How to cover the ongoing confusion over COVID vaccines

The confusion around COVID vaccine recommendations and access in the fall of 2025 is reminiscent of the first months of 2021 when the vaccines first became available.

Back then, most access barriers arose from logistical and supply-chain issues. Now, barriers have been created by HHS policy (or lack thereof) and a patchwork of laws in different states and jurisdictions that have created confusion about how people can legally access the vaccines.

The confusion in 2021 felt familiar, relatively speaking, for journalists who have covered any vaccine rollout, which usually involves some hiccups and uncertainty. The new quagmire of COVID vaccine access is more challenging to cover because it's a moving target, with circumstances changing by the day. Even the people who are supposed to know what's going on - pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, physicians, and public health experts - aren't sure what will happen next.

All this uncertainty makes the role of journalists more crucial than ever in helping audiences decide whether they should get the new COVID vaccine and helping them understand the barriers they might encounter, why those barriers exist, and how, if possible, they can navigate them. These tips can help journalists deliver the information their audiences need now.

First, here's a recap of what's recently happened with COVID and COVID vaccines:

Prior to the FDA's approval of the 2025-2026 COVID vaccines

Where we are now

• The standard process for vaccine recommendations includes the FDA approving them and the ACIP recommending them. This process makes vaccines available to those who qualify and requires insurance companies to cover them. The FDA has approved the 2025-2026 vaccines, but ACIP has not yet met to recommend them. The ACIP meets Sept. 18-19, and COVID-19 vaccine recommendations are on the agenda.
• The gap between the FDA approval and ACIP's meeting has left COVID-19 vaccines in limbo. HHS actions have created a "legal gray area " around pharmacists' ability to provide the vaccines and insurance companies' obligation to cover the cost for anyone who wants one.
• Some states legally require a prescription for someone to get a vaccine that the FDA has approved but not the CDC. A couple of others, such as Nevada, initially seemed not to allow the vaccines to be given at all before the CDC's recommendations were made, but that has just changed. This article by a reporter with the Nevada Independent is an outstanding example of the kind of service journalism reporters need to provide their audiences with right now.
• Even in states that may have required a prescription, some governors are making immediate changes to improve access to the vaccines. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey became the first in the country last week to require insurers to cover vaccines, including the COVID vaccines, that the state's department of health recommends, regardless of CDC actions. Minnesota and New York have now done the same, and other states may follow suit. That's why this story is a moving target.

What journalists can do

Instead of taking the usual route of doing one or two stories about who should get the COVID vaccine and how to access it, journalists should plan to write ongoing stories that regularly update their audiences on who can access the vaccines and how. That job is complicated by the continued misinformation from HHS. At the Senate hearing last week, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. continued to make inaccurate statements, including that "Most Americans are going to be able to get [the COVID vaccine] from their pharmacy, for free." (The truth is already, not everyone who wants one can get one.)

Laws and policies regarding who can get the vaccine - and whether it's covered by insurance or comes with out-of-pocket costs - vary by state, by insurance company, by pharmacy chain and sometimes by jurisdictions within states - and these are changing daily. People need as much clarity as possible on their particular situation and options. That's too much to cover in a single article as the situation keep changing, necessitating planning for multiple days of ongoing coverage over the next few weeks.

Here are some examples of what those stories can include:

• The most current information for that day/week on whether local pharmacies carry the vaccine and the city, county, or state laws on who can access them, and any differences in pharmacies policies for providing them.
• Whether specific insurance companies appear to be covering the vaccine now, after any changes at the state level, and after the upcoming ACIP meeting.
• Whether Medicaid or Medicare will cover the vaccine now and after the upcoming ACIP meeting.
• That ACOG and SMFM recommend that people do get the COVID vaccine during pregnancy and the evidence supporting that recommendation.
• That the AAP recommends that all children ages 6 months and older get the vaccine and the evidence supporting that recommendation.
• The safety and effectiveness evidence on COVID vaccines, especially in light of false information - especially from HHS - that COVID vaccines are dangerous or even causing children's deaths, something the FDA has just announced it will study, despite no evidence to support that claim.
• Explainers on the usual vaccine process (FDA approval followed by ACIP/CDC recommendations) and how the administration is bypassing or altering that process.
• Explainers on what the Vaccines for Children program is and how ACIP recommendations about the COVID vaccine could influence whether certain children can access them.
• Stories of people trying and failing to get the COVID vaccine and what that means for them, such as this excellent, recent Washington Post article.
• Stories of people succeeding at getting the COVID vaccine, including how they did it.
• Stories that share results of research on who does and does not want to get the COVID vaccine and factors that may influence their hesitancy or confidence regarding the vaccine. This recent study, for example, found that people with recent respiratory illnesses were more likely to accept the vaccine.

Additional resources