Tag: pharmacist

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Pharmacist With Extra Vaccine Makes House Call To LGBTQ Seniors

Pharmacist vaccinating senior
Pharmacist vaccinating senior
(stock image via Depositphotos)

An independent pharmacist in Brooklyn came to the aid of LGBTQ seniors who were having difficulties trying to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Ambar Keluskar, a pharmacist who supervises Rossi Pharmacy in Brooklyn, found himself with hundreds of doses of vaccine he had “just sitting in the freezer.”

The state of New York allows pharmacies to dispense the vaccines, but with some limitations. Citing the lack of ability to verify the identity and occupation of some eligible candidates like essential workers, the state limits pharmacists to giving the vaccine to teachers, child care workers and people over the age of 60.

In January, Keluskar began making the shots available at his pharmacy. At first, he received 100 doses a week from the state, and then upped that to 200.

But by March, the number of eligible people signing up for vaccinations began to decline. Keluskar pointed to the opening of a mass vaccination site in the area for the lessening demand.

With state laws requiring him to notify the state if he hadn’t used all doses sent to him, Keluskar became worried state authorities would stop sending him doses.

So, he decided to look outside his pharmacy for eligible folks including taking to social media to make it known he had doses to spare.

Thanks to an aide in the office of State Senator Jabari Brisport, Kelsukar got in touch with Stonewall House, New York City’s first LGBTQ-only senior housing building in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood.

It turns out most of the residents there, many homebound, had not been able to get their vaccination. With scheduling done primarily online, many seniors with limited income and/or poor internet access can find themselves left out of the process of signing up for vaccine appointments.

One resident, 78-year-old Emma DeJesus, told the New York Times, “I can’t handle the phone. Everything is on the computer now and I don’t have a computer.”

After weeks of unsuccessful attempts to schedule an appointment for a vaccine shot, DeJesus is now looking forward to receiving her second shot so she can visit her nieces in the Bronx.

Keluskar was able to deliver nearly 50 vaccinations in that first visit to Stonewall House. And since then, he’s had outreach from two city councilmen for additional pop-up visits.

This past Saturday, Keluskar vaccinated more than 150 more eligible candidates at Ingersoll Houses, a large public housing development in Fort Greene.

Keluskar told the New York Times he hopes restrictions on vaccine eligibility will be lifted soon, but until then, “we have to do everything can to stay in the program, and keep providing, keep vaccinating people.”

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CVS Pharmacist Fired For Refusing To Fill Trans Woman’s Prescriptions

Hilde Hall (image via ACLU)

 Penning a personal essay for the ACLU, Hilde Hall shared a sad turn of events on what began as one of the happiest days of her life.

Hall, a transgender woman, left her doctor’s office this past April with her first prescriptions for hormone therapy as she was about to begin the journey to seeing her body reflect her gender identity.

Excited, Hall drove directly to the local CVS pharmacy in Fountain Hills, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix.

After handing over the three prescriptions from her doctor, a hormone therapy specialist, she was informed the pharmacist refused to fill one necessary to affirm her gender identity.

Without any specified reason, according to Hall, the pharmacist “kept asking, loudly and in front of other CVS staff and customers, why I was given the prescriptions.”

Embarrassed, Hall says she became distressed and nearly began to cry right there in the store.

“I didn’t want to answer why I had been prescribed this hormone therapy combination by my doctor,” writes Hall. “I felt like the pharmacist was trying to out me as transgender in front of strangers. I just froze and worked on holding back the tears.”

To make matters even worse, when Hall asked for the written prescriptions from the pharmacist so she could leave, he refused to return the written script.

Hall was forced to call her doctor’s office to intervene. But, according to reports, the pharmacist wouldn’t return the prescriptions without being told EXACTLY why the medication had been ordered.

In her essay, Hall shares she left the CVS store ‘feeling mortified.’

Eventually, the prescriptions were transferred to a Walgreens pharmacy where the meds were filled ‘without question.’

Hall adds that, after the insulting episode, she moved all of her prescriptions from CVS to Walgreens “so that I never again have to see the pharmacist who discriminated against me.”

She contacted CVS’ corporate complaint line several times but didn’t no one addressed her concerns initially.

It was after filing a complaint with the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy that CVS responded.

“CVS Health extends its sincere apologies to Ms. Hall for her experience at our pharmacy in Fountain Hills, Arizona last spring,” said in a statement to The Hill.

According to CVS, the employee had been dismissed, and assured Hall that it had not responded due to “an unintentional oversight.”

The company indicated the former employees attitude did not “reflect our values or our commitment to inclusion, nondiscrimination and the delivery of outstanding patient care,” CVS said.

It’s important to note that this isn’t a cautionary tale for just transgender people.

This easily could have been the case of a pharmacist refusing to fill a prescription for Truvada or “PrEP.” Or refusing to refill a birth control script.

At Walgreens, pharmacists are allowed to step down from filling scripts they find don’t align with their personal religious beliefs, but at least there is a company policy requiring another pharmacist step in to accommodate the customer’s needs.

This CVS pharmacist wouldn’t even return the written paper scripts. This was a guy taking out his own personal agenda against an innocent trans woman.