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Eligible New York City seniors, desperate to get the COVID-19 vaccine, said on Friday that they couldn’t find any available spots and were fed up with the complicated online jab registration system. Big Apple.
Frank Rodgers, 71, of Staten Island, has made several attempts to make an appointment for him and his wife, 66, to get the vaccine since they became eligible earlier this month, but continues to run into the walls.
“We don’t have an appointment. We don’t know where to go, ”Rodgers said. “All of our possibilities to get an appointment for the vaccine – there aren’t any.”
Rodgers, a private company security guard, said he tried to make an appointment at one of the city’s vaccination centers in the borough.
“There was no availability,” he says. “Then he went in February, then in March and there was still no availability.”
Additionally, Rodgers said the city’s online check-in system makes the process even more difficult.
“I’m an IT expert, but there are people my age who have no idea how to log in and make an appointment. All of these people are excluded, ”he said.
68-year-old Brooklyn resident said she had ‘given up’ on trying to secure an appointment for a vaccine as the city, as well as the state, struggled with a shortage of coveted coronavirus doses .
“There is no availability,” said the woman from Park Slope, who did not want to be identified.
The retiree echoed the frustrations over the city’s buggy date registration system.
“Whoever designed the program should be shot,” she said, adding that future vaccinees are forced to keep entering the same information every time they try to make an appointment at one of the sites. public or private vaccination programs listed on the website.
Less than two weeks ago, Alyssa Alaimo, 29, came to the aid of her Staten Island grandparents, aged 82 and 75, who were struggling to navigate the vaccine registration system at the city.
“My nonna works on computer and Facebook and could not work [the city] Alaimo said, noting that his grandparents thought Big Apple’s system for registering for a shot involved “too many steps” and was “unclear”.
“They asked me to make appointments for them because they didn’t know how,” Alaimo said.
Alaimo’s grandparents were finally able to land a difficult-to-get appointment to get the vaccine, but it was canceled due to a vaccine shortage.
Frances Kraemer, 81, of Queens was able to secure an appointment for the vaccine next month at Mount Sinai Hospital, but said she received an email advising her to ‘find other options vaccination ”due to the limited vaccine supply.
“So it’s a little uncertain now. I don’t feel safe, ”she says. “I am very confused, anxious and worried.”
This week, the city was forced to postpone more than 22,000 appointments for the first-dose vaccine for the two-dose vaccine and to close its 15 vaccination centers in the five districts until Sunday due to a shortage supply.
Staten Island councilor Joe Borelli told the Post that his 68-year-old father, Alex, was also having trouble getting an appointment for the vaccine.
“There are just no slots and not even an option – ‘OK, we can take you three weeks’ or whatever,” Borelli said. “You have to learn to play with the system, such as when to call.”
Borelli added, “It shouldn’t be like trying to get tickets to a Yankee playoff game.”
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