Rep. Marvin Lim Applauds Georgia Clarification Protecting COVID-19 Vaccine Access but Calls for Broader, Lasting Guidance

ATLANTA - State Representative Marvin Lim (D-Norcross) welcomes new guidance from the Georgia State Board of Pharmacy confirming the core interpretation of Georgia law that Rep. Lim and other state representatives urged state officials to recognize nearly a year ago: COVID-19 vaccines may be administered by pharmacists under valid vaccine protocol agreements to Georgians ages 13 and older because COVID-19 is an illness that "has resulted in a public health emergency," even though that emergency is no longer in effect.

"Nearly a year ago, we read the statute and said what we thought its plain language required: COVID-19 had resulted in a public health emergency, and nothing in the law said that emergency had to remain in effect," said Rep. Lim. "The Board's guidance now confirms that interpretation. That matters because it removes a significant source of uncertainty for Georgians ages 13 and older who choose to receive a COVID-19 vaccine."

In a September 12, 2025, letter to Governor Brian Kemp, Rep. Lim and State Representatives David Wilkerson (D-Powder Springs), Karen Lupton (D-Chamblee) and Lisa Campbell (D-Kennesaw) asked the state to clarify that existing Georgia law already provided that authority. The legislators pointed to the statute's use of the past-tense phrase "have resulted in a public health emergency," emphasizing that COVID-19 qualified because Georgia had declared such an emergency in 2020. "The law does not require an ongoing emergency - only that such an emergency occurred," said the legislators in the joint letter.

Rep. Lim notes that the September 2025 letter came amid confusion over COVID-19 vaccine access, with pharmacies reaching different conclusions about what they could administer and patients encountering uncertainty over prescriptions, eligibility, coverage and availability.

Rep. Lim also thanked the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) for working with the Board of Pharmacy to issue the August 12 guidance.

"I appreciate DPH and the Board of Pharmacy getting to a clear answer on COVID-19," added Rep. Lim. "We had heard differing interpretations from pharmacies, and statewide guidance was needed. Providers should not have to make these calls one pharmacy at a time, and patients should not receive different answers depending on which counter they walk up to."

Rep. Lim adds that DPH told him that it had worked with the Board of Pharmacy, as the regulator of pharmacists, to issue guidance on which vaccines may be administered under a vaccine protocol agreement. Rep. Lim further adds that DPH also indicated that pharmacist entities with which it had spoken were pleased with the resolution.

However, Rep. Lim emphasizes that the new guidance does not resolve additional questions regarding non-COVID-19 and non-influenza vaccines whose administration under Georgia law depends upon recommendations of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Rep. Lim notes that a federal district court order issued March 16, 2026, stayed all votes taken by the reconstituted ACIP, including votes from its June, September and December 2025 meetings. The CDC now identifies a July 2, 2025, adult immunization schedule, subsequently amended to incorporate an earlier ACIP RSV recommendation, as its current court-compliant adult schedule. Rep. Lim further notes that Georgia law, however, expressly incorporates recommendations of ACIP rather than deferring to CDC's determination of which schedule is operative.

Rep. Lim raised those questions with DPH and the Board of Pharmacy in an August 15 follow-up, asking whether Georgia pharmacists should rely only upon ACIP recommendations reflected in the CDC's court-compliant adult schedule and whether that interpretation includes the April 27, 2026, RSV amendment incorporating ACIP's April 2025 recommendation for high-risk adults ages 50-59.

Rep. Lim stated that the uncertainty is further complicated by President Trump's August 10 Executive Order establishing a new federal framework for childhood vaccine recommendations and acknowledging both the pending ACIP litigation and separate changes to the federal vaccine schedule. Rep. Lim has also asked how those developments interact with federal authority under which pharmacists have administered routine childhood vaccines.

The Board of Pharmacy has indicated to Rep. Lim that it intends to provide further clarity on the remaining questions at its upcoming meeting on Wednesday, August 19, 2026.

"The COVID-19 question shows why clear state guidance matters, but it also shows why we cannot address this one vaccine at a time," said Rep. Lim. "Georgia law relies in important ways on federal vaccine recommendations. At the same time, ACIP is the subject of ongoing litigation, the CDC has had to identify court-compliant schedules, and the federal executive branch continues to pursue significant changes in vaccine policy. Providers and patients need to know what all of that actually means in Georgia."

Rep. Lim emphasized that the larger issue is not any single federal action but the absence of a durable framework for handling future changes.

"We need more than an answer that works today," added Rep. Lim. "When ACIP recommendations, CDC schedules, HHS actions and presidential directives diverge, providers and the public need to know how Georgia determines what controls for pharmacy practice. Otherwise, every new federal action risks recreating the same uncertainty we just spent months trying to resolve."

Rep. Lim emphasizes that the need for clarity extends beyond providers themselves.

"Pharmacists may be comfortable based on conversations or guidance they have received directly from state agencies, but the public is not necessarily privy to those conversations," concluded Rep. Lim. "Particularly for Georgians seeking these vaccines, the applicable rules should be understandable without depending on how individual pharmacists or pharmacies have interpreted informal or provider-specific guidance. Without a clear framework, the same uncertainty is likely to recur each time federal policy changes."

To view Rep. Lim's letters to Gov. Kemp, DPH and the Georgia State Board of Pharmacy, please click here.

Representative Marvin Lim represents the citizens of District 98, which includes a portion of Gwinnett County. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2020 and currently serves on the Agriculture & Consumer Affairs, Appropriations, Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety, Health and Retirement committees.

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