A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed what pharmacy personnel and their customers surely already knew: Pharmacies that participated in the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program (FRPP) “served as integral partners in national efforts to scale up vaccination capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency response.”
Published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report on April 4, the CDC’s research specifically investigated “FRPP’s contribution to vaccination efforts across various sociodemographic groups,” including “data on COVID-19 bivalent mRNA vaccine doses administered during Sept. 1, 2022, [and] Sept. 30, 2023.”
The study said FRPP partners administered “approximately two thirds of all bivalent COVID-19 vaccine doses in the United States and provided vaccine access for persons across a wide range of sociodemographic groups, demonstrating that this program could serve as a model to address vaccination services needs for routine vaccines and to provide health services in other public health emergencies.”
“Approximately 90% of U.S. residents live within 5 miles (8 km) of a community pharmacy, making pharmacies a highly accessible health-care resource, particularly among low-income communities,” the study said. “Understanding the role that pharmacies played during the COVID-19 response is important for future public health planning.”
