New York Law Blog

New York is now in line with 48 other states which allow pharmacists to administer influenza and pneumococcal immunizations after Governor David Patterson signed a bill into law allowing them to do so. With pharmacies so accessible to the population, the ability for those even without medical insurance (and even those who do have it but just want to take advantage of the convenience of a pharmacy) to be able to receive simple immunizations to keep them healthy through the winter months when the flu and pneumonia run rampant could go a long way to keeping the majority of communities healthy. The American Lung Association of New York put out a press release lauding the signing of the bill by Governor Patterson, which was sponsored by Senator Charles J. Fuschillo and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin.

Allowing pharmacists to immunize is quickly becoming the standard of care in this country.   New York now joins the other forty eight states nationwide that allow pharmacists to administer vaccinations.  
 
Across the nation, states that allow pharmacists to vaccinate have witnessed higher influenza vaccination rates. In fact, 18- to 64-year-olds are 27 percent more likely to be vaccinated, and those over 65 are 22 percent more likely to be vaccinated. Moreover, influenza vaccination rates among those over age 65 grew at triple the rate in states that allow pharmacists to provide vaccinations (10.7 percent increase) compared with states that did not (3.5 percent increase).

In New York and throughout the U.S., virtually all vaccine-preventable deaths occur in adults. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 36,000 people in the United States die annually from influenza and an additional 200,000 are hospitalized every year. Most of those deaths occur among people age 65 and older. People over 65 who are immunized against flu experience 20 percent fewer cardiac- and stroke-related hospitalizations, 30 percent fewer hospitalizations for pneumonia or other influenza complications, and 50 percent lower risk of death from all causes during flu season. Thus, the majority of these deaths are preventable and unnecessary.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Bills, Medical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.