Children's Medicine Shortages Have Local Parents Worried Sick

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — I first met Jay Paves at the 24-hour CVS on Main Street. He was there to buy medicine for his infant daughter, but when he reached the shelves, they were bare.

The only indication that the product (or a suitable substitute) had ever existed was a tag with a upc code and a table-tent-sized sign, alerting desperate parents that quantities of some children's fever-reducing medicines would be limited to two per customer.

Unfortunately, for this dad there weren't two to be found.

This wasn't Paves's first stop of the night. He had just phoned home to report this latest failed attempt to get his hands on the needed medicine, moments before we spoke.

"She has an [doctor's] appointment tomorrow, but they said to start giving her Tylenol for the fever," Paves said, his voice occasionally breaking. "I just feel helpless. I mean, should we go to the ER? Are they even going to have what she needs there? Who knows? It's late. Should I keep trying? I should."

I couldn't answer his questions, but fortunately, another shopper in the same boat could.

After several failed attempts to find cough medicine for her granddaughter, the frustrated shopper's daughter called to say that she had finally had success at the nearby Stop & Shop. She directed Paves to the store, but admonished him to move quickly because the supermarket would close at 11 p.m.

I can't say if Paves ever got the medicine he had been searching for, but can report that the shelves at Stop & Shop were fully stocked with several varieties of children's pain and fever-reducing medications, when I arrived a few minutes later.

Paves is by no means alone when it comes to finding out a child's health could be put at risk because of a puzzling inability to get the drugs they need. According to the AP, an unusually fast start to the flu season, plus a spike in other respiratory illnesses, created a surge in demand for fever relievers and other products people can buy without a prescription.

"There are more sick kids at this time of year than we have seen in the past couple years," Dr. Shannon Dillon, a pediatrician at Riley Children’s Health in Indianapolis told the wire service.

Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson told the AP that the company is not currently experiencing widespread shortages of Children’s Tylenol, but the product may be "less readily available" at some stores. The company said it is running its production lines around the clock.

"At this point, it’s more like toilet paper at the beginning of the (COVID-19) pandemic," Dillon said. "You just have to look in the right place at the right time."

SEE ALSO:

• Why You Might Find The Local CVS Pharmacist Out To Lunch
• As Flu Cases Skyrocket, The Hudson Valley Leads New York

That has certainly proven true in parts of the Hudson Valley. While one Stop & Shop was fully stocked, even late into the night, three nearby CVS stores were still entirely out of stock on the shelves the next day. The Pelham Manor Four Corners store on Boston Post Road had signs in place of the products explaining, "the supplier is temporarily unable to supply this product to retailers."

The "boom and bust" nature of the shortages has led local social media "mom's groups" to become a clearinghouse for information about where fever and symptom-relieving medicine for kids can be found, at times with minute-by-minute updates. In some cases, parents have even been offering to give others their medicine, either because they have more than they can use or because their own kids don't like the flavor.

The shortages of children's medications are not limited to just over-the-counter medications. The prescription antibiotic amoxicillin is also in short supply due to increased demand, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

At CVS, the disruptions caused by the scarcity of the antibiotic have been exacerbated by staffing issues. And once again, our area has been at the very center of the storm.

A recent amoxicillin prescription called into the Pelham Manor Four Corners CVS by a New Rochelle pediatrician couldn't be filled because the pharmacy was out of supply. The pharmacist was able to confirm that the nearby Weyman Ave. CVS had the children's antibiotic in stock and transferred the prescription to the neighboring New Rochelle store. What the pharmacist did not know is that there was not a pharmacist on duty at that nearby store.

A sign on the closed Weyman Ave. pharmacy directed patients to the Main Street CVS. Unfortunately, the Main Street CVS was unable to help because the prescription was "in process" at the closed pharmacy and therefore couldn't be filled at any other pharmacy.

The troubles faced by the large chains are causing some to move to smaller independent pharmacies with local owners. Visiting the local apothecary was the rule, rather than the exception for generations. In recent decades, however, the small businesses struggled to compete, or in some cases, were absorbed by the giant chains.

Now, in many ways, the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.

"We've seen a lot of transfers [of prescriptions] coming in from the big chains," a pharmacist at a locally-owned pharmacy told Patch on the phone, but asked that her name not be used. "They are convenient. People will still go there for a sale on Diet Coke or Easter candy — I probably will too, but when it comes to their health, people are starting to miss that personal connection that used to be there."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.