March 30, 2022 — President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled a federal web site that guarantees “one-stop purchasing” without spending a dime masks and COVID-19 checks, vaccines, and coverings.
The web site, covid.gov, additionally features a record of pharmacies that will likely be a part of the brand new “test-to-treat” program.
“You’ll additionally have the ability to discover our new test-to-treat areas,” Biden stated at a information briefing. “These are pharmacies and different locations in your neighborhood the place you will get examined, and should you’re constructive, you will get life-saving therapies in a single cease.”
Quickly after his remarks, he acquired a second booster of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA and CDC licensed the fourth dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on Tuesday for Individuals over 50 and other people over 18 who meet particular circumstances.
For Individuals on the lookout for a vaccine or a booster, covid.gov incorporates a hyperlink to vaccines.gov, the place you may go to discover a native vaccination middle. The general public can even use covid.gov to order free checks for house supply (customers are taken to covidtests.gov) and to search out free masks, by way of a hyperlink to a CDC webpage.
You possibly can search covid.gov by tackle or ZIP code to search out close by pharmacies, federally certified neighborhood well being facilities, Indian Well being Service websites, or Veterans Affairs (VA) clinics that provide test-to-treat providers.
All through the pandemic, it’s been laborious to search out one supply to assist navigate every little thing somebody may have to struggle COVID, says Jen Kates, PhD, senior vice chairman and director of worldwide well being for the Kaiser Household Basis.
Covid.gov “is an effective step ahead to carry every little thing below one web roof,” she says. A one-stop store “will facilitate entry.”
As states, counties, and cities start shuttering their very own government-funded packages, having the ability to simply discover websites for COVID-related providers could develop into extra vital, Kates says.
Some states and localities have been closing down websites due to a decline in demand and case counts. There may be additionally a priority amongst states that they won’t be able to proceed if federal cash to reimburse for checks, vaccines, and coverings dries up.
The White Home has been warning that provides could run low if it doesn’t get no less than $22.5 billion in emergency funds to struggle the pandemic. Congress has not but agreed on whether or not to approve that request.
Within the meantime, the White Home has diminished shipments of monoclonal antibodies to states by a 3rd, and Biden stated provides would run out by the top of Might.
The president additionally famous that the federal government is not going to have sufficient vaccines available this fall to offer each American a second booster shot, though he stated there are sufficient for these over 50 and immunocompromised individuals.
“Congress, we have to safe further provide now,” Biden stated. “We are able to’t wait till we discover ourselves within the midst of one other surge to behave. Will probably be too late.”
Check-to-Deal with Challenges
The president introduced the test-to-treat initiative in his State of the Union speech on March 2. The thought is that individuals who check constructive for COVID-19 in a pharmacy or at a well being clinic could be eligible to obtain, instantly and freed from cost, one in all two antiviral capsules licensed by the FDA — Pfizer’s Paxlovid or Merck’s molnupiravir. Each have to be taken inside 5 days after signs seem to stop severe sickness.
Biden stated that 2,000 areas throughout the U.S. would now supply test-to-treat, together with 240 federally certified neighborhood well being facilities, Indian Well being Service websites, VA well being clinics, and greater than 60 Division of Protection medical remedy services.
Kates says the test-to-treat idea is vital, however “the execution goes to be laborious.” However “we all know as quickly as you get a analysis, the earlier you get on remedy, the higher.”
She says COVID-related provide points with checks, vaccines, and particularly therapies like Paxlovid are going to create challenges. And pharmacists’ potential to deal with sufferers may be restricted in some states by legal guidelines that govern the apply of medication.
Certainly, medical doctors’ teams have objected to pharmacists having the ability to dispense a medicine on to a affected person, due to the potential for unwanted side effects. Pharmacists additionally aren’t prone to know somebody’s full medical historical past, teams such because the American Medical Affiliation have stated.
And pharmacies have considerations that this system might solely be carried out by shops with on-site clinics, which might restrict the sort and variety of pharmacies that would participate.
A lot of the test-to-treat pharmacies listed on covid.gov look like massive chains, corresponding to CVS and Walgreens, or supermarket-affiliated pharmacies, though there additionally look like some impartial shops in some areas.
