DENVER (AP) – 83-year-old Howard Jones was on the phone for three to four hours each day trying to sign up for a coronavirus vaccine.
Jones, who lives alone in Colorado Springs, has no internet, and that made the appointment much more difficult. It took about a week. He said the confusion has added to his anxiety to detect what could be a life-threatening illness at his age.
“It’s been hell,” Jones said. “I’m 83 and not using a computer is terrible.”
As U.S. states launch the COVID-19 vaccine in seniors 65 and older, seniors strive to figure out how to sign up to get their shots. Many states and counties require people to make online appointments, but failed websites, overflowing phone lines, and a rapidly changing set of rules allow older people, often less tech-savvy, to live far from online dating sites. vaccination and are more likely to have no access to the Internet, especially people of color and poor.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 9.5 million seniors, or 16.5% of U.S. adults age 65 and older, do not have access to the Internet. Access is worse for older people of color: more than 25% of blacks, about 21% of Hispanics, and more than 28% of Native Americans age 65 or older have no way to connect. This compares with 15.5% of white seniors.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Rebecca Parish has been dismayed by the bureaucratic process and has continued to call for help from seniors. One of her patients, 83, called her crying, unable to browse Rite Aid’s online dating system. This week, a 92-year-old woman called her early in the morning after reading it in the newspaper about her, telling her, “I’ll do anything to get this vaccine.”
So Parish took matters into his own hands. He arrived in Contra Costa County and acquired 500 doses to vaccinate people this weekend at a high school in Lafayette, California. He works with nonprofits to identify seniors who do not live in residences and runs the risk of falling through the cracks. All of your appointments have been claimed, but you will start taking them again once more doses are available.
Some health officials have tried to find other solutions to alleviate the confusion and help senior citizens sign up, as the Trump administration urged states this week to make the nation’s 57.6 million seniors able to enroll. eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Some sites have found that simple ideas work. In Morgantown, West Virginia, county health officials used a large road construction sign to list the phone number for seniors to request an appointment. Others consider partnering with community groups or setting up mobile clinics for harder-to-reach populations.
Some seniors may be waiting to hear from their doctor. But there are limits to the use of health care systems, pharmacies or primary care providers to reach unattended people who don’t have internet, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
He said the two coronavirus vaccines available in the United States and their cold temperature requirements “do not lend themselves to being shipped to rural areas.”
In McComb, Mississippi, where 77.5% of residents are black and nearly half the population lives below the poverty line, Mary Christian, 71, made an online appointment with the help of her son . But the only places available are at least an hour from his life.
“I am 71 years old and my children will not be happy for me driving 1 to 200 miles away to get a vaccine,” said Christian, who has diabetes.
Some medical systems, such as UCHealth in Colorado, are trying to partner with community groups to get vaccines in underserved populations, such as the elderly.
Dr. Jean Kutner, chief physician at UCHealth University at Colorado Hospital, said she volunteered at a church-hosted clinic that provides the vaccine and helps build trust among health care workers and residents.
For now, UCHealth schedules online appointments, but Kutner said there is a COVID-19 hotline in operation due to the volume of calls from seniors.
“Seniors are comfortable with the phone side, so that’s not really a technological barrier for them,” said Gretchen Garofoli, an associate professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy at West Virginia University.
But even a Colorado health care provider who set up vaccine clinics for underserved communities, Family Health Centers, said their phone lines can’t handle the volume of calls they receive and encouraged people to connect to the Internet.
When requesting an appointment is an option, finding a number is often only possible online.
That was the problem with Jones, 83, in Colorado. A retired service member, he thought about contacting Veterans Affairs but found no phone number.
He asked for help from a friend, who gave him several numbers. One led to Angela Cortez, head of communications at AARP in Colorado.
AARP has been inundated with calls from seniors like Jones who don’t have Internet and need help navigating health department websites, care providers and vaccine registration forms, Cortez said.
“It’s not like you could show up somewhere and get vaccinated,” Cortez said. “And if you don’t have access to a computer, you’re at a disadvantage.”
Even Cortez had problems while trying to help Jones. He called the numbers listed on the Colorado Department of Health website and several Safeway stores after Jones heard his friends were vaccinated there.
Finally, Cortez was told to register online.
“I am an AARP employee; and two, I’m the communications director, I’m a trained journalist, and I have a computer, three, I can’t even reach anyone, ”he said.
A friend was finally able to get a date for Jones on Saturday. But he is frustrated at having to “go through side channels” instead of doing it himself.
___
Naishadham reported from Phoenix. Associated Press reporter Janie Har in San Francisco and data journalist Larry Fenn in New York contributed to this report. Nieberg is a member of the body of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit services program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on covert issues.
___
This story has been corrected to show that there are 57.6 million elderly people in the United States, not 54 million, according to Census Bureau data.