The kickoff of American Pharmacists Month (APhM) in October is always exciting for me because it falls at the same time as my birthday. My annual birthday present to myself is a flu shot. This year I added a bonus gift of a COVID-19 bivalent booster. It brought me such pride and joy for the pharmacist to jab me with these gifts knowing how our profession rose to the occasion these past few years and how pharmacists continue to be on the front line of care. Those were tears of joy on my face when Joan Kim at Grubb’s Pharmacy in Washington, DC jabbed me!

A letter from Interim CEO Ilisa Bernstein, PharmD, JD, FAPhA, to Dr. Robert Califf, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on the importance of pharmacists being allowed to prescribe oral COVID-19 treatments.

Hear from Ilisa BG Bernstein, PharmD, JD, FAPhA, APhA’s new interim executive vice president and CEO, about her background and history with APhA as well as our top strategic priorities, which will propel us to move the profession forward.

We hear you! Your pharmacy workplace is stressed and stretched. You have rapidly growing concerns for patient safety. Still, you are there—every day—to care for your patients despite conditions that seem to be working against you.

As we reach the midpoint of American Pharmacists Month, we must continuously honor the pharmacists who do heroic work every day in the face of incredible pressures. Pharmacy workforce shortages exist in almost every area of the country. Corporations can seem insufficiently responsive to the stresses of pharmacy practice. Patients may aggressively challenge the professional judgment of pharmacists and other pharmacy personnel. A toxic mixture of vaccine misinformation and disinformation fuels distrust. Keeping up-to-date with the rapidly evolving vaccine guidance from government authorities can be difficult. We recognize these problems and are thankful for your invaluable work.