Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
GROCERY, general stores facilitate workers’ vaccinations.
Some grocery and general merchandise stores in Northwest Arkansas plan to help their employees get covid-19 vaccinations.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Monday that anyone in the state’s Phase 1-B category can get vaccinated. The phase includes workers at grocery and general merchandise stores, most of which have remained open throughout the pandemic.
Employees do not have to get vaccinated through their employers, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
They can make appointments on their own at pharmacies, hospital systems and mass clinics.
Robert Herbert, 23, of Rogers works at Whole Foods in Fayetteville and said he plans to get vaccinated. He said he might wait a couple of months to gain confidence because he has some concern about how quick the vaccine was developed. Local, state and federal health officals have said the vaccines are safe and effective, despite being authorized for use faster than some others.
Herbert said he hasn’t felt too unsafe working though the pandemic because customers and employees have been wearing masks and the store has done a good job of reminding customers to wear masks.
Herbert does not want to shop in stores where people are not wearing masks, he said.
“I definitely feel better knowing people are getting vaccinated,” he said.
GENERAL MERCHANDISE STORES
Walmart has about 30 stores in Benton and Washington counties. Some are Walmart Neighborhood Markets, which are usually grocery stores with a pharmacy.
“We are strongly encouraging all associates to get vaccinated. We will provide resources to associates to help them find locations to receive the vaccine, including pharmacies at Walmart and Sam’s Club if we receive an allotment of the vaccine. We have no plans to offer incentives at this time,” according to an email from Rebecca Thomason, a company spokeswoman.
“As with other vaccines Walmart offers, eligible associates who are interested in receiving the vaccine should plan to do so during their time off work,” she wrote.
Employees who have flulike symptoms after receiving a shot will be eligible for up three days of paid leave, according to Thomason.
Target, which has stores in Fayetteville and Rogers, will provide all hourly employees with up to four hours of pay, or two hours per dose, when they get the vaccine, according to Stephanie Vazquez, a company spokeswoman. The company also pays an employee up to $15 each way for transportation to a vaccine appointment.
The company is encouraging all employees to get vaccinated wherever and whenever they can, Vazquez wrote in an email. Some Target stores, including the ones in Northwest Arkansas, have CVS pharmacies.
“CVS will evaluate these locations for offering the vaccine to team members and guests in the future. Target is also working in close partnership with CVS to provide dressing rooms within stores for CVS to administer coronavirus vaccines, following state and federal guidelines. Target is also working with state health departments to support community-driven vaccination initiatives as they arise,” according to Vazquez.
“The company is also working with the Target benefits team to make sure any fees associated with the vaccine are covered for all team members, no matter where they choose to get vaccinated,” she wrote.
The cost of the covid-19 vaccine is covered by the federal government. However, pharmacies or clinics may charge a fee for administering the vaccine.
GROCERY STORES
ALDI has stores in Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville.
“We are strongly encouraging ALDI team members to sign up to receive the vaccine, and we want to make sure they can do so without worrying about losing pay or taking time away from work. That is why we’re covering all costs associated with administering the vaccine and providing our hourly employees with two hours pay for each dose they receive, as well as scheduling flexibility for salaried employees,” according to a statement from Mark Bersted, the Olathe, Kan., division vice president.
Whole Foods has one store in Fayetteville. The company is paying each employee $40 for each dose of the vaccine they receive.
“As covid-19 vaccines become available to front-line workers, we strongly encourage our team members to be vaccinated at the earliest appropriate time to protect themselves, their families and communities,” according to a statement from Whole Foods.
Representatives of Harps home office in Springdale did not return phone messages Monday or Wednesday. Sheldon Olson, manager of the store on Crossover Road in Fayetteville, said the store will try to vaccinate its roughly 100 employees at its in-house pharmacy.
Harps has about 20 stores in the region, including four in Fayetteville and four in Springdale and is often the only grocery store in small towns such as West Fork, Lincoln and Prairie Grove, according to its website.
TEENS AND YOUNG ADULTS
Prior to Hutchinson’s decision to allow everyone in Phase 1-B to be vaccinated, the main groups eligible were workers in health care, nursing homes, education or day care centers as well as nursing home residents and people 65 or older. Food manufacturing workers became eligible less than a week before all of Phase 1-B became eligible.
For the first time, eligibility groups now include industries that often employ teens and young adults.
Three vaccines — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen — are approved for use by the federal government. Moderna and Janssen are approved for people 18 and older, and Pfizer is approved for people 16 and older.
Teens ages 16 and 17 do not need parental consent to receive covid-19 vaccines, according to Danyelle McNeill, spokeswoman at the Arkansas Department of Health.
“If you’re the one who’s helping me get my groceries every week, I want to protect you whether you’re 16 or 25,” said Dr. Jessica Snowden of Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.
The vaccine does not tend to interact any differently in teenagers than it does with adults of all ages, she said. Teens and young adults may experience brief side effects after receiving the vaccine as with anyone else.
“You may feel bad for a day or so but that’s OK because once you get those two doses you are so much safer,” Snowden said.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses three weeks apart.
Children’s Hospital and Arkansas Children’s Northwest in Springdale treat patients up to 21 years old. Snowden said teens tend to spread the virus as easily as adults while attending school, working jobs in-person and having social gatherings.
“We hope that vaccinating that population will help us not just protect them because they’re in higher risk positions but also help to decrease the spread because we do know that teenagers tend to behave a little more like adults in terms of their social interactions in the world and the number of people they come into contact with,” she said.
While people of older age are more likely to become critically ill with covid-19, it can also happen to young people.
Children’s has treated 10 to 15 patients in its intensive care unit for covid-19 symptoms. While those patients have been as young as 5, most were teens, Snowden said. The hospital has also treated 15 to 25 patients for multisystem inflammatory syndrome that occurs in children and teens. The syndrome, which causes different body parts to become inflamed, has been associated with patients who have had covid-19, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Children’s is working on a plan to to offer vaccines to its patients, according to Hilary DeMillo, spokeswoman for the hospital.
“Even if you feel perfectly fine, you could have covid and you don’t know that the person you spread it to is going to be perfectly fine,” Snowden said. “While we know of some things that make people at higher risk of having a serious covid infection, we also know lots of people with absolute zero risk factors are having serious infections. You can’t predict that and so don’t underestimate the risk of being indoors with people you don’t live with.”