Free COVID vaccines may be ending
The days of free COVID-19 vaccines may soon be ending.
The U.S. government will stop purchasing and providing COVID-19 shots as soon as January, Bloomberg is reporting.
U.S. health officials recently met with more than 100 representatives from drug makers, state and local health departments, health providers and insurers to discuss the shift from government-sponsored vaccines to the commercial market. The change means Americans would be required to obtain vaccines through their insurance or pay out-of-pocket.
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“We have always intended to transition this work to the commercial market and have been planning for that transition for some time now. Unfortunately, the timeline to make the transition has accelerated over the past six months without additional funds from Congress to support this work,” Dawn O’Connell, head of the Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, wrote in a blog post.
“We have been grateful for the bipartisan Congressional support of our response efforts, but it has been more than 530 days since we last received new funding for COVID-19 and without additional funds it will be difficult to continue procuring and distributing these countermeasures.”
Vaccine makers charged the government between $15 and $30 per dose but it’s unclear how much the charge would be on the commercial market.
Just under 70% of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 33% have received a booster dose.
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