COVID-19 is making headlines in several ways right now. Infections are up in multiple parts of the country, and COVID vaccines are not available for many people who could get them last year.
All of this is colliding with the upcoming colder weather, when more and more people will spend time — and share germs — indoors, raising fears that controlling cases will become even harder than it already is.
In short, it’s chaos ― and this current state of affairs is worrying experts. Below, doctors share what’s alarming them most about COVID right now.
Fewer people may get the COVID vaccine because of confusing regulations.
Last year, everyone 6 months and older was eligible for a COVID shot. This year, there are tighter restrictions in place; only those 65 and older or people younger than 65 with a qualifying underlying condition (such as having certain lung conditions, being a smoker, having asthma and more) can get the shot. However, the guidelines vary from place to place, making the eligibility extremely confusing.
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“It’s a horrible mess. With these new restricted eligibility criteria from the [Food and Drug Administration], getting a COVID vaccine has now become a chaotic, constantly shifting scavenger hunt that depends on what state you’re in,” Dr. Oni Blackstock, a primary care physician and executive director of Health Justice, a racial and health equity consultancy, told HuffPost via email.
Some states, like New York, have granted residents permission to get their shot, no matter if they meet the FDA’s eligibility requirements or not. Other states, like Georgia and Louisiana, may require prescriptions from a doctor. And across the country, some pharmacies aren’t even offering the shot because of the current confusion, Blackstock noted. And the rules in place now may change as time goes on.
“These restricted eligibility criteria and the patchwork of policies are going to cause major obstacles for the public trying to access an effective and safe vaccine,” she said.
You can try to get a COVID shot, but you should check your individual state laws and potentially even talk to your doctor to see what you need to do to get vaccinated. The confusing rules may only make people more hesitant to get a vaccine that has a small uptake as it is.
“To make things worse, all of this is happening just as COVID cases are rising, heading to the usual fall season surge,” Blackstock said.
Children under 2, who now have limited access to the vaccine, could face serious health consequences.
“As a pediatrician, what concerns me the greatest is the children that are less than 2, because those children … are also at risk of severe disease,” said Dr. Anita Patel, a pediatric critical care doctor in Washington, D.C.
Children, across the board, already have low COVID vaccine uptake, Patel added. “And every single year we see these children under 2 get admitted to the hospital, either to the ICU … or to the regular inpatient units, requiring oxygen [or] noninvasive forms of breathing support. And in severe cases, they need to be on a ventilator,” Patel explained.
Children 6 months and older with an underlying condition are eligible for the Moderna vaccine, but not the Pfizer of Novavax versions. Kids without an underlying condition are not part of the FDA’s eligibility requirements.
Vaccination can help protect folks of all ages, incuding kids, from severe disease, death and hospitalization.
Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images
Vaccine hesitancy could lead to more long COVID infections, in addition to long-term complications.
“What we do know about the COVID vaccines is that they really are proven to be effective at preventing those long-term complications like long COVID,” Patel said.
Research shows that getting a COVID vaccine can protect you against long COVID, an oft-debilitating condition that’s associated with chronic symptoms like fatigue, coughing, headaches and chest pain. Long COVID can persist for weeks or years after a COVID infection.
“And when you look at the complications for children with underlying health conditions and elderly individuals, there are also risk of clotting disorders and strokes,” Patel added.
Vaccination can help prevent long COVID and long-term effects of an infection, Patel noted. “So my major concern is that, because of this confusion, patients are just going to opt out of getting the COVID vaccine, because if physicians and pharmacies are confused as to who is eligible to get it, you can bet that the lay people are even more confused. That confusion is going to lead to an increase in vaccine hesitancy,” she said.
Not getting the shot could mean someone ends up with long COVID after infection or another severe consequence.
There could be a big disparity in who actually has access to the vaccines.
As mentioned above, you may need a prescription from a doctor for vaccine access in some states. This creates a big health disparity, said Dr. Eric Burnett, an internal medicine doctor at an academic medical center in New York and a health communicator on social media.
“That brings up the point where not everyone in this country has access to a primary care doctor where they can just go get a prescription and go to CVS or go to their doctor to get vaccinated at the office,” he said.
“We have so many people who just don’t have primary care doctors, who are underinsured or uninsured and can’t have access to these things,” Burnett said.
This creates a divide in who has access to the vaccines, Burnett explained, which is worrisome and could cause worse health outcomes in groups that are already underinsured or uninsured.
As we enter cold and flu season, hospitals could deal with overcrowding.
“We’re entering cold and flu season, and our hospitals are already very, very busy,” Burnett said. “Just last month in August, hospitals were overflowing with patients, and that’s concerning because August is typically the season where we don’t have much activity in the hospital.”
Burnett is worried that hospitals will be even busier during respiratory virus season as vaccine access is fragmented and there’s much confusion about who can actually get the COVID shot.
“I’m already starting to see more and more ER visits,” Burnett said. “I haven’t seen too much COVID, I’m starting to see more of it now, but it’s just busy in general, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there’s so much impact from the pandemic.”
“A lot of people got sick during COVID, a lot of which resulted in a lot of chronic illness, not just from COVID itself, but just from people having interruption in their health care,” Burnett continued.
Think about it: Many people were afraid to leave their homes to go to doctors’ appointments during the pandemic, which allowed symptoms to worsen and left underlying conditions untreated.
“People don’t realize that we’re still dealing with the ramifications of the pandemic and how it disrupted health care,” he added.
Even if you aren’t at risk of severe COVID or flu, you may need to go to the hospital for another reason, such as a broken leg or a bad cut, and you might be met with long wait times because of the crowding at the hospital, Burnett explained.
There’s currently a lot of strain on the health care system, “which is going to directly negatively impact public health as a whole, and that’s something that I’m very much concerned about as we move forward into this administration,” he added.