New Yorkers can walk into participating pharmacies and receive the 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccination without a prescription.
Since March 2020, the COVID pandemic has resulted in the deaths of over 1.2 million Americans, according to the CDC. A December 2022 Commonwealth Fund study found that at least 3 million additional deaths were prevented because 80% of the population was vaccinated. The CDC estimates that since last October there have been up to 61,000 fatalities from the virus — more than twice the number that have died from flu — and 530,000 hospitalizations. According to the May 2025 New England Journal of Medicine, only 25% of all Americans get an annual COVID shot, partly due to mistrust in the efficacy of the vaccine and the fear of side effects.
Routine access to the immunization had been in peril due to debate within the CDC over concerns about potential risks like heart inflammation (myocarditis) — despite research to the contrary. The CDC also considered requiring a doctor’s prescription for the vaccination. In May, Human Health and Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the CDC would no longer recommend the COVID vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women, citing lack of clinical data supporting the immunization. (National Institute of Health studies document that vaccinating these groups significantly minimized disease severity and spread.)…