WEBVTT - Can Drugstores Save Us? 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day three hundred 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:11.240 and fourteen since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.960 main story. One of the many reasons for the slow 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.799 vaccine rolled out in the US is a lack of 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:21.840 places to get a shot. The federal government wants to 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:26.000 press the country's corner drug stores into service, and if 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:32.320 it works, it could change everything. But first, here's what 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:40.240 happened in virus news today. President Joe Biden warned the 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.200 nation to prepare for its darkest days in the year 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.640 long pandemic. The President said today that as many as 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.000 one hundred thousand more Americans will likely die over the 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:54.960 next month as he overhauls the federal coronavirus response and 0:00:55.360 --> 0:01:00.280 presses Congress for more aid. Biden spent the day sinning 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:04.280 executive actions to boost food assistance and provide other relief 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:08.319 for millions who are suffering financially. But his vow to 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.000 reopen most US schools in his first one days could 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:16.319 reignite clashes over how to safely return when many teachers 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:22.640 haven't received the vaccine. In the United Kingdom, the coronavirus 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.399 pandemic may no longer be spreading exponentially. That's according to 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:34.360 government data, and suggests the country's third lockdown is working still. 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.200 The government said the case rates remain dangerously high and 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:44.160 urged the public to keep to lockdown rules. Finally, despite 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.480 a scare from Norway, the World Health Organization said it 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:51.400 sees no evidence that the Fiser vaccine contributed to the 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:55.560 deaths of elderly people in the country. The w h 0:01:55.600 --> 0:02:00.680 O urged that the shot still be used. In a statement, 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.320 the w h O Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.480 said that reports of deaths are in line with what 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:13.000 is expected among quote frail elderly individuals end quote, and 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.680 that the risk benefit balance of the vaccine still falls 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:25.519 in favor of administering it to the elderly. And now, 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:30.920 for today's main story, vaccines from Fiser, MODERNA and others 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.079 will have the power to one day and the pandemic, 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.600 or at least to tame it, but only after seventy 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:44.320 or more of the world's population gets inoculated against COVID nineteen. 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:50.000 So far, the rollout has been anything but smooth. Big 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.160 drug stores say they're ready to come to the rescue. 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:58.360 I spoke to reporters Robert Langrith and Angelica Levito about 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:04.480 the potentially massive vaccine infrastructure that the neighborhood pharmacy could provide. 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.560 The US vaccine rollout has gotten off too. I think 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:14.200 it's fair to say a slow start. Um. Now, football stadiums, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:18.520 even Disneyland have been turned into vaccination sites. But I'm 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.520 wondering what role does the corner drug store, like say 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:26.600 CBS or Walgreens, what role does it have in getting 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:32.360 America's vaccine plan back on track. Yeah, so, basically because 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.480 the initial vaccination campaign has gotten off to a slow 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.920 start UH and sluggish startings behind the schedule of what 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:40.880 we need where we need to need it to be. 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.280 We need more vaccination sites, just as many as possible. 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.640 And what the corner drug store offers, including big places 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.120 like CVS and Walgreens, drug stores at grocery stores and 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.520 big box stores like Walmart, as well as true men, 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.760 mom and pop independent chains, what those offer are lots 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:01.040 and lots of locations are just everywhere. CVS has thousand locations, 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:03.560 Wall Beans is over at nine thousand alone, and there's 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.480 a total of forty UH chain drugsters in the US 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.880 and another twenty thousand or so mom and pop one. 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.760 So what these offer are places where all sorts of 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.840 people around the country can get vaccines and just more places, 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.640 more outlets to get vaccines. And they're ready and willing 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:24.200 to go and this could start happening as soon as February. 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.000 And so let's let's break into some of their preparations. 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:30.520 I mean, what have the big chains, you know, you 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.440 mentioned CVS and Walgreens, UM, what have they been doing 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:38.520 to prepare for their role in the vaccination plan. So, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:43.559 pharmacies really first started their vaccination efforts about ten years 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.960 ago when they were involved with the H one and 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:49.200 one rollout, back when we were in a similar situation 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.479 trying to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.080 And in the ten years since, they have really invested 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.280 a lot of time in their efforts. So they've been 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.480 trying to boot their I T systems and just their workflow. 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.400 And so now they're plugging that in UM into this 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.279 current effort and they are tweaking it for COVID specifically, 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.679 because this is a little unique in that we're trying 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.520 to vaccinate people really quickly, but you don't want to 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.440 have hundreds of people lined up in your drug store. 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.200 So this past flu season they tinkered with their schedules 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.520 and had people actually make appointments ahead of time so 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:29.839 that you could space people out and make sure you 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.680 didn't have you know, two people all coming in at 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.320 once for their flu shot. And so they'll use that 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.120 same system now to get ready, have people come in 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.560 UM one by one and try to space people out. 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.880 They're also, of course trying to teach people about the 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.440 specific vaccines. There's a lot of misinformation out there, and 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.960 so UM just trying to get out ahead of that. 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.039 They Change They say that in theory they're capable of 0:05:56.120 --> 0:06:02.640 doing thirty million patients a month giving vaccines at their locations. 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.120 And there are some estimates that if you can buy 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.000 all the change stores together, all the different change and 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.440 grocery store chains, that theoretically they could give up to 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.279 a hundred million doses a month, which would well exceed 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:18.040 Biden's target of a hundred million doses in a hundred days. Now, 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.640 what chains like CVS and Walgreens are doing to prepare, 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.400 you know, first of all other training lots of pharmacy 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.120 technicians uh in giving the shots. CVS I think has 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:32.039 trained twelve thousand pharmacy technicians and counting. They're hiring new 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.279 people to help with the COVID nineteen response, you know, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.320 both for testing and for now for vaccines, and they're 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.200 preparing like places for it to be done. Lots of 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.840 Walgreens and CVS outlets already have exam rooms. CVS is 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.400 ave stores with minute clinics in them, which are little clinics, 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.600 there's exam rooms there. And in other places they're taking 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.719 advantage of things like old unused photo labs, the dressing 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.320 rooms that are not being used now in target stores 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:58.920 where CBS operates, the pharmacies, they're they're taking advantage of 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.240 as many places they can two administrative vaccines and just 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:06.760 gearing up for what's likely to be a very big rollout. Now. 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.040 As far as as the rollout and in particular the 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:14.280 timeline for this, I mean, when really were drug stores 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.960 anticipating to come to the four as it were in 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:21.200 in the vaccine rollout program within the US, I mean, 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:24.600 has there been any change to when they're expecting to 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.200 really start becoming um almost say, the front line for 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:31.840 distributing vaccines to Americans. So the pharmacies were scheduled to 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.400 start vaccinating people once we got into phase two, which 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.360 is really when the general public can start getting vaccinated. However, 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.119 we're quickly seeing that change. We've only been vaccinating people 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.760 for a month, and already you have a number of 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.560 states um like Louisiana, for example, that they early in 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.320 January started turning to drug stores to help them because 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.560 they want to get in the communities. They're tapping independence 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.160 and chains because the independence tend to be in more 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.760 rural areas and can reach broader swaths of the population. 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.240 And now President Fighting is saying that they want to 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:11.240 get pharmacies involved in the next few weeks. And will 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.080 that be Will that mean that every single pharmacy in 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.440 America suddenly has vaccines available? No, of course not. We 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.160 don't have that many yet. But we are seeing this 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.160 acceleration because there has been um such a problem getting 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.840 shots into arms, and pharmacies offer another way to get 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.080 into the community and meet people where they are. A 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:35.400 lot of news has been around the difficulty in transporting 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:39.520 and storing some of these vaccines. Does this impact the 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:41.880 drug stores at all in terms of their need to 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.840 have some of these facilities, say the very cold freezers 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.040 and whatnot in order to be able to to store 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.520 these vaccines. I actually talked to CVS about this and 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.599 they said that it's the Fiser vaccine that needs the 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.000 super alto cold storage, and Fiser has designed special dry 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.440 ice containers that can keep in storage, you know, for 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.160 a number of we and CVS and said that in 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:06.040 their work on distributing the vaccine to nursing homes that 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.560 they've been able to so far successful use these dry 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.360 ice containers that Fiser has and that that hasn't been 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:13.960 a problem. So they are not anticipating that the super 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.079 could storage requirements needed in particular for the Fiser vaccine 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.000 is going to be a massive problem. They think they 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.480 can handle that. And one other thing I wanted to 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.720 mention was that, you know, just because the big pharmacy 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.200 change are expressing a great confidence, you know, we shouldn't 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.480 necessarily expect miracles for them from them, or you know, 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.560 think that this is going to somehow obviate the need 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.520 for big mass of vaccination sites and vaccination sites and 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:39.120 stadiums and gymnasiums and community centers. We all still definitely 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.840 need those. And the Big Change CVS and Walgrains, they 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:46.040 were to have a primary contract to help distribute in 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.720 many states to nursing homes, and they face a criticize 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.120 criticism from some local officials on your why that hasn't 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.600 gone faster. So, you know, we shouldn't expect just because 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.640 they say they're prepared, that that it will produce some 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.559 miraculous turnaround. It's just that, you know, every of additional 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.600 capacity will help, and pharmacies and a lot of capacity. 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.880 Over the weekend, I walked into a CBS store and 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.080 it was interesting seeing in real life um sort of 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.040 the difference because when you talk to the pharmacy executives, 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.960 they say that they have these wonderful systems to keep 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.319 people sticking to the schedule and only there when they're 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.520 supposed to be there. But when you walk in in 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.280 the vestibule, there were probably ten different signs saying that 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:28.679 this particular location did not have the COVID nineteen vaccine. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.080 So you have to wonder what will happen when word 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.240 gets out that that location does have the vaccine, and 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:38.439 can you really manage expectations. You know, there's also the 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:44.000 question of financial motivation. What is the incentive for these 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.560 big chains or even the mom and pop stores to 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:51.120 be involved with the vaccination rollout, So pharmacies and other 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:53.720 places that provide provide the vaccine, you know, do have 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:55.560 an incentive for getting it out there to as many 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:57.920 people as possible. While there is no payment for the 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.719 vaccine itself, providers administrantor you know, we'll get paid for 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.840 the administration of the vaccine, and the federal medical program 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.040 that covers the older people is paying about seventeen dollars 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.120 to the first dose and a little over twenty eight 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.800 dollars to the second dose. Also, there's definitely in financial 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.600 incentive for pharmacies to push through as many people as possible. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:18.920 And the good news is that there's a financial centers 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:20.679 that make sure that people all got the second dose 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.760 because they're paid more for the second dose. And one 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.079 thing too, that um that has come up. So CBS 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.280 of course has been investing very heavily in expanding its 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.800 testing capabilities and one things that one thing that executives 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.280 talk about when they, you know, address how that has performed, 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.080 is that they're finding that they're reaching many more people 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.160 than usual. So of course they're testing people and they're 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.679 doing a public health service, but they're also benefiting because 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.080 they're getting people that have never walked into a CBS, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.200 or maybe they have it in five or so years, 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.160 and now suddenly they're attached to the system. They know 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.679 that CBS is there and they might think of them 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:09.920 for future health services. That was Robert Langreth and Angelica Levito, 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:12.880 and that's it for our show today. For coverage of 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.559 the outbreak from one and twenty bureaus around the world, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.600 visit Bloomberg dot com slash Coronavirus and if you like 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.199 the show, please leave us a review and a rating 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.760 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:31.640 help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:35.520 edition is produced by Topher foreheads Magnus Hendrickson and me 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.960 Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Robert Langrath 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:45.160 and Angelica Levito. Original music by Leo Citrian. Our editors 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:49.480 are Rick Shine and Francesco Leave. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.920 head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.