Pharmacies say they could handle a massive increase in coronavirus vaccine distribution if the supply is provided.
A federal program that begins on Thursday will expand the number of pharmacies that will administer vaccines. Yet, initially, it will only use a fraction of the pharmacies that have signed on to participate.
“We haven’t even scratched the surface when it comes to pharmacies,” said Kurt Proctor, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at the National Community Pharmacists Association. “There is a lot of capacity. In terms of speeding up vaccinations, we just have to get enough vaccines into the hands of pharmacists.”
Proctor guessed that 140 million vaccines could be administered a month if most chain and independent pharmacies were involved.
On Thursday, the federal government will launch the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, a Biden administration initiative designed to partner the federal and state governments with chain and independent pharmacies to expand access to the vaccines. There are about 40,000 pharmacies involved in the program, but only 6,500 will receive vaccines on Thursday due to limited supply.
“It’s not all on the shoulders of pharmacies,” said Mitchel Rothholz, the immunizations policy lead for the American Pharmacists Association. “Pharmacies are one mechanism for the public to get vaccinated. As more supply becomes available, there will be greater involvement of other healthcare providers in the system.”
Rothholz said the other providers include physician offices, clinics, hospitals, and home health agencies.
The reason that more pharmacies and other access points aren’t being used is supply.
“We are urging everyone who wants the vaccine to have patience because there is very limited supply coming through the [Federal Retail Pharmacy] program,” said Kathleen Jaeger, the senior vice president of pharmacy care and patient advocacy at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
At present, only Pfizer and Moderna are supplying the United States with coronavirus vaccines. In the last week, about 1.55 million doses of the vaccine have been administered to patients daily. About 950,000 of those were first doses, and over 570,000 were second doses. At that rate, it would be late August before 70% of the U.S. population received their first dose. It would take until late September to reach 80%. Many experts suggest that 70%-80% of the population must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine may be ready to receive an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration by March and the AstraZeneca vaccine by April. The Washington Examiner calculated what would happen if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was added to the supply by the end of March and the Moderna vaccine by the end of April, and combined, they doubled the number of doses being administered. That could result in 70% of the population receiving a first dose by late May and 80% by mid-June.
That, of course, is a rough calculation that does not factor in potential problems that could slow the rate of vaccinations, such as supply chain disruptions, or that, as more people are immunized, the ones yet to get the vaccine may be more reluctant to do so.
Still, it is one illustration of how much difference supply could make.
The 6,500 pharmacies that will be receiving vaccines starting Thursday will only receive a total of 1 million doses.
“Those pharmacies won’t be getting a very big supply,” said Proctor. “If a pharmacy only gets 100 doses, well, they can be done with that in a day and a half.”
More supply may soon be on the way. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently said he expected Pfizer and Moderna to increase supply by March. Pfizer announced on Sunday that it will soon be able to cut the production time for its vaccine by nearly half.
