How a little island drug store became one of the biggest vaccination sites in Washington state

The first thing to know about getting the coronavirus vaccine at Island Drug in Oak Harbor is that Fran Castro is in charge, and she is a goddamn hero.

Three months ago, Castro and her coworkers joined the frontlines in the battle against Covid. That’s when a surprise 2,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine showed up, instead of the 200 they were expecting. The state said not to return the extra doses — use ’em, they said. So use ’em they did.

Within weeks, under Castro’s drill-sergeant guidance, this little drug store became an unofficial mass vaccine site, outperforming even Lumen Field, the vaccine site at the Seahawks stadium in Seattle. As of this week, Island Drug has put more than 35,000 shots in arms, five thousand more than Lumen.

Island Drug does not look like a typical mass vaccine site. There’s a lunch counter, a candy aisle, and a corner for nasal pillows for people with sleep apnea. The vibe is a 180 from the vaccine clinics in bigger cities, with the National Guard, perfect rows of vaccine stations, and armies of volunteers in color-coded lanyards.