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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, which makes it much more difficult for him to book a date. It took him about a week. He said confusion added to his anxiety about contracting what could be a life-threatening illness at his age.
“This has been hell,” Jones said. “I’m 83 and not using a computer is just terrible.”
As states in the United States roll out the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 and older, seniors are scrambling over how to register for the vaccine. Many states and counties require people to book appointments online, but glitchy websites, overloaded phone lines, and a rapidly changing patchwork of rules bother older people who are often less tech-savvy, can live far away. vaccination sites and are more likely to have Internet access, especially people of color and the poor.
Nearly 9.5 million seniors, or 16.5% of American adults aged 65 and over, do not have access to the Internet, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Access is worse for older people of color: over 25% of blacks, about 21% of Hispanics, and over 28% of Native Americans 65 and over have no way to connect. This is compared to 15.5% of white seniors.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr Rebecca Parish was appalled by the bureaucratic process and the continued calls for help from the elderly. One of her patients, 83, called her in tears, unable to navigate Rite Aid’s online appointment system. A 92-year-old woman called her before dawn this week after reading about her in a newspaper, telling her, “I’ll do anything to get this vaccine.”
So Parish took matters into his own hands. She contacted Contra Costa County and acquired 500 doses to vaccinate people this weekend at a college in Lafayette, Calif. She works with nonprofits to identify seniors who do not live in nursing homes and who are at risk of falling through the cracks. All of her appointments have been requested, but she will resume taking them once the doses are available.
Some health officials have tried to find other solutions to ease the confusion and help seniors enroll, just as the Trump administration urged states this week to make the country’s 54 million seniors eligible. to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Some places have found simple ideas to work. In Morgantown, West Virginia, county health officials used a large road construction sign to indicate the phone number of seniors to call for an appointment. Others are considering partnering with community groups or creating mobile clinics for hard-to-reach populations.
Some older people may be waiting for news from their doctor. But there are limits to using health care systems, pharmacies or primary care providers to reach underserved people who don’t have the internet, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
She said the two coronavirus vaccines available in the United States and their cold temperature requirements “do not lend themselves to being sent to rural areas.”
In McComb, Mississippi, where 77.5 percent of residents are black and nearly half of the population live below the poverty line, Mary Christian, 71, made an online appointment with the help of her son. But the only sites available are at least an hour from her home.
“I’m 71, and my kids won’t be happy that I drive (100) 200 miles away to get the shot,” said Christian, who has diabetes.
Some medical systems, like UCHealth in Colorado, are trying to partner with community groups to immunize underserved populations, such as the elderly.
Dr Jean Kutner, chief medical officer at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, said she volunteers at a church-hosted clinic that brings the vaccine and helps build trust among health workers and residents.
For now, UCHealth is scheduling appointments online, but Kutner said a COVID-19 hotline is being prepared due to the volume of calls from seniors.
“Seniors are comfortable with the phone, so it’s not much of a technological barrier for them,” said Gretchen Garofoli, associate professor in the faculty of pharmacy at the University of West Virginia.
But even a Colorado health care provider set up vaccination clinics for underserved communities, Salud Family Health Centers, said their phone lines couldn’t handle the volume of calls they were receiving and had encouraged people to connect to the Internet.
When calling for an appointment is an option, searching for a number is often only possible online.
That was the problem for Jones, the 83-year-old from Colorado. A retired military man, he considered contacting the Department of Veterans Affairs, but could not find a phone number.
He enlisted the help of a friend, who gave him several numbers. One led to Angela Cortez, communications manager for AARP in Colorado.
The AARP has been inundated with calls from seniors like Jones who don’t have the internet and need help navigating websites for health departments, providers and vaccine registration forms , Cortez said.
“It’s not like you can show up somewhere and get your shot,” Cortez said. “And if you don’t have access to a computer, you are at a disadvantage.”
Even Cortez had trouble trying to help Jones. She called numbers on the Colorado Department of Health website and several Safeway stores after Jones heard friends had been vaccinated there.
Eventually, Cortez was asked to register online.
“I am an AARP employee, a; and secondly, I’m the communications director – I’m a journalist by training – and I have one computer, three, and I can’t even communicate with anyone, ”she said.
A friend was finally able to secure a date for Jones on Saturday. But he is frustrated at having to “go through secondary channels” instead of doing it himself.
Associated Press reporter Janie Har in San Francisco and data reporter Larry Fenn in New York City contributed to this report.
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