Stephie Byars and her husband were in a Giant Eagle parking lot when they received the Allegheny Alert.
“We switched off the car. I asked my husband to call his parents and put it on speaker, and I went to my phone and did the technical work, ”said Byars, 37, from Dravosburg.
There were open consultations at the county vaccine distribution site in Monroeville. The Byars family was just one of thousands who ran to sign up.
Talking to her in-laws, both in their 70s, she consulted the health department’s online application sheet on her own phone, enlarging the form and watching how slow the site was as she tried to go through the process.
She managed to make an appointment for her father-in-law for February 12. Then, navigating back to the beginning of the form, she started the process again for her mother-in-law. It was too late. Within minutes, all vacancies were filled.
In the Pittsburgh region and across the country, young residents and millennials describe dropping everything to help their elderly relatives apply for the covid-19 vaccine – often available only through online forms. Many older residents in western Pennsylvania say they don’t have computers or Internet access, or they don’t have enough technology knowledge to navigate the process.
“Accessibility for older people who don’t understand technology,” said Byars, “really seems to me to be deficient.”
Byars said his in-laws have a computer and an iPad, but are not very tech-savvy. She said she hasn’t even seen the confirmation email for the appointment, because her mother-in-law doesn’t know how to access her email.
“I think it’s difficult for us to do that – it’s a generational thing,” said Tamara Thomas, 70, Byars’ mother-in-law, who said she has been sheltering there for almost a year. “We can’t sail the way they want to.”
Thomas said he is grateful to have children who can help.
“I think they are forgetting that we older people don’t have the same tools,” said Thomas.
The problem goes beyond inconvenience, advocates and family say. The multitude of providers, each with their own registration and login system, creates a system that is difficult to navigate for even the most tech-savvy residents. The vaccine supplier map available on the Pennsylvania Department of Health website lists many pharmacies that, after further investigation, do not actually have a vaccine stock. Family members say they are struggling to balance their own full-time jobs and ambiguous concerns about calling dozens of vaccine providers, spending hours waiting and being kicked out of overcrowded websites.
For older residents with little technology experience, taking on this task is almost impossible to imagine. Bill Johnson-Walsh, Pennsylvania state director for AARP, said that there are many residents who do not have any access to the device and, if they do, it is usually just to communicate with their grandchildren or to play.
“It’s across the state,” said Johnson-Walsh. “The frustration, the confusion that is going on. We’ve received several hundred calls in the past few weeks, just asking for help. ”
In a letter to Governor Tom Wolf, Johnson-Walsh and AARP recommended a centralized 800 number for people to call and have their questions answered, a system in which a real person can guide them through the process. Johnson-Walsh understands the state’s decentralized approach to vaccine delivery – leaving independent hospitals and other providers to administer doses on their own – but for many of the state’s most at-risk residents, the lack of accessible information puts the life-saving vaccine out reach.
“To ensure that the death rate drops, we need to be able to vaccinate those who are most at risk,” he said.
April Hutcheson, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said the department operates an 877 information line, which people can call if they have questions about the process, but ultimately the appointment will be made online. . Aging Area Agencies, from the Department of Aging, are also working to reach older residents in their communities, she said.
“It will not be an agency capable of facilitating all of this,” she said. “This is the biggest vaccination effort ever made in this state and in this country in our history. It will take all of us to help with this vaccination process. ”
In Allegheny County, officials on Wednesday acknowledged difficulties with the current health department system. Dr Debra Bogen, county health director, said the department is working on plans to distribute vaccines in tall buildings and similar communities, make improvements to the site to prevent it from breaking down and create a phone registration line.
“I know this is a disadvantage for those who don’t have access to the internet, those who can’t browse these complicated registration sites and those who can’t spend all day looking at a computer and clicking on links in hopes of making an appointment ”Said Bogen.
In the meantime, she asked 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,” said Bogen. “I know that the online registration system can be confusing to navigate, even if you’re a little computer savvy. So, imagine if you don’t understand computer. ”
Many are already doing this, but it is not a sustainable strategy. Jerilyn Scott, a professor at Sewickley, said she called large and small providers – from Giant Eagle and Rite Aid to local independent pharmacies and healthcare systems in the region – in hopes of getting the vaccine for her 82-year-old mother.
“Even for me, trying to navigate is a mess,” said Scott.
Scott described a maze of websites and links and conflicting information from different agencies on how to make a vaccine appointment. She said she frequently contacts providers listed on the Allegheny County map as having a vaccine, only to learn that they do not. Last week, she waited three hours in the Giant Eagle’s online queue, waiting for a spot. She gave up when the website said she still had more than an hour.
She understands that there is a supply problem across the state. However, with reports of inconsistent distribution of the vaccine, including people in Phase 1B and later groups gaining access, and a general sense of disorganization about the implantation process, she has little faith that her mother will receive the vaccine in a timely manner. It looks like the “Wild West,” she said.
“If I thought there was a logical and well-organized system, I would have no problem with her waiting in line,” said Scott. “My problem is that I have a feeling that all kinds of people are able to skip the line because there is no system. … she will never take her turn. ”
A centralized system or phone line that your mother could easily reach would be a start to a solution, she said. For now, Scott is expanding his research to neighboring counties.
“I’m going to take you for an hour or two to do this, I’m going to take a day off from work,” she said.
Residents across western Pennsylvania expressed similar sentiments. The desperation to inoculate his older relatives, many of whom have been locked up for months, is growing.
“If I don’t get a vaccine by October, I don’t care,” said Arlan Hess, a Mt. resident in Lebanon and owner of City Books on the north side of Pittsburgh. “But my mother needs to be vaccinated because she will not survive if she is vaccinated.”
Hess is trying to schedule a vaccine appointment for his 79-year-old mother who lives in Washington County and has CVID (a chronic immune deficiency). She signed her up on waiting lists in Donora, Bethel Park, Jefferson Hills, anywhere that took her name. In the meantime, she tightened restrictions on her business, bought an expensive air filter, and limited her own contact with people to keep her mother safe.
She tried twice to register her mother for the vaccine through the Allegheny County Health Department, but no matter how fast she connected, it always felt like the spaces were already full. After the most recent Allegheny Alert, Hess almost managed to finish the form. But she needed her mom to send a picture of her insurance information, and her mom doesn’t know how to send pictures with her phone.
Hess is not sure what the solution is. A centralized phone line wouldn’t hurt, but she also didn’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 if any of us trust the government of any kind,” she said.
Teghan Simonton is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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