Older people with a computer are carrying as well as a vaccine race

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As more and more people compete for a short supply of the life-saving Covid-19 vaccine, some of the oldest and weakest Americans are struggling just to enter the competition.

Tom Yates, 71, who has metastatic prostate cancer, moved out of a supported living facility last year to avoid the virus. Now he desperately needs a bullet, but he can’t secure it.

“I’m not very good at surfing websites – my vision isn’t as good,” said Yates from his home in Lacey, Washington. Friends in Arizona went to a large vaccine site at a football stadium, but for him that was not an option: “It’s not how I can drive myself. I’m in an electric wheelchair and I use dial-a-ride. They can’t wait for hours. “

Yates and many like him were locked out due to lack of access and knowledge of smartphones, computers and web – based meeting signs. The problem is exacerbated as states open up photos to people 65 and older, putting seniors in competition for slots that are fast disappearing with older people who are more computer and mobile saver.

“It’s still a challenge for people who can’t travel online,” said Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine. His state is coordinating with cities and county health departments to locate and vaccinate those not covered by teams sent to retirement centers. “Doctors’ offices are calling people, and hospitals are going out,” he said.

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On Jan. 8, when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo extended vaccination certification to people 75 and older, Rich Pipia sat online for hours trying to find meetings for his parents on the Long Island. He finally got a chance to get two slots – for April 6 at Jones Beach, 30 miles away. He intends to drive them.

Pipia’s mother, Marie, is 79. Her father, Richard, 80, has chronic lymphocytic leukemia and passed on Covid-19 in April. Their son hangs on the slots in April while he spends hours calling health centers and pharmacies to get earlier dates. “It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” he said.

Suffolk County, which includes part of Long Island, distributes as little as 3,000 doses a week to a population of 1.5 million, according to an Instagram post from Southampton Mayor Jesse Warren.

One needs to get a quick fingerprint, a stable website update, print confirmation, or access to a smartphone for text alerts. One system in New York City asked old customers to take pictures of their insurance card, front and back, and upload them. Many have turned to their children, to the detriment of those who are alone.

Growing older

Ric Lewis, who helps with design Microsoft software, striving to help its relatives. His father-in-law is in the mid-80s and blind; his mother-in-law, in the late 70s, has stopped driving. No one uses a smartphone, so Lewis has entered its own number. The earliest slots he would get are in mid-March.

“If I have to access a website or phone app or even get texts, you’ve shut down a lot more than 80 people,” he said.

Last week, AARP division in New York asked Cuomo to improve access to sights, complaints from seniors. The group said nearly 60% of the nearly 3,000 people surveyed had failed at the time of the meeting.

“Nationwide call systems and health departments are failing,” said Lori Freeman, chief executive of the National Association of County and City Health Officers. “They get about 80,000 calls in an hour. ”

House Calls

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis urged seniors to call their transportation reps and urge them to send more doses. The Miami Beach fire department is making home calls to help the home and others, dispensing 1,055 doses, city spokeswoman Melissa Berthier said.

Margaret Ring, 76, of Davenport, Florida, said her husband, LeRoy, 84, received the vaccine on Jan. 25 through a program that served veterans. He got the job only because his daughter who was a computer saver found a way to contact the Veterans Administration in Orlando, said Ring, who has not yet locked in a slot for herself.

“When you do something Google, you get a whole page full of things you can click on, and nothing ever tells you to place an order, so I discourage you,” he said. i.

The couple went ahead with a vaccination site in Clermont, where they found scores of lined cars and police trying to help. “It was kind of chaos, so I thought,‘ Nah, ’” Ring said.

Elders like Yates who moved out of supported living facilities because of the virus are finding out that their homes were vaccinating residents while they were shut out.

Robert Lauer, 91, a Korean War veteran, moved from supported living to a community reserved for the elderly in Delray Beach, Florida. Phone calls to the VA, the state health department and the Covid helpline came to nothing more than this advice: Get up at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday or Friday to order online at the Publix supermarket.

His daughter Nancy Rubin is from Minnesota to take things forward.

“I’m going down there at the beginning of February, and I’m going to try to drive it through somewhere – that’s my last resort,” she said. “It’s completely remote. It basically closes in because it tries not to die. ”

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