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Updated COVID-19 vaccines are available in Wisconsin, and the state’s Department of Health Services is continuing to recommend anyone over 6 months old get the shot. Officials say that will […]

The post What questions do you have about this year’s COVID-19 vaccine? appeared first on WPR.

Wisconsin lawmakers are unveiling proposed tax incentives designed to bring a wood pulp plant to northern Wisconsin. If the project takes off, pulp from that facility would be used to make fuel for planes and other aircraft.

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Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services is continuing to recommend that anyone over 6 months old get an updated, annual version of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Meanwhile, the state’s DHS has put out a standing order for the vaccine. State officials say that will ensure that most Wisconsinites are able to get the COVID vaccine at pharmacies across Wisconsin without a prescription. 

This year’s Wisconsin DHS guidelines mirror guidance from a broad range of medical experts. And the guidance echoes what state and federal health officials have recommended in recent years.

Wisconsin’s recommendations stand in contrast, however, to recent moves at the federal level.

This year, the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the new COVID vaccine for Americans ages 65 and older and for people with certain higher risk conditions. At the national level, a panel is set to meet later this week to discuss vaccine recommendations that will be provided to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a vaccine skeptic who has promoted false information about vaccines.

Wisconsin is now one of several states where health officials have moved to take statewide action on vaccines because of worries about how federal actions could impede vaccine access.

“In the past several months, leaders at federal agencies have made policy decisions and issued recommendations that aren’t supported by or directly contradict scientific consensus,” Dr. Ryan Westergaard, a chief medical officer within DHS, said during a news conference.

The latest announcement from Wisconsin’s health department comes a day after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order directing the Wisconsin DHS to put out its own COVID vaccine recommendations.

The order also attempts to ensure that Wisconsinites won’t have to pay out of pocket for COVID vaccines. It says that the state Office of the Commissioner of Insurance shall “direct all health insurers within their regulatory authority to provide coverage for the COVID-19 vaccine without cost-sharing to all their insureds.”

“Vaccines save lives, folks,” Evers said in a statement accompanying his order. “RFK and the Trump Administration are inserting partisan politics into healthcare and the science-based decisions of medical professionals and are putting the health and lives of kids, families, and folks across our state at risk in the process.”

State health officials are recommending that Wisconsinites get their new COVID vaccines to coincide with the fall spike in respiratory diseases. Those shots are recommended even for people who have gotten COVID shots in the past. That’s because the vaccines released in 2025 are designed to hedge against potentially waning immunity and to target newly emerging versions of the virus, Westergaard said.

“The same way that we recommend getting your flu shot booster every year, because the flu that’s going around this year might be slightly different than the flu that was going around last year, we recommend a COVID booster,” he said.

This story was originally published by WPR.

Wisconsin health department continues to urge new COVID-19 vaccine for anyone over 6 months old is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Voters in DeForest have agreed to oust a trustee mid-term following a special recall election Tuesday. Those results could eventually lead to fluoride being restored to the village's water supply.

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The state's health department put out a standing order for the COVID vaccine. The goal is to ensure that Wisconsinites can get the jab at pharmacies across the state even without a prescription.

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