Pharmacy News

Washington — Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, faulted the Biden administration for declining to send more vaccine doses to Michigan as the state experiences a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, saying the federal government should adapt its current vaccination strategy to surge vaccine doses and resources to virus hot spots.

"It's a request that's been made for weeks now, and I think we should have done it weeks ago," Gottlieb said Sunday on "Face the Nation." "It's never too late to do it. And it's not just additional vaccine, but it's the resources to actually get the vaccine into arms."

In recent weeks, Michigan has become the new epicenter of the pandemic, leading the nation in new COVID-19 cases by a wide margin, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

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Outbreaks are ripping through workplaces, restaurants, churches and family weddings. Hospitals are overwhelmed with patients. Officials are reporting more than 7,000 new infections each day, a sevenfold increase from late February. And Michigan is home to nine of the 10 metro areas with the country’s highest recent case rates.

During previous surges in Michigan, a resolute Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shut down businesses and schools as she saw fit — over the din of both praise and protests. But this time, Ms. Whitmer has stopped far short of the sweeping shutdowns that made her a lightning rod.

“Policy change alone won’t change the tide,” Ms. Whitmer said on Friday, as she asked — but did not order — that the public take a two-week break from indoor dining, in-person high school and youth sports. “We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility here.”

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Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, locked down her state over the din of protests last year. Now she is trying a different approach, appealing to personal responsibility.

Nowhere in America is the coronavirus pandemic more out of control than in Michigan.

Outbreaks are ripping through workplaces, restaurants, churches and family weddings. Hospitals are overwhelmed with patients. Officials are reporting more than 7,000 new infections each day, a sevenfold increase from late February. And Michigan is home to nine of the 10 metro areas with the country’s highest recent case rates.

During previous surges in Michigan, a resolute Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shut down businesses and schools as she saw fit — over the din of both praise and protests. But this time, Ms. Whitmer has stopped far short of the sweeping shutdowns that made her a lightning rod.

“Policy change alone won’t change the tide,” Ms. Whitmer said on Friday, as she asked — but did not order — that the public take a two-week break from indoor dining, in-person high school and youth sports. “We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility here.”

It is a rare moment in the pandemic: a high-profile Democratic governor bucking the pleas of doctors and epidemiologists in her state and instead asking for voluntary actions from the public to control the virus’s spread. Restaurants and bars remain open at a reduced capacity, Detroit Tigers fans are back at the stadium and most schools have welcomed students into the classroom.

Ms. Whitmer’s new position reflects the shifting politics of the pandemic, shaped more by growing public impatience with restrictions and the hope offered by vaccines than by any reassessment among public health authorities of how best to contain the virus.

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LANSING – Sgt. Sheila Peters, the Alger County emergency management deputy director, has lived in her Upper Peninsula county her whole life. She said a 45-minute drive to the closest pharmacy isn’t unusual. 

That’s because Peters lives in a pharmacy desert, defined as being more than a 10-mile drive from the nearest drug store.

And in the winter, Peters said, U.P. roads can be especially treacherous, which makes the drive for medicine that much more difficult. 

In Burt Township in Alger County, the nearest pharmacy is 39 miles away, one of the furthest drives to a pharmacy in Michigan, according to a map from Cardinal Health.

Among the state’s 230-plus pharmacy deserts are Ransom Township in Hillsdale County, Whitefish Township in Chippewa County, Montmorency Township in Montmorency County, Powell Township in Marquette County, Norwich Township in Missaukee County, Lovells Township in Crawford County, Nottawa Township in Clare County, Lee Township in Allegan County and Norman Township in Manistee County. 

The term “pharmacy desert” can be traced back to a 2014 publication by Dima Qato, a pharmacy professor at the University of Southern California.

Heather Christensen, the president of the Michigan Pharmacists Association, said some state residents have to drive more than an hour to get to a pharmacy. 

Drug stores provide more than just medicine though: They provide clinics, measure blood pressure and test for diseases such as the flu and COVID-19. 

Even with the government sending vaccines to pharmacies in rural areas, there are still communities that aren’t able to get them.

The existence of a pharmacy desert “pretty much goes hand-in-hand that you’re not having primary care,” Christensen said.

If people can’t get to a pharmacy, they might not start taking necessary medications, she said, although since the pandemic began, some pharmacies have started mailing medicines.

The rules for pharmacies have changed slightly so medications can be refilled without seeing a provider, and some medications can be mailed that couldn’t have been mailed before.

Christensen said it can be difficult for pharmacies, as businesses, to make a profit in a rural area. 

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