Stephie Byars and her husband were in a Giant Eagle parking lot when they got the Allegheny Alert.
‘We turned the car off. I had my husband call his parents on his phone and put it on the speaker, and I went to my phone and did the technical stuff, ”said Byars, 37, from Dravosburg.
There were still appointments at the site of the county’s vaccination distribution in Monroeville. The Byars family was just one of thousands who rushed to sign up.
She spoke to her in-laws, both in their seventies, searched the health department’s online sign-up form on her own phone, zoomed in on the form, and noted how the site was lagging as she tried to go through the process.
She has successfully arranged an appointment for her father-in-law for February 12. Then, referred back to the beginning of the form, she started the process again for her mother-in-law. It was too late. Within minutes all slots were filled.
In the Pittsburgh area and across the country, young and millennials are describing having dropped everything to help their elderly relatives sign up for the covid-19 vaccine – often only available through online forms. Many older residents of Western Pennsylvania say they don’t have computers or Internet access, or are not technical enough to navigate the process.
“The accessibility for people who are older and not tech-savvy,” said Byars, “seems a real flaw to me.”
Byars said her in-laws have a computer and an iPad, but they are not well versed in the technology. She said they haven’t even seen the appointment confirmation email yet because her mother-in-law doesn’t know how to access her email.
“I think it’s just hard for us to do that – it’s a generational issue,” said Tamara Thomas, 70, Byars’ mother-in-law, who said she’s been living in her place for almost a year. “We can’t navigate the way they want.”
Thomas said she is grateful to have children who can help.
“I think they forget that those of us who are older don’t have the same tools,” Thomas said.
The problem goes beyond discomfort, lawyers and family members say. The plethora of providers, each with their own registration system and login, creates a system that is difficult to navigate for even the most technically literate residents. The vaccine provider map available on the Pennsylvania Department of Health website lists many pharmacies that, upon further investigation, actually do not have a vaccine supply. Family members say they struggle to balance their own full-time job and their worries by calling dozens of vaccine providers, waiting hours and getting booted from overcrowded websites.
It is almost impossible for older residents with little technical experience to take on such a task. Bill Johnson-Walsh, Pennsylvania state director for AARP, said there are many residents who do not have any form of device access, and when they do, it is usually just for interacting with their grandchildren or playing games.
“It’s statewide,” said Johnson-Walsh. ‘The frustration, the confusion that is going on. We’ve seen hundreds of phone calls in the last few weeks, just asking for help. ”
In a letter to Governor Tom Wolf, Johnson-Walsh and AARP advised people to call a centralized 800 number to have their questions answered, a system in which a real person can walk them through the process. Johnson-Walsh understands the state’s decentralized approach to vaccine distribution – requiring independent hospitals and other suppliers to self-administer doses – but for many of the state’s most at-risk residents, the lack of accessible information makes life-saving vaccines out of reach.
“In order for that death rate to drop, we need to be able to vaccinate those most at risk,” he said.
April Hutcheson, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said the department has an 877 information line that people can call with questions about the process, but ultimately, the appointment will be online. The Area Agencies on Aging, from the Department of Aging, are also working to reach older residents in their communities, she said.
“It will not be one agency that can facilitate all of this,” she said. “This is the greatest vaccination effort that has been made in this state and nation in our history. We all need ourselves to help through that vaccination process. ”
In Allegheny County, officials on Wednesday acknowledged problems with the health department’s current system. Dr. Debra Bogen, the county’s health director, said the department is devising plans to deliver vaccines to high-rises and similar communities, make improvements to the website to prevent it from crashing, and set up a telephone registration line.
“I know this is a disadvantage for those who don’t have access to the Internet, those who can’t navigate those tricky registration sites, and those who can’t look at a computer all day long and click links hoping to make an appointment,” said Bogen.
In the meantime, she asked the residents to help each other navigate the current process.
“It would be great if you could help your parents, help your grandparents, help your neighbors,” Bogen said. “I know the online registration system can be confusing to navigate, even if you are a bit computer savvy. So imagine that you are not wise with computers. ”
Many already do this, but it is not a sustainable strategy. Jerilyn Scott, a teacher in Sewickley, said she’s been calling providers big and small – everywhere from Giant Eagle and Rite Aid to local independent pharmacies and the region’s health systems – in hopes of getting a vaccine for her 82-year-old mother.
“Even for me it’s a mess to navigate it,” said Scott.
Scott described a jumble of websites and links and conflicting information from different agencies about how to arrange a vaccination appointment. She said she has often contacted providers listed on the Allegheny County map because they only have vaccine to be told they don’t. Last week, she waited three hours in Giant Eagle’s online queue, hoping for a slot. She gave up when the website told her she had more than an hour left.
She understands there is a problem with the statewide delivery. But with reports of inconsistent vaccine distribution, including people in phase 1B and later groups gaining access, and a general sense of disarray about the rollout process, she has little confidence that her mother will get the vaccine on time. It feels like the “Wild West,” she said.
“If I felt there was a logical, well-organized system, I would be okay with her waiting in line for her turn,” said Scott. “My problem is that I have the feeling that all kinds of people can jump the line because there is no system. … She will never get a turn. ”
A centralized system or a telephone line that her mother could easily reach would be a start for a solution, she said. For now, Scott is expanding her search to surrounding counties.
“I’ll drive her for an hour or two to do it, I’ll take the day off from work,” she said.
Residents throughout Western Pennsylvania had similar feelings. Desperation to vaccinate their elderly relatives, many of whom have been incarcerated for months, is growing.
“If I don’t get a vaccine until October, I don’t care,” said Arlan Hess, a Mt. Native of Lebanon and owner of City Books on the north side of Pittsburgh. “But my mom needs to be vaccinated because she won’t survive if she gets it.”
Hess has tried to arrange a vaccination appointment for her 79-year-old mother who lives in Washington County and has CVID (a chronic immune deficiency). She wrote her on waiting lists in Donora, Bethel Park, Jefferson Hills, wherever she could bear her name. In the meantime, she has tightened restrictions in her business, bought an expensive air filter, and limited her own contact with people to protect her mother.
She made two attempts to register her mother for the vaccine through the Allegheny County Health Department, but no matter how fast she logged in, it always seemed like the rooms were already full. After the most recent Allegheny warning, Hess has almost completed the form. But she needed her mom to send a photo of her insurance records, and her mom doesn’t know how to send photos with her phone.
Hess is not sure what the solution is. A centralized phone line won’t hurt, but she doesn’t know if it would help. At this point, she said, she doesn’t know who to direct her frustration to.
“I’m not sure we trust a government of any kind,” she said.
Teghan Simonton is a writer on the Tribune Review staff. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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