Seniors seeking vaccines struggle with online signups
Annette Carlin feels trapped. Before the pandemic, Carlin, who is 84, loved to go on walks in Novato, Calif., with her grandchildren and dance at the senior center. Since March, though, she has been stuck indoors. She has been eager to sign up for a vaccine and begin returning to normal life.
But booking an appointment has been a technological nightmare. Carlin cannot afford to buy a computer and would not know how to navigate the internet in search of a shot even if she could. While members of her family might be able to help her there, she avoids seeing them as a safety precaution.
“It’s very frustrating,” Carlin said on her flip phone. “I feel like everybody else got the vaccine, and I didn’t.”
The chaotic vaccine rollout has come with a maze of confusing registration pages and clunky health care websites. And the technological savvy required to navigate the text alerts, push notifications and email reminders that are second nature to the digital generation has put older adults like Carlin, who need the vaccine the most, at a disadvantage. As a result, seniors who lack tech skills are missing out on potentially lifesaving shots.
The digital divide between generations has always been stark, but the pandemic’s abrupt curtailing of in-person interactions has made that division even more apparent.
Advocates for older Americans, 22 million of whom lack wired broadband access at home, say it is ridiculous that a program mostly aimed at vaccinating vulnerable seniors is so dependent on internet know-how, Twitter
announcements and online event pages.
“We’re running into a crisis where connectivity is a life-ordeath alternative for people,” said Tom Kamber, executive director of Older Adults Technology Services, a nonprofit that trains seniors to use technology. “It couldn’t get much more stark than people being told, ‘If you go outside, you’re likely to be at risk of dying.’ ”
People in nursing homes, among the first to get vaccines, had staff to assist them. But when vaccines became available to a wider group of older adults in late December and early January, many who lived alone had to navigate the rollout by themselves.
Federal agencies like the Administration for Community Living, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as nonprofits say they are doing what they can to guide older adults, but they are stretched thin. (Seniors can call the Administration for Community Living’s Eldercare Locator number for assistance at 1-800-677-1116.)
“I don’t know where to go,” said Cheyrl Lathrop, a 74-year-old resident of Richmond, Va., who has watched younger, more techliterate people nearby find ways to be vaccinated. “I get frustrated with the computer, and then I just give up.”
Some seniors are relying on younger relatives to browse websites
and stay up at all hours in hopes of booking a slot. Lathrop’s daughter, Sheri Blume, got her mother an appointment after weeks of searching.
Plenty of seniors do feel comfortable texting, tweeting and surfing the internet. But for those who do not, taking the time to learn a new skill often feels daunting, Kamber said. Older Adults Technology Services has taught 48,000 people how to get started online since the pandemic began, he said, and operates a tech support hotline. When vaccine signups began, staff on the phones fielded thousands of questions about how to book appointments.
Area Agencies on Aging, part of a national aging network funded by the federal government and overseen by the Administration for Community Living, are also helping out. Local chapters have been calling seniors and helping them register for vaccine appointments over the phone or in person, said Sandy Markwood, chief executive of the Area Agencies, which include more than 600 nonprofit regional centers that are guided by state governments.
The coronavirus relief bill passed by the House includes $470 million for supportive services for older Americans, including vaccine outreach. The Administration for Community Living is working with the CDC on a public awareness campaign for seniors, said Edwin Walker, the group’s deputy assistant secretary for aging. But that initiative is still in the planning stage.
In the meantime, volunteer groups have popped up to help. In Miami, Katherine Quirk and her fiancé, Russ Schwartz, started a Facebook group in January to disseminate information about vaccine availability in their area. The group has ballooned into 27,000 members seeking help and offering tips, and the effort has helped thousands get vaccinated.
“It’s amazing, overwhelming,” said Quirk, 44, a nurse. “We’ve been called vaccine angels.”
For those still waiting for their shot, though, hope seems far away. In Novato, Carlin spends her time watching the news on television in case there is a mention of where to get a shot. A granddaughter has been trying to find one for her, but without success.
“I’m used to getting out and going and going and doing everything,” she said. If she were vaccinated, “I could go on with life, but now I feel like I’m on hold.”