To all Dr Smith Direct Care Patients, and to anyone else reading this message:  We now have a vaccine against this dreaded disease!  I was lucky enough to receive two doses recently, and didn’t have significant adverse effects.  Now, I should be relatively safe from this terrible pestilence, and can take care of patients with exposure to it, those with symptoms not yet with a diagnosis, and those who are active Covid patients.

When you get yours, you will be able to begin to resume a normal life, can think about safely going to the store, visiting friends, and going out for a drink or a meal.

There are several pharmacies in this area that will take your name and put it on a waiting list.  I have heard of those who are entering their names on several different lists, but I encourage you to choose a convenient pharmacy near you and get on just one list.  I seriously doubt that this will delay your vaccine and, conversely, with a lot of people doing multiple entries, it leads to chaos and confusion for the pharmacies trying their best to implement this vaccination program.

Pharmacies in this area that have vaccination programs include:

Kavanaugh Pharmacy, Don’s Pharmacy, Arch Street Pharmacy, City Pharmacy, Cornerstone Pharmacy on Rodney Parham, ExpressRx Pharmacy of Otter Creek, Market Place Pharmacy, Park West Pharmacy, Remedy Drug, Tanglewood Drug Store, The Drug Store, The Pharmacy at Wellington, and Achor Pharmacy in Maumelle.  Notice that this doesn’t include Walgreens, WalMart, or CVS but tend to be small, privately owned pharmacies.  Most of them have websites which will allow you to get on the waiting list online.  If not, give them a call and they’ll take care of it for you.

I expect the health care and nursing home phase of this program will complete in the next week or so and the next group will include “essential workers” and high risk patients.

If you need further information about the vaccine, don’t hesitate to let me know.