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Private pharmacies must use District registration list
Private pharmacies are pushing back after DC officials told them they must use a city registration list.
WASHINGTON - A Capitol Hill independent pharmacy owner tells FOX 5 he reached out to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which is now checking with the White House, to see if D.C. leaders can actually force the District’s independent pharmacies, receiving federal coronavirus vaccine allotments, to use the city’s local pre-registration list instead of the pre-registration lists the independent pharmacy owners have built with their own communities.
Dr. Michael Kim, who owns Grubb's Pharmacy, says he is one of a handful of independent pharmacy owners pushing back against the District's move to bring them under one municipal umbrella.
D.C. leaders took questions on this at a Monday news conference, explaining that all the pharmacies in the District, with the exception of CVS, would be mandated to do so. It’s not clear what would happen if a pharmacy opted not to.
"It eliminates the likelihood that individuals who have never preregistered, who are just members of the general population with lower risk, would be vaccinated before those individuals who are already pre-registered and who have higher risk," said D.C. Health’s Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt.
READ MORE: Vaccines reach some doctors’ offices in limited supply, mass vaccination sites encouraged
"I do wish that the District would come to us in more of a, ‘Let’s work together approach,’ rather than a heavy handed: ‘this is what you have to do." And it’s more of a kind-of threatening approach," Kim said.
The Capitol Hill owner told FOX 5 his staff prepared for months to work with the federal government on vaccines.
This included training and building their own pre-registration system. Kim said Grubb’s Pharmacy just started receiving Johnson and Johnson doses last week (giving out about 500 shots) and are completely booked for this week.
The owner said he would prefer to share, taking some appointments from both lists, instead of having to tell those who signed-up with his pharmacy "no."
For the first time on Monday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser encouraged people on Monday to pre-register for vaccinations where they live.
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We know those who have the ability to do so, have been traveling throughout the region to get the COVID19 vaccine.
FOX 5 confirmed with a Maryland Health Department over 600 DC residents traveled up to Hagerstown, Maryland’s Mass Vaccination site to receive their shots this weekend.
Maryland Health Spokesperson Charlie Gischlar told FOX 5, 3,635 shots were given there on Saturday and Sunday. Around 2,765 shots went to Maryland residents, 630 to D.C. residents, 72 to Pennsylvania residents and 168 shots went to Virginia residents.
"The J&J vaccine is safe and effective and we strongly encourage individuals to get any vaccine that is offered to them as we continue to race against the emerging variant strains of the virus," Gischlar wrote FOX 5.
Back in the District, the Mayor emphasized the importance of people removing themselves from the District’s COVID19 pre-registration list if they already received a shot elsewhere.
A city official confirmed on background, last Thursday (April 8th), the District had around 27,000 vaccine appointments available and sent out around 38,000 invitations. Only around 13,000 appointments were booked, leading the District to send out another 24,000 invites for 14,000 vaccination appointments for Sunday.
The city’s leaders are expecting to open D.C. pre-registration for home vaccine visits later this week.