The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Reinforced Pharmacists’ Purpose of Championing the Health of Every Community

Pharmacy Times^® interviewed Rina Shah, PharmD, group vice president of pharmacy operations and services at Walgreens, on how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has reinforced pharmacists’ purpose of being able to champion the health and well-being of every community across the country.

Alana Hippensteele: Do you have any closing thoughts on this topic?

Rina Shah: You know, one of the biggest things is that what the pandemic has [brought] to light is what pharmacies, pharmacists, or technicians are responsible for doing. Really, it reinforces our purpose of being able to champion the health and well-being of every community across the country, and it hasn't ever been so much more clear or critical as it comes to light.

As a pharmacist myself, I can tell you that we've been supporting communities every step of the way. It started with immunizations with H1N1, but when we look at the pandemic when it hit, our pharmacists, our team members, and our community pharmacies played an incredible role to help our communities stay afloat while we were going through this.

Now, we're playing a critical role to administer vaccine to the most vulnerable patients, but eventually to the rest of America. So, it's been really great to see. And I'm humbled to see how our pharmacists, our team members, and everyone at Walgreens are at the forefront of this effort, so that we can help our communities get to their new normal as quickly as possible.