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'Pharmacy deserts' are new front in the race to vaccinate for COVID-19
ABC News / Disney ^ | March 5, 2021 | By Soo Rin Kim, Erin Schumaker, Mark Nichols, and Evan Simon

Posted on 03/05/2021 5:35:20 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

... Even though 90% of Americans live within 3 miles of chain pharmacies, there are many others who live in so-called food and health care deserts, without a single grocery store or pharmacy in close range.

According to ABC News' analysis of pharmacy locations across the country, there are 150 counties where there is no pharmacy, and nearly 4.8 million people live in a county where there's only one pharmacy for every 10,000 residents or more.

The drugstore disparity is particularly significant in majority-nonwhite rural neighborhoods, where there is on average one pharmacy per 9,888 people, compared to one pharmacy per 8,045 people in whiter rural neighborhoods.

The racial gap exists throughout the country, including in urban areas, where there are more pharmacies in whiter and wealthier neighborhoods per person than in poorer, predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods.

President Joe Biden has described equity in vaccine distribution as the "No. 1" priority for his administration. He has emphasized that millions of doses have been directed to community health centers specifically to target vulnerable populations.

In Chicago, at least a third of the population -- or nearly 1 million people -- lives in a pharmacy desert, or an area with less than one pharmacy per 10,000 residents, according to Dima Mazen Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. Most of those pharmacy deserts are in Black and brown communities.

Juanita Love, 80, has lived in Auburn Gresham, a neighborhood on the South Side, for 50 years. There used to be a CVS pharmacy three blocks away, she said, which she could easily walk to.

When the local CVS shut, getting medication became a challenge for Love's older neighbors.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ccp; china; race; virus
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1 posted on 03/05/2021 5:35:20 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

People who moved to rural regions generally do so to get away from everyone else.

And don’t many medical plans encourage people to buy their prescriptions by mail to save money?


2 posted on 03/05/2021 5:36:32 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Lean on Joe Biden to follow Donald Trump's example and donate his annual salary to charity. )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Exactly. Stop burning down the pharmacies in your hood 🙄


3 posted on 03/05/2021 5:37:49 AM PST by Jrabbit
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

My brother had to drive my mom over 70 miles away to get her vaccination shot and had to drive himself nearly 2 hours away to get his own vaccination shot.

That is if they didn’t want to wait on very long list to get them locally. Their weight but driving out of town to do it was about a week.


4 posted on 03/05/2021 5:38:07 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Lean on Joe Biden to follow Donald Trump's example and donate his annual salary to charity. )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I live in a whiter than white state and the nearest pharmacy to me is a 20 minute drive.

I do NOT live within 3 miles of a pharmacy.


5 posted on 03/05/2021 5:38:27 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Women and minorities hardest hit. Trump’s fault.


6 posted on 03/05/2021 5:38:37 AM PST by Sans-Culotte (11/3-11/4/2020 - The USA became a banana republic.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

They say there are no drug stores in Southside Chicago but I’ll bet there’s a CBD store every two blocks. Come on now don’t they insist CBD oil is medicine?


7 posted on 03/05/2021 5:39:13 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Lean on Joe Biden to follow Donald Trump's example and donate his annual salary to charity. )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

How many free clinics operate in the neighborhood? They may not be pharmacies but they may be able to administer the shots.


8 posted on 03/05/2021 5:40:28 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Lean on Joe Biden to follow Donald Trump's example and donate his annual salary to charity. )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Between “pharmacy deserts” and “food deserts” I wish there was a map of these things imposed on places to live. It’s an indicator of high crime areas.

I am looking to retire to a cheap venue but not a high crime venue.


9 posted on 03/05/2021 5:40:50 AM PST by Kevmo (So America gets what America deserves - - the destruction of its Constitution. ~Leo Donofrio, 6/1/09)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

My area isn’t a “desert” by any means. But in the 25 years we have lived here I’ve seen multiple drug store brands blanket the area then be gone when another moves in. Eckerd, Revco, Phar-mor. All gone. Leaders now are CVS and Walgreens. Both suck. Walgreens has the buts handed to them a few years ago when they stopped taking Tricare. They fixed that but they still suck.


10 posted on 03/05/2021 5:43:39 AM PST by 3RIVRS
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
On weekday mornings I stream WOR in New York. During the hourly newscasts they're always saying that new vaccination sites are being opened. Yankee Stadium,Co-op City,etc,etc.

Doesn't sound like a "vaccination desert" to me!

11 posted on 03/05/2021 5:44:02 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Trump: "They're After You. I'm Just In The Way")
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

One man’s “pharmacy desert” is another man’s gangster paradise.


12 posted on 03/05/2021 5:46:20 AM PST by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

There are very few pharmacies in mostly non-white south Minneapolis, they were looted and burned about a year ago.

“The racial gap exists throughout the country”

The racial gap exists because the “community” shoplifts most of the stores out of the neighborhood, if a business survives that then along comes a riot.

Not my fault or concern. Any disparity or “desert” that exists is totally self inflicted by the “community” itself.


13 posted on 03/05/2021 5:50:43 AM PST by READINABLUESTATE (CENSORSHIP = VIOLENCE)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Solution to deserts of all sorts: MOVE


14 posted on 03/05/2021 5:51:24 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” ― Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So what? Most County & City health departments across the nation have free vacination locations.....


15 posted on 03/05/2021 5:52:16 AM PST by nevergore (I have a terrible rash on my covfefe....)
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To: Jrabbit

And shoplifting them into oblivion.


16 posted on 03/05/2021 5:54:57 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Jrabbit

Looting.

Shoplifting.

High prop taxes.

High minimum wage.

High insurance rates, regulatory costs.

Yeah, no pharmacies in those places.

Go figure.


17 posted on 03/05/2021 5:57:40 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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To: nevergore

I wouldn’t accept a bandaid from my local public health department.


18 posted on 03/05/2021 5:58:29 AM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Dem rich cats needs to build mo stuff in dem black areas, soes dey can have mo stuff to riots fo. Can’t be no raciss.


19 posted on 03/05/2021 6:00:57 AM PST by Sir Bangaz Cracka (Slamming dat white cracka'a head into dat sidewalk causin he be scared)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
We've gone from "Fountain Closed in the interest of public safety" to Drug Stores closed due to riots.

Reparations won't fix the ghettos, sadly.

20 posted on 03/05/2021 6:21:00 AM PST by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
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