A sudden delivery of COVID-19 vaccine drives Montco pharmacist into action

This weekend may be the greatest test of Mayank Amin’s event-planning skills — pulling together a COVID-19 vaccination operation in 36 hours, with a major snowstorm poised to land on the Philadelphia region.

The plan is for his Skippack Pharmacy, supported by other pharmacists, students, and volunteers, to administer 1,200 doses of protective vaccines at the local firehouse starting at 9 a.m. Sunday. By then flakes are supposed to be piling up.

“We’re going to go for it unless it’s a snow emergency,” Amin said in between calls with county and township officials. “We’re figuring out if the roads will be open. That’s our biggest concern.”

On Saturday afternoon in Skippack, Montgomery County, best known as a quaint village of boutiques and restaurants, the vaccines were safe in the pharmacy’s ultra-cold freezer and other preparations were in full whirl. Boxes of syringes, gloves, hand sanitizer, masks, and more stood ready in the pharmacy rear room as blue skies and sun gave way to gray clouds and hard winds outside.

Amin, 35, of Lansdale, reopened the independent Skippack Pharmacy two years ago. CVS had bought what had been a 50-year community institution, taking the assets but leaving behind an empty building. Amin saw both need and opportunity, never expecting that his pharmacy would take on a leading role amid a killing pandemic.

He graduated from the University of the Sciences with a doctor of pharmacy degree in 2009, then worked as a rotating pharmacist at Walgreens, assigned as needed to stores from Philadelphia to Lancaster. He volunteered to do community outreach at nursing homes, which Walgreens supervisors said was instrumental in helping increase immunization rates among underserved patients.

In 2011 Amin went to work as a drug-safety analyst at Pfizer, in Peapack, N.J., while continuing on a per-diem basis at Walgreens.

His entrepreneurial spirit called. In January 2014, four months after starting his pursuit of an M.B.A. from Villanova University, Amin launched his own business, Platinum Dream Events LLC. The company puts on weddings and has staged other large gatherings for organizations like the Phillies.

He earned his M.B.A. from Villanova in 2016. The coronavirus pandemic has decimated the wedding business, but Amin’s big-event skills have been pressed into fresh service.

“Instead of planning the best day of someone’s life, when they’re getting married, this could be the second-best day,” he said. “People have been asking [about the vaccine]. Some nearly break down, thinking about the day they can hug their grandkids, or meet with their friends and family again. … That’s what our community misses.”

» READ MORE: These suburban women hustled to get COVID-19 vaccinations appointments for family. Now they’re helping strangers.

Around the country, the rollout of long-awaited, potentially lifesaving vaccines has been anything but smooth. Confusion and frustration have defined the effort in many localities, as some people spend hours unsuccessfully trying to book appointments while others manage to jump ahead in line.

Racial and economic inequalities abound, as African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans are dying from COVID-19 at nearly three times the rate of whites, according to a Kaiser Health Network report on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis.

Today more than 460,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus — far more than in any other nation — and untold others who survived are living with long-term health damage.

In Philadelphia, City Council has opened hearings into the city’s vaccine distribution and its former partnership with Philly Fighting COVID, a self-proclaimed group of “college kids” with whom the Public Health Department has now cut ties.

“Every vaccine is being accounted for,” Amin said of the Skippack operation. “There is no picking and choosing. We’re going by the guidelines and protocols. We’re not wasting any vaccine.”

The coming of vaccines to Skippack occurred, as the saying goes, like falling asleep: slowly, then all at once. Amin had to register his pharmacy as a potential vaccination site. Then came weeks of government paperwork, approvals, and training. Pennsylvanians deemed most at risk of the virus, designated as category “1A,” could sign up and wait to see if vaccines arrived.

The category includes health-care workers, people in long-term care facilities, and those 65 and older, along with those aged 16 to 64 who have identified risk factors.

Amin got a message two weeks ago to confirm his pharmacy was in waiting status, but couldn’t officially schedule appointments until the vaccine arrived. It showed up on Friday — 1,200 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. All will be administered as first doses of a two-injection process, with the pharmacy promised that a second shipment will arrive.

Some shots were to be held back on Saturday, to be administered to homebound seniors who signed up but cannot travel to the firehouse.

On Saturday the pharmacy was busily contacting those who signed up to notify them of specific appointment times. Pharmacists, health-care professionals, and pharmacy students will administer the injections.

“The community has truly become a family to us,” Amin said. “We’re saving lives, we’re helping people. We’re doing things for which we’re being called upon. It’s time for us to rise and rise together.”