ORLANDO, Fla. – Democratic and Republican senators grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Capitol Hill Thursday, questioning the longtime vaccine skeptic on topics such as guidance on the COVID-19 vaccine, Medicaid, the CDC, and autism.
During one contentious exchange, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asked Kennedy if he could definitively say that all adults and all children over six months old are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at their local pharmacy.
“Anybody can get the booster,” Kennedy answered. “It’s not recommended for healthy people--”
Cutting him off, Warren pushed back.
“If you don’t recommend, then the consequence of that in many states is that you can’t walk into a pharmacy and get [the COVID-19 vaccine],” she said.
[RELATED: Watch the full hearing on the U.S. Senate website]
Around the same time that Kennedy was facing tough questions, Dale and Joni Sasaki were asking questions of their own. Chief among them: Why can’t they seem to find an appointment to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Florida?
“We never envisioned getting to this stage where you’d have to worry about getting protected,” Dale said.
Dale and Joni sat down with News 6 Thursday to recount the difficulty they have had in scheduling an appointment.
After they were unable to book an appointment on CVS or Walgreens’ websites, they walked into their local CVS pharmacy.
“Being over 65, we felt we qualified,” Dale said. “But then, as we checked with CVS, they have not received [the vaccine].”
The Food and Drug Administration last month revised its authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine, limiting it to people older than 65 and to anyone with an underlying condition.
[WATCH: 5 years after COVID-19 emergency declaration, pandemic’s impact lingers]
To better understand the Sasakis’ predicament, News 6’s Orlando Community Correspondent Mike Valente went to CVS’s website to try to schedule an appointment.
After writing in all his pertinent personal information, Valente answered ‘No’ to two questions: ‘Have you received a COVID-19 vaccine in the last 2 months?’ and ‘Do you have a condition that puts you at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 virus?’
Those answers prompted this message: “We can’t schedule Michael’s COVID-19 (new) vaccine: Based on what you told us, Michael isn’t eligible for a COVID-19 (new) vaccine right now.”
In an email to News 6, a CVS spokesperson said that state pharmacy laws govern where the company could currently vaccinate.
[WATCH: COVID vaccines no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, Kennedy says]
Florida, the spokesperson said, is one of more than a dozen states where CVS can offer the updated COVID-19 vaccines to patients--depending on their age--if they present an authorized prescriber’s prescription, prior to a meeting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is slated to hold later this month.
ACIP, a key advisory committee to the CDC, will meet Sep. 18 and 19, and is expected to vote to update recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, as well as other vaccinations.
“Once ACIP acts on the updated COVID-19 vaccines or states take additional action to authorize pharmacy dispensing prior to ACIP recommendations, we’ll be able to offer the FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines in the remaining states,” the CVS spokesperson wrote.
The Sasakis, though, say they won’t wait that long. Joni has an underlying condition and the couple is planning to go to Japan in a few weeks. So next week, they’re heading to South Carolina, where they have scheduled an appointment to get the vaccine.
“I just hope they come to their senses sooner than later,” Dale said, referring to HHS leadership.