The nation’s largest drugstore chains, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens, will shutter more than 1,500 stores, leaving millions of Americans without access to healthcare in ‘pharmacy deserts.’ …

A slew of drugstore chains slashing their locations has left millions of people living in areas where it’s difficult to obtain medication, areas known as ‘pharmacy deserts,’ according to JAMA Network.

‘According to our estimates, about one in four neighborhoods are pharmacy deserts across the country,’ Dima Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California, said to the Washington Post.

(via Lucianne)

[This has more than one cause. Class-action lawsuits against Rite Aid over the opioid addiction crisis forced it into bankruptcy and mass store closures. For Walgreens and CVS, the issue is urban crime. Expect this to get worse before it gets better, because inflation is eroding whatever capital can be used for re-expansion. — Ed]