As the weather starts to turn, the possibility for respiratory viruses to run rampant grows — which makes the role community pharmacists play that much more important.

Independent pharmacies are everywhere. From city to rural environments, their insights help avoid potential spreads.

"There's no RSV in the community that I'm aware of right now, [but] it will be, unfortunately," said pharmacist Don Arthur. "I don't think we've heard of any flu in any area [yet, but] there will be. So it's a good time to get the vaccine. But we absolutely have COVID."

Over the last 15 years or so, shops like Arthur’s have been able to get vaccines out to their parts of the state. Over the last three years, there's been an emphasis on fighting the most recent strains of COVID-19.

"Frustration was there in the beginning. The government controls the distribution of that and we didn't see the vaccine for several months," he said.

With federal, state and county entities taking more of a back seat on clinics, it falls on chain and local pharmacies to carry the weight. But with science helping develop new formulas for evolving strains, the supply issues are still very present.

"We've seen 30 vaccines to date; we have a wait list that's over 1,000 patients and it's growing daily for every patient that's interested in a flu shot," he said. "We have probably 30 or 40 calls who are interested in the COVID vaccine."

More doses are on their way, but there's a fair amount of trying to help where possible for local pharmacists with some flexibility that the corporate brands may not have.

"I think it's easier to reach out to a Walgreens or Rite Aid and deal with one entity, one buyer, and push vaccines out to those stores," said Arthur. "Staffing has been difficult and it's hard for their pharmacists, colleagues of mine who I know personally, to be able to keep up with the demands. So task those same pharmacists to, on top of their daily responsibilities of ensuring patient safety and dispensing medications, ask them now to vaccinate hundreds of patients a day. It’s just too much."

The tall order of a mission ahead: get vaccinations up to date for those who need and want them.

"Because in the end, it really doesn't matter, you know who's doing the vaccinating," he noted. "What matters is that the seniors in our community and other patients have access to the vaccine and can get it quickly and efficiently."