Monday, March 15, 2021

Coronavirus in rural America (Part CXXVI): Could Dollar General be the key to widespread vaccination in rural America?

On Thursday, while addressing the nation, President Joe Biden announced that all adults in the U.S. will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine beginning on May 1. This statement has been met with some serious doubt given how difficult the vaccine rollout has been up until now. As discussed here, the COVID-19 vaccine requires special refrigeration given its unique temperature requirement. Until now, the temperature requirement has made it difficult to distribute vaccines to rural areas as many rural clinics “are less likely to have expensive freezers that can accommodate” the storage of these vaccines.

Although pharmacies such as CVS and RiteAid have been vaccinating rural America, it is often difficult for rural Americans to find transportation to these pharmacies or other vaccination hubs. The difficulty of the situation has prompted creative solutions and ideas. The most recent one? Using Dollar General as a vaccination site.

Dollar General Corporation is a chain of general stores which boasts over 17,000 locations nationwide. This is more than triple Walmart’s roughly 5,000 U.S. stores. Dollar General also has more stores than Walgreens, CVS, and Target. What’s more is that Dollar General places stores in areas where other big-box stores refuse to do so, such as in rural areas. In fact, Dollar General claims that “75 percent of all Americans live within five miles of a Dollar General store.” Dollar General’s significant presence in rural areas coupled with its capability to both transport and refrigerate the vaccine in its stores, make it a smart way to reach rural Americans.

According to the Daily Yonder, the CDC “was in talks with the discount retail stores to serve as a vaccination site.” Although no official decision has been made, it is possible that a potential collaboration could soon be forthcoming. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky issued the following statement on the matter:
In rural areas, residents often don’t have access to big-box stores. We’re exploring a promising collaboration with Dollar General stores, which have locations that include refrigeration capacity within 10 or 15 miles of our rural communities in all but four states.
It is difficult to find issue with this proposed distribution method, as any method that results in the vaccination of Americans is welcomed. However, it is important to note that Dollar General’s presence in rural areas has raised some issues in the past. As has been covered here and here, Dollar General’s rural expansion has put local rural grocery stores out of business. Furthermore, opponents of Dollar General and similar dollar stores argue that their presence in rural areas further aggravate the existing food deserts given the fact that these stores “don’t offer fresh produce” and they deter grocery stores from setting up shop there.

Although using Dollar General as a vaccination site could address the distribution and transportation issues, there is still much work to be done in rural America if President Biden hopes to vaccinate the majority of Americans. As discussed in this blog post, rural residents are hesitant of the vaccine. Furthermore, in some areas, vaccinators are in short supply. Thus, this potential collaboration between the CDC and Dollar General wouldn’t be the solution to all the rollout problems, but it would likely address some of the most difficult ones: refrigeration and transportation.

It will be interesting to see whether the CDC and Dollar General end up reaching a deal on this matter. Not only would the collaboration remove some barriers to getting vaccinated, but it may also serve as an encouragement for rural residents to get the vaccine. As odd as it may sound, could Dollar General be the key to speedy widespread vaccination in rural America?

2 comments:

Kennedy Knight said...

Really interesting idea for vaccine distribution. I feel like this solution to getting vaccines to rural communities would absolutely bring more shots to more people, however I still think the biggest challenge for vaccines is information campaigns to rural residents, especially those that are most vulnerable and need to be vaccinated soonest. I hope Dollar General reaches a deal with the CDC, because this is a really unique solution to lack of access to big-box stores in rural areas. My next question for the CDC and Dollar General would be, how are you going to let everyone know?

Jaspreet Lochab said...

This is a wonderful read, Ana! I didn’t know that Dollar General has over 17,000 locations nationwide in comparison to the mere 5,000 Walmart stores in the U.S. This is definitely a creative way to get the vaccine to some of the country’s most underserved and vulnerable populations, rural America being one of them. However, I do wonder if Dollar General’s presence in rural areas having raised some issues in the past, coupled with a wave of vaccine hesitancy in rural America, will be the downfall of this idea. Regardless, as you mentioned in your post, it is important to note the fact that using Dollar General stores as a vaccine distribution site does address some of the problems faced by rural America in this pandemic, most notably refrigeration and transportation of the vaccine. This whole topic also makes me wonder whether the J&J vaccine will serve as pushback to this idea since it doesn’t need to be refrigerated in as cold temperatures.