JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A pharmacy in Panama Park has nearly 1,500 people on a waitlist to receive the coronavirus vaccine as Jacksonville city leaders announce a new distribution site in an underserved community.
Panama Pharmacy on Main Street just south of the Trout River is a locally-owned small business in the middle of a neighborhood lacking a major grocery pharmacy, like Publix.
"This community is underserved. It's not a community where you'll see a big box drug store on every corner," said owner Kevin Duane. "Communities like this one rely on local mom and pop shops, small family-owned businesses to fill those gaps."
Duane said early in the week, the county's health department notified the store that it was being allotted 400 doses of the vaccine, enough to fully vaccinate 200 people.
"So we opened up a waiting list," Duane said. "At first it was just for missed appointments that we had."
But over the past four days, the list swelled to nearly 1,500 names by Thursday. Duane said he has done little advertising, and the vast majority of people on the list are not regular customers.
"A lot of it is just word of mouth, or community awareness that a lot of people have an appetite for the vaccine," he said.
The demand for the vaccine in communities like the Northside, economically disadvantaged and mainly minority has been met with calls by local leaders for more equity in vaccine distribution.
Just last week, it was announced Publix would become the sole provider of vaccine doses in Palm Beach County, one of the state's most populous counties.
Critics of Governor Ron DeSantis' decision to shift so much of the state's distribution efforts to Publix have noted that many minority communities are lacking Publix locations.
"If the grocery store pharmacy that's going to be giving these vaccines is four miles away, someone might say, 'Oh, four miles away is a short car ride.' That's fine, but I have patients who ride more than one bus to get to my pharmacy," Duane said. "I have people who ride medical transportation to take them to their one appointment per day."
On Thursday, Mayor Lenny Curry and other city officials announced Jacksonville has received 975 vials of each dose of the Pfizer vaccine to be distributed Friday and Saturday at a new site off Moncrief Road.
Duane said he hopes his business and others like it can play a bigger role in bringing doses of the vaccine to underserved communities.
"You need to have as many providers as you can with the ability to kind of reach the community where they are," he said.