CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For several months now, the director of pharmacy operations for Fruth Pharmacy has been overseeing a constantly evolving rollout process for coronavirus vaccines.
As challenging as it can be at times, Drew Massey said he’s told his pharmacists to try to appreciate this moment in history.
His advice was, “This may be one of the most rewarding times that you have because you’re making a difference in people’s lives and they’ll tell you that.”
When the first vaccine doses arrived in West Virginia in December, Fruth, in coordination with the West Virginia Pharmacists Association and the state, began to send personnel into nursing homes and other assisted living facilities to administer shots to older state residents.
In the next phase, Fruth pharmacists went to work vaccinating educators in Mason County and Putnam County.
Other outside clinics followed before vaccine availability shifted to individual Fruth store sites where appointments continue to be filled through the state pre-registration system via vaccinate.wv.gov.
Additional pharmacies have joined efforts in recent weeks now that West Virginia has opted into the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program allowing direct vaccine dose distributions separate from state allocations.
This week, that has expanded to include 59 independent pharmacies.
Massey talked with MetroNews this week by phone from a vaccination clinic, a follow-up trip, at an assisted living facility in Ripley.
“If you didn’t have Governor Justice in place, if you didn’t have the National Guard, if you didn’t have the pharmacists, if you didn’t have the health departments, if you didn’t have anybody to help assist along the way, I don’t think that we would be where we are today,” Massey said.
As of Wednesday morning, the Bloomberg COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker showed 12.9 percent of all West Virginians were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus while more than 20 percent of the population had received initial shots.
It remained one of the highest vaccination rates in the U.S.
Along with vaccine doses, Fruth has been one of the pharmacy sites offering drive-thru COVID-19 testing, click here to get more information.
“Fruth’s just been happy to have been one of the players to help try to get us where we’re at,” Massey said.