State Steps In To Recommend COVID-19 Shots After Trump Administration Weakens Support

By Erik Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner

September 17, 2025

The state health department is recommending COVID-19 vaccines for all Wisconsinites 6 months and older and authorizing pharmacies to give the vaccine without an individual prescription.

In addition, Wisconsin’s insurance regulator issued guidance to health insurance companies that the shots are to be provided without a patient co-payment.

Both department declarations were issued on Tuesday, following Monday’s executive order from Gov. Tony Evers to protect vaccine access.

At the Department of Health Services (DHS), Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases, issued a standing medical order recommending the vaccine for all eligible Wisconsin residents this fall. With the order, no prescription is needed, DHS said.

The health department said its recommendation for the vaccine follows guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

States, public health organizations and agencies have been stepping in to recommend the vaccines for COVID-19 and for other communicable diseases following a shift at the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) away from vaccine recommendations under the administration of President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, who has long embraced anti-vaccine views, has replaced the members of a CDC committee on vaccination with vaccine skeptics, and the body is expected to consider softening or eliminating some recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine and some childhood immunizations.

The Food and Drug Administration has narrowed its recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 or older, while public health advocates have called for maintaining the vaccine schedule for all ages.

The DHS order states it “is also intended to authorize vaccination for other groups for whom professional society guidance supports vaccination — such as children, adolescents, pregnant people, and healthy adults under 65 — even though these uses are considered ‘offlabel.’”

“Everyone in Wisconsin should be able to make the choice to protect themselves and their families against COVID-19, and that choice should be based on the best available science and medical recommendations,” DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson said in a department statement. “As the federal government limits access to the vaccine, we want to reassure Wisconsinites that recommendations from our nation’s leading medical associations are clear, and we will work every day to support access to care and resources to help families make the best decisions on how to protect themselves from illness and disease.”

The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) said in a bulletin that based on “the evidence-based guidance” from DHS and state laws against discrimination in insurance coverage, “the commissioner continues to expect that all governmental self-funded and fully insured group health plans and individual health plans will cover, without cost sharing, all costs associated with administration of COVID-19 vaccinations for all policyholders.”

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