Below is a quick recap of what we’ve learned. This is all information we have directly from the CDC and leadership and CVS/Omnicare and Walgreens/Pharmerica. This is of course a very fluid situation and we expect more updates in the coming days/weeks.
- CVS/Omnicare COVID Vaccine website – https://www.omnicare.com/covid-19-vaccine-resource
- Walgreens/Pharmerica COVID Vaccine website – https://pharmerica.com/covid19/
- Update Contacts – CVS has strongly emphasized the need to update community contacts. They have the ability to do this on their website and you can designate secondary and tertiary contacts: https://info.omnicare.com/Update-Contact-Info.html
- Independent Living – If you have a commingled community at this point you should plan to include your IL residents in the vaccine clinics. Freestanding IL may be in a second or third priority phase, we are working to confirm that.
- Consent Form – Walgreens has updated their consent form. See attached. This new form is much easier to follow than the first version. However, you can use either version. No need to redo any you have already completed.
- Staff – The CDC confirmed during a CVS webinar that their definition of “staff” is very broad and includes third party contractors, volunteers, etc. So plan to include these folks in your clinics. This might be salon staff, volunteers, private duty, etc.
- Timing – CVS stated on their webinar that the first clinics could be held as early as December 21 (Pfizer) and 28 (Moderna). Of course NOTHING is in stone at this point.
- Confirming Registration – If you have not yet receive email notifications from your pharmacy partner, you can contact your health department to confirm or email the CDC. The email address is included in the updated plan.
- Side Effects – We revised our language in the plan regarding side effects. We expect some are likely to experience mild to moderate side effects. We will learn more about this in the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization.