内容摘要：A more menacing question: What happens if the virus mutates in a way that makes it more lethal to people or allows it to spread more easily?

A more menacing question: What happens if the virus mutates in a way that makes it more lethal to people or allows it to spread more easily?

Harms said he’ll have other options in the rural area that’s nearly 80 miles south of Chicago, but it won’t be the same.“You can stand here and have a conversation,” said Harms, 56, from nearby Cullom. “You go to the big giant one where there’s 40 people in line, you feel like you’re inconveniencing the person that’s helping you.”

Lachandretta “LaLa” Williams reaches for a pill bottle at MAC Pharmacy in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)Lachandretta “LaLa” Williams reaches for a pill bottle at MAC Pharmacy in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)The big drugstore chains still have thousands of locations, and the AP’s analysis counted more than 24,000 independent pharmacies. But drugstores routinely close because they aren’t doing well or the population has dropped — and the pace of closures is picking up.

CVS said in 2021 that it planned to close 900 stores over three years; more than 600 already have shuttered. Rite Aid is expected to close hundreds as it works throughAcross the U.S., more than 7,000 pharmacies have closed since 2019, according to data from University of Pittsburgh researcher Lucas Berenbrok, who considers that estimate conservative. Of those pharmacies, 54% were independent drugstores, an AP analysis of Berenbrok’s data found.

“I think what (drugstores) have realized in the past couple years is that they are a little thinly spread out,” said Keonhee Kim, an analyst at the research firm Morningstar.

Prakash Patel, owner and pharmacist, foreground, works at Bert’s Pharmacy in Elizabeth, N.J. (AP Photo/Shelby Lum)“I’m really worried — where are these folks going to go? Who’s going to hire them?” she asked.

Employment gaps for disabled people have been an issue across the federal and private sectors for years. When the Labor Department began recording disability status in its employment trends in the Current Population Survey in 2009, just 30% of disabled people between ages 16 and 64 were working at least part time. That’s compared with 71% of people without a disability.Last year, employment rates for disabled people hit a record high of 38%, but the decades-old disparities still persisted: 75% of people without disabilities were employed that year.

Disability hiring in the federal government became a prominent effort in the 1970s, shortly after the passing of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits disability discrimination in federal agencies. Expectations to hire disabled people expanded from there.In 2014, Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration began requiring that federal contractors meet specific goals related to hiring disabled people.