Local Pharmacies Need More COVID-19 Vaccines

Community pharmacies say they can play a critical role in COVID-19 vaccine rollout, but they are not receiving as much vaccine proportionately as the pharmaceutical giants.

According to USA Today, one in three of the nation’s 60,000 pharmacies is family owned. They are in a unique position to help local communities that are socially vulnerable, say supporters, and have already earned the trust of their clients who may be vaccine hesitant.

But the drugstore giants like CVS and Walgreens, along with big-box stores such as Walmart and Kroger, received most of the initial allotment of vaccines from the federal, state, and local governments.

“There has been, in our opinion, an overweighted focus on two big chains: CVS and Walgreens,” Douglas Hoey, CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), told USA Today. “The rollout of the vaccine will not be successful without incorporating local pharmacies into the distribution and administration.”