SAN FRANCISCO – As an infectious disease specialist, Dr. Daniel Griffin hears frequent concerns from patients about whether they’ll be able to get the new COVID vaccines. Even his relatives are worried.
Griffin, who does clinical work in Long Island, New York, said his sister-in-law is in her 40s and quite wary of long COVID, the enduring, debilitating health issues that have afflicted millions of Americans who contracted the coronavirus.
“She was worried about, ‘If I don’t get vaccinated now, will I have access in the fall?’’’ he said. “The other was, ‘If I get vaccinated now, will they not let me get vaccinated in the fall and say you’re only allowed one a year?’ A lot of people have been making decisions out of fear that they’re going to lose access to vaccines.’’
Many public health experts say that fear and confusion are a result of the COVID vaccine policies established under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and some of them believe that’s by design.
Griffin described the Aug. 27 vaccine announcement by the Food and Drug Administration, which operates under HHS, as less an approval of the shots and more an administrative restriction of access to them.
