Oregon seniors across the state encountered major hurdles on the first day that residents 80 and older were able to schedule COVID-19 vaccines, with appointments in the metropolitan area disappearing within hours.
In the Portland area, seniors – or perhaps just as often, their adult children or younger friends helping them – began flooding the state’s vaccination scheduling website hours before they officially started filling out appointments at 9am on Monday .
About 5,500 managed to secure the coveted vaccination vacancies the following week, but many also gave up in defeat. After an intense 2 ½ hours, all online appointments in Portland were canceled for the next eight days. Online appointments were still available by calling 211, the regional resource service, during the afternoon, but many callers reported waiting hours or being disconnected abruptly.
Local health providers who run the two Portland area vaccination clinics were unable to say when the new appointments would open. It appears, however, that the next available consultations are unlikely to be until Wednesday, February 17.
Greg Smith, a Milwaukie man who tried unsuccessfully on Monday to schedule his 95-year-old mother’s vaccination, said he expects the competition to get even tougher by then. That’s because people 75 and older become eligible on February 15, inflating the pool of Oregon residents struggling for low doses. Eligibility will expand to younger age groups in the following weeks – 70 and older on February 22 and 65 and older on March 1.
“The likelihood that she will receive a vaccine next month seems increasingly remote,” said Smith.
Oregon Health Authority officials said this week that they had dedicated 20,000 of the first 52,500 doses that reach the federal government state to seniors aged 80 and over. There are 168,000 elderly people in this age group across the state and around 35,000 of them have already been vaccinated, most because they live in nursing homes, long-term care facilities or receive home care. That leaves some 133,000 Oregon residents this week competing for 20,000 doses.
Governor Kate Brown and Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen alerted Oregon residents last Friday that there would be “hiccups” and “chaos” in the vaccination schedule process, and advocates criticized the state for not developing an adequate plan to reach the elderly. Brown and Allen asked older residents to be patient for the weeks or even months before they were vaccinated, because federal government vaccine shipments far exceed demand.
Due to a disjointed and sometimes weak public education campaign, many people who tried to make appointments on Monday had a series of surprises. Some were unaware that the scheduling process was set to open at 9 am or that in the Portland area appointments could be made online through covidvaccine.oregon.gov and then through a chat tool “Let’s go begin”.
Others who found out exactly where they should go said they also encountered obstacles, such as web pages that did not advance to the next step to allow them to schedule an appointment.
“I would describe it as a wasted and very frustrating day,” said Darlene Carlson, an 80-year-old Portland resident who waited 2 and a half hours after calling 211. The line ended up hanging in your face, she said.
“I just don’t think it should be that difficult,” said Carlson.
Carlson also said he tried to make an appointment online, but he always came across a page that asked her to enter a Legacy Health username and password that she didn’t have. Her adult daughter encountered the same obstacle, and Carlson said he was unable to speak to anyone from his doctor, Kaiser Permanente, who could help.
Another big surprise came for those who actually managed to schedule appointments. Although the Oregon governor said that older residents of the state would become eligible for vaccination as of Monday, no appointments for the same day were available at the two Portland area vaccination clinics at the Oregon Convention Center and at Portland International Airport.
With the exception of a solitary consultation on Tuesday, which appeared to be a fluke that local health care providers could not explain, the first consultations were available starting on Wednesday.
It is unclear how many seniors – if any – across Oregon received injections on Monday. Oregonian / OregonLive asked the Oregon Health Authority for this information, but an agency spokesman said it did not yet know.
In some rural parts of the state, the elderly ran into dead ends, with no immediate prospect of getting shot in the arm. Some counties told the elderly that they were on the waiting list or that they filled out an interest form and the authorities would contact them.
Meanwhile, health provider Asante of southern Oregon, who has vaccinated residents of Jackson and Josephine counties, said he could not provide the first doses this week to the elderly or anyone else after the Oregon Health Authority cut your weekly supply.
“Our goal is to vaccinate those who want to have the injection, but we have our hands tied for lack of vaccine,” by email to Asante spokeswoman Lauren Van Sickle.
“The state did not tell us why the allocations for the first dose were not sent to us,” she added. “However, we are aware that the Portland area received more doses.”
The state – or more specifically, Brown – has been the target of criticism for weeks about the vaccine’s launch. Brown and health officials are struggling to schedule vaccines for the elderly in part because of the governor’s decision to make about 152,000 daycare, preschool and elementary and high school employees qualified for a first dose on January 25. This is despite the recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January to immediately start vaccinating Americans aged 65 and over. Oregon is among the last in the country to open vaccines for all the elderly.
Allen, the director of the health authority, said last week that it may be early May before the state has enough vaccine to fully inoculate two doses 75% of elderly people aged 65 and over who wish. He said the state could open eligibility for people with underlying diseases and some essential workers in early April – and for the general population until July.
The process of scheduling vaccination appointments varies from municipality to municipality. The state created covidvaccine.oregon.gov, which includes a link with more links to county sites, some of which include information on scheduling appointments. Residents who are unsure whether they are eligible can also find out if they are eligible by visiting the state’s getvaccinated.oregon.gov website.
Residents can also email [email protected] with questions or call 211 to schedule an appointment in some areas of the state.
Despite the problems that many faced on Monday, thousands of others managed to make appointments.
Peggy Sigler, who lives outside Canby, said she has booked a time for a 92-year-old relative who has mobility problems. It was a relief, she said, to secure a spot at the airport’s drive-through location. But she still fears it will be an ordeal of hours exposing her and her loved one to prolonged contact in a car before either of them is vaccinated.
She thinks it would be smart for public health officials to provide clinics across the region so that elderly residents don’t have to travel so much.
But she doesn’t forget that her family is one of the lucky ones. Sigler said he knows that many other seniors may not have been able to figure out how to make an appointment – and they may not have anyone in their lives who can help them.
“She doesn’t use a computer,” said Sigler of his relative. “… A flip phone is the extension of its technology.”
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– Aimee Green; [email protected]; @o_aimee