CDC signs off on fall Covid shots. It may not be easy to get one, depending on where you live.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its Covid vaccine guidance Monday to recommend Covid shots for people 65 and older and only after they consult doctors or pharmacists

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its Covid vaccine guidance Monday to recommend Covid shots for people 65 and older and only after they consult doctors or pharmacists.

The CDC said in a news release that acting Director Jim O’Neill signed off on the recommendations of an agency advisory panel last week, capping months of confusion and concern about this season’s Covid vaccine. Earlier this year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the influential vaccine panel, replacing them with his own picks, many of whom have spoken out against Covid vaccines.

Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has falsely called the Covid vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made,” first moved to limit access to shots in May, when he bypassed the typical regulatory process and announced the CDC would no longer recommend Covid vaccines to healthy children and pregnant women.

Christian Brown gets a Covid-19 vaccination in Culver City, Calif., on Sept. 23.Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images fileThe CDC’s sign-off Monday doesn’t mean people younger than 65 are barred from getting a Covid vaccine — they still can do so, after having consulted with doctors or pharmacists.

Adding that so-called shared clinical decision-making essentially “puts up one more little barrier” to getting the shot, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of global health and infectious diseases at Stanford University. “It’s kind of a vague term that says you should have your doctor or your provider or pharmacist tell you what the risks and benefits are before you get the vaccine.”