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I did a dive today into why West Virginia is so rapidly outpacing other states in their vaccine distribution and it turns out one reason is they did not sign the agreement with @cvspharmacy and @Walgreens that 49 other states did https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/07/954409347/why-west-virginias-winning-the-race-to-get-covid-19-vaccine-into-arms
As this other post points out, @cvspharmacy and @Walgreens have no incentive to go fast https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/the-simple-reason-west-virginia-leads-the-nation-in-vaccinating-nursing-home-residents-153274
“‘Of the 24,000 doses received by CVS and Walgreens for Arkansas nursing residents and staff only 15% have been delivered since December,’ Thompson said.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/katv.com/amp/news/local/arkansas-health-officials-vaccine-distribution-through-cvswalgreens-not-working
West Virginia had all its seniors in long-term care receive their first dose of the vaccine by early January. According to vaccine schedule that means they should have all second doses administered by the end of the month. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/west-virginia-nursing-home-vaccinations-nearing-completion/article_5415421f-83be-5458-9fc1-a85e4d34af5c.amp.html
One more note about this: This problem is not uniform. In Connecticut, for example, CVS has 179 locations https://www.cvs.com/store-locator/cvs-pharmacy-locations/Connecticut;jsessionid=Ib9sC42zoGXIhA6vicWkRH5JYitthEKbG-c2C4Cb and it’s going quite well! In Arkansas, where CVS has 23 locations https://www.cvs.com/store-locator/cvs-pharmacy-locations/Arkansas it is not going well. https://twitter.com/alexmleo/status/1350203622181793794
Also, North Dakota (which is also doing quite well) does not have a lot of CVS & Walgreens but they contracted with a local pharmacy that covers the state called “Thrifty”
More on Maine’s struggles with the agreement https://bangordailynews.com/2021/01/11/news/maine-orders-walgreens-to-give-up-vaccine-doses-it-had-no-immediate-plans-to-use/
The CVS/Walgreens agreements referenced here only pertain to long term care facilities which is why the thread started by saying “one reason.” This does not explain disparities in vaccinating the public beyond LTC residents and workers.
