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Kentucky doctors say the best way people can navigate confusion about COVID-19 vaccines this fall is to talk to their primary care providers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has narrowed eligibility for the COVID-19 shots more than four years after the vaccines were approved for emergency use, leaving patients and even some providers unclear on who should get the shots.
On Friday, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) narrowly voted down a proposal to require prescriptions for COVID-19 shots. The committee members voted in favor of recommending vaccines for those 65 and older and those with underlying health conditions like cancer, dementia, heart conditions and more. The committee recommended younger people discuss the vaccine with their medical provider in a “shared clinical decision-making” process.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Mark Burns, an associate professor at the University of Louisville and a medical doctor with UofL Health, said getting a vaccine without meeting those criteria “will not hurt” a person.
“What should be recommended is to talk with your primary care provider,” Burns said. “Between the patient (and) the primary care provider, they can look at what’s called ‘risk-benefit’ of getting the vaccine, and then the decision can be made between the patient and their provider whether they should have the vaccine or not.”
Misinformation ‘recipes’
Unclear and inconsistent messages about vaccines are “recipes” for more anti-vaccine sentiment, Burns said.
“Anytime you have inconsistency, there are a lot of issues that can arise,” Burns said. “When there’s nothing in black and white…worst thing, vaccine hesitancy can occur. And also, there could potentially be proliferation of misinformation.”
Dr. Elizabeth Hawse, the immunization representative for Kentucky’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a Lexington pediatrician, said she sees misinformation in her patient population about COVID-19 vaccines and other issues.
“Medical misinformation, whether it be vaccines or otherwise — it can be for lots of other things — is just out there,” Hawse said.
It’s key for people to get “your information from a credible source,” she said. The nuance of science and medicine can’t be adequately explained in a short social media video or post, she said. And, she said, some people may fit into the “high risk” list without realizing it. Any disability that hinders daily life, mood disorders like depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), being considered overweight, physical inactivity and more all qualify a person as “high risk.”
“We all want to believe our kids are low risk. A lot of people are…shocked that their child is high risk,” Hawse said. “It’s best to go in and just have a conversation (with their doctor) about: ‘what should our family be doing?’”
For now, vaccines are generally covered by insurance, and many children in Kentucky get theirs covered through the Vaccines for Children program, Hawse said. She is carefully monitoring any changes to that coverage, though, as the COVID-19 vaccine is expensive (she buys doses for around $200 each).
“If you have three kids and two adults in a family, you’re to $1,000 pretty quickly,” she said. “So the insurances paying for that vaccine is important.”
Fall and winter spread
Meanwhile, Hawse has some concern about the spread of the virus this fall and winter. Vaccines don’t enter the body and immediately give a person full protection, she said.
“It does take a couple of weeks to fully respond to a vaccine,” she said. “You’d like to get that in before it’s cold and we’re all sitting inside together and not really able to do as many outside activities.”
The school year began last month and Monday marked the first day of fall. COVID-19 hospitalizations and emergency room visits have consistently been higher in the colder months in Kentucky, according to data from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
COVID spreads through droplets that are released in the air while an infected person breathes and can be inhaled or land on someone else, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lending itself to easier spread when people are in tight, indoor spaces.
“Things that spread in the schools tend to spread to the community, because those children don’t go to school in a vacuum,” Hawse said. “Those children have parents. They have family members.”
Vaccination is the “first and foremost” way to keep the spread of COVID-19 low going into the fall and winter, Burns said.
“People can also utilize the public health mitigating measures that we’ve used before, such as hand washing, social distancing and, if you’re at risk, even wearing an N95 mask indoors,” Burns said. “If you’re at risk, those things can certainly help decrease the spread.”
This article appears in Sep 1-30, 2025.