protected.”
Rhee is also concerned about the possible long term effects of COVID-19.
“There is no mention of the potential of getting long COVID from any one of these strains of COVID-19. And so I do think that's something that we do have to consider,” she said.
Sarah Whitehead’s son Joel has been battling long COVID for about three years. She believes the vaccine played a role.
“I think that more research needs to be done because Joel was a healthy person and had already had COVID once, and been just fine and if he hadn't gotten the shots, I don't think we would be here in this situation,” Whitehead said.
Whitehead believes her son has a rare condition known as post-vaccination syndrome.
Rhee said cases like Joel’s are exactly why she agrees more research is needed. But while the FDA is calling for new studies, agencies like the National Institutes of Health are facing steep budget cuts. Rhee said that is a troubling contradiction.
“Because if they are wanting to do these studies, you know, in 50 to 64-year-olds, in children and adolescents, they're going to need to fund the research infrastructure,” Rhee said.
She said the policy may make it harder for people who still want the vaccine to get it, especially if their insurance won’t cover it. It could also widen the gap for vaccine access between people who can afford to pay for it out of pocket and those who can’t.
