Rick Gates, senior vice president of pharmacy and health care at Walgreens, told CNBC getting vaccines to the general public “won’t be chaos,” as the FDA approved Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergencies and launched plans to send states. almost to get. 6 million doses early next week.
“What you’re going to see is we’re going to think very hard about how we’re going to schedule appointments, how we’re going to work with the communities we’re in, the states we’re in, in, on priority populations, to ensure there are no long lines for pharmacy doors and ensuring that people have safe, convenient and efficient ways to get vaccines, ”said Gates.
Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine was rolled out in long-term care facilities Friday, and Walgreens pharmacists have administered many of those injections. The federal government has agreements with Walgreens and other pharmacies, including CFS, to vaccinate millions of people across the country. In a Friday night interview with “The News with Shepard Smith,” Gates described how the training the organization’s pharmacists received prepares them to effectively administer the Covid-19 vaccine.
“The safety protocol we gave our pharmacists about pre-training, how to look for allergic reactions, how to make sure they monitor patients after vaccination is all part of the normal process,” Gates said.
So far, the United States has vaccinated at least 66,000 people, according to publicly available data collected from 20 states, and that number is expected to increase dramatically as more states report their numbers. Gates acknowledged that the vaccination process involves a lot of organization, but underlined that “vaccines are what we do very consistently, and monitoring patients after a vaccine is a common thing we think of flu shots, Shingrix or other vaccines out there.”
Host Shepard Smith asked Gates how Walgreens would deal with sending people away to their pharmacy to get a vaccination but not a priority. Gates explained that vaccines will be pre-planned and will not come in a “walk-up” format like the flu shots. He added that Walgreens pharmacies around the country will work with states and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make sure those who need vaccines get them. Gates added that there would also be reminders for people to get their second dose.
“For the population. We have all kinds of reminders, phone calls, if necessary, to make sure Americans know they need that second dose, and the right timing for that dose,” Gates said.