AARP Arizona demands data on COVID vaccinations for seniors

The state’s largest advocacy group for seniors called on Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday to begin releasing information on how many older Arizonans, by race and ethnicity, have received the COVID-19 vaccine.

AARP also wants the state to release the percentage of residents and staff in long-term care facilities who have received first and second doses of the life-saving vaccine.

Without the data, AARP Arizona’s letter said they can’t know whether the most vulnerable are being prioritized. The group was also critical of the state website used to book vaccine appointments, saying it was difficult to use for older people who are not computer savvy.

“Our most vulnerable are basically being left behind in the vaccine process because they are not able to navigate the website, “said Dana Marie Kennedy, state director for AARP Arizona, in an interview with The Arizona Republic.

The Arizona Department of Health Services releases a daily summary of how many vaccine doses have been administered statewide — as of Wednesday it was 554,760. But it has not released data on the specific groups who are eligible and have received the vaccine — such as those over 65, residents and staff in long-term care facilities, teachers and health care workers.

AARP’s concerns come six weeks into what has been a rocky vaccine distribution. An initial slow rollout by the counties led the governor to sign an executive order requiring a statewide vaccination allocation system.

Amid fanfare, the state transformed the parking lot of the State Farm Stadium in Glendale into a 24/7 drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination site on Jan. 12.

People have lauded the site for its friendly volunteers and its fast-moving administration of vaccines, but securing an appointment can be challenging. Others have complained the state’s sign-up site to book vaccines is difficult to use.

Kennedy said some people report trying all day, or for multiple days, with no success. Call-in numbers designed to help people result in long holds that sometimes drop calls.

People who are fortunate enough to get their first doses have reported difficulty finding appointments for second doses. Some are handed a vaccination card and a date range for when to get their second doses, but no appointment times. Others are told they will get an email to sign up for an appointment, only to then be directed back to the state’s sign-up site that says no appointments are available.

This is unacceptable, Kennedy wrote in the letter to the governor.

Bob Dorfman, 75, of Phoenix was among those who had to hunt for a second dose. He received his first dose at a site run by Maricopa County Public Health in Chandler on Jan. 13. While there, he was told to come back to the same place for his second dose.

“We will send you an email when you can sign up,” he said he was told.

He waited eagerly for the email. But when he received it, it directed to him a registration site that said no appointments were available. After first calling the county and then the state, he was able to secure an appointment time at a different site, State Farm Stadium, for mid-February at 3 a.m.

That would have been more than 30 days since his first vaccine, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend that people get the doses as close to the recommended interval as possible, which for the Pfizer-made version of the shot is three weeks.

He has since been able to book an earlier appointment on Feb. 4 at a Maricopa County-operated site at the Arizona State Fairgrounds at a much more reasonable time: 3:45 p.m.

The governor’s office and ADHS did not respond to requests for comment on the AARP letter from The Arizona Republic. ADHS also has not responded to public-records requests from The Republic for detailed breakdowns on the number of vaccines that have been given in each of the groups eligible for vaccines, including a request for breakdowns by race and ethnicity.

Dr. Cara Christ, director of the state Department of Health Services, has said in recent news conferences that the state is making enhancements to its appointment processes and website. ADHS announced on Wednesday that people vaccinated at state-run sites, which include State Farm Stadium and Phoenix Municipal Stadium, can now schedule second dose appointments while in line to receive first doses.

Christ has said demand for vaccine has exceeded supply with the state advocating for additional vaccines from the federal government beyond what it receives in the weekly allotment.

“The biggest hurdle is the amount of vaccine that is coming into the state,” she said at a Jan. 22 news conference.

State Farm Stadium is administering about 6,000 doses per day but has the capacity to vaccinate 12,000 or 16,000 people, she said last week. The state is launching a second site on Feb. 1 at Phoenix Municipal Stadium “with very, very few doses because of the limited supply,” she said. Christ said that facility has the same capacity as State Farm.

“We could be doing 20,000 to 30,000 Arizonans a day if we had sufficient vaccine quantity,” she said.

AARP: Vaccinations not moving fast enough for residents of long-term care facilities

In addition to the state and county vaccine programs, a federal program is sending pharmacists to long-term care facilities to vaccinate residents and staff at long-term care facilities.

Through the federal program, nursing homes and assisted-living facilities chose either CVS Health or Walgreens to offer on-site vaccinations. Teams overseen by pharmacists visit each facility three times: Once to administer the first dose, again to give a second dose and a third clinic to pick up anyone who still needs a vaccine.

Long-term care facilities are using the Moderna vaccine, which requires a 4-week wait between doses and is easier to store than Pfizer’s. Each state must activate when to begin the federal program with those vaccine allocations then set aside from each state’s supply.

ADHS greenlighted vaccines for nursing homes on Dec. 28, but officials didn’t approve a similar program to begin for assisted-living facilities until three weeks later, on Jan. 18. When asked why all long-term care facilities didn’t start at once, ADHS director Christ, blamed limited supply.

“Once we were guaranteed we would have ongoing vaccine, that’s when we activated the assisted living,” she said.

Residents of long-term care facilities — both nursing homes and assisted living centers — remain among the most vulnerable to the virus. An Arizona Republic analysis of county health records has found more than 2,200 people in those facilities have died from COVID-19. As of now, less than half of those facilities have been visited for second doses.

Arizona AARP’s Kennedy said the vaccination process for long-term care facilities is not going fast enough, though it is making progress.

All of the nearly 150 skilled nursing facilities have received first doses. Second doses began this week with CVS reporting that second doses are 30% complete at the 96 nursing homes that have partnered with the company.

Vaccines began last week at assisted-living facilities, and CVS estimates within the next week it will finish first doses at 50% of the 845 facilities under contract.

Walgreens, in a statement, said it was on track to administer vaccines with all skilled nursing facilities completed as of Jan. 25. Clinics in assisted-living facilities are underway with 315 facilities, or 34%, receiving the first dose.

Dave Voepel, executive director of the Arizona Health Care Association, a group that advocates for long-term care facilities, said the vaccine rollout is going “really well” so far.

“All these things take a little bit of time to ramp up,” he said. “Once scheduling kicks in and they know how much Moderna (vaccine) they have, it gets kicked into high gear.”