CASPER, Wyo. — The Casper-Natrona County Health Department will begin offering COVID-19 and flu vaccines on October 1, providing an option for children amid confusion and upheaval at the United States Department of Health and Human Services under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The Moderna vaccine will be available from the health department for children aged 6 months to 11 years old, as pharmacies in Wyoming do not carry the vaccine.
While Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccines are interchangeable, according to experts, and both have been updated to work with the most recent COVID-19 virus mutations, the Moderna version only requires two doses for infants, as opposed to Pfizer’s three.
One potential stumbling block is that the vaccines are no longer covered by federal funding. The health department can bill insurance for the cost, but those who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover the vaccines will most likely be charged $150.
“So they won’t be free, but we can bill insurance,” Casper-Natrona County Health Department Public Information Officer Hailey Bloom explained.
For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics has deviated from the Centers for Disease Control’s vaccine mandates for children, instead sticking to the CDC’s previous recommendations, including the requirement that children aged 6-23 months receive COVID and influenza vaccines in most cases.
“COVID-19 continues to threaten children’s health, especially those at higher risk of serious illness,” according to the organization.
The health department’s ability to offer the vaccines at all was dependent on a tense meeting Friday, Sept. 19, of the CDC’s guidance committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The ACIP decided that COVID-19 vaccinations should involve “individual-based decision making,” advising patients to consult a doctor but refraining from requiring a prescription.
“We have ordered and we plan to give child vaccine doses for kids who are 6 months up to 11 years old, until they can get the adult vaccine version at age 12,” Bloom informed us.
While the vaccines remain FDA-approved, the current FDA administration has revised its COVID-19 recommendations for people 65 and older, with the exception of those with underlying conditions.
At least in Wyoming, the list of qualifying conditions is extensive, and pharmacies have allowed patients to self-certify without a doctor’s prescription.
The health department anticipates the same situation with children’s doses.
“We’re hopeful that the underlying condition [recommendation] remains where we can allow people to self-attest, and they won’t be required to bring a prescription or documentation,” Bloom told reporters. “Basically, a parent would just be able to check off that their kid has a ‘underlying health condition.'”
She stated that because the list of conditions is so long, they intend to include only one box stating that the parent attests to a condition.
The national debate over which vaccines, if any, people should receive began after President Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. RFK Jr. is a former environmental lawyer who has taken an anti-vaccine stance despite having no medical training.
His views have put him at odds with some Republican lawmakers, as evidenced by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso’s unusual criticism of him during a Senate hearing earlier this month.
“Vaccines are estimated to have saved 154 million lives worldwide in the last 50 years,” said Barrasso, a former physician who had enthusiastically voted for RFK Jr.’s nomination months earlier. “I believe in vaccines. I’m a physician. Vaccines work.”
