Pharmacists Are Essential in Organizing Large COVID-19 Vaccination Events

In a recent interview with Pharmacy Times, Raj Desai, PharmD, MBA, discussed a recent COVID-19 vaccination event at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, where he is the director of pharmacy.

The hospital organized the event over Super Bowl weekend and vaccinated almost 9000 community members, most of whom were over the age of 65. Desai said one of the major considerations for such events is the rate at which vaccines are prepared, since many could expire if they are prepared too early and not used.

Desai also said they expect the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine to be a game changer, since many patients prefer a single shot or would be less likely to get the second shot required by Moderna or Pfizer. Furthermore, he said that although he believes all 3 vaccines are safe and effective, many patients have concerns about mRNA vaccines, so those patients may be more likely to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.