(Newser)
– When Charlome Pierce looked for where her 96-year-old father could get a COVID vaccine in January, she found no options anywhere near her home in Virginia. The only medical clinic in Surry County had none, and the last pharmacy in an area with about 6,500 residents closed years ago. To take their pictures, some residents took a ferry across the James River to cities like Williamsburg. Others drove more than an hour to reach a medical center that offered the vaccine. At one point, Pierce heard about a state-run vaccination event 45 minutes away – but there were no more appointments available, with a wait supposedly lasting up to seven hours. As the national campaign against coronavirus moves from mass inoculation sites to drugstores and doctor’s offices, vaccination remains a challenge for residents of “pharmacy deserts”, communities without pharmacies or well-equipped health clinics, leaving a “vaccine void”, by the AP.
To improve access, the federal government has partnered with 21 companies that run autonomous pharmacies or pharmacy services in supermarkets and other locations. More than 40,000 stores are expected to participate, and the Biden administration said that almost 90% of Americans live less than five miles from one. But there are gaps in the map: more than 400 rural counties with a combined population of almost 2.5 million people do not have a retail pharmacy included in the partnership. The challenges of getting a vaccine injected close to home are not limited to rural areas: there is a relative shortage of medical facilities in some urban areas, especially for black Americans, according to a study. Pierce, who got a vaccine for his father at a February clinic at a Dendron school, says the place where people live should not put them at a disadvantage. “You shouldn’t be marginalized by your postal code,” she says. Much more here.
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