COVID-19 vaccines, prescriptions fuel strong quarter at CVS

By TOM MURPHY
AP Health Writer

COVID-19 vaccines and the return of customers to stores helped push CVS Health well past fourth-quarter earnings expectations. But the pandemic’s unpredictability is making the drugstore chain and pharmacy benefit manager cautious heading into 2022. It did not raise a 2022 forecast it laid out in December, and its shares started sliding early Wednesday. Vaccines that helped boost fourth quarter sales could drop as much as 80% in the new year. Company leaders also expect a decline in in-store diagnostic testing. Plus they don’t know if there will be another surge in cases or round of vaccine boosters.