The days of driving up to a Houston Methodist facility and getting free COVID vaccines without leaving the car are long gone, and now some people between the ages of 5 and under 65 are going to have a tough time even getting a shot at their neighborhood pharmacy.
One reason that access to the vaccines is limited is that COVID-19 simply isn’t as pervasive as it was when businesses shut down and mask mandates were the norm in early 2020. But it’s still “a thing,” and people should still get the vaccine, Dr. Peter Hotez says, emphasizing “if they can.”
COVID has been highly politicized, and some critics remain skeptical of the vaccines, suggesting that they cause heart disease and deadly side effects. Texas law prohibits state and local governments from issuing vaccine mandates, and private employers can’t make their workers get a shot, according to the Texas State Law Library. It’s also not on the TEA’s list of required vaccines for entry to K-12 public schools.
Most people don’t even want to talk about it anymore.
Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says that’s by design. He says fear-mongering and limited access ramped up when Donald Trump was sworn into office for his second term in 2025 and appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services.
The FDA has approved the Moderna and Pfizer COVID immunizations for children ages 5 and under, seniors ages 65 and older, and people who have underlying risk factors such as heart disease, diabetes or an autoimmune condition. A doctor can prescribe an FDA-approved mRNA COVID vaccine off-label, even if the patient isn’t in the approved age range and doesn’t have a high-risk condition, but a prescription doesn’t guarantee access. A pharmacy, health system insurer, or vaccine distributor may have its own requirements and can decline to administer an off-label vaccine.
“The rules changed,” Hotez says. “Unfortunately, it’s not always scientifically driven and there is a fair bit of [Make America Healthy Again] ideology in the government’s vaccine recommendations. They don’t understand the importance of vaccinating against long COVID. Even if you don’t have underlying risk factors and you’re, say, 50 years old, I still think it’s important to get a vaccine because it will reduce your risk of long COVID. And in the calculus, this administration, this HHS, this CDC, doesn’t seem to want to consider that.”
At a Walgreens on San Felipe Street last week, a woman in her late 40s was refused a COVID vaccine because she didn’t meet the eligibility requirements. The pharmacist said the underlying risk factors are rather broad, and a vaccine could be offered to a person outside the approved age range if they are a smoker, pregnant or obese.
When questioned about the restrictions, the pharmacist said, “It’s above my pay grade.”
An 82-year-old man who was at the pharmacy for COVID and flu vaccines witnessed the exchange and immediately said the federal government is to blame for limiting access. “This is crazy,” he said. “I just heard on the radio that they were encouraging everyone to get the booster.”
He conceded that there could be a shortage of available vaccines but said he assumes the Trump administration’s HHS just doesn’t want people to get vaccinated.
Hotez, 68, says he disagrees with putting regulations around who can get the vaccine. “I think any adult who wants to get vaccinated should,” he says. “The way the risk factors are written, probably a good percentage of Americans have an underlying risk factor. But if you don’t have risk factors and your doctor still writes you a prescription, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to charge you.”
Hotez, a renowned global health advocate who spends a lot of time in hospitals, got his shots a couple of weeks ago at a Houston CVS, where only the Moderna and not the Pfizer vaccine was available. “Usually most physicians are not stocking COVID immunizations in their offices anymore,” he says.
The limited access at hospitals is a bit of a mystery.
Memorial Hermann Hospital and Kelsey-Seybold Clinic say they offer COVID-19 vaccinations by appointment with a primary care physician. However, the information posted online does not address whether some people will be refused if they don’t meet eligibility requirements.
A Google search about vaccines at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center produces this response: “You generally cannot walk into Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center for a routine public COVID-19 vaccination, as major hospital systems in Houston typically direct patients to primary care providers, specialized clinics, or local pharmacies for updated seasonal doses rather than operating general walk-in hospital hubs.”
Houston Methodist’s website says that those who need a COVID-19 vaccine or booster can “schedule an appointment with a primary care doctor or get vaccinated at a local pharmacy.”
When asked for the hospital’s current policy on COVID shots, Methodist public relations manager Amy McCaig said in an email, “Patients should contact their healthcare provider to discuss vaccines, eligibility and availability. This includes COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, all of which we typically see on the rise in the greater Houston area as we move into the fall and winter months.”
Methodist was the first major healthcare system in the United States to require its employees to get the COVID vaccine. Dr. Mary Bowden, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Methodist, balked at the mandate and fired off a series of social media posts touting Ivermectin as an alternative to the COVID shot.
Bowden filed a $25 million lawsuit in July 2022 alleging that the hospital and CEO Marc Boom publicly criticized her by saying she spread misinformation about COVID-19 treatments and vaccinations. The lawsuit was dismissed in January 2023.
Bowden, who successfully sued the FDA in 2022 over its anti-Ivermectin social media posts, continues to criticize how information was shared during the height of COVID, writing on X last week, “Low vaccination rates are a reflection of the public’s reaction to how we were treated during the pandemic. Kennedy’s only fault is not doing anything to restore trust.”
She also claimed last week that Harris County “has been taken over by communists” in reference to rising property taxes subsidizing “nonprofit” hospitals, which she claims bring in more than $10 billion per year.
Bowden was suspended from Houston Methodist in November 2021 and resigned before a formal review was conducted. She operates a private practice, BREATHEmd, in River Oaks.
Hotez says he’s unfamiliar with the legal issues at Houston Methodist but didn’t appear surprised that hospital personnel are reluctant to talk about vaccination policies. He noted that the new shot is being referred to as an annual immunization, not a booster, and the CDC is recommending that those who get it do so at the same time they get their flu shot so they remember to do it once a year.
The CDC reported earlier this month that COVID activity is elevated and increasing nationally, although severe illness remains relatively low. However, most infections aren’t reported. One way to track it, according to Hotez, is through wastewater data, which shows the amount of viral genetic material from SARS-CoV-2 shedding into local sewage systems. A national reading taken last Friday shows the levels in Texas are low.
However, the wastewater levels are “highest in Texas and California right now, so if you’re going to get your annual COVID immunization, now’s the time to do it,” Hotez says. “If you’ve been vaccinated in the past, it’ll take 10 days or so before you get a robust immune response.”
A separate report produced by the Texas Department of State Health Services shows that so far this year, 38,402 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 were reported in Texas.
COVID vaccines aren’t the only ones that have become politicized. The state Legislature passed a law last year allowing parents to opt out of childhood immunizations by filling out an online form. They could already opt out, but the new law makes it easier to do so; therefore, more people are taking advantage of it. Several health experts testified in an April 2025 committee hearing that opting out will contribute to the spread of contagious diseases like measles.
A Reuters poll released last week shows that 75 percent of Americans still believe measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are safe for children, but the confidence rate was 84 percent in 2020.
“They’re really clamping down on mandates,” Hotez says, noting that it’s no longer socially acceptable to require immunizations even though science points to their importance in limiting the spread of disease.
“You might say, gee, isn’t this complicated? And the answer is yes, and it’s unfortunate that they made it so complicated. It’s a way to limit access to vaccines, which is very much in line with MAHA ideology.”
“Remember that the disinformation machine from the anti-vaccine activists, either from political motivation or from the wellness influencers, is extremely pervasive right now. It’s gotten worse with this new MAHA movement in Health and Human Services. It’s added a whole extra layer of health disinformation.”
Hotez says assertions that the COVID vaccines cause heart attacks or that the shots contain a formula that will make people sicker are “crazy.” He reiterates that COVID is still going around and adds that, “We’ll see what happens as we get closer to the winter, whether it continues to accelerate.”
The doctor adds that confusion around whether COVID vaccines cause heart disease may come from the fact that COVID — the actual respiratory virus — causes thrombotic heart disease, and influenza causes inflammation in the heart, which can lead to heart attacks.
“So, in my view, one of the best ways to protect your heart health is to get both those vaccines this fall,” he says. “And unfortunately, that message has not gotten out in part because the disinformation about saying it’s the vaccine that causes heart problems is so strong.”
Hotez doesn’t wear a mask because he’s “well-vaccinated,” but says that if people are concerned about crowded settings and have underlying risk factors, it’s their right to do so. “But of course, there’s become such a stigma now around wearing a mask that it creates its own set of problems. It’s a judgment call,” he says.
