On Friday, some large pharmacies, including Walgreens, began distributing COVID-19 vaccines nationwide under President Biden’s retail distribution program. Carlos Cubia, senior vice president and global director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Walgreens Boots Alliance, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how the company is handling distribution – including within minority communities.
Video transcription
MYLES UDLAND: Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging here in the USA, we are seeing cases falling, hospitalizations too. But this pandemic has certainly opened the eyes of many Americans to the inequalities we have seen in the healthcare system.
Joining us now to talk more about how corporate America is thinking about the next phase of treatment here in the USA is Carlos Cubia. He is the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Walgreens. We also have the company of Anjalee Khemlani, from Yahoo Finance.
Carlos, thank you very much for joining the program today. I would love to start with just your opinion of how you at Walgreens are thinking, again, about the challenges that really face the equity of the American healthcare system and I think the ways in which we have all been confronted with this lack of access to vaccines, whether that phase, testing at the beginning, and I think that continuing the treatment of COVID as this situation unfolds.
CARLOS CUBIA: Right. Well, thanks for having me. I’m happy to be with you here today. When we think about the vaccine itself, we know that there were health disparities in the black and brown communities. And at Walgreens Boots Alliance, we are committed to ensuring that we are reaching underserved and underrepresented communities through education, by targeting our vaccines to underserved areas.
I mean, we’ve been in the vaccine game for a long time. We know how to reach communities in need and difficult to reach. And it is a commitment that we made many years ago, and I think we are well positioned today to continue to educate and provide the information necessary for people to have access to the vaccine.
BRIAN SOZZI: So, Carlos, vaccines are starting to reach some of your stores in 15 states. What protocols have you implemented to ensure that the right people receive this vaccine?
CARLOS CUBIA: Well, as you know, the first set of vaccines launched was dictated by the CDC, states and local governments. Therefore, we have worked in partnership with these organizations to ensure that we are complying with the guidelines that they define. But as we move towards mass distribution, we want to make sure that we are equipped to do a few things, to make sure that the vaccine is available everywhere in all the communities that need it.
And I know that in some areas that are difficult to reach, we have undertaken strategies to go to mobile clinics, to work with external clinics to ensure that we are reaching these underserved areas, to follow the protocol that the CDC has established and to actually go out and make the vaccine available for all. So, really follow the CDC guidelines and protocol and state and local governments have established.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Carlos, Anjalee here. There seems to be a double technological issue at stake. One of them is the commitments and mark them. Second, it is to collect and capture this data to ensure that we are monitoring minorities and ethnic groups – and different ethnic groups that are having access to the vaccine. What is Walgreens doing to help solve both?
CARLOS CUBIA: Well, again, as I said before, we have vaccinated and recorded this information and captured this data so that we can share it with the necessary organizations and authorities that – that is – as appropriate. Therefore, we will continue to follow these guidelines through the technology we set up through our registration process. And so this is not new to us in terms of that information.
I mean, this is something we’ve been doing for some time. So, really, we will continue to follow the protocols that are already in effect. And if there are new procedures required by the federal government or the CDC, we will work quickly with our teams to put them into practice and follow these guidelines.
JULIE HYMAN: Carlos, it’s Julie here. When you talk about the need to distribute the vaccine in minority communities, part of that piece too – and you talk about education, which is obviously very important. Part of this piece is also who is administering the vaccine.
And I don’t just mean Walgreens. I mean the real person who is giving the injection. What percentage of your pharmacists are people of color, people who look like their constituents they are looking for, because that can also be part of the puzzle?
CARLOS CUBIA: Well, I can say that we have a very diverse set of population in terms of our pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who have been trained to administer the vaccine. And we are very proud of the fact that our pharmacists represent the communities they serve. To give you that exact number, I’ll probably have to answer you with that exact number.
But our population of diversified employees in our field operation is 49% and, therefore, we have 49% diversity. And to a large extent, our population of pharmacists corresponds to that, but I can answer you with that exact number. But we make sure that we represent the community and try to reach those areas with people who can connect and who are, you know, in those communities.
JULIE HYMAN: Mm-hmm.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: And Carlos –
CARLOS CUBIA: Excuse me. Go ahead.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: – looking at the– don’t worry. And looking at the administration itself, we know that these two vaccines that are on the market now have specific cold temperature requirements and we hope that J&J will probably be online in the next month or so, what do you think about how you are going to distribute them, especially to these hard-to-reach communities, depending on which vaccine specifically will be sent?
CARLOS CUBIA: Well, we are now equipped for all the different requirements required for each of the respective vaccines. We have a shortage of extremely low temperatures in our stores. For normal temperatures for, I think, the Modern vaccine, we have these resources.
And as I said in the past, we have made vaccines, be it the flu vaccine, a pneumonia vaccine, the herpes zoster vaccine, we can quickly turn around to find the accommodations that are necessary to store them and then transport them to the necessary places where we will manage them. Therefore, we are quite confident that we will be able to meet all the established criteria.
MYLES UDLAND: Okay, Carlos Cubia is the Global Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Walgreens Boots Alliance. Carlos, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us this morning, and I know we’ll talk soon.
CARLOS CUBIA: Thanks. Thanks for receiving me.