How to get the Covid vaccine from retail pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens

The federal government will begin shipping 1 million doses of Covid vaccine directly to retail pharmacies across the country on Thursday as part of the federal retail pharmacy program, the administration’s Covid-19 response team announced. Biden.

This sounds like good news, and the idea is that eligible people should be able to make an appointment at a participating pharmacy to get the vaccines, especially in “hard to reach” areas, said Jeff Zients, coordinator of the Covid response from the White House, at a press conference. February 2.

However, if this step adds access points for people to get vaccinated, “it may help” but “it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution,” says Brian Castrucci, epidemiologist and president and CEO of the Foundation. Beaumont, the largest in the country. philanthropy focused solely on the public health of states and local communities.

Here’s what you need to know to get the vaccine from pharmacies.

The initial deployment will include 6,500 pharmacies and grocery stores. The plan is to eventually expand to 40,000 pharmacies across the country as supply increases, but the timing is unclear.

The main chains that will offer vaccines include Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, Rite Aid, as well as Walmart, Costco, Kroger and Publix. The CDC has a full list of drug stores and grocery stores.

CVS will offer vaccines in 11 states beginning Thursday: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York (excluding New York), Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Walgreens will begin the program on February 12 in 15 states and jurisdictions: Chicago, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, New York, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Vermont, Wisconsin and Virginia Western, the company said.

However, at first, many pharmacies may lack vaccines or have very limited supply, according to the CDC.

The CDC selected pharmacies based on the population served and the affected community, vaccine storage capacity, ability to meet data reporting requirements, and immunization capacity. CDC is working with participating pharmaceutical companies to ensure they reach “socially vulnerable areas,” Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the Maison’s Covid-19 health equity task force, said on Tuesday. White.

Uber announced Tuesday that it will offer free rides to Walgreens stores and clinics for people living in underserved communities who need to go to an appointment for a vaccine.

So far, making an online appointment to get the vaccine from state and local health departments has been confusing and difficult to navigate.

According to Castrucci, one of the challenges in getting an appointment for a vaccine is that local public health systems, hospitals and pharmacies distributing the vaccines do not communicate with each other about available doses. “Nobody talks to anyone,” he says.

From now on, those looking for vaccines will still have to book an appointment online through the pharmacy’s website.

But there are plans to make accommodations for those who don’t have internet access or aren’t tech literate, such as making appointments over the phone, Ban told NBC TODAY. However, it is not known when such accommodation will be available.

Senior White House adviser Andy Slavitt, who was instrumental in fixing the Obamacare website in 2014, hopes the process will be more streamlined than the current one.

“We’re looking at different options to make it easier for someone to want to know: Hey, if there’s a vaccine near me, maybe it’s not at my nearest pharmacy, maybe at a drugstore that’s two drugstores, or maybe it’s at a hospital or clinic, ”Slavitt told NPR’s“ All Things Considered ”Tuesday.

“How can we help people find the answer to that? And so we are working on it.”