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Public commenters ask California Board of Pharmacy to act on vaccine reports, technician standards and intern leave
Summary
Multiple public commenters at the board’s Nov. 5 meeting urged action on vaccine-adverse-event reporting, standardized testing or training for pharmacy technicians and changes to intern-pharmacist licensure to allow a leave-of-absence retention period; the board referred some topics to committees and encouraged formal agenda requests.
At the Nov. 5 meeting of the California State Board of Pharmacy, several public commenters urged the board to consider a range of issues affecting pharmacy practice, from vaccine-adverse-event reports to technician testing, language access and intern licensure rules.
Julie Threet, calling from Butte County, said she has repeatedly submitted comments and cited figures she said were pulled from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), telling the board that as of Nov. 5 there were 27,060 reports and 91 deaths she attributed to vaccines administered at California pharmacies. "Far from benign, these vaccines have unleashed profound harm," Threet said in a prepared reading and asked the board to place the issue on a future agenda.
Chazleen Johnson, a pharmacy technician in Oceanside, urged stronger language-access practices and training for pharmacy technicians and pushed back on a written comment that suggested technicians could perform a drug-utilization review (DUR) when pharmacists are unavailable, saying businesses should provide professional translation tools.
McKenna Fox, a fourth-year pharmacy student at USC, proposed amending intern-pharmacist law to remove the requirement that interim licensure be tied to current enrollment and asked the board to allow a 365-day leave of absence during which an intern could retain licensure while progressing toward a pharmacist license.
Another caller, Vincent, advocated for standardized testing that would teach technicians medical terminology beyond typical high-school language courses.
Board members acknowledged the comments. Member Nicole Tibo recommended bringing language-translation concerns to the Communications and Public Affairs committee; the chair and staff suggested consultation-exception questions be considered by the enforcement committee. The board encouraged commenters to submit suggested regulatory language and formal agenda requests for future meetings.
The board did not take formal regulatory action on any of these public comments during the Nov. 5 open session.
