The community, Sykes said, has no pharmacies or grocery stores within walking distance. And many of their neighbors do not own cars and suffer from serious health conditions such as obesity and diabetes.
“If they throw a vaccine and throw it at grocery stores and pharmacies, I see a problem,” Sykes said. “Will it be free? That’s a question. And how will (residents) get there to get it?”
Chicago is among the cities across the country that could face blockages to access the vaccine due to the lack of large pharmacy and supermarket chains in its poorer black and brown neighborhoods. Public health experts identify these communities as “pharmacy deserts,” areas where a considerable number of residents have limited access to retail or independent pharmacies. The problem is largely found in areas with low-income residents who have barriers to transportation.
Civil rights leaders and health advocates fear the disparity could leave neglected communities struggling to figure out how to vaccinate everyone, as the federal government says pharmacies will play a key role in distributing vaccines.
“It will be a barbarity, especially if this vaccine looks safe and effective,” said the Rev. Marshall Elijah Hatch Sr. of New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church on the west side of Chicago. “It’s very hard to imagine that there will be any kind of egalitarian distribution. We will have to fight.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on November 12 that the U.S. government is partnering with large pharmacy chains and networks representing independent pharmacies and regional chains to expand access to future ones. Covid-19 vaccines. The list of pharmacies included CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and large grocery chains with pharmacies such as Walmart, Kroger, Costco and Publix.
“Pharmaceutical vaccinators are crucial public health partners in increasing access to and comfort of Covid-19 vaccines,” HHS said in a press release. “By working with these partners, the federal government will quickly expand access to Covid-19 vaccines.”
But relying on pharmacies to expand access to vaccines could be a challenge.
“A national phenomenon”
There are about 500 active pharmacy licenses in Chicago, according to the state of Illinois. Only 23% are in census tracts where the majority of the population is black.
“It’s a national phenomenon,” said Dima Qato, lead author of the Chicago Drugstore Study and an associate professor in the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.
Nationally, the number of pharmacies (chains and independent pharmacies, as well as pharmacies in grocery stores and large boxes) has fallen to 56,788 in 2019, from 62,098 in 2015, according to the National Drug Association of the Chain, a defense group.
Qato has stated that pharmacies in minority and low-income neighborhoods in urban areas across the country are at the highest risk of closing. This is mainly due to lower reimbursement rates paid to pharmacies for Medicare and Medicaid prescriptions compared to private insurance plans, he said. According to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, non-elderly blacks are more likely to have Medicaid compared to whites.
Earlier this year, CVS closed 22 stores, including two in Chicago, prompting protests from local black leaders.
CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis said in an email to CNN that the closures were a “difficult business decision.”
However, DeAngelis said CVS remains committed to providing pharmaceutical care to marginalized communities.
“In addition to providing Covid-19 vaccines to long-term care facilities starting this month, we will also be offering vaccines to all of our 10,000 pharmacies,” DeAngelis said. “Barriers to vaccine access will be removed: vaccinations will come at no cost to patients, available at many different pharmacy retailers and health care providers, and underserved communities will be a special area of care.” .
An urgent call for solutions
Lawmakers, doctors and civil rights leaders insist that equitable access to vaccines in urban neighborhoods needs immediate attention.
“It’s a big lift because we know the history of racism in this country,” Lee told CNN. “But we know this is a matter of life and death and we don’t want this pandemic to continue the way it has been.”
In New York, a working group of black civil rights leaders has been formed to develop a plan to create equal access to vaccines.
In a statement earlier this month, the task force said the country is “ill-prepared and ill-equipped” to administer the vaccine to the black community.
Jennifer Jones Austin, a member of the working group and executive director and executive director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies in New York, said poor neighborhoods in the Bronx, for example, lack quality medical facilities and that major drugstore chains are not found in every corner as affluent communities. There are also not enough doctors to vaccinate all residents, he added.
The task force proposes solutions such as mobile clinics that go to underserved areas and vaccinate people, Austin said.
“We don’t want a situation where low-income people, people of color, have to travel miles outside their own community to be able to access this vaccine,” Austin said. “We need to figure out how to approach that access home.”
The deployment of vaccines in Chicago
Meanwhile, Chicago residents fear what vaccine deployment will be like in the city’s poorest communities.
Sykes said she is confident many black residents will not get the shot because of mistrust and limited access.
Hatch the Shepherd he said he is concerned that the west and south sides may be left out of vaccine distribution. The city, he said, must take into account residents who have mobility problems and do not have the means to get to a health center.
“It’s more of an expense for people that less can be afforded,” Hatch said.
Dr. Thomas Huggett, of the Lawndale Christian Health Center, said he treats homeless patients in a men’s shelter on the west side of Chicago and that none of them have vehicles.
Huggett said one of his patients had to take two buses to pick up the drug from a CVS because this is the preferred pharmacy for his Medicaid plan. There are only three CVS stores on the west side, Huggett said.
Huggett said hospitals, churches and elected safety net officials will need to work together to ensure residents can get the vaccine.
“We need to come up with a plan to make sure black and brown people in underserved areas have access and don’t depend exclusively on pharmacies,” Huggett said. “Investments will need to be made to ensure that equity is addressed in high-risk neighborhoods.”
Nicquel Terry Ellis reported and wrote from Atlanta, Nathaniel Meyersohn from New York and Omar Jiménez from Chicago. Priya Krishnakumar contributed to this report.