Ohio woman, 78, tries to register for a vaccine appointment and accidentally signs up for grocery delivery as senior citizens face series of confusing web pages when booking COVID shots
An elderly Ohio woman attempted to register for a vaccine appointment online but accidentally secured a grocery delivery as seniors across the US face a series of confusing web pages when signing up online for COVID-19 shots.
Lee Freund, 78, of Akron, told the New York Times that she called multiple hospitals and pharmacies for help securing her appointment but they all directed her to a series of confusing web pages.
The unclear directions led her to mistakenly sign up for grocery delivery instead of a vaccine appointment.
'When you're alone, it's frustrating, it's overwhelming, and it's very emotional,' Freund told the Times.
Freund, whose husband died last year, said she didn't want to burden her children and opted out of calling them.
Eventually, she received some much needed assistance from Area Agency on Aging, where a woman booked Freund's appointment.
Freund's story is similar to several senior citizens who have been forced into a virtual environment where they have to rely heavily on computers, phones, tablets and the internet.
Ohio woman, Lee Freund, 78, attempted to register for a vaccine appointment but accidentally signed up for a grocery delivery as seniors across the US face a series of confusing web pages when signing up online for COVID-19 shots (file image)
Freund's story is similar to several senior citizens who have been forced into a virtual environment where they have to rely heavily on computers, phones, tablets and the internet. A senior citizen gets the COVID-19 jab in West Virginia
Some elderly Americans like Annette Carlin, 84, don't have computers and wouldn't know how to navigate the web even if they did.
'It's very frustrating,' Carlin, who still uses a flip phone, told the Times. 'I feel like everybody else got the vaccine, and I didn't.'
More than 22 million elderly Americans lack wired broadband access at home and such information has prompted advocates for the elderly to slam the rollout of the vaccination program, which has seen some states use social media and event pages, like Eventbrite, for updates.
In Missouri, health officials and community groups are working together to help vaccinate seniors and other people who might have difficulty getting to a clinic for the coronavirus.
As part of the vaccination campaign, the Urban League of Metropolitan St Louis is holding one-day vaccination events at senior apartments with the state and the Missouri National Guard.
Health departments and hospitals have set up telephone hotlines to help people who don't have internet.
Local health centers have sent staff to seniors' homes to get residents signed up, and organized buses to bring them to vaccine clinics.
Alberta Smith, 67, said she might not have made it to get her shot without a bus ride to the recent clinic.
'This is a blessing,' Smith told the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
Officials say the elderly are far more likely to die or have severe cases of COVID-19. In Missouri, about 17 per cent of the state's population is 65 or older but that group accounts for 85 per cent of the deaths attributed to the virus.
St Louis's health director, Dr Fredrick Echols, said that eventually vaccination events could be held in churches and other places that are easy for area residents to access.
'We have to stop putting the onus on the people in the community, and we have to do that heavy lifting for them,' Echols said.
Mary Christian, 71, of McComb, Mississippi, recalls the hours she spent on both her cell phone and iPad trying to arrange an appointment online for a COVID-19 vaccination through the Mississippi State Department of Health web site and on their listed registration phone line
Officials say the elderly (pictured waiting in line in LA) are far more likely to die or have severe cases of COVID-19. In Missouri, about 17 per cent of the state's population is 65 or older but that group accounts for 85 per cent of the deaths attributed to the virus
More than 22 million elderly Americans lack wired broadband access at home and such information has prompted advocates to slam the rollout of the vaccination program, which has seen some states use social media and event pages, like Eventbrite, for updates
In Texas, officials are taking a page from Corpus Christi’s playbook and stepping up efforts to vaccinate seniors against COVID-19.
Gov Greg Abbott announced the Save Our Seniors initiative at a news conference in Corpus Christi on Thursday, saying that more than 1,100 National Guard troops will be deployed to help communities identify homebound seniors and vaccinate them against the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo says the city’s fire department has administered 2,000 vaccines in the past month to homebound seniors identified by the city’s Meals on Wheels program and that 144 have been vaccinated fully.
Vaccine rollout is picking up speed across the US, where 15 percent of the population has now had one or more doses, according to Bloomberg data.
So far, more than 75 million doses have been administered to health care workers, nursing home residents and other high-risk Americans.
On average, the US is giving about 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccines a day.
That figure still reflects the delay of six million doses of vaccine that were delayed as historic winter storms swept the country.
On each Saturday and Sunday, a record 2.4 million doses of vaccine were distributed across the US.
Top Biden administration advisor, Dr Anthony Fauci, had optimistically predicted that April would be 'open season' for vaccinations, meaning that he thought that the US would have enough doses that any US adult who wanted a vaccine could get one.
Vaccine rollout is not going smoothly everywhere in the US.
Utah is canceling about 7,200 coronavirus vaccine appointments after an error in the state health department's registration website allowed people without qualifying conditions to register for the shots.
Department spokesman Tom Hudachko said in a statement that the error allowed residents who are not 65 or older or who don't have an underlying medical condition to sign up.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday those appointments are being canceled.
People who meet the state's conditions can keep their vaccine appointments scheduled through Vaccinate.utah.gov. Public school teachers and first responders also are eligible for vaccines.
Utah so far has administered more than 680,000 vaccine doses and estimates that 10 per cent of its 3.2 million population has been fully vaccinated
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson started shipping America's third coronavirus vaccine on Sunday, after it received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which came on Saturday.
The single-shot vaccine prevented 100 per cent of COVID-19 deaths and was 72 per cent effective in US trials, and had a slightly lower efficacy of 66 per cent worldwide, due in large part to the presence of 'super-covid' variants in Brazil and South America.
J&J still thinks it can deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine by July. Combined with the promised doses from Moderna and Pfizer, that would give the US enough vaccine to inoculate every adult in the nation.
No comments: