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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 18 January 2021
'Little old West Virginia' sets pace on vaccine rollout

Kevin Roberts, a 59-year-
old school bus driver in
Kenova, said "it makes a
difference" for a pharma-
cist he knows to administer
the shots. "I hope that a lot
of these skeptics change
their mind," he said.
Officials also credit a
50-person command cen-
ter at the state's National
Guard headquarters in the
capital of Charleston. Inside
a cavernous hall, leaders of
the vaccine operation and
state health officials sit be-
tween plexiglass dividers to
oversee shipments of the
precious doses to five hubs.
From there, deliveries go to
drugstores and local health
departments.
CVS has so far declined to
work with state officials on
vaccinating people at its
stores, but Walgreens is par-
ticipating and has joined in
to hold clinics at some nurs-
ing homes, officials said.
The federal partnership in-
volving both companies
would have allowed Wash-
ington officials to dictate
the terms of nursing home
Ric Griffith poses for a portrait outside a pharmacy he owns Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, in Kenova, W.Va. vaccinations, said Marty
Associated Press Wright, the head of the
West Virginia Health Care
By CUNEYT DIL receiving the first of two we were backward or dark from his father in the early Association, which repre-
Associated Press shots, according to federal or dingy," Justice said last 1990s and was elected to sents health care compa-
KENOVA, W.Va. (AP) — data. week. the House of Delegates nies. "If the state would've
Griffith & Feil Drug has been West Virginia was the first in Instead, it turns out that as a Democrat last year. activated the federal plan,
in business since 1892, a the nation to finish offering "West Virginia has been the His daughter, Heidi Griffith the state would've had
family-owned, small-town first doses to all long-term diamond in the rough," Jus- Romero, 45, followed into zero control over the situa-
pharmacy. This isn't their care centers before the tice said on CBS' "Face the the family business and is tion," Wright said.
first pandemic. end of December, and the Nation" on Sunday. also administering shots. Secretary of Health and
More than a century af- state expects to give sec- Rather than relying on na- Holding a vaccination clin- Human Services Alex Azar
ter helping West Virginians ond doses at those facilities tional chains, 250 local ic at the town high school, praised West Virginia's ef-
confront the Spanish flu by the end of January. pharmacists set up clinics in he recalled his uncle telling forts to vaccinate the el-
in 1918, the drugstore in "Boy, have we noticed rural communities. The fact him he lost four classmates derly.
Kenova, a community of that. I think the West Vir- that residents who may be to the 1918 flu pandemic, "Expanding eligibility to
about 3,000 people, is help- ginia model is really one wary of the vaccine seem which killed more than 50 all of the vulnerable is the
ing the state lead the na- that we would love for a to trust them makes a dif- million people worldwide. fastest way to protect the
tion in COVID-19 vaccine lot more states to adopt," ference. "And it was a tragedy that vulnerable," Azar said Tues-
distribution. said John Beckner, a phar- "As my uncle always told I thought I would never day at an Operation Warp
West Virginia has emerged macist who works at the me, these people aren't be involved with," he said, Speed meeting. He also
as an unlikely success in Alexandria, Virginia-based your customers, they're taking a break from giving highlighted Connecticut as
the nation's otherwise cha- National Community Phar- your friends and neigh- vaccines to teachers aged a bright spot in the vaccine
otic vaccine rollout, largely macists Association, which bors," said Ric Griffith, the 50 and over. rollout.
because of the state's de- advocates for pharmacies pharmacist at Griffith & Feil When Mark Hayes, a mid- Given West Virginia's suc-
cision to reject a federal across the country. in Kenova, a town near the dle school guidance coun- cess so far, leaders are now
partnership with CVS and It's early in the process, but Kentucky state line. selor in Kenova, walked up seeking more doses so they
Walgreens and instead en- that has not stopped Re- A chatty raconteur and to receive his first dose, he can open vaccinations for
list mom-and-pop pharma- publican Gov. Jim Justice former mayor of Kenova, spotted Griffith, who holds more groups. The Griffith
cies to vaccinate residents from proclaiming that the he can recall generations local celebrity status for & Feil store has had to de-
against the virus that has vaccine effort runs counter of patrons frequenting the hosting an extravagant an- cline shots for out-of-state
killed over 395,000 Ameri- to preconceived notions shop, which is almost un- nual Halloween pumpkin- customers who caught
cans. about the Mountaineer changed since the 1950s, carving party that attracts word of West Virginia's suc-
More shots have gone into State. with a soda fountain and thousands. cess.
people's arms per capita "Little old West Virginia, that jukebox in the front and "I recognized him right The governor recently low-
across West Virginia than was thought of for hun- prescriptions in the back. away," Hayes said. "'The ered the age of eligibility
in any other state, with at dreds of years, you know, Griffith, 71, began tak- Pumpkin King? Are you giv- for members of the general
least 7.5% of the population as a place where maybe ing over the pharmacy ing me the shot?'" public to 70.q