Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 disease and the community pharmacist: Practical lessons from the trenches

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease represented a systemic stress test of sorts on a global scale both in rich and poor nations. As a disease without borders, it exposed how rapidly health system capacity can be overwhelmed, resulting in massive loss of lives and how vaccine access and equitable distribution may contribute to a reverse in pandemic deleterious outcomes, while communities and regions that suffer disproportionate inequitable distribution of available vaccines may be more prone to dismal health outcomes. Contrary to the traditional vaccine development timeline, SARS-CoV-2 disease created a global health emergency that fostered global cooperation in public and private sector and encouraged warp-speed vaccine development through mRNA and viral vector vaccine technology platforms. The success of any medical or public health intervention is predicated on both rapid development of intervention agents and equitable and widespread access. While community pharmacy density was pivotal to vaccine access in the United States, other parts of the developing world can continue to deploy channels already in use for other community disease containment efforts while striving to improve pharmacy density. In the United States, vaccine access through community pharmacies facilitated the pandemic-to-endemic transition, same access; to rapid testing and early treatment would curtail the disease, minimize disease outbreaks, and prevent health system capacity stress. Pharmacists and other health-care professionals should expect larger number of their patients showing up with long-term systemic implications of COVID-19, either as survivors of COVID-19 disease or survivors of relatives lost to COVID-19 disease.