CVS Hiring 1000s of Untrained, Nonprofessionals to Give COVID-19 Shots

The U.S. Health and Human Services and Department of Defense are partnering with CVS and Walgreens to administer flu and COVID-19 shots to residents in long-term care facilities. To help with this, CVS announced that they are hiring 15,000 new pharmacy technicians across the country, as soon as possible.

Since the techs aren’t actual nurses or doctors — or even pharmacists — CVS plans to ask the government for an “expanded scope of practice” that would allow the new techs to give the COVID vaccines “under the supervision of a pharmacist who is immunization-certified.” The news release did not say if the pharmacists would actually be on-site while the shots are given, or if they’re just acting as supervisors.

SOURCES:

HHS.gov October 16, 2020

ctpost October 19, 2020