‘Unbelievably complicated’
Danbury area struggles with COVID vaccine signups
Despite last week’s welcome news of increased vaccine doses headed to Connecticut, local officials are still struggling with one issue in vaccine rollout: Getting their 75+ residents signed up on the federal website that most towns are using to organize vaccine appointments.
While towns and cities are maxing out their doses during various scheduled clinics, local officials say the sign-up process on the Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS), is proving unwieldy. Eligible residents are supposed to be able to log into the system, sign up using a unique email address, and receive their appointment details. While use of this system is optional, local vaccination efforts frequently rely on it to organize appointments across the state.
Yet, some older residents do not have a computer at home. Others just don’t know how to use one. Couples, at times, share a single email address and are therefore only able to obtain one vaccination spot in the system. The list goes on.
Officials in each of the seven
towns and cities in the Danbury area Hearst Connecticut Media spoke with voiced concern over the fact that elderly residents struggle to navigate the website themselves, or lack the proper credentials— a personal email— to obtain a coveted vaccination spot. While they’re all conducting or planning clinics at various intervals based on the number of doses received from the state, many are concerned about VAMS accessibility.
Even the state vaccine hotline set up by Gov. Ned Lamont to help seniors book appointments has had to add an additional 80 people as of Thursday to take calls and bring down wait times.
Senior registration struggles
As of 2019, about one in four people over the age of 65 was not using the internet, and of those who were using the internet, only about 80 percent used email, according to data from Statista. But access to internet and email are also a far cry from being able to navigate a specific website.
“Our seniors are finding this just unbelievably complicated and confusing,” said Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker.
Redding First Selectwoman Julia Pemberton was on the phone with an older couple who was trying, unsuccessfully, to get set up on VAMS. But it was hard to navigate over the phone.
“I said, ‘Where do you live, I’m coming over!’” Pemberton then spent the next hour and a half on the couple’s front porch, all three shivering in their parkas, while Pemberton helped them juggle devices, passwords, and activation codes to register. She also knows of friends who have had to help their parents register, spending over an hour trying to get through the system, as well.
“Our residents here, while anxious, are being very patient,” Pemberton said.
Redding has not yet begun its own clinics, but plans to start vaccinating in February, according to Pemberton. For now, residents can register through the town to get vaccinated when local clinics begin, or they can make an appointment through VAMS to get vaccinated more immediately in nearby towns.
It is clear that this demographic has specific needs, and the federal plan did not take this into consideration, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said. “That’s been left up to the locals.”
COVID anxieties paired with a difficult-to-navigate website and a brand new vaccine are leaving older residents nervous and unsure.
“If you don’t have a computer you sure as hell don’t have an email,” Marconi said. “All of those people have to be hand-held and walked through the system.”
Organizing the chaos
In order to combat the crush of calls from frustrated residents, several towns have created call lines or instructional videos to help seniors navigate the sign-up process. Most have also relied on help from their senior centers. New Milford has a YouTube video to help. Bethel has a special hotline. But Bethel’s Knickerbocker said they’ve received so many calls they had to create additional lines and hire more staff to manage demand.
“The phone lines have just been slammed with calls, totally overwhelmed,” Knickerbocker said. “It’s been a struggle to keep up with it.”
In Danbury, the story was the same.
“The phones here started ringing off the hook, the phones at the senior center were ringing off the hook,” said Mayor Joe Cavo of the early days of registration. Danbury began vaccinating first responders and medical providers in December, and has since moved on to the next phase. As of Tuesday, the city has innocluated close to 1,686 people through the Danbury Health Department clinic, not including those who have received the vaccine from other city partners.
Calls to the mayor’s office, the local senior center, and health department have since lessened, thanks, in part to a special callline set up by the state, but Cavo said they’re still working through issues.
“As far as yesterday, we were still fielding calls and trying to help people get through the VAMS system,” Cavo said.
New Fairfield has not yet started vaccination clinics, but hopes to begin on Feb. 2 at their senior center, according to First Selectwoman Pat Del Monaco. The town has received calls from residents and has had to help them sign up on VAMS, Del Monaco said.
Getting technical
The specific issue of couples sharing email addresses was one that popped up in several towns. The system requires a unique email for each person. Sometimes, residents don’t have one, or else share with a spouse or partner.
“Couples were registering and thinking they were registering for both people in their couple, and only one person would get an invite back from VAMS,” said Cavo.
In light of this issue, New Milford has encouraged residents to create unique email addresses so both partners can sign up, according to Mayor Pete Bass. He estimates that about 10 to 12 percent of the calls they receive right now are about email issues or problems signing up in VAMS.
And even after registering, emails sometimes get filtered out by certain providers or email servers. Brookfield First Selectman Steve Dunn is encouraging residents to make sure VAMS emails are pre-approved as soon as they sign up. One couple in their 70s told Dunn their email provider hadn’t just filtered out the appointment message, but had completely destroyed it.
“I’ve seen this three or four times,” Dunn said. As such, Dunn and his assistant have been spending many hours trying to help residents secure their vaccine appointments and adjust their inboxes.
The system also seems to leave some people waiting weeks for their appointments, while others are given spots within 24 hours.
“People I know personally put their names into VAMS a month ago and are still waiting, and haven’t heard a thing,” said Knickerbocker. “We’re muddling through.”
Moving forwards
Despite hiccups with senior registrations, towns and cities are running through their doses quickly, and officials said they would welcome more. They continue to encouraged residents to reach out when encountering any issues so they can make sure everyone gets an appointment.
Bethel, who is inoculating people 65+, also has its own registration system in place, separate from the federal one, where residents can sign up. Since their local clinic application was recently approved, they can start inoculations outside of VAMS. Knickerbocker said residents have found the town’s system much easier to navigate, but that it has created confusion about which system — local or federal — they should use.
Knickerbocker is hoping to get their first local health department clinic up and running this Saturday, pending the town’s receipt of their allotted 100 doses.
“People have had to learn how to use Zoom and Google Hangouts and Google Chat, and I’m always impressed by people’s ability to adapt and overcome these issues,” Cavo said of the older population. “People are out there trying, and I give them an A for effort. If they can’t get it, we’re here to help them.”