The Guardian, February 5, 2021.
Non-white Chicagoans, who makeup a majority of Covid-19 cases, have struggled to get the vaccine due to technology barriers and ‘pharmacy deserts’.
Dima Qato, associate professor at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy and senior fellow at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, has extensively studied pharmacy access in Chicago. “Access matters and if we know that pharmacies matter for medication adherence, of course it’s going to matter for vaccines,” she said.
Even when pharmacies are available in vulnerable communities, they’re more likely to be independent stores versus retail chains and less likely to offer vaccination services, according to Qato.
“We want to make sure we’re preventing Covid by getting people vaccinated in [high risk] neighborhoods at equal rates as other neighborhoods. Otherwise we’re going to be worsening the problem,” said Qato.