Outfits like CVS, Walgreens and the big food chains with in-house pharmacies are widely placed, and are already set up to deliver inoculations. They each already have robust on-line appointment, data tracking, and follow-up capabilities. And many people—especially people 65 and above—already have a relationship with them. Plus, their logistics systems are already in place.
In California the governor is making a mistake, I believe, by apparently relying on super Points of Distribution (which they are calling PODs) at places like Disney Land and Dodger Stadium. Where I am, near Palm Springs CA, they tried this last Sunday, offering drive up inoculations just for health care workers, at the nearby fair grounds. Huge traffic jams and long, long waits in idling cars resulted. Appointments for the next day that this form of distribution is available, January 17, are already filled. The scheduling website won’t let you make an appointment for anything but the very next mass inoculation day, which may or may not be Jan 24. And it doesn’t say when scheduling for that day begins so you can’t even plan to try to make an appointment for that session. I believe this would be the model that involving the military would support, one that is neither tested or robust and that clearly chokes at scale.
These super PODs will help, but they should be augmented by utilizing the distribution system that already exists. Will the private outfits make it a little more expensive as they take a fee for the service? Yes. In the big picture, does a little more expense matter when the negative economic consequences of a long rollout are even more expensive. Nope.
Let’s use all the tools, especially the ones that already exist.
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