Global contributions of pharmacists during the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 pandemic
Debra A. Goff, Diane Ashiru‐Oredope, Kelly A. Cairns, Khalid Eljaaly, Timothy P. Gauthier, Bradley J. Langford, S. Mahmoud, Angeliki Messina, Ubaka Chukwuemeka Michael, Thérèse Saad, Natalie Schellack
Abstract
Throughout the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) global pandemic, pharmacists were rarely mentioned as essential frontline health care providers by the news media, the public, or politicians. Around the world, pharmacists are working on the frontlines of health care every day providing essential health care services during the pandemic. Pharmacists are medication experts providing patient care in a variety of settings including hospitals, clinics, community pharmacies, long-term care, physician offices, and national and public health. In this paper, we describe how pharmacists from high and low-middle income countries contributed to essential patient care and well-being of the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the news media, the public, and politicians often overlooked pharmacists as essential frontline health care providers, we hope that this list of contributions by pharmacists from nine countries in this article can help to change this perspective.