The Corner Drug Store held its second mass vaccination clinic at the Tantramar Civic Centre on July 1st. Over 500 people were vaccinated throughout the course of that day, including around 85 walk-ins.
Since the Vitalité clinic that used to operate there is out of commission until mid-July, the Corner Drug Store has been leading the charge to get locals their shots.
With this second mass vax event out of the way, their wait list has decreased dramatically and they can hopefully get to people more quickly.
CHMA called pharmacist Charles Beaver on Friday to see how the clinic went, and what locals should know if they haven’t received their shot yet.
Q: On July 1st, you held another mass vaccination clinic and you vaccinated even more people than last time, is that right?
A: Yes, we did. The Canada Day Moderna mass vaccination clinic, our final tally, unofficial, is 538 doses. It would be within one or two of that number.
Q: You had some walk-ins, do you know how many you had?
A: Yes, we started the day about 100 short. We were late sending out the invitations on Tuesday, so we had about 100 spaces, 15 or so of which were filled through the day by people on the waitlist, and we ended up taking another 85 by walk-ins.
Q: Did you have to turn anyone away? Did anyone show up and you just didn’t have the capacity to vaccinate them that day?
A: Unfortunately, yes. The response was huge to the mass email. Basically, I sent an email to anybody who had had contact with us about vaccinations, asking if they or anyone they knew might be interested in a walk-in. It’s unthinkable to waste vaccine, that’s why we did that. And actually within two hours, we had all the walk-ins we can handle. So a second email went out to let folks know that if they were turned away, they simply need to register at www.thecornerdrugstore.ca. Now that the waitlist is crushed, we would be able to get to them quite soon.
Q: Okay, and when you say the waitlist is crushed, do you mean that you took a big chunk out of it? Do you mean that it’s literally empty? What does the waitlist look like now?
A: We’re current with Moderna, meaning that basically only people that had Moderna 28 days or less ago, are waiting for a dose two. People on the Pfizer dose two waitlist were offered opportunities to switch to the Moderna dose two waitlist. Moderna is, we now know, every bit as effective and safe as a dose two, however there are still over 500 on the Pfizer dose two waitlist, which we’ll be dealing with at clinics at the pharmacy as volume of vaccine allows. Also preference goes to those that are aged 12 to 17 for dose one or dose two, they’ll get first dibs on any Pfizer that we have available.
Q: Do you know when your next shipment of Pfizer is coming and how many doses you’ll have?
A: We’re fairly confident that there’s a large enough quantity coming Tuesday, and some coming the following Tuesday as well. So we’re now booking, or we will very soon, appointments next week, Tuesday onward. With first preference, like I said, the very few that have a medical reason why they can’t take Moderna, and the larger number, which is the age 12 to 17. Then people on the Pfizer dose two waitlist, in the order that they had their first doses, will be sent booking links as well.
Q: If the people who are waiting to get a Pfizer for a second shot, who don’t require necessarily to get Pfizer if they were to also sign up for the Moderna waitlist, will they be vaccinated any quicker at this point?
A: They could have if they had done it before yesterday. Now the focus is going to taking care of the 12 to 17-year-olds, and there are quite a few. I think a lot of folks might have been waiting until school was done or this type of thing. So, you know, a short answer, yes and no. If they’re already on the Pfizer waitlist, and they register at www.thecornerdrugstore.ca on the Moderna dose to waitlist as well, that’s okay. They may get duplicate emails eventually, but other than that it doesn’t cause any problems to us, as long as people know that they can only register for and receive one or the other.
Q: If somebody hasn’t got their first dose yet, are they still able to do that? What would you say to those people who haven’t gotten around to it, or might still be hesitating?
A: Well, first off, if a person is hesitant or has concerns about vaccine, I welcome them and encourage them to ask questions of any trusted health professional. Those ones [unvaccinated individuals], to be very clear, get preference above all, if we have a dose one request from any age group, they’re going to be put in the queue fastest whether it’s a 12-year-old or 112 -year-old. I think it’s important to remember that a lot of folks don’t do well with booked appointments. Yesterday, we learned that there are people that just… that this doesn’t work for them. Without promising anything, I’m working on a model where we could do walk-ins, and then maybe we might ask you [CHMA] to let people know that that’s going to happen on a certain day.
Q: How many hours does it take for you and your team to put one of these clinics together and to take it down?
A: Well, with the physical setup I’m happy to say the Sackville Parks and Recreation staff do an amazing job. The layout plan basically is a hybrid model that the Vitalité clinics were using anyway. So that part is quite easy for us. The bulk of the work is, other than the vaccinating, in the preparing of vaccines on the day, the answering the phone calls. We have, still, an unmanageable volume of phone calls. I’d ask anybody waiting for a Pfizer dose two vaccine to not call. We’re getting folks in as quickly as we can, and by calling you’re impairing our ability to put those man hours towards actually preparing and sending invitations. The only exceptions would be, of course, if folks just don’t have access to the internet, or they’re not on the dose two waitlist and can’t get on through through the internet. Then, of course, we’ll take the phone call.
Q: Well, thank you, Charles. Is there anything further that you’d like to add or that I forgot to ask you?
A: Sure. Now that we think we’re all done the Moderna dose two waitlist, inevitably there will be some folks who will be sent an invitation that couldn’t come at the times that we offered, and those links will expire. If you haven’t heard from us and you are waiting for Moderna dose two, it’s probably wise to go back on www.thecornerdrugstore.ca and register again for a Moderna dose two, or whatever the person wants, if it’s a dose one or a Pfizer dose two. If they’re not registered already they’re welcome to do that and and we’ll be able to find them that way.
Q: Thank you so much for making the time, Charles.
A: It’s always a pleasure.
