Feds start sending COVID vaccine to pharmacies next week

WASHINGTON – The Biden government will begin shipping COVID-19 vaccines to U.S. pharmacies next week, increasing vaccinations as new and potentially more serious virus strains appear, the White House said Tuesday.

Jeff Zients, coronavirus coordinator, said about 6,500 pharmacies across the country would receive a total of 1 million doses of vaccine. The number of participating pharmacies is expected to grow as drug manufacturers increase production, allowing more doses to be allocated.

Drugstores have become a mainstay of vaccination against influenza and shingles, and the industry is capable of vaccinating millions of people every month.

“It will provide more sites for people to be vaccinated in their communities,” Zients said, stressing that initial availability will be limited due to supply constraints. A priority will be to bring the vaccine to minority communities that have suffered an excessive amount of diseases and deaths due to the virus, he said.

The partnership with drugstores was originally announced by the Trump administration in November last year. At that time, no coronavirus vaccines were approved. The pharmacy program is administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and includes key outlets such as CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid and Costco, as well as supermarket pharmacies.

Zients also announced an increase in doses sent by the government to states, territories and some major metropolitan areas. It will now amount to 10.5 million doses in all jurisdictions, compared to 10 million announced last week.

The 1 million doses sent to pharmacies are in addition to the 10.5 million doses allocated to states per week.

The White House has also acted to help pay states for their efforts to respond to pandemics. Zients said the federal government would make $ 3 billion to $ 5 billion available to states to retroactively cover the costs eligible for compensation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This can range from protective equipment for health workers, using their national guards to setting up community food programs. State costs from last January will now be eligible for compensation.

But Zients said states need much more financial assistance from Washington, pointing out that Biden’s U.S. bailout plan legislation is asking $ 350 billion for countries. The counter-offer that a group of Republican senators made last weekend leaves out the line item.

When fully deployed, the pharmacy partnership nationwide will call in about 40,000 drugstores, Zients said, or about six times as many places as participating in the initial launch. Some local jurisdictions have started offering vaccinations at drugstores, but in most places this is not the case. The signs on the front door of the pharmacy say that no vaccine is available yet.

The two currently approved vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, require special refrigeration. But chains like CVS and Walgreens, which are already participating in a program to vaccinate nursing home residents, already have experience with the special handling requirements.

The Food and Drug Administration will soon weigh in on the approval of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a single-use regimen requiring only standard refrigeration.

The world in general is rushing the virus to vaccinate as many people as possible. Worrying mutations have been identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. The British variant spreads more easily and has a greater probability of fatal diseases. The South African variant may slightly reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. All three mutations have been identified in the US

The vaccine is free for Americans, thanks to legislation passed by Congress. To date, the government has distributed nearly 50 million doses, of which about 32 million have been administered, or more than 60%. This is a noticeable improvement from just a few weeks ago.

Even with the massive snowstorm that hit the Northeast, Zients said “all vaccine was available to states according to schedule.” But he acknowledged that some vaccination centers had to close temporarily due to the weather.