Nevada pharmacies now vaccinating 55+ with health conditions
People from 55 to 64 with certain medical conditions are now eligible to get COVID-19 vaccinations at Nevada pharmacies, with no proof of medical status required.
The state opened up eligibility this week to those in this age group with conditions ranging from cancer to smoking that put them at higher risk for serious disease from COVID-19, a state vaccine official confirmed Monday.
Eligibility also has been extended to those with conditions that only potentially put them at higher risk, such as asthma or dementia, as well as to those with disabilities or who are experiencing homelessness.
People will be asked to “attest” during a screening that they have a condition that makes them eligible but will not be required to document it, state vaccine official Candice McDaniel said in a media briefing.
“I think it’s important to really promote the fact that we’re still in a place where we have a limited supply (of vaccine), and we do need to reach those who are at a higher risk for infection,” said McDaniel, a bureau chief with the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. “So I really hope that people attest to what they truly have.”
It would be a burden on the health care system and a logistical nightmare to require everyone with an underlying medical condition to prove it, said Johan Bester, director of bioethics and an assistant professor at the UNLV School of Medicine.
“It seems to be the lesser of two evils to just have people tell the truth and the few that abuse this system will abuse the system,” he said.
Eligible conditions
A technical bulletin issued by the state on March 3 lists conditions that, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, put individuals at higher risk from COVID-19. They include cancer; chronic kidney disease; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other chronic lung diseases; Down syndrome; heart conditions, including high blood pressure; immunocompromised from organ transplant; obesity; pregnancy; sickle cell disease; Type 2 diabetes; and smoking.
The bulletin, issued to health care providers and pharmacies, also listed conditions that might put an individual at greater risk. These included moderate to severe asthma; cerebrovascular disease; immunocompromised from a blood or bone marrow transplant, HIV or use of immune-weakening medicines; neurologic conditions such as dementia; liver disease; being overweight; the blood disorder thalassemia; and Type 1 diabetes.
“Due to HIPAA privacy concerns, public vaccine providers will not require proof of medical condition to administer a COVID-19 vaccine,” Shannon Litz, a representative of the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email. “Nevadans are asked to schedule their appointments when they are eligible and not ‘jump the line,’ making sure we all work together to enable those who are at higher risk of getting severe illness or dying from COVID-19 to get their vaccines first.”
But medical ethicist Arthur Caplan said an honor system won’t work.
“People who are desperate will lie,” Caplan, founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU School of Medicine, said in an email. “People don’t even know whether they have an appropriate condition.”
For these reasons, Caplan favors at this point rolling out the vaccine according to age groups, a system he described as both simpler and enforceable.
Bester sees a shift toward lessening barriers to the vaccine.
“The emphasis right now seems to be not so much on trying to keep people out, but trying to encourage more and more people to come for vaccination,” he said, which suggests that vaccine has become more available.
Nevada’s weekly allocation of vaccine has risen to about 70,000 first doses, from 47,000 a month ago, according to data from the CDC.
The state estimates that there are about 290,000 people in Nevada 55 to 64 with underlying conditions, roughly three-quarters of them in Clark County, Litz said. Not all of them, however, will opt to get vaccinated.
Last week, as vaccine appointments in Clark County went unfilled, eligibility in the county was extended to tens of thousands of hospitality workers, including casino workers, as well as to those in the food service industry.
Vaccination appointments can be made at local pharmacies for those 55 to 64 with underlying health conditions. Immunize Nevada’s website nvcovidfighter.org, provides the following links to schedule appointments with a pharmacy:
Albertson’s: https://www.albertsons.com/pharmacy/covid-19.html
CVS: https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine?icid=cvs-home-hero1-link2-coronavirus-vaccine
Smith’s: https://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/rx/covid-eligibility
Vons: https://www.vons.com/pharmacy/covid-19.html
Walgreens: www.walgreens.com/schedulevaccine
Walmart/Sam’s Club: https://www.walmart.com/cp/1228302
Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Michael Scott Davidson contributed to this report.