William Walters, Associate in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Inside Health Policy, in “Some States Bar Pharmacists from Giving Shots Absent ACIP Nod,” by Luke Zarzecki. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
William Walters, an attorney with Epstein Becker Green, told Inside Health Policy that under the PREP Act, pharmacists, pharmacy interns and qualified pharmacy technicians are "qualified persons" to administer a vaccine and are protected from legal liability. However, this applies only when administering:
- CDC/ACIP-recommended vaccines for ages 3-18 per the CDC/ACIP immunization schedule.
- CDC/ACIP-recommended seasonal flu vaccines for ages 19+.
- FDA-authorized/licensed COVID-19 vaccines for all individuals over 3 years of age, if given in accordance with CDC/ACIP's COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
"Because ACIP no longer recommends COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women and lists it as (subject to shared clinical decision-making) for healthy children, PREP Act liability protection does not apply to those groups. The PREP Act liability protections never applied to pharmacists giving COVID-19 vaccines to children aged 6 months to 3 years of age," Walters said.