Five people spoke to the Globe about what it is like to browse the online system to secure appointments for themselves or their loved ones.
Joseph White, 76, began limiting the number of times he checks COVID-19 vaccination appointments to twice a day, after realizing in the first few attempts that “if you don’t do it the first time, you” won’t do it good. “
White and his wife, who live in Swansea, have yet to make an appointment to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and are among the many elderly people who have been frustrated by the process. White said he was annoyed that the Walgreens website requires you to open an account with an email address and password before checking available hours. They found nothing available through CVS, and he did not find a place that would allow him and his wife to make appointments at the same time.
“I know a lot about computers and we find the whole thing complicated,” White said on Friday. “There are a lot of links and a lot of clicks, and it’s not as simple and straightforward as it should be. In the past two or three days, we have accomplished nothing, except we waste our time trying ”.
He said he noticed that some people managed to schedule appointments by logging in at midnight, so on Friday he plans to leave his computer on and set up his Amazon Alexa device to wake him up so he can try again.
White said he was impressed by Governor Charlie Baker ‘s response to the pandemic in the early stages, when Baker began implementing restrictions on business and meetings. But he is not so enthusiastic about the way Baker handled the vaccine’s launch.
“It looks like the whole thing was a disaster,” said White.
On Wednesday morning, Freda Shapiro noticed her 76-year-old boyfriend, Mario, on his computer while holding a magnifying glass trying to read the screen when she came in to help him look for a vaccination appointment for COVID-19.
Shapiro is not yet eligible for vaccines, as she is aged 65 or over, who is later eligible in Phase Two, after those 75 and over and certain essential workers.
She said she started trying to make an appointment by checking availability at the mass vaccination sites the state has established, including Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, but after spending 20 minutes loading pictures of Mario’s insurance card and entering personal information, she found that no queries were available.
So Shapiro, who lives in the Boston area, went on to experiment with pharmacies and markets across the state: north, west and south of Boston, Cape Cod, western Massachusetts and “everywhere possible,” she said, but she was not. possible to find an available appointment.
“It was incredibly frustrating and very disturbing because not only did I get nowhere with this, but I was also thinking about everyone else over 75 and trying to manage it,” she said. “I don’t know how they are going to do this. There are too many steps and it is very, very difficult. It is a very heavy job to just send the photos on your card. “
On Thursday, Shapiro heard about his sister, who managed to set up meetings for her and her 94-year-old mother at Gillette, and began to guide Shapiro through the steps she took.
Shapiro and Mario received COVID-19 last year, although she said that Mario had much more difficulties with the virus and had symptoms for three months. For them, the best part of ensuring an appointment for Mario to be vaccinated is the immense sense of relief they feel.
“Having that extra layer of protection will give [Mario] some peace of mind, ”she said.
Karen Barnett, 77, was initially informed by her doctor’s office that they would send patients invitations to schedule vaccination appointments. But on Wednesday morning, she called their office and learned that the invitations would not be sent until next week, so she joined others online in search of a place.
Barnett, who lives in Boston, found available times in Pittsfield and North Adams and decided to choose the Pittsfield location. She did not like the idea of taking a trip this far alone, but she will have surgery in March and said she is determined to have both injections before the procedure.
The next day, she woke up at dawn to see if there was anything available that was closer to where she lives and made an appointment for this weekend at Gillette Stadium. She considers herself very lucky to have a reserved spot.
“I think in this high-tech valley that we are in, they could have done a much better job of creating the site,” she said. “So many people of a certain age can’t handle it.”
Barnett said he is looking forward to a return to something similar to normalcy.
“I’m waiting for what it’s like to get out of the cocoon,” said Barnett. “For those of us aged 75 and over who are retired, live alone if they don’t have a partner, it’s really a cocoon.”
Diane Huster, 77, was among those who were ready at 12:01 pm on Wednesday to make an appointment for a vaccination. She searched for half an hour at Lawrence General Hospital and the DoubleTree Hotel in Danvers, but saw no open hours.
Huster, who lives in North Andover, tried again at 7 am the next day. She accessed the state map and went through the Lawrence General registration process seven times, entering her information only to be informed that there were no more vacancies.
“Seven times I went in and registered. I had chosen a time, went through the registration process and said ‘sorry, I’m not available anymore’, ”said Huster. “It was so frustrating to come in, to think you had that schedule, but you didn’t, and all of your information was erased, so you had to start over.”
She tried some pharmacies, but did not like their websites asking her to create an account with an email address and password.
At noon, she gave up.
Around 5 pm, she went back to the iPad to try again, just in case, and got an appointment with Lawrence General.
“I was lucky,” she said. “I immediately sent it to a friend and said ‘there are vacancies at Lawrence General’ and by the time she came in, they were already gone.”
For Huster, who lives alone, the months he spent indoors due to the pandemic were a lonely experience, she said.
“It means to me, once I get the second [shot], that I can go to the supermarket without fear, ”she said. “That I can visit my daughter and granddaughter. We probably won’t be hugging yet because she goes to school, but I can at least visit them. “
Bruce Jones tried to find a vaccination appointment somewhere on Cape Cod on Wednesday morning, the first day’s appointments were open to people aged 75 and over.
The 75-year-old man accessed the Stop & Shop website and saw a vacancy for a February 9 meeting at the Hyannis site not far from his home in Barnstable. The website said he would have to wait an hour to make an appointment and, to Jones, it looked promising, with a chart that counted down the time remaining. But an hour later, the screen showed that there were no appointments available.
He hasn’t tried to make an appointment since.
“What is frustrating is the lack of local and state information,” he said.
For Jones, receiving the vaccine marks the beginning of the end of a period that prevented him from traveling and seeing family and friends. He misses volunteering at Cape Cod Hospital, interacting with co-workers and clients at LL Bean, where he used to work in Mashpee, and holding his 23-month-old granddaughter that he and his wife used to take care of every Monday. .
“I’m on the verge of tears talking about it,” said Jones. “I want to move on.”
Amanda Kaufman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on twitter @ amandakauf1.