For seniors, getting a COVID vaccine isn’t always easy. How to sign up for an appointment
Suzanne Jumper needed a nap by the time she was through.
Her neighbors in Sacramento’s Curtis Park neighborhood are 75 and 100 years old. At 72, Jumper helped the two sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine shots they’ll need to shield themselves from the virus, scouring appointment sites on her smartphone.
“I spent over two hours. I took a nap when I was done. It felt like I was at work again, but I love my neighbors,” Jumper said Wednesday. “I have another friend, she’s 100. She reads email, but nobody’s invited her for a shot.”
Jumper greeted a reporter over the phone like an old friend - the phone call like a chat with a neighbor over a backyard fence or a visit on the front lawn. But she felt her friends’ frustration and voiced some of her own.
“I don’t know what people are supposed to do,” Jumper said. “If you don’t have people (to help), then you’re done in.”
Vaccines are available at sites ranging from mobile vaccination sites to health care networks and supermarket pharmacies. Two more chains — CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens — add to the list of options. Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, forecast a coming “open season” for vaccinations by April.
But for the seniors and super seniors now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines, navigating the online tangle of websites and web links to schedule their vaccine appointments has become an exercise in frustration.
“The frustration is that each county is doing something totally different,” said Pam Miller, executive director of Agency on Aging - Area 4, which provides services for seniors and caregivers in the Sacramento area and in Yuba, Sutter, Nevada and Sierra counties. “If you don’t have a smartphone or a family member who can help, it’s very difficult.”
Miller suggests seniors try to work with their doctor to set up an appointment or get help from their children, grandchildren, a neighbor or friend.
Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties also have free 211 telephone helplines to direct people to community services, though telephone wait times can be long, she said.
And Miller’s agency has a small cadre of counselors to help people through the application process. The agency’s phone number is 916-486-1876.
But the frustration only mounts for seniors without computers or the computer skills needed to wend their way through the various websites and vaccine application processes.
The problem also uncovers, like so much during this pandemic, deeper issues surrounding seniors’ computer access and literacy.
“Even before (the pandemic) we had come to realize how deep the digital divide is for older adults, but this has been a double whammy,” Miller said. “The vaccination issue has put a magnifier on it. People who need it the most don’t have that capacity.”
A January report on older adults’ computer connectivity sheds more light: nearly 22 million U.S. seniors 65 or older — 42% of that group — do not have broadband access, according to the study by Older Adults Technology Services and the Humana Foundation.
Older adults who don’t have a high school degree or who have an income of less than $25,000 are 10 times more likely to not have broadband internet service, according to the report. Seniors who are Black or Latino or who live in rural areas like the counties served by Agency on Aging - Area 4 are more likely than the general population to lack broadband internet.
Geoffrey A. Fowler, technology columnist at the Washington Post, offered a tip sheet for seniors and their families in his column this week (Fowler gig-tested the list to help his own parents):
▪ Run through the websites several times to familiarize yourself before filling out the application.
▪ Be sure to have an ID, address, your medical insurance cards and codes handy.
▪ Find hotlines and other phone numbers. Sacramento-area health care providers and pharmacies have numbers to call; and, remember the 2-1-1 network numbers in Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties.
▪ Community websites are also cropping up to help. VaccinateCA posts information on where COVID-19 vaccines are available, vaccine providers, county policies and who is eligible across the state. The people behind the site call medical professionals across California, collect the information and post it to the site.
Those without internet access can call the state’s COVID-19 hotline at 833-422-4255 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
▪ Set up an email account to establish an account with your vaccine provider and to confirm your appointment.
Most of all, be patient. This can be time-consuming work. But, as the Post’s Fowler said: “It’s worth your patience.”
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