Supply will increase, and points of administration are increasing. The Biden Administration is activating the pharmacy community in a way that hasn’t been previously. It’s very significant … we are headed in the right direction.”

John Parker, Healthcare Distribution Alliance

For the over-75 cohort (and the people behind them) anxiously awaiting Covid vaccines, the past couple of weeks have felt like the proverbial watched pot of water that never boils.

Bristol rolled out its registration for the priority group to be vaccinated on Feb. 1; that first day, more than 1,200 registrations rolled in. Since then, the list has both shrunk and grown, as outreach has added new registrants, while some people have obtained vaccinations through other channels. The list has also been edited for several duplicates, as some enthusiastic residents created multiple entries. According to Mary Ann Quinn, Bristol’s senior services coordinator, new registrations have quieted down. After a flyer sent out before the weekend added a burst of about 75 new registrants on Monday, the list now stands at about 1,400 people.

“I feel pretty good that the word has gotten out,” said Ms. Quinn.

Now all they need are some shots.

At press time, the town was waiting to hear how many people they will be able to take off their list, depending on when the first allotment of vaccine, estimated to be at least 150 and perhaps as many as 300 or more, comes through. The first clinic will be scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Quinta Gamelin Center, and beginning this week, the people on that list — oldest first — will be getting calls to schedule times to come down for their first of two shots.

People who may be 75 and a half years old, looking at a line of 1,399 people in front of them, take heart — supplies are expected to increase after the first week. What’s more, people are dropping out of that wait list as they find appointments through new distribution channels — locally, that’s CVS and Walgreens — though glitches plagued the early days of both drugstore giants’ appointment registration systems.

Dialing for dollars; crossing state lines

Both CVS and Walgreens announced last week that they would become nationwide distribution points for vaccines, at select locations. Logistically, it was an enormous undertaking, and that became evident as the CVS appointment system launched last Saturday, while Walgreens launched last Sunday.

Armed with phones, laptops and newly-downloaded apps, seniors (or their designated IT assistants) scrambled for appointments in scenes familiar to those who recall trying to win concert tickets from a radio station call-in contest (with a rotary phone). People who went with the website option found themselves obsessively refreshing the sites as new appointments popped up, including many over state lines.

The trouble is, that was not supposed to happen. Some people, offered appointments in nearby out of state locations, were fortunate enough to receive courtesy calls from the pharmacies, but many others showed up at those appointments, only to be turned away.

“We’re still in recovery after being shunned at a Walgreens in Fall River,” said Jo Ziegler of Bristol, who was turned away along with her husband Bob after registering, they thought, properly.

“We followed the instructions that asked us to confirm we were eligible in our home state, then the Fall River appointment came up on the web site, so we took it,” said Mr. Ziegler. “We were so excited, really on a high. I was thinking this was going to change my life — not that I was going to go crazy or anything,” he laughed.

“But wow, what a disappointment.”

The Zieglers were able to go back online and cancel their March booster, and while the Walgreens site offered to reschedule their initial shot, nothing was available. They remain without an appointment, and continue to check both Walgreens and CVS sites often, hoping to score an elusive appointment.

Complicating the issue, second shots may be scheduled for out of state. It is only the first shot that must be in Rhode Island, for Rhode Island residents.

Both CVS and Walgreens claim that the out-of-state registration glitches have been resolved.

The cavalry is coming

To date, the national-level focus of the vaccination effort has been vaccine development, which happened in record time, with two 95 percent effective options in distribution inside of a year. That is an incredible achievement but, it falls short when there is not an equally robust focus on the logistics of distribution.

“Developers are focused on research and development,” said John Parker, senior vice president of communications with the Virginia-based Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA), which represents primary pharmaceutical distributors, serving as a vital link between the nation’s pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities, clinics and others nationwide.

“The logistics side is really complex,” he said. “We don’t really think about how our medicines and healthcare supplies get from manufacturers to where they need to go, but we have this amazing system in place … but nothing compares to the demand we have seen with Covid. The word ‘unprecedented’ is overused, but it’s true.”

The distributors represented by the HDA connect 180,000 healthcare providers and pharmacies with 1,400 drug manufacturers across the country, and they continue to work around-the-clock to increase medical capacity and enhance the national supply of critical medications and healthcare supplies required to fight this pandemic. 

The federal government designated McKesson, an HDA member company, the centralized distributor of Covid vaccines once they are approved by the FDA (except for the Pfizer vaccine). McKesson served in this role during the H1N1 pandemic, and like then, will distribute vaccines to point-of-care settings across the country at the CDC’s direction.

“All vaccine distribution had been in concert with the federal government and in consultation with state governments,” said Mr. Parker. “Our ability to be successful is predicated on significant communication between public and private sectors.”

Moving forward, in communication with the Biden administration, HDA is committed to putting the supply-chain expertise of its member distributors to work getting vaccine to the pharmacies that can get them into people’s arms.

Mr. Parker is confident that the vaccine train is on the right track. “Supplies of existing vaccinations are increasing, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be coming on the scene in fairly short order,” he said. “Supply will increase, and points of administration are increasing.”

“The Biden Administration is activating the pharmacy community in a way that hasn’t been previously. It’s very significant … we are headed in the right direction.”