Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How pharmacy deserts are putting the health of Black and Latino Americans at risk
STAT ^ | Nov. 10, 2023 | By Anika Nayak

Posted on 11/12/2023 2:17:55 PM PST by thecodont

Pharmacies were once abundant in the South Side of Chicago. Now, residents living in the majority Black neighborhood often find themselves with few options when it’s time to get a prescription refilled or stock up on cold medicine.

Ladell Johnson, a longtime resident of the South Side, drives half an hour from her house to the downtown area every time she needs to pick up her prescription. “Luckily, this pharmacy is close to where I work, but my house is half an hour away by car or one hour by bus,” she said. “If I didn’t have a car, I would have to walk 20 blocks one way to my closest pharmacy.”

As pharmacies shutter stores across the U.S., people in low-income and predominantly Black, Latino, and Indigenous neighborhoods are increasingly left in pharmacy deserts, without easy access to medications and other essentials. In November 2021, CVS announced that it would be closing 300 stores a year across the country in the next three years, and Rite Aid, which filed for bankruptcy in October, plans to close at least 150 stores in the next several months.

“Pharmacy deserts have been a longstanding issue that has gotten worse with recent closures of both independent and chain pharmacies,” said Dima Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, who studies disparities in geographic access to pharmacies and spent more than a decade working as a community pharmacist in Chicago. That lack of access can have major consequences for the health of people living in marginalized communities.

(Excerpt) Read more at statnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blacklivesmatter; blm; blmblacklivesmatter; defundthepolice; georgefloydriots; minoritieshardesthit; pharmacies; pharmacydesert
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-94 next last

1 posted on 11/12/2023 2:17:55 PM PST by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: thecodont

food and drug desserts.....well certain kind of drug desserts anyway


2 posted on 11/12/2023 2:19:08 PM PST by xp38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

Obviously the argument for fascism, by putting pharmacies under the control of government.


3 posted on 11/12/2023 2:19:32 PM PST by Jonty30 (It turns out that I did not buy my cell phone for all the calls I might be missing at home.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xp38

sorry deserts.....I just had a dessert a while ago


4 posted on 11/12/2023 2:20:12 PM PST by xp38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

Damn pharmacy deserts! Who invited them anyway?

Hey, they can pass a law. “This area not zoned for pharmacy desert.” Where’s my check?


5 posted on 11/12/2023 2:21:38 PM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

They made their beds, now they can die in them.


6 posted on 11/12/2023 2:21:40 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

All because of Shoplifting Utopias


7 posted on 11/12/2023 2:21:57 PM PST by Fai Mao ( Starve the Beast and steal its food)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

Here’s an idea... don’t shoplift pharmacies into bankruptcy and you won’t have “pharmacy deserts.”


8 posted on 11/12/2023 2:22:51 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

I wonder if some of these deserts are somehow in the same cities, and counties that elect Soros backed DAs that will willingly turn a blind eye to shoplifting?


9 posted on 11/12/2023 2:22:52 PM PST by Antihero101607
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

Perhaps if the black people still want pharmacies in their areas they could quit stealing and looting the stores.


10 posted on 11/12/2023 2:23:22 PM PST by dforest
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

First I’ve heard it’s happening “all across the US”. Looks to me it’s a “big city liberal stronghold” thing.


11 posted on 11/12/2023 2:23:26 PM PST by Retrofitted
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fai Mao
They and their fatherless ferals caused this.

ZERO sympathy.

12 posted on 11/12/2023 2:23:45 PM PST by Mogger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: xp38
Watch those desserts.


13 posted on 11/12/2023 2:24:59 PM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

I work at a Chicagoland regional pharmacy chain. We have a delivery service for $8 - all we ask is that you are home, because they can’t be left in a mailbox. We also ship via USPS at no charge.

People don’t know their options, which is tragic given the fact of terrible local crime and how it has forced pharmacies to close.


14 posted on 11/12/2023 2:25:21 PM PST by Tacrolimus1mg (Do no harm, but take no sh!t.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

I’m sure the next Democrat mayor wannabe will start making promises on fixing those problems.


15 posted on 11/12/2023 2:25:50 PM PST by antidemoncrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: xp38

Well, as long as they keep voting solid Democrat they should expect the problem to just get worse. “No more cops, no more retail stores”. Just shoplift your neighborhoods into deserts, folks. Unca Sugar will take care of y’all.

The ignorance here is frightening. And people buy into the projection that the Dems keep using...***sigh*** SSZ


16 posted on 11/12/2023 2:26:09 PM PST by szweig (HYHEY Have You Had Enough Yet??!?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

All Democrats, the residents, their elected leaders, their culture and their entire political universe, their teachers and school administrators, their daycare operators, and even their churches.

This is a part of the Democrat Party.


17 posted on 11/12/2023 2:29:01 PM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

While it’s easy to feel sorry for the black grandmother who went to church on a regular basis and is more God-fearing than most young whites, and now needs drugs in her older age...just remember how she likely voted.


18 posted on 11/12/2023 2:30:53 PM PST by BobL (Trump gets my vote, even if I have to write him in; Millions of others will do the same)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

I used to live in the South Side. The Walgreens was central to a LOT of my buying. Heck, I bought my first TV at Walgreens, a 13” Gold Star tube with analog channel knobs.

So, I checked to see if that Walgreen’s was still there. Yup. It also expanded into the Woolworth’s spot, an old massive newsstand, and possible the Hyde Park Coop supermarket.

No pharmacy desert there.


19 posted on 11/12/2023 2:31:12 PM PST by Dr. Sivana ("If you can’t say something nice . . . say the Rosary." [Red Badger])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thecodont

Amazon will fill most if not all legal rxes and mail them to your home or ????


20 posted on 11/12/2023 2:32:27 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Flu vaccines, might work, if you've never had that flu! Otherwise, they don't do any good/nor work!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-94 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson