Elderly Oregonians across the state hindered the first day that residents 80 years and older would plan COVID-19 vaccinations, and the appointments in the subway council would disappear within hours.
In the Portland area, seniors – or perhaps just as often, their adult children or younger friends who helped them – began flooding the state’s vaccination schedule website hours before it officially began Monday at 9 p.m.
Up to 5,500 managed to get coveted vaccination lots the following week, but many also gave up defeat. After an intense 2 hours, all online appointments in Portland are locked up for the next eight days. Appointments online were still available by calling 211, the local resource service, at noon, but many callers waited for hours or suddenly disconnected.
Local health providers who run the two vaccination clinics in the Portland area could not say on what date new appointments would be booked. However, it appears that the next available appointments will probably only be on Wednesday 17 February.
Greg Smith, a Milwaukie man who unsuccessfully tried to plan his 95-year-old mother for a vaccination on Monday, said he expects the competition to get even stronger by then. This is because people 75 years and older are eligible for Feb. 15, while scurrying into the pool of Oregonians and barely shooting. The suitability will be extended to younger age groups in the coming weeks – 70 and older 22 February and 65 and older 1 March.
“The likelihood of her getting a vaccine in the next month seems to be dwindling,” Smith said.
Oregon Health Authority officials said this week that they have devoted 20,000 of the 52,500 first doses arriving in the state from the federal government to seniors 80 and older. There are 168,000 elderly people in the age group worldwide and about 35,000 of them have already been vaccinated, mostly because they live in nursing homes, long-term care facilities or receive home care. That leaves about 133,000 Oregonians arguing for the 20,000 doses this week.
Government Kate Brown and Oregon Health Director Patrick Allen warned Oregonians last Friday that there would be ‘hiccups’ and ‘chaos’ in the vaccination process, and lawyers criticized the state for not developing an adequate plan to reach the elderly. Brown and Allen have asked older residents to be patient during the weeks or even months before they are vaccinated because the vaccines from the federal government exceed demand.
As a result of a diverse and sometimes weak public education campaign, many people who tried to book appointments on Monday experienced a series of surprises. Some were unaware that the planning process would open at 9 a.m., or that appointments in the Portland area could be made online through covidvaccine.oregon.gov and then through a “Let’s get started” chat tool.
Others who determined exactly where they had to go said they also encountered roadblocks, such as websites that would not be able to move to the next step to make an appointment.
“I would describe it as a wasted, very frustrating day,” said Darlene Carlson, an 80-year-old Portland resident who waited an hour after she called 211. The line eventually hung on to her, she said.
“I just think it should not be that difficult,” Carlson said.
Carlson also said she tried to book an appointment online but still quoted a page that asked her to enter a Legacy Health username and password that she did not have. Her adult daughter encountered the same roadblock, and Carlson said she could not find anyone from her health care provider Kaiser Permanente who could help by phone.
Another big surprise came for those who were really able to plan appointments. Although the governor of Oregon said the oldest residents of the state would be eligible from Monday, no appointments were available on the same day at the Portland area’s two vaccination clinics at the Oregon Convention Center and Portland International Airport.
With the exception of a separate appointment on Tuesday, which was apparently a fortune that local health providers could not explain, the earliest appointments were available from Wednesday.
It is unclear how many seniors – if any – were shot across Oregon on Monday. The Oregonian / OregonLive asked the Oregon Health Authority for the information, but a spokesman for the agency said he could not say yet.
In some rural parts of the state, elderly people ended up on dead-end streets with no immediate prospect of getting shot in the arm. Some provinces have told seniors they are on the waiting list, or said they need to fill out an interest form, and officials will make contact.
Meanwhile, health care provider Asante, who vaccinated residents of Jackson and Josephine counties in southern Oregon, said it would not provide first doses for the elderly or anyone else this week after the Oregon health authority cut off its weekly supply.
“Our goal is to vaccinate everyone who wants to shoot, but our hands are tied by a lack of vaccine,” Asante spokeswoman Laurent Van Sickle said in an email.
“The state did not tell us why the administration of the first dose was not sent to us,” she added. “However, we are very aware that the Portland area has received more doses.”
The state – or more specifically, Brown – has been the subject of criticism over vaccination vaccines for weeks now. Brown and the health authority are currently working on vaccines for the elderly due to the governor’s decision to allow an estimated 152,000 daycare, preschool and K-12 employees for a first dose on January 25th. This is despite a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in January to immediately start vaccinating Americans aged 65 and older. Oregon is one of the very last in the country to open vaccinations to all the elderly.
Allen, director of the health authority, said last week it could be early May before the state has enough vaccine to vaccinate fully, with 75% of the elderly aged 65 and over wanting to be. He said the state may be eligible for people with underlying conditions and essential workers in early April – and by July.
The discussion process for vaccination varies from country to country. The state has set up covidvaccine.oregon.gov, which contains a link with more links to country websites, some of which contain information on how to schedule appointments. Residents who are not sure if they are also eligible can find out if they qualify by visiting the state’s website getvaccinated.oregon.gov.
Residents can also email [email protected] with questions or call 211 to schedule an appointment in some parts of the state.
Despite the problems that many encountered on Monday, thousands of others were able to make appointments.
Peggy Sigler, who lives outside Canby, said she had booked a time slot for a 92-year-old family member who has mobility issues. According to her, it was a relief to get a slot at the driveway of the airport. But she is still worried that it will be an hour-long ordeal that exposes her and her lover to prolonged close contact in a car before one of them is vaccinated.
She thinks it would be smart for public health officials to provide clinics across the region so that elderly residents do not have to travel that far.
But she does not lose sight of the fact that her family is one of the lucky ones. Sigler said she knows that many other seniors may not be able to figure out how to book an appointment – and that they may not have anyone in their lives who can help them.
“She does not use a computer,” Sigler said of her family member. “… A flip phone is the scope of her technology.”
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– Aimee Green; [email protected]; @o_aimee