“Since the vaccine was approved, our numbers have just skyrocketed,” said Scott Knoer, the association’s chief executive.
Pharmacy technicians are also in high demand. Traditionally, they did things like carrying syringes and checking people. Until recently, only a few states allowed technicians to give injections. But the Trump administration in October issued guidelines authorizing them to administer Covid-19 vaccines under the supervision of a pharmacist.
While not all vaccine suppliers are allowing technicians to deliver vaccines, the regulatory shift is creating thousands of new vaccinators.
Shah, the Walgreens executive, said the combination of hiring the network and changing the rule meant that Walgreens would have about 45,000 employees across the country who could provide vaccines against Covid-19, against nearly 27,000 pharmacists. This “definitely increases the number of vaccines we can provide as the vaccine becomes abundant,” she said.
In December and January, the American Pharmacists Association’s immunization training program for pharmacy technicians enrolled some 30,000 people. Between 2016 and 2019, a previous iteration of the program enrolled a total of 650, said Kimberly McKeirnan, an associate professor at the Washington State pharmacy faculty who designed the training.
While most vaccinators are being hired by large pharmacy chains, small independent pharmacies are also hiring. Brooke Powell, a pharmacy technician at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, was looking for a part-time job on the weekends to get involved in the vaccination effort.
She had talked to CVS and Walgreens, but ended up deciding to work for an independent store, O’Reilly Family Pharmacy. Ms. Powell liked the owner to be connected to the community, which she thought would help in planning vaccination clinics for churches, schools and local businesses.
“I’m not sure if the chain’s pharmacies would be so careful,” said Powell.
O’Reilly Pharmacy hopes to receive its first vaccine shipment this week and start inoculating people shortly thereafter.