West Virginia for the Win

West Virginia kick-started its COVID-19 vaccine rollout 2 weeks before other states—and doled out about 90% of the doses it had received before the holidays.
 
With health workers and long-term care facility residents vaccinated, the state is now giving second doses and shots to older people and teachers.
 
How’d they do it?
 
While all other states signed on with a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens, West Virginia went its own way, teaming up with smaller, nimbler independent pharmacies. 
 
For governors that want to speed up their rollout, Mark Parkinson, CEO of the American Health Care Association and former governor of Kansas, has some advice: “I would be on speed dial with the CEOs of CVS and Walgreens every single day.
 
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