The novel coronavirus vaccine possible received’t be accessible in pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens and extra by February as initially promised, in response to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the brand new director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
What’s occurring?
Walensky instructed the “Today” present on Thursday that it’s unlikely the COVID-19 vaccine might be in Walgreens or CVS by February.
- “We are going to, as part of our plan, put the vaccine in pharmacies. Will it be in every pharmacy in this country by that timeline? I don’t think so,” Walensky mentioned. “I don’t think late February, we’re going to have vaccine in every pharmacy in this country.”
- “After 100 days, there are still a lot of Americans who need (the) vaccine, so we have our pedal to the metal to make sure that we can get as much vaccine out there,” she mentioned. “We recognize this is the most immediate emergency to get this country back to health.”
Context
Trump administration Well being and Human Providers Secretary Alex Azar instructed CNBC in mid-December that the vaccine would attain pharmacies by that point.
- “I believe by the end of February, the end of March, of course, depending on the decisions by our governors, but I believe we’ll have enough supply out there to be reaching out to the general public for administration — at your CVS, Walgreens, Kroegers — by the end of February into March,” he instructed CNBC.
Grim points forward
Walensky mentioned “healthier days lie ahead” within the pandemic regardless that she mentioned there might be 508,000 whole U.S. deaths from the pandemic by Feb. 13, as I wrote for the Deseret Information.
Walensky mentioned the COVID-19 deaths are solely half the story as a result of folks nonetheless undergo from signs months later, as I wrote for the Deseret Information.
“That doesn’t speak to the tens of thousands of people who are living with a yet uncharacterized syndrome after they’ve been recovered,” she mentioned. “… And we still yet haven’t seen the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel, from holiday gathering in terms of high rates of hospitalizations and the deaths thereafter. So, yes, I think we still have some dark weeks ahead.”
How pharmacies might assist
Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb mentioned on “Face the Nation” in early January that CVS and Walgreens might assist vaccine rollout.
“Make the vaccine extra typically accessible by the retail pharmacies, by Walmart and Walgreens and CVS to a broader inhabitants, to a common inhabitants beginning with age,” Gottlieb mentioned. “We can walk it down the age continuum, make it available for 75 and above first, then 70 and above, and 65 and above. There’s 50 million Americans 65 and above, a large percentage of them probably want to be vaccinated. At some point, we need to allow supply to meet demand here and get the shots into the arms of the people who really want to get vaccinated and are going to go out and seek out the vaccination.”
