Local pharmacies affected by decision to cut vaccine providers

By Taylor Brown

tbrown@yourmvi.com

Local pharmacies are upset about not being able to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to their customers.

Pennsylvania’s Department of Health decided last month to curtail the number of providers administering the vaccine, redistributing allocation to the providers able to deliver the most doses in a timely manner. 

Since December, 817 providers across the state have received doses of one of the three approved vaccines.

But now there are only between 200 to 300 providers receiving shipments, and local pharmacies have been cut out of the equation. 

Shots are limited mainly to hospitals, pharmacies, public health providers and federally qualified health centers.

Officials said it’s a temporary change until the supply is able to meet the demand, but local pharmacists don’t agree with the strategy. 

Dave Marchewka, a pharmacist whose family runs Span & Taylor in Monongahela and Union Pharmacy in Donora, said cutting back local providers is a disservice to communities, especially in the Mon Valley. 

Span & Taylor and Donora Union pharmacies started receiving their first doses in January. 

“It’s been rough since the beginning,” Marchewka said. “Early on, we started requesting X and were only getting Y. For example, if we asked for 1,000, we might have only gotten a few hundred.”

As the rollout continued and providers were approved to administer shots, doses became harder to secure. 

“As more providers were approved, we started to receive fewer at a time,” he said. 

To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Tuesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.