By PATTY NIEBERG and SUMAN NAISHADHAM, The Associated Press
DENVER – Howard Jones, 83, was on the phone for three to four hours every day trying to sign up for a coronavirus vaccine.
Jones, who lives alone in Colorado Springs, does not have the internet, and that makes it much harder for him to make an appointment. It took him about a week. He said the confusion contributed to his anxiety about contracting a life-threatening illness at his age.
“It was hell,” Jones said. “I’m 83 and not using a computer is just awful.”
As states across the U.S. roll out the COVID-19 vaccine for people 65 and older, senior citizens are trying to figure out how to sign up to get their shots. Many states and provinces are asking people to make online appointments, but glitzy websites, overwhelming phone lines, and a patchwork of rapidly changing rules are intoxicating older people who are often less technologically proficient, may live far from vaccination sites, and probably do not have internet access at all. people of color and the poor.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 9.5 million seniors, or 16.5% of U.S. adults 65 and older, lack Internet access. Elderly people of color have access worse: more than 25% of black people, about 21% of Hispanics, and more than 28% of Native Americans 65 and older have no way to connect online. This is compared to 15.5% of the white elderly.
In the bay of San Francisco, dr. Rebecca Parish upset about the bureaucratic process and ongoing calls for help from the elderly. One of her patients, who is 83, called her in tears and could not navigate the online appointment system at Rite Aid. A 92-year-old woman called her before dawn after reading about her in a newspaper and telling her, ‘I will do anything to get this vaccine. ‘
Therefore, Parish took matters into her own hands. She reached out to Contra Costa County and received 500 doses to vaccinate people at a high school in Lafayette, California over the weekend. She works with non-profit organizations to identify seniors who do not live in nursing homes and are at risk of falling through the cracks. All her appointments have been claimed, but she will start taking them again as soon as more doses are available.
Some health officials have tried to find other solutions to alleviate the confusion and help senior citizens sign up, just as the Trump administration this week requested that the country’s 54 million elderly people be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Some places have found that simple ideas work. In Morgantown, West Virginia, county health officials used a large signpost to call seniors’ phone numbers to make an appointment. Others are considering collaborating with community groups or setting up mobile clinics for populations that are difficult to reach.
Some seniors may be waiting to hear from their doctor. But there are limits to the use of healthcare systems, pharmacies or primary care providers to reach people who are not under the internet, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
She said the two coronavirus vaccines available in the US and their cold temperature requirements do not result in them being sent to rural areas. “
In McComb, Mississippi, where 77.5% of the population is black and almost half of the population lives below the poverty line, 71-year-old Mary Christian made an appointment online with her son’s help. But the only available sites are at least an hour away from her place of residence.
“I’m 71 years old and my children will not be happy if I drive (100) 200 miles to get a vaccine,” said Christian, who has diabetes.
Some medical systems, such as UCHealth in Colorado, try to work with community groups to get vaccines to underprivileged people, such as the elderly.
Dr Jean Kutner, chief medical officer at UCHealth University in Colorado Hospital, said she volunteered at a clinic hosted by a church that injects the vaccine and helps build trust between health care workers and residents.
For now, UCHealth is planning appointments online, but Kutner said a COVID-19 hotline is underway due to the amount of calls from seniors.
“Seniors are comfortable with the phone side, so it’s not really a technological barrier for them,” said Gretchen Garofoli, an associate professor at the School of Pharmacy in West Virginia.
But even a health care provider in Colorado that sets up vaccination clinics for underserved communities, Salud Family Health Centers, said their phone lines could not handle the amount of calls they received and encouraged people to go online.
When you want to make an appointment, it is usually only online to find a number.
That was the problem for Jones, the 83-year-old in Colorado. He was a retired service member and is considering contacting Veterans Affairs but could not find a phone number.
He asked for help from a friend who gave him several numbers. One of these led to Angela Cortez, head of communications at AARP in Colorado.
AARP has been flooded with calls from seniors like Jones who do not have the Internet and need help navigating the websites of health departments, healthcare providers and vaccine registration forms, Cortez said.
“It’s not like you can show up somewhere and get vaccinated,” Cortez said. “And if you do not have access to a computer, you are harmed.”
Even Cortez had problems when she tried to help Jones. She posted figures on the Colorado Department of Health website and several Safeway stores after Jones heard that friends had been vaccinated there.
Eventually, Cortez was told to sign up online.
‘I’m an AARP employee, one; and two, I’m the communications director – I’m a trained journalist – and I have a computer, three, and I can not even get through anyone, ”she said.
A friend was finally able to get Jones an appointment for Saturday. But he is frustrated because he had to ‘go through side channels’ instead of doing it himself.
Associated Press reporter Janie Har in San Francisco and data journalist Larry Fenn in New York contributed to this report.
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