Sam McNeil contributed to this report from Paris.

Pharmacist Craig Jones makes house calls when no one else can, answers his phone at all hours of the night and stops to chat about bowel movements at church. Yet Jones keeps a pile of his own paychecks on a desk in the back of his pharmacy. Four months’ worth, uncashed.“Every year, it’s a little worse,” Jones said of the financial pressures on his business.

Rural pharmacies, independent or chain, can be a. The staff knows everyone’s names and drugs, answers questions about residents’ mail-order prescriptions or can spot the signs of serious illness.But rural pharmacies’ business models face unrelenting pressures to the point that sometimes they have to close. Several largely rural states have some of the lowest number of pharmacies per ZIP code, according to an AP analysis of data from 49 states and the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs.

The closest pharmacy to Basin Pharmacy is eight miles away in Greybull, and Jones and two other pharmacists opened it after thechain that ran its predecessor went bankrupt.

When a pharmacy does close in a rural area, communities feel the absence.

In Herscher, Illinois, news came out of nowhere that the CVS would shut down in early March.said Tuesday it will limit approval for

to seniors and others at high risk pending more data on everyone else — raising questions about whether some people who want a vaccine this fall will be able to get one.Top officials for the

laid out new standards for updated COVID shots, saying they’d continue to use a streamlined approach to make them available to adults 65 and older as well as children and younger adults with at least one high-risk health problem.Food and Drug Administration commissioner Martin Markary speaks during an event with President Donald Trump to sign executive orders and proclamations in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, May 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)