Many states are moving to guarantee COVID-19 vaccine access for their residents amid new restrictions set by the Trump administration. But when people in these states try to schedule a vaccine appointment online, as they’ve done for years, they may be out of luck: the country’s four largest retail pharmacy chains — CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Kroger — are still discouraging and barring some people from booking these appointments online, even in states where it’s allowed, a Lever review found.

While it may be possible to ignore these online notices or walk into these pharmacies and request a COVID-19 shot, the companies’ messaging may be sowing confusion and lowering vaccination rates among the public.

This August, Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an outspoken vaccine critic, limited access to COVID-19 shots to people over age sixty-five, and those six months and older with increased risk of severe illness. The move reversed earlier federal guidance that allowed anyone six months or older to receive the vaccine.

Consequently both CVS and Walgreens, the country’s top two pharmacy chains, swiftly stopped offering COVID-19 vaccines for individuals without a doctor’s prescription in more than a dozen states.

Sixteen states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin — have since issued orders that allow individuals of any age and health status to get a COVID-19 shot.

Other states, including Delaware, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, have also passed orders expanding vaccine access, but only for certain individuals. In North Carolina and Virginia, for example, people aged eighteen to sixty-five can receive the shot without a prescription but only if they have an underlying health condition such as cancer or diabetes.

However, despite these orders, a Lever reporter faced numerous barriers when trying to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments in all of the states with expanded access through the online systems used by CVS Health, Walgreens, Walmart, and the Kroger Company.

For example, CVS, the country’s largest pharmacy chain, notes on its vaccine scheduling page that “The 2025/26 COVID-19 vaccine is FDA approved for everyone ages 65 and older and patients 6 months to 64 with certain health conditions that put someone at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19 virus.” The language remains the same no matter the state selected.

Kroger, another major pharmacy company, displays a similar warning for all the states where it has locations.

Walgreens, the country’s second-largest pharmacy brand, goes further, currently not allowing anyone to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine online for children under twelve and requiring those twelve and older to confirm that they have at least one related health condition or risk factor before booking an appointment, even in states where everyone is allowed to get the shot.

CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Kroger did not respond to requests for comment.

These online obstacles could add to the confusion and mixed messages surrounding COVID-19 vaccines this fall.

“It’s impossible to explain with assurance the new rules as [the Department of Human and Health Services] has created confusion and chaos in communicating policy,” infectious disease expert John Swartzberg told University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health’s news site earlier this month.

The current FDA vaccine advisory committee, which provides official government recommendations on immunizations, isn’t helping matters. In June, Kennedy removed all seventeen sitting members from the committee. He has since stacked the group with vaccine skeptics like Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who backed using unproven COVID-19 treatments during the pandemic, and Evelyn Griffin, a Louisiana-based obstetrician who previously called COVID-19 vaccine mandates “a line in the sand” that should not have been crossed.

Kennedy’s vaccine advisory committee is meeting this week to vote on recommendations for COVID-19 shots and other standard childhood immunizations. So far, the committee has voted against allowing parents to choose the combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine before their children reach age four and has indefinitely postponed a vote on the hepatitis B vaccine.

While the overall risk of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 has decreased precipitously since the 2020 outbreak, the virus still causes thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths nationwide each week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still states on its website that “COVID-19 vaccines can help keep you from getting sick from COVID-19. If you do get COVID-19, vaccines can make the illness shorter and less severe.”