By Former Congressman Ed Towns
Guest Commentary We certainly live in challenging times.
Shortly before RFK, Jr.’s hand-picked CDC panel met last week to abandon its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, Senator Adam Schiff publicly asked insurers to cover routine vaccines for illnesses, no matter what the group recommended. I applaud Sen. Schiff for continually fighting the good fight.
Throughout my time in Congress, I was also a lifelong advocate for health equity. I spent decades fighting to make healthcare more accessible in underserved communities like the one I represented in Brooklyn. It was both an opportunity and a challenge to fight these inequalities.
But lately, some of our health equity challenges are quietly morphing into crises right before our eyes. I’m talking about pharmacy deserts, which continue to expand as
pharmacies close in our cities and surrounding neighborhoods.
Take Sen. Schiff’s efforts, for instance. If pharmacists aren’t around to administer vaccinations, insurance coverage of these COVID-19 shots won’t matter for the millions of Americans stuck in pharmacy deserts.
Pharmacies are closing at an alarming pace. Across America: CVS closed 900 stores between 2022 and 2024, and they will close 270 more stores in 2025; Walgreens is shuttering 1,200 stores; and Rite-Aid, which recently filed for bankruptcy, closed more than 310.
I cannot sit on the sidelines and watch as pharmacies, the lifelines of community healthcare, vanish before our eyes. These pharmacies are essential institutions that serve as trusted, accessible points of care for millions of families with nowhere else to turn.
Nationwide, local drugstores are shutting their doors.