The New York Times
This pharmacist had doses of backup vaccine. Then he hit the road.
NEW YORK – In a city struggling to vaccinate people against COVID-19 as soon as possible, Ambar Keluskar faced a problem this month that seemed to defy logic: Keluskar, a pharmacist in Brooklyn, struggled to find people to take the 200 doses he needed. he had it in hand. “They were just sitting in the freezer,” he said. State rules restricted who could get injections at independent pharmacies like his for some older residents, and fewer and fewer people seemed to be making appointments. The problem was even more irritating because its pharmacy, Rossi Pharmacy, attracts many customers from eastern New York, a community hard hit by the pandemic and where the vaccination rate is behind other parts of New York City. Subscribe to The Morning newsletter from the New York Times pharmacy Keluskar spent hundreds of dollars on Facebook ads to let people know he had doses available. He asked community leaders to spread the word. So he decided to try a different way to reach people who would otherwise be forgotten: instead of waiting for them to go to the pharmacy, he took his doses to them. Keluskar’s experience reflects the many ways in which a disorganized distribution of vaccines has forced authorities and distributors to constantly reshape their approaches while confronting confusing realities on the ground. Vaccine providers and candidate recipients have been faced with bureaucratic eligibility rules, a change in understanding of the virus and a registration system that can be prohibitively complex. Despite the authorities’ insistence on equity, vaccinations have been slow to reach many communities where the virus has caused the greatest casualties and where people may not have the time or resources to easily register for consultations. In response to these problems, volunteers and community groups became creative, creating appointment sites that improve official offerings, hosting instant church clinics and helping qualified neighbors navigate the confusing scene. Among those seeking to fill this gap was Keluskar, who earlier this month, after a complaint from a state senator’s office, vaccinated nearly 50 people in a low-cost senior housing complex near downtown Brooklyn who were at home or struggling to find appointments elsewhere. On Saturday, he vaccinated more than 150 people at Ingersoll Houses, a public housing development in Fort Greene. He said he would ask for a larger allocation of doses to do more pop-up events in underprivileged communities. “The patients loved it,” he said. “They need to be vaccinated somewhere, locally.” Keluskar said he hoped his method could inspire other city officials or pharmacists to try new ways to do evangelism. Although the pace of vaccinations has accelerated in New York and across the country recently, variants of the virus are approaching and officials believe a return to normality and safety is still months away. Elderly people in low-income communities with poor access to the Internet have had a special difficulty signing up for vaccines, as consultations are made by people with better connectivity or more time to look for new vacancies. Neighborhood pharmacies have been an important part of the vaccine launch, said a spokesman for the city’s health department. In many cases, they have built unique levels of trust with the residents of their communities. And while they receive fees from insurers to administer the doses – $ 13 to $ 28 per injection, according to Keluskar – many pharmacies are struggling financially with the launch of the vaccination. Keluskar said he was operating at a loss after investing around $ 15,000 in equipment, such as a freezer and a portable refrigerator, and that he and his team worked many unpaid hours. Keluskar, who became a supervisor at the Rossi Pharmacy about five years ago, started offering vaccines in January. He started with 100 doses a week and then asked the government to double the number of doses sent to his pharmacy as the need for vaccines increased. At the end of February, he noticed that the number of registrations was decreasing. In a week, the pharmacy ran out of waiting lists, he said. In the first week of March, Keluskar struggled to find people eligible to vaccinate. The state requires providers to administer all their doses within seven days or notify the state, and Keluskar feared that the authorities would withdraw their unused doses and no longer send him. Keluskar said he believed there were several reasons for the refusal at his pharmacy, including the opening of a mass vaccination post nearby. Although eligibility increased last week, only teachers, daycare workers and people aged 60 and over can be vaccinated in pharmacies. Governor Andrew Cuomo said that pharmacies may not be able to verify the identity and occupation of people in other eligible groups, such as essential workers or younger people with existing health problems. Keluskar said he thought the group of people who met the state’s requirements and could travel to his pharmacy a few blocks from East New York station had run out. While looking for other options, Keluskar said an employee of state senator Jabari Brisport’s office connected him to Stonewall House, an affordable housing complex for LGBTQ seniors in Brooklyn. George Berry, 66, who lives at Stonewall House and helped organize vaccinations there, said most residents had not been vaccinated. Many were stranded at home, he said. Emma DeJesus, also a resident of Stonewall, said she had been trying unsuccessfully to get a vaccine appointment for weeks before she got a chance at the Keluskar event. “I can’t handle the phone,” she said. “I am 78 years old. Now everything is on the computer and I don’t have a computer. ” After receiving his second dose, DeJesus hopes to visit his nieces in the Bronx and see his sister, who lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn. After that first event, Keluskar said that two councilors, whom he declined to identify, contacted him about holding similar events. He said he had administered nearly 2,000 doses so far and that he could vaccinate even more people if the state lifted restrictions on pharmacies. “In the meantime,” said Keluskar, “we have to do everything we can to stay on the program and continue to provide, continuing to vaccinate people.” This article was originally published in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company