California Wildfires Disrupt Medical Services, Community Rallies to Provide Support

Ken Thai, PharmD, CEO of the 986 Pharmacy, provides an in-depth look at the medical and community impacts of the California wildfires. With many physicians' offices and pharmacies closed, the his team has become a primary point of contact for residents seeking basic medical care and supplies, such as masks and allergy medications to address the poor air quality. The fires have also disrupted water and gas services, leaving homes uninhabitable. The community also has rallied to set up emergency shelters and supply distribution centers, but many displaced residents are struggling without insurance coverage for their lost homes and belongings. Despite the chaos, Thai emphasizes the strength of the community response, with an outpouring of donations and support.

California Wildfires, Pharmacies, Community | image Credit: J Bettencourt/peopleimages.com | stock.adobe.com

Pharmacy Times®: What are some of the other major non-pharmacy-related needs that people have during this time?

Ken Thai, PharmD: I think it's just triaging of services, right? Quite frankly, at this point. Whatever that they have, if they have questions, sometimes they're not able to reach the providers, and so we became, technically their primary at this point in terms of whatever the issues are. Sometimes they're not even, quite frankly, their typical medical needs. The air has been horrible. So a lot of folks have been coming in, and we've had to provide available masks that are available. Sometimes it's just allergy meds because the winds are so bad and the fumes and the smoke and the ashes are so bad, and so just, basically, some of the more basic stuff that we've been doing, and just as a resource because they have nowhere to call. I'll be honest, nothing's open. So majority of our doctors, for the last 3 [to] 4 days have not been open at all, with the few exceptions. Some of the doctors are trying to open back up because the patients are freaked out and they're scared, and they have nowhere to go if they have any emergency needs, right? So we were well aware that emergency rooms are totally overfilled, and you still hear like even this morning, you know fire trucks going around. They're not letting people go back into the homes yet at the most affected areas because they don't know if they're still small fires, and then those ashes are reigniting. They turned off all the gas. They turned off all the water supplies and whatnot, and the water supplies are technically contaminated at this point, so they can't even use the water. So, it's just, yeah, it's a bad situation from that regard because there's so many unknowns that go beyond just what we do as medical providers and kind of first responders, so to speak at this point, it's just all over the place. And I apologize if it seems like this my response is all over the place, because that's what I'm thinking about is like we jump from the foods to the waters to and it's been cold, so for California standards, we're,dipping in the 30s, 40s, which is unusual for us, and then people left the homes without any clothing, so it's just a very weird situation, and it's on and off, because yesterday, even though the the smoke was bad, a few days ago, it was completely clear. The air quality was great, and today it's gone back bad again. Because depends on which direction the winds are blowing, and even though you look at the mountains, and now it looks like the fire's gone, but then there's still sparks everywhere, and those things might ignite and jump because the winds might pick up, and it seems like every day we're we're watching the news, right? Because it's like, 'oh, the wind's going to pick up again.' And then now you're scared, because then once it picks up, then which direction is it going? And then is it going to ignite another series of fires and whatnot, because that previous from the Palisades to where we had Altadena, it was literally just 30 minutes, and it just the whole mountains on fire, right? So I don't know. I mean, I think it's a lot of unknown. I think everyone's still very much on red alert. I still, in my own home, have family. I've been fortunate enough did not have to evacuate. We were only under warning, and we have family and friends that are staying over right now because they were displaced and still not able to return to their homes without any, quite frankly, return date that has been announced. My kids barely started school yesterday, and some kids are still out of school because they've been held back. Some schools in the area completely burned down, so there is no school. So we don't know exactly what's going to happen with those, those kids.

Pharmacy Times: What are some organizations that people can support that will provide relief to those impacted?

Thai: The organizations have are very local, the Red Cross is here, obviously, the local community centers, right? The Pasadena Convention Center, I'm sorry, has turned into a shelter. I think that was some of the issues that we had initially, was that when people were evacuating, they also had pets, and a lot of hotels were booked up so, and they don't take pets, unfortunately, and so these pets had to be taken to shelters, and then the people that were displaced that could not find a hotel were able either to, for example, like our friends were able to stay with us, and a lot of friends right now are staying with other friends or family in the interim and those that unfortunately don't have that access are now at the convention center. So I think it's just the community. Local communities are kind of coming up everywhere with emergency supplies, basically anywhere that has a field. I know that, for example, even locally at the Crypto.com Arena, they're starting their supply bank and donation bank. Local communities everywhere have their own local banks that can go there and donate supplies, and it just seems like it's just multiple areas. So there's one Arcadia, one in Pasadena, and now one at the downtown area. So those are the few that I'm aware of. I'm sure there's plenty others out there right now that will take it. Of course, a lot of the animal shelters as well, because there's just a lot of displaced animals as well.

Pharmacy Times: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thai: I think at this point in time, I think it's just, pray for us out here, I think for the medical needs and whatnot, really, just reach out to your to your local providers, independent pharmacies, community pharmacies, and they probably could, they'll do whatever the end, just like we have to support the community. Just be patient with us, but we're trying the best we can. Honestly, it's also our team members and staff. They've also been displaced on their out of homes. They're also having needs to be met because they're there's childcare, right? Because the kids are at home. If they haven't been displaced they're without clothing. A couple of our friends that got their homes burned out have no vehicles and cars, so they've had to Uber and things like that. So it's a lot of chaos still going on but let us know there's anything that we can do to help. I was helping a patient yesterday, and they transferred to the pharmacy because obviously their stores was not picking up calls. They're just just voicemail at this point, and they don't even know what's what's happening, quite frankly, and they're having to go to whatever doctors are available and area urgent care that's still in the area. So just reach out to us. A lot of our pharmacies are actually open extra extended hours to be able to provide for the ones that are available to be open are open extended hours so that they can take care of patients. So just call around and I think there's resources available to you. Everyone's willing to help. I think that's the one thing I've learned in this whole experience, is that we're just really strong as a community. There's so much, I mean, I went to the the Arcadia Center, which is a big field, and there were stockpiles of water and clothing and everything else, as matter of fact, they had to stop donations because there's so many by the people that were still available to donate, that they had to stop and just basically say, 'hey, you know, we have enough right now.' It's just letting increasing awareness of the availability of this support and to make sure people utilize it and take it, to really go there and make use of what's available, whether that's water, food, clothes, whatever it is that you need in this time of need, and people are obviously scrambling to that that have all their homes, personal belongings, cars, vehicles, whatever that is, burned away. Now they have to find homes, right? And they're devastated, because, unfortunately, even the insurance situation was not great here. So people's homes were not insured to the maximum, and a lot of them were, quite frankly, now left with, left with a very difficult situation. I'm just thankful that majority of us are, we're relatively safe, but there are a good number of folks that were lost their lives in the fire, and I just also want to tell people out there that are unfortunately looting or burglarizing our pharmacies and whatnot. I mean, this is, this is just the worst time. I mean, everyone's going through a lot, and it's just very sad to see that people take advantage of the situation right now.