DENVER (AP) – Howard Jones, who is 83, was on the phone for three to four hours every day to sign up for a coronavirus vaccine.
Jones, who lives alone in Colorado Springs, has no internet access, which made it much more difficult for him to book an appointment. It took him about a week. He said the confusion has heightened his concern about contracting what could be a life-threatening illness at his age.
“It’s been hell,” said Jones. “I am 83 years old and it is just awful not to use a computer.”
As states in the US are rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine for those over 65, seniors are trying to figure out how to sign up to take their photos. Many states and provinces ask people to make appointments online, but glitchy websites, overwhelmed phone lines, and a patchwork of fast-changing rules hurt older people who are often less tech-savvy, may live far from vaccination sites and probably don’t have internet access at all , especially people of color and people who are poor.
According to data from the US Census Bureau, nearly 9.5 million seniors, or 16.5% of US adults 65 and older, do not have Internet access. Access is worse for seniors of color: More than 25% of Black people, about 21% of Hispanic people, and more than 28% of Native Americans aged 65 and older have no way to get online. That’s compared to 15.5% of white seniors.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Rebecca Parish is appalled by the bureaucratic process and continues to call for help from seniors. One of her patients, who is 83, called her in tears and was unable to navigate the online appointment system at Rite Aid. A 92-year-old woman called her before sunrise this week after reading about her in a newspaper and telling her, “I’ll do anything to get this vaccine.”
So Parish took matters into his own hands. She contacted Contra Costa County and was given 500 doses to vaccinate people at a high school in Lafayette, California this weekend. She works with nonprofits to identify seniors who don’t 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 been trying to find other solutions to ease the confusion and help seniors sign up, just as the Trump administration urged states this week to make the country’s 57.6 million seniors eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine..
Some places have found that simple ideas work. In Morgantown, West Virginia, county health officials used a large road construction sign to list the phone number seniors could call for an appointment. Others are considering partnering with community groups or setting up mobile clinics for hard-to-reach populations.
Some seniors may be waiting for a response from their doctor. But there are limits to using health care systems, pharmacies, or primary care providers to reach disadvantaged 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 US and their cold-temperature requirements “don’t lend themselves to being sent to the countryside.”
In McComb, Mississippi, where 77.5% of the population is black and nearly half of the population lives below the poverty line, 71-year-old Mary Christian made an online appointment with the help of her son. But the only sites available are at least an hour away from her hometown.
“I am 71 years old, and my kids will not be happy driving 200 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 deliver vaccines to disadvantaged populations, such as seniors.
Dr. Jean Kutner, chief medical officer at UCHealth University at Colorado Hospital, said she is volunteering at a clinic hosted by a church that brings in the vaccine and helps build trust between health professionals and residents.
For now, UCHealth is scheduling appointments online, but Kutner said a COVID-19 hotline is in the works due to the high volume of phone calls from seniors.
“Seniors are comfortable with the phone side of things, so that’s not really a technological barrier for them,” said Gretchen Garofoli, associate professor at West Virginia University’s School of Pharmacy.
But even one Colorado health care provider who set up vaccine clinics for underprivileged communities, Salud Family Health Centers, said their phone lines can’t handle the number of calls they receive and encouraged people to get online.
When calling for an appointment is an option, finding a number is often only possible online.
That was the problem for Jones, the 83-year-old in Colorado. He was a retired service member and considered contacting Veterans Affairs but couldn’t find a phone number.
He asked for help from a friend, who gave him several numbers. One of these led to Angela Cortez, chief of communications for AARP in Colorado.
AARP has been inundated with phone calls from seniors like Jones who don’t have the Internet and need help navigating the websites of health departments, healthcare providers and vaccine application forms, Cortez said.
“It’s not like you can show up somewhere to get vaccinated,” Cortez said. “And if you don’t have access to a computer, you’re at a disadvantage.”
Even Cortez was in trouble when she tried to help Jones. She called numbers on the Colorado Health Department website and several Safeway stores after Jones learned that friends had been vaccinated there.
Ultimately, Cortez was told to sign up online.
“I am an employee of AARP, one; and two, I’m the communications director – I’m a trained journalist – and I have a computer, three, and I can’t even reach anyone, ”she said.
A friend was finally able to get Jones an appointment for Saturday. But he’s frustrated that he had to “go through side channels” instead of doing it himself.
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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 Corps Member for the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on classified issues.
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This story has been corrected to show that there are 57.6 million seniors in the US, not 54 million, according to data from the Census Bureau.