Dose of Clarity: How one Williamsburg man tracked down a COVID-19 vaccine

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) — We have a dose of clarity for your coronavirus vaccine concerns.

Williamsburg resident James Gillett emailed 10 On Your Side about his situation.

Both Gillett and his wife are both in their 70s and in group 1b for vaccinations. His wife’s primary care physician is with Riverside and she was able to get a shot there.

However, Gillett’s primary care doctor is not with Riverside, so he could not get a shot through his wife’s doctor’s office, and was denied an exception despite his request.

Gillett has since gotten the vaccine by taking some initiative and doing some research online. He looked up pharmacies that have the shot and found an independent pharmacy in Williamsburg that was taking appointments.

The Williamsburg Drug Company is also a “compounding pharmacy.” They can essentially “tailor a drug to suit your specific medical needs” if you have an allergy to a certain ingredient, special dosing, or even flavor.

WAVY News 10’s Don Roberts talked with Pharmacist Ken Leary and marketing and communications representative Toni Johnson about how Williamsburg Drug Company was able to get and distribute the COVID-19 vaccine.

“With our first shipment, we learned on, like Sunday, we were getting them and we started administration on Monday,” Johnson said. “And, then again, that whole week Ken and that whole team were doing the vaccinations and completed them on Thursday with 200 people.”

Gillett was one of the 200. And now, he waits for word on a date for the second shot.

“We are waiting for the additional 200 vaccines to re-vaccinate or give the booster to the 200 people that we did provide the vaccine for,” Leary said.

“So we are trying to be prepared and have a step up … so that when we do receive the next dose, we’re already at the starting line and call people in and start the scheduling,” Johnson said.

Johnson and Leary say they don’t know if the Williamsburg Drug Company will get more than the 200 doses of vaccine that are already earmarked as second shots for their patients.

They suggest those who want the shot should check back with Williamsburg Drug Company on their website — and also check other independent pharmacies. They may just get lucky, like Gillett did.