More Philly pharmacies are carrying COVID-19 vaccine, offering a welcome alternative

Three calls to the city Public Health Department didn’t get her an appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose. Nor did visits to her local Rite Aid.

Then, two weeks ago, René Marie Gamble’s quest ended when she least expected.

While running errands in her North Philadelphia neighborhood, she saw a sign outside Patriot Pharmacy on 22nd Street that it was offering vaccinations. Gamble, 60, has arthritis, high blood pressure, COPD, and asthma, not to mention allergies, and she had filled prescriptions at Patriot for more than a year. She just walked in, and a staffer helped her register for a vaccine appointment — a real blessing for a woman who’s not a big internet user.

On Wednesday, the first day the pharmacy could give shots, she got her first dose.

“As far as I know I’m the first one of all my friends that’s getting the shot so far,” Gamble said.

» READ MORE: Philly is trying to improve vaccine racial equity. The FEMA site made it worse.

Independent pharmacies have been arguing for months that they can help make the vaccine rollout more equitable to those in at-risk communities who might not have internet access or the ability to travel to far-flung clinics, and are more comfortable getting the new vaccine from someone they know and trust.

“People need to know that it’s available, and my clientele, they come to me,” said Ben Nachum, Patriot’s owner, whose pharmacy is in a zip code with a 92% Black population. “They should get that benefit of me reaching out to them.”

Philadelphia now has 19 independent pharmacies approved to supply vaccine doses, up from just two in early February. About 10 of those were added in the last few days, the city health department reported. An additional 47 are still waiting for approval.

“They made it very cumbersome for everybody to do anything,” said Mel Brodsky, executive director of the Philadelphia Association of Retail Druggists, “down to asking what kind of model number you have on your freezer.”

Many independent pharmacies don’t have the space or the facilities to handle a lot of vaccine. Nachum, for one, ordered 300 doses for the week, he said. Health experts who encourage a more diffuse vaccine distribution model say the city needs lots of pharmacies dealing in small quantities.

“You need hundreds of pharmacies doing that,” said Esther Chernak, a physician and director of Drexel University’s Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication, “and you get to some significant numbers.”

City officials have acknowledged the value of independent pharmacies because of their deep connections with their communities, and a spokesperson said the Public Health Department is “eagerly anticipating approving more to be vaccine providers.”

But the arduous approval process “is how we can be sure that vaccines are safe and effective when administered,” said James Garrow, the department spokesperson.

There was no set commitment to approving a certain number of pharmacies per week, Garrow said. Meanwhile, though, other vaccination efforts are leaving out people who should be first in line.

While Philadelphia’s FEMA-run mass clinic reported on Friday it had given 100,000 doses in less than three weeks of operation, those getting shots there have overwhelmingly been white and under the age of 64, despite restrictions designed to prioritize seniors and people of color, who have borne a disproportionate burden from the virus. The reasons for the disparity include an online sign-up system that allowed ineligible people to register, as well as the fact that until recently, no walk-ins were accepted.

This week, the city began reserving half of the site’s doses for walk-up vaccinations of residents from 22 under-vaccinated zip codes, an effort that appears to have significantly shifted the demographics of recipients in the first two days the policy was in effect. Still, non-Hispanic Black recipients in particular remained underrepresented, making up 19.5% of vaccine recipients in a city where they are 40.1% of the population.

Standing outside in a long line at the FEMA site, or some of the other large vaccination clinics, was a nonstarter for Gamble, who has had knee replacement surgery. And she knows Nachum and Patriot Pharmacy.

“I’d rather come here because I know him,” she said. “It makes me feel more comfortable getting it.”

Betty Mack, 76, is not a regular Patriot customer but lives just two blocks from the pharmacy. She wasn’t even looking for a vaccination when she walked by Patriot two weeks ago. But it was too convenient to pass up.

“I walked by, I saw the sign,” she said after getting her shot Wednesday. “I come in, filled out the form, and here I am.”

» READ MORE: COVID-19 vaccine allocation creates ‘vaccine deserts’ in parts of Philly

During the pandemic, Mack has seen only her daughters, granddaughters, and close friends indoors, and then only if they wore masks. After getting fully immunized, she said, she plans to visit family and enjoy someone else’s food.

“I’m tired of cooking,” she said.

Pharmacies can prioritize their own customers by calling them to see if they want to be vaccinated. They can give shots on-site, or off-site. Joe Ralston, owner of Academy Pharmacy in Northeast Philadelphia, began giving people shots March 10.

“I had a list of my customers who qualified and were most vulnerable and we started there by making in-store appointments,” said Ralston, who does about 20 vaccinations a day in his small pharmacy, and more in a larger space in the same building. Social distancing, plus the need for patients to wait after injection to be checked for rare allergic reactions, makes giving the COVID-19 vaccines a space-consuming task.

He’s also taken vaccine to the homes of regular customers whose disabilities make it hard for them to go out.

Pharmacies’ flexibility is an advantage for groups like the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC) that are trying to organize clinics for people with mobility issues, language barriers, or can’t use the internet. If the organization can get doses, it can register people for appointments through door-to-door visits and phone calls. On Friday, the group and Philadelphia FIGHT partnered with Sunray Drugs to host a small vaccination clinic in the former Edward Bok Technical School.

Nguyen is furious the city has yet to approve his group’s application to carry vaccine doses at a wellness center in the same building, but he said being able to arrange a clinic through Sunray is a small relief.

“Without the help of pharmacies like Sunray,” he said, “we would be getting nothing.”

City data showed Sunray administered 435 vaccine doses in the first week of March, the latest data available. Of the recipients, 42.8% were Black, 16.6% were Hispanic, 15.2% were Asian, and 24.1% were white.

Still, equity is also a concern in the pharmacy program. The city has little ability to require pharmacies to ensure communities at all income levels are being served.

“We stress that they should be working to distribute with a mind to equity,” said Garrow, “but are only requiring them to follow the Philadelphia phase 1a and 1b eligibility criteria.”

Ralston said he knows which of his customers should be vaccinated but has less control at large clinics, where appointments are made online.

“We know some of these people aren’t being honest, but at that point it’s either waste a dose or vaccinate them,” he said, referring to the fact that the vaccines are highly perishable.

Pharmacies approved to carry vaccine are inundated with requests.

“We’re receiving hundreds of phone calls, emails, texts every single day,” he said. “It’s just really difficult to run our normal business.” Every dose administered must be reported to the federal government within 24 hours, he said, another burdensome task.

Nachum, however, has been surprised that there hasn’t been more interest from within the neighborhood. He plans to circulate fliers to spread the word. A staffer discussed changing the sign outside the business to clearly say doses are free. He’s also counting on word of mouth.

Gamble, after waiting 15 minutes to ensure she had no side effects from her first shot, left the pharmacy saying she would encourage friends to get vaccinated there, too.

“I’m going to tell them,” she said, “you better go across the street.”

Staff writer Jonathan Lai contributed to this article.