{"id":210492,"date":"2025-09-08T15:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210492\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T15:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:19:11","slug":"as-covid-surges-in-the-us-americans-cant-get-vaccinated-terrified-i-might-kill-somebody-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210492\/","title":{"rendered":"As Covid surges in the US, Americans can\u2019t get vaccinated: \u2018terrified I might kill somebody\u2019 | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many Americans, the new Covid vaccine guidelines from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), spearheaded by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr <\/a>and his highly controversial Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, have added another layer of stress to an increasingly inaccessible healthcare system.<\/p>\n

The agency authorized Covid vaccines for people 65 and older<\/a>, who are known to be more at risk from serious illnesses from Covid infections, but younger people will only be eligible if they have an underlying medical condition that makes them particularly vulnerable.<\/p>\n

With this upcoming fall and winter \u2013 the first where the US government hasn\u2019t recommended widespread Covid vaccinations \u2013 these changes have introduced a creeping sense for many that their ageing or immunocompromised loved ones are in danger.<\/p>\n

For Madison Heckel, a 33-year-old attorney in the final stretch of wedding planning, the stakes feel personal. She has struggled with frequent illness ever since first contracting Covid in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since then, I just catch everything,\u201d she said. Though she expressed her frustrations with a weakened immune system, she had her doubts that she would qualify for vaccine coverage under the new guidelines.<\/p>\n

Her immediate worry is simple: not being bedridden on the day she says \u201cI do\u201d. \u201cWeddings are expensive, and I don\u2019t want to be sick that day if I can prevent it, and so I just want to get the vaccine,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten my booster every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the new rules have complicated what was once routine. Instead of stopping by CVS, as she has in past years, Heckel found herself on the phone with her insurer, navigating coverage questions and learning she\u2019d need to go to a different pharmacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just am really hoping that I don\u2019t have to risk being sick on my wedding day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Though she was relieved to find out her vaccine would still be covered in some capacity, she\u2019s still worried that her wedding \u2013 attended by people of all age groups \u2013 will likely host a significant number of guests who won\u2019t be vaccinated. She doesn\u2019t want anyone to get sick because they were there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many of the people who will be at my wedding are trying to get vaccinated, or how many qualify,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just feels like it\u2019s so much more complicated than it\u2019s ever been before to get a vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n

For 18-year-old student Zeke Fraser-Plant, the new guidelines heightened concerns he already carries daily. His parents and a close friend continue to live with long-term effects from contracting Covid: \u201cMy father has a lot of problems with brain fog. My mother loses her sense of smell completely. It comes back off and on.\u201d His friend, who caught Covid as a teenager, struggles with memory.<\/p>\n

Fraser-Plant\u2019s his biggest fear has just been made stronger. \u201cI\u2019m absolutely terrified that I might kill somebody I know by bringing it home to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Unlike Heckel, Fraser-Plant does not automatically qualify for coverage. He and his family are prepared to pay out of pocket, even considering travel abroad. \u201cIt\u2019s also a possibility that we might go out of the country to get the vaccine, if that becomes necessary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But cost is only part of the concern. As he prepares to enter community college after a year of service with the Washington Conservation Corps, he worries about being surrounded by classmates who are now less likely to be vaccinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith community college, I mean, it\u2019s a total crapshoot,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think most people are going to take it well, if you just walk up and ask them about their vaccination status or how seriously they take Covid.\u201d<\/p>\n

His unease is understandable: his grandmother recently survived cancer, leaving her immune system fragile. He takes every precaution he can \u2013 masking, boosters, vigilance \u2013 but fears that there\u2019s only so much he can do with an increasingly unvaccinated public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the way vaccination rates are going, it\u2019s just terrifying,\u201d he said. \u201cI just don\u2019t know why more people don\u2019t take these kinds of things seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haley, a 40-year-old hairstylist from Portland, Oregon, is anxious about her job as someone who interacts with several people each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a person in a public job that would prefer to be vaccinated to protect myself and others, and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll qualify now,\u201d she said, adding that she feels that the current administration\u2019s views on vaccines are \u201cvery, very dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roger, an emergency room physician from Alaska, said that healthcare decisions \u201cshould be based on scientific evidence, and not based on pseudoscientific ideology\u201d. He says that he still witnesses many people die or become permanently disabled from Covid, and he\u2019s afraid that those numbers are about to soar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI fear that as an emergency physician, I will see more unfortunate children and adults becoming ill and dying due to the lies propagated by this administration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Elena, who is retired and living in Los Angeles, currently has stage 4 cancer and is on chemotherapy. Though she still qualifies for the vaccine, her 59-year-old husband apparently will not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould my vaccination protect me if the person I live with gets sick? Possibly not,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd my chemo is incompatible with the only available treatment for Covid. It seems obvious that household members of immune-suppressed patients should also be eligible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tammy Hansen, a 61-year-old librarian from Illinois, shares similar concerns of infecting a vulnerable loved one with the virus. She is about to become the caretaker for her 85-year-old mother following a major cancer surgery and ongoing chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the vaccine so I can double protect her from getting Covid,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cMy husband is 79 and I also worry about transmitting Covid to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI swear if I get Covid and give it to my mom and she dies, I\u2019ll be taking some kind of action. These fuckers are nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many Americans, the new Covid vaccine guidelines from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), spearheaded by…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":210493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-210492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115169352992464885","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}