TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - One of the biggest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic lately is the inability of senior citizens to get an appointment for a vaccine. Supplies are extremely limited and appointments fill up within minutes.
One doctor compares the rollout of the vaccine to building an airplane while trying to fly it. Some appointments are inadvertently double-booked -- as in the case of 71-year-old Michael Rauch from Temperance, Michigan. He says he finally got through on the line to make an appointment for his first dose of the vaccine at an area pharmacy and when he showed up he was turned away.
“I told them my name. She says sorry you’re not on the list,” he explains. “I say I have a confirmation number. She says if you’re not on the list that’s the end of that.”
While this is not the norm, it is happening to some seniors trying to get their vaccines, if they can even get that far.
“I called all three this morning,” Mike says. “We have no appointments available.”
He adds that checking the news headlines brings on added anxiety.
“It says 90,000 more people to die from COVID within the next month,” says Mike. “So if you’re wound up tight now, read that, now what do you think?”
Mike is hardly alone. Vaccine anxiety in the senior population is at a fever pitch.
“The elderly population is getting this disease and being impacted in a negative way greater than any other group and more deaths occur in this group,” says Ireatha Hollie, a pharmacist with the Area Office On Aging.
But she says seniors need to know that advocacy groups like the Area Office on Aging and the United Way are going to bat for people over the age of 65.
“One of the great things that we’ve been able to do at the Area Office On Aging is to try to allay fears and dealing with misconceptions and giving information and also encourage people to be patient as we try to work through the system and try to get scheduled,” she explains.
“We are working with the health department and it’s 9 providers of the vaccine to assure those older adults who come to us with questions with getting scheduled can get those appointments,” says Regina Russell, a Registered Nurse with the Area Office on Aging. She says they are keeping waiting lists for people who can receive the vaccine as soon as one becomes available.
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January 30, 2021 at 05:54AM
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Seniors anxious over wait for COVID-19 vaccine appointments - WTVG
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