After weeks of limbo, federal government now distributing COVID vaccines to low-income kids

The federal government has begun supplying COVID-19 vaccines to states, including Tennessee, to be used as part of a free immunization program for low-income children, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday.

The question of when — and whether — the federal government would make the vaccines available through the free program had remained in limbo for weeks, raising alarm among Tennessee health providers who typically begin offering the vaccines in September ahead of the fall respiratory illness season. 

COVID vaccines for uninsured Tennessee kids in limbo amid federal delays

About half of all children in the United States receive all or most of their vaccines, including standard childhood immunizations, COVID and flu, through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccines for Children Program, which distributes vaccines to state health departments around the nation to immunize low-income and uninsured kids.

In Tennessee, more than 5,000 children received the COVID vaccine through the program last year, according to a Tennessee Department spokesperson. The vaccines are administered to children at public health clinics in all 95 counties and through participating clinics and doctors’ offices.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 2026-2027 COVID vaccines in August, and they became almost immediately available to those with commercial insurance. A lag time in between when the vaccines are made available to those with private insurance and when they are made available through the Vaccines for Children program is not uncomment, but public comments made earlier this month by federal health officials contributed to uncertainty about whether they would be available this year at all through the program.