Jason Mitton wanted one of the new COVID-19 vaccines before leaving on a business trip. But the pharmacists at a drug store near his home in Austin, Texas, refused.

“He’s like: ‘Do you have a doctor’s note?’ I said: ‘No, I don’t.’ He said: ‘Well, the FDA standards say that you don’t qualify. And our policy is that we won’t administer it unless you qualify,'” says Mitton.

Mitton, who’s 55 and says he has high blood pressure and high cholesterol that’s controlled by medication, plans to keep trying to get vaccinated.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Mitton says. “I think it should be a person’s right to get the vaccine or not. So I’m very angry.”

The same goes for Cheryl Huges, 64, who lives outside Cleveland. She was planning to get another shot as soon as the updated versions became available. But, she’s not eligible.

“I’m furious,” says Hughes. “Who wants to get sick?”

For the first time, COVID vaccines aren’t available to anyone ages 6 months and older to obtain simply by walking into a pharmacy and asking to get inoculated.

In a major departure, the Food and Drug Administration only approved the shots for those at greatest risk for getting seriously ill from COVID because they’re at least 65 years old or have another health issue that makes them highly vulnerable.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump administration health officials argue that most otherwise healthy, younger people have so much immunity that they don’t necessarily need annual boosters anymore.

But many Americans who don’t meet the new criteria do still want to get vaccinated to avoid getting sick or spreading the virus to vulnerable family members.

And independent medical organizations like the Infectious Disease Society of America argue that everyone should have the option to get vaccinated because there is convincing evidence that the vaccines reduce the risk of serious complications, including hospitalization and death, even for people who are otherwise healthy.

Hughes wants to remain healthy so she can care for her husband, who has dementia. She’s his only caretaker.

“If I get sick, my husband might have to go into a care facility. I could lose my job. It would be terrible,” Hughes says.

What it takes to get the shot

Secretary Kennedy has repeatedly claimed the new rules won’t prevent anyone from getting vaccinated if they want to. But many people have told NPR that they are having trouble.

In principle, you can still get vaccinated if you meet the criteria, get a doctor to prescribe a shot, or if you “self attest” that you’re eligible by telling the pharmacist you meet the criteria.

But sometimes people are turned away because supplies of the reformulated shots haven’t arrived yet. Sometimes it’s because they didn’t meet the new criteria. Or they’re told they can get a shot if they get a prescription first, only to be inexplicably rejected anyway when they return with a doctor’s order.

Some people describe hunting for a shot from pharmacy to pharmacy and doctor’s office to doctor’s office — even sometimes seeking one out of state.

The companies that make the shots, Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax, didn’t say exactly how many doses they were making this year, given the narrower FDA approvals. But Pfizer says it is preparing “similar volumes” as last year, and that it’s confident it will meet demand. It also says millions of doses have already shipped.

Claire Hannan, the executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, says she doesn’t expect vaccine supply to be a problem. She says pharmacies are able to order the COVID shots and they’ve been shipped out.

“I think it’s going to be harder to access,” she says. “But I think anybody that wants it, you know, will be able to get it. But they’re just going to have to work hard to find it.”

But some clinics and pharmacies haven’t received the supplies they’ve ordered yet. And some doctors’ offices, including pediatricians, and clinics may decide not to stock the shots this year if they don’t expect enough demand.

If you’re trying to find one, Pfizer and Moderna both have vaccine-finder websites up and running.

Waiting for the CDC’s guidance

One major snag is that pharmacists in some states are prohibited from administering the shots until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues specific recommendations for who should get vaccinated.

In past years, those recommendations came in the spring. But Kennedy fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the independent group that formulates those recommendations, and replaced the members with his own advisers.

Kennedy’s new committee is finally scheduled to meet next week about the COVID vaccines and other issues. That could alleviate some of the problems, including hesitancy that some pharmacists and doctors have because of the changing rules and confusion.

But it remains unclear what the advisers will do. They could make it easier, or harder, for people to get a shot. Many of the committee’s new members share Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views.

Either way, until the committee meeting happens, the shots that are part of the Vaccines for Children Program won’t ship, says Hannan, who explained that people haven’t been able to order them yet. About half of kids in the U.S. are eligible for free vaccines through the program.

Health insurance coverage could also prove tricky. Although Aetna and United Healthcare told NPR they will cover the COVID shot with no cost sharing for people with fully insured plans — even for people outside the FDA’s narrower approval — it’s not clear what other insurance companies will do. And even people who have Aetna or United could have other kinds of plans that don’t cover the shot, which could set patients back around $200.

Fears for vulnerable family members, kids

In the meantime, many Americans have been scrambling to try to figure out how to still get vaccinated.

“I’m very angry, frustrated,” says Allison Cote, 32, of Bristol, Conn.

Cote wants to stay well to protect her father, who has heart failure, other family members who have diabetes, and one relative who recently got a kidney transplant.

She’s also concerned about her 16-month-old son. He’s not eligible to get vaccinated either this year, even though COVID can be very dangerous for babies. The new shots are only approved for children who have conditions that put them at high risk.

In fact, the CDC this spring dropped recommendations that children and pregnant women routinely get vaccinated. For children, the agency recommends parents talk to their doctors first about vaccinating their children.

“It’s just really upsetting,” Cote says. “Why do I have to jump through hoops to do this? It’s kind of scary.”

If she has to, Cote says she may do what some people are doing: just say she’s eligible. But she doesn’t feel great about that. And she has no idea how to get a shot for her baby boy.

“It’s hard to watch this play out and know that there are so many lives at risk — and potentially my son’s life is at risk too,” Cote says.

Stephan Neidenbach, 45, a public school teacher from Annapolis, Md., is frustrated and angry too. He’s worried about getting sick and spreading the virus to his students, his elderly parents or his mother-in-law, who has lung problems.

“I would feel horrible if I did get it and if I passed it off to someone that I cared about. It’s terrifying,” Neidenbach says.

He’s considering fibbing about his eligibility to get a shot too.

Therese McRae, 37, of Sandy, Utah, also wants to get vaccinated. Her main motivation is to protect her 4-year-old daughter, who has Type 1 diabetes, which puts her at risk for serious complications.

“Being a parent of a young child with a complex medical diagnosis is hard enough,” McRae says. “Having folks around her not being able to be vaccinated increases her risk. It’s just very overwhelming. It’s scary.”

Karen Lambey, 43, who lives near Richmond, Va., desperately wants a vaccine too. She says she became immunocompromised after developing long COVID. Her pharmacist told her she needed a prescription to get the shot and she hasn’t been able to find a doctor to give her one.

“Any sort of flu, COVID, would set me back significantly,” Lambey says. “These are all extra hurdles that keep adding up. I feel disappointed because this is something that is important to my health.”

And Lambey’s parents are immune compromised too. She’s afraid of spreading the virus to them. “That could potentially be life-threatening for them,” she says. “I couldn’t live with that.”

BRASILIA — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced on Thursday to 27 years and three months in prison hours after being convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, dealing a powerful rebuke to one of the world’s most prominent far-right populist leaders.

The conviction ruling by a panel of five justices on Brazil’s Supreme Court, who also agreed on the sentence, made the 70-year-old Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attacking democracy, and drew disapproval from the Trump administration.

“This criminal case is almost a meeting between Brazil and its past, its present and its future,” Justice Carmen Lucia said before her vote to convict Bolsonaro, referring to a history checkered with military coups and attempts to overthrow democracy.

There was ample evidence that Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest, acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions,” she added.

Four of the five judges voted to convict the former president of five crimes: taking part in an armed criminal organization; attempting to violently abolish democracy; organizing a coup; and damaging government property and protected cultural assets.

The conviction of Bolsonaro, a former army captain who never hid his admiration for the military dictatorship that killed hundreds of Brazilians between 1964 and 1985, follows legal condemnations for other far-right leaders this year, including France’s Marine Le Pen and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte.

It may further enrage Bolsonaro‘s close ally U.S. President Donald Trump, who had called the case a “witch hunt” and in retaliation hit Brazil with tariff hikes, sanctions against the presiding judge, and the revocation of visas for most of the high court justices.

Asked about the conviction on Thursday, Trump again praised Bolsonaro, calling the verdict “a terrible thing.”

“I think it’s very bad for Brazil,” he added.

As he watched his father’s conviction from the U.S., Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro told Reuters he expected Trump to consider imposing further sanctions on Brazil and its high court justices.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X the court had “unjustly ruled,” adding: “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.”

The verdict was not unanimous, with Justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday breaking with his peers by acquitting the former president of all charges and questioning the court’s jurisdiction.

That single vote could open a path to challenges to the ruling, which could push the trial’s conclusion closer to the October 2026 presidential election. Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he will be a candidate in that election despite being barred from running for office.

From the back benches to the presidency

The conviction of Bolsonaro marks the nadir in his trajectory from the back benches of Congress to his forging of a powerful conservative coalition that tested the limits of the country’s young democratic institutions.

His political journey began in the 1980s on the Rio de Janeiro city council after a brief career as an army paratrooper. He went on to serve nearly three decades as a congressman in Brasilia, where he quickly became known for his defense of authoritarian-era policies.

In one interview, he argued that Brazil would only change “on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000.”

Long dismissed as a fringe player, he later refined his message to play up anti-corruption and pro-family values themes. He found fertile ground as mass protests erupted across Brazil in 2014 and 2015 amid the sprawling “Car Wash” graft scandal that implicated hundreds of politicians — including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose own conviction was later annulled.

Anti-establishment anger opened the path for his successful 2018 presidential run, with dozens of far-right and conservative lawmakers elected on his coattails. They have reshaped Congress into an enduring obstacle to Lula’s progressive agenda.

Bolsonaro‘s presidency was marked by intense skepticism of vaccines during the pandemic and an embrace of illegal mining and cattle ranching in the Amazon rainforest, where deforestation climbed.

As he faced a tough reelection campaign against Lula in 2022 — which Lula went on to win – Bolsonaro‘s comments took on an increasingly messianic quality, raising concerns about his willingness to accept the results.

“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed, or victory,” he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders in 2021. “No man on Earth will threaten me.”

In 2023, Brazil’s electoral court barred him from public office until 2030 for venting unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.

Lula’s Institutional Relations Minister, Gleisi Hoffmann, said that Bolsonaro‘s conviction “ensures that no one dares again to attack the rule of law or the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box.”

Protecting democracy

Bolsonaro‘s conviction and its durability will be a powerful test for the strategy that Brazil’s highest-ranking judges have adopted to protect the country’s democracy against what they describe as dangerous attacks by the far-right.

Their targets have included social media platforms they accused of spreading disinformation about the electoral system, as well as politicians and activists who have attacked the court. Sending the former president and his allies to jail for planning a coup reflects a culmination of that polarizing strategy.

The cases have largely been led by the commanding figure of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, appointed to the court by a conservative president in 2017, whose hardball approach to Bolsonaro and his allies has been celebrated by the left and denounced by the right as political persecution.

“They want to get me out of the political game next year,” Bolsonaro told Reuters in a recent interview, referring to the 2026 election in which Lula is likely to seek a fourth term. “Without me in the race, Lula could beat anyone.”

The historic significance of the case goes beyond the former president and his movement, said Carlos Fico, a historian who studies Brazil’s military at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The Supreme Court also ruled to convict seven of Bolsonaro‘s allies, including five military officers.

The verdict marks the first time since Brazil became a republic almost 140 years ago that military officials have been punished for attempting to overthrow democracy.

“The trial is a wake-up call for the armed forces,” Fico said. “They must be realizing that something has changed, given that there was never any punishment before, and now there is.”