On the first day that Massachusetts residents age 75 and over could sign up to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, many seniors were left frustrated and without appointments, either because their only option was an online registration system they don’t have access to, or because that system wasn’t working.
91-year-old Irene Malachowski of Chelsea said she’d like to get vaccinated “as soon as possible.” But she doesn’t know how to sign up for it.
"I do have a computer, but that would not be available for me,” she said. “I'm really not that savvy."
Gov. Charlie Baker has touted the state’s website as a convenient way to get information about the vaccine and to register for an appointment. He was asked at a press conference Wednesday if the state would be streamlining that system to make it easier to use.
"How much more streamlined would you like it to be than that?” Baker shot back. “I think that for most people, being able to determine if you are eligible, where the site closest to you might be, and how you can make an appointment on that site, all at the same time, should be, for most folks, a pretty easy way to make that happen."
Advocates for the elderly say it’s not that simple for many.
"Many of the people we're trying to reach, particularly in minority communities, in poor communities, in rural areas, do not have access to the Internet, are not comfortable using the Internet,” said Michael Festa, state director for AARP Massachusetts. “There is no [telephone] hotline, there is no live person that we can direct them to call, to navigate the obvious common sense questions that they have, and to get them the information in a timely way,” he said. “That's the critical concern at the moment. And it is a big deal."
In Vermont and New Hampshire, Festa pointed out, the states run phone hotlines that allow people to call in and schedule an appointment. He said advocates brought up the lack of a hotline in a call with members of Baker’s administration recently.
"These questions were asked. These concerns were raised,” Festa said. “They were not addressed in a way which leads me to say with any degree of confidence that that problem has been tackled successfully."
On Wednesday, Baker said other options for signing up are on the way.
“In addition to the website, our administration is working to create additional resources for residents to utilize to book their appointments and is working with other public and private organizations that support our seniors across the Commonwealth,” Baker said. “In the meantime , we would certainly urge family members and friends to help support older residents, help them book their appointments through that website, if you can get that done for them.”
Offering appointments exclusively online provides greater vaccine access to people with a background in professional careers, where there may have worked on computers, said Carolyn Villers, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council.
"The heavy reliance on an online system really exacerbates and makes the inequity that has really been impacting our communities even greater," Villers said.
Even for many seniors who are online, the process so far has been frustrating and fruitless.
"It's just terribly confusing and it's very hard — especially for people our age who aren't that savvy about the computers and all that type of thing,” said Nelson Wall, a 79-year-old from Middleborough, Massachusetts. “We have [a computer]. We use it. But it's not our fondest tool,” he said. Wall said he and his wife have spent hours trying unsuccessfully to book an appointment.
"I'm disgusted,” said Danna Gaynor, a 75-year-old retired nurse from Mashpee, who was up from midnight until 2 a.m. Wednesday, trying to sign up online for a vaccine appointment. “And then I went to bed and I started again at eight o'clock this morning," she said.
The state website includes an interactive map illustrating where vaccine sites are located. When users click on a location, they’re directed either to a state registration page, or to a registration page from providers like CVS or Walgreens.
“None of the sites work,” Gaynor said. “If you look at the map that the state provides and click on the various sites that are supposed to be available, what you get is a message that [the vaccine] is not available at that site."
The state website now includes a disclaimer: “Due to high demand and constrained vaccine supply, COVID-19 Vaccination appointments are limited. More appointments will be available based on supply from the Federal Government. Appointments will be added on a rolling basis.”
Baker also said on Wednesday that the website won't be able to make appointments without supplies of the actual vaccines coming from the federal government. The Biden administration has told Baker and other governors that more vaccinates are on the way to states, but details on how many or when they'll get here aren't known.
"This process for people will be frustrating, and I understand that and I think we all appreciate that it's going to require a certain amount of patience for people to understand that it may take several trips to the website before they're going to be able to get an appointment."
The chair of the state’s Vaccine Advisory Group, Dr. Paul Biddinger of Massachusetts General Hospital, said there are going to be many ways that people can sign up for a vaccine.
"Certainly, online has been rolled out at some of the mass vaccination sites, and many hospital systems, including mine, will have online mechanisms,” Biddinger said. “But we recognize that especially for older individuals or others who may not have Internet access or computer access, that that could be a barrier. And so I think most of the health care systems certainly are providing for other ways to sign up, whether through phone call or text message or others, and especially for vulnerable communities where that really might be a particular issue.”
There are currently no vaccine sites booking appointments in Chelsea. But Deputy City Manager Ned Keefe said the state plans to set up distribution locations at pharmacies in the city soon.
“Those pharmacies will have their own registration systems. And we hope and expect that an aspect of that will also be some sort of telephone registration system,” Keefe said. “If not, our senior center's prepared to reach out and to assist people in how to do that."
Keefe said the city is also currently in talks with healthcare providers in Chelsea about setting up a central vaccination location in the city.
"Any one of these organizations, individually or together, could conceivably offer support to their patients about how to access a COVID vaccine,” he said, adding that those healthcare providers already have their own systems for allowing patients to make appointments by phone.
Reporter Mike Deehan contributed to this story.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the name of Michael Festa, state director for the AARP Massachusetts.
