Corner drug stores finally get COVID vaccines

LYNN, Mass. — Since February, Pharmacist Oleg Urem has been making the case for independent pharmacies to provide Covid-19 vaccinations.

“We are probably the most accessible health care provider,” said Urem, who owns Flag Pharmacy in Lynn and Margolis Pharmacy in Chelsea.  “Pharmacies like ours are part of the community and we’re able to find the people who really need it and figure out a way to vaccinate them.”

Finally, the state seems to agree that the corner drug store can play an important role in the vaccination effort. In the past few weeks, independent pharmacies have received their first shipments of vaccine.

And now comes the hard part: finding willing recipients.

“A lot of the people who really wanted the vaccines, got it,” Urem said. “This is the most challenging population base right now to get vaccinated.”

But Urem maintains community pharmacists are in the best position to coax those hesitant to get the shots. “We have relationships with patients,” he said. “Patients see their pharmacists something like thirty times a year.”

At the same time independent pharmacies are gearing up to offer Covid vaccinations for the first time to the general public, some of the larger chains are offering walk-in appointments.

CVS Pharmacy, based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, announced that walk-ins would be welcomed at 389 of its more than 400 Massachusetts stores. CVS Spokesperson Matt Blanchette said this does not mean an unlimited number of people can ‘walk-in’ to a given store at one time and expect vaccination, as social distancing rules must still be followed. Rather, the walk-in appointments are ‘pending availability’ and, if unavailable, CVS will assist customers in finding another appointment.

Urem said the problem with walk-in appointments is that you never know how many will show up -- and with Covid-19 vaccines that matters a lot, because once you open a vial, which contains multiple doses, it has to be used up that day.

“Ten vaccines can be used out of one vial,” he said. “So we schedule ten people for that day and three of them don’t show up. Unless we can hustle to figure out three other people to fill those spots, three doses would potentially be wasted.”

It happens the same way with scheduled appointments, unfortunately.

“We’ve encountered during our clinics a larger percentage than we would like of people that won’t show up or cancel last-minute,” Urem said. “People are afraid that they can’t seem to get a vaccine, so they’re making appointments at any site that will give them an appointment and then they go to the first one they can.”

This is possible because there are multiple places to book appointments for multiple shot locations -- such as the state’s website plus those of CVS and Walgreen’s.

“It would be nice if the state website would allow people to make one appointment and be like a clearinghouse for the pharmacies that schedule appointments,” Urem said.

His reminder to those who have made multiple appointments but accepted one: Cancel the others -- quickly.

“Because that dose is going to get wasted,” Urem said. “That appointment is not going to be given to someone who needs it. You are taking up appointments and wasting vaccine that is precious and could save someone’s life.”

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