Middletown Pharmacist Asks: Why Can't His Store Offer Vaccines?

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS, NJ — For years now, pharmacist Richard Stryker has given out thousands of flu shots and shingles vaccines from Bayshore Pharmacy, the small neighborhood pharmacy his family owns in Atlantic Highlands.

And now he wonders: Why couldn't this have happened with the coronavirus vaccine?

"I don't understand how any of this made sense. Pfizer has my address on file; I've been getting vaccines delivered from them for years," said Stryker. "They could have just shipped me the vaccine right off the line as soon as it was manufactured. After all, that's the process that's been in place for years."

And why are his patients, many of whom are seniors and can't drive that well or have limited mobility, being directed to drive from the Jersey Shore to state-run megasites as far away as the Meadowlands?

"These large, state-run formats are not working," said Stryker. "They're not serving more people. And what people are going through is absolutely awful; the stress levels are through the roof. People are being told to wait weeks and weeks for a shot and I have elderly patients just sitting on their computers clicking refresh for hours, hoping an appointment shows up somewhere."

Normally, once a vaccine is approved by the Food & Drug Administration, it is shipped direct from the pharmaceutical manufacturer to doctors, hospitals and pharmacies.

But with the coronavirus vaccine, the federal government decided to do things differently: Under Trump, the federal government decided it would purchase 6.4 million vaccine doses and distribute them to all fifty states; this was done so there would be no cost to the public to get the shot. The amount of vaccine each state received was proportionate to its population. From there, states decided on their own the best way to get shots in arms.

Some states (not New Jersey) are being hailed as vaccine success stories: By Jan. 31, West Virginia had distributed 85 percent of its vaccine, second only to North Dakota, according to the CDC.

West Virginia health officials credit their success to giving the vaccine directly to independent pharmacies and doctors, instead of using federal partnerships with large chains like CVS and Walgreens, as New Jersey has done.

Gov. Murphy took a very different route: His administration decided the best way to administer the vaccine would be through public sites run by state government. The Murphy administration opened six vaccine megasites and county-run sites, such as the Monroe Senior Center and the Rowan site in South Jersey.

A DOH spokeswoman said state-run sites ensure the most efficient vaccine distribution. Also, could private pharmacies handle the sub-zero temperatures Pfizer and Moderna vaccines must be kept in? (The currently-unapproved Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not have to kept as cold.)

"The two vaccines currently available have storage and handling requirements that most private providers are unable to accommodate, such as ultra-cold storage and administering multiple doses within a shortened time frame," said Dawn Thomas, a spokeswoman for the state Dept. of Health. "As additional vaccines become available with more manageable storage, private practice physicians will be able to administer vaccine in their offices."

Except some of those state-run sites have had problems, and many residents have struggled to get an appointment. A number of people had to drive a long way from home to get the shot, and some have left without getting appointments for their second shots.

About fourteen pharmacies were included on New Jersey's initial list of places to get the shot. And starting next week, more privately owned pharmacies, doctor's offices, hospitals and clinics will start getting the coronavirus vaccine for distribution.

But pharmacists like Stryker wonder why they were not included initially.

It all comes back to just not enough initial vaccine supply, said Brian Oliveira, President of Garden State Pharmacy Owners, a coalition of independently owned pharmacies.

"The media makes it seems like the vaccine is available everywhere. But it's not. Supply has been the limiting factor," he said. "New Jersey only received 1.5 million doses from the federal government in the beginning. That's only enough doses for 700,000 people."

"Yes, there were states that leaned heavily on independently-owned pharmacies and they've been successful in the vaccine roll-out, like North Dakota, West Virginia and Louisiana," he continued. "But in a state like West Virginia, independent pharmacies are close to 60 percent of the market. In New Jersey, they are only 30 percent."

New Jersey just has a lot more chain pharmacy locations. The Murphy administration activated the federal partnership with Walgreens and CVS to distribute the shots, and Murphy has in turn blamed CVS and Walgreens for their slow vaccine roll-out.

"Independent pharmacies have proven to be the most efficient method of COVID vaccine administration across the country," said Oliveira. "But from the Department of Health's perspective, it's much easier for them to manage six megasites. As they increase supply over these next couple of weeks, we hope to see more independently owned pharmacies take a bigger role, like they have in other states."

For Stryker, that can't come soon enough.

"My Dad can't walk through the (Port Monmouth) Super FoodTown without a dozen people stopping him, begging him for the vaccine. We field hundreds of calls from patients every day asking why we can't give them the shot," he said. "These are people with portable oxygen tanks, diabetes, they have trouble walking. They are terrified to go to public megasites. They want to get it from their local, trusted neighborhood pharmacy."

"I just don’t understand why the population we've been told to protect for 10 months was treated this way," said Middletown resident Susan Burns, who said she's struggled to get a vaccine for her mother, 80, for the past several months.

She finally got her mother an appointment at the Meadowlands mega-site Tuesday, and she watched as her mother and hundreds of other seniors, some in wheelchairs, waited in the freezing rain to get in.

"Seeing the amount of elderly people trying to navigate the Meadowlands racetrack last night was an absolute disgrace. It took an hour and a half start to finish," she said. "If my mother could have gotten it at Hazlet Pharmacy, with her pharmacist who knows her and knows her medical history ... It would have been so much easier for the senior population."

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