Older Americans cope with shock and stress as vaccine effort overlooks them

By Associated Press -March 5, 2021 2:33 PM

'I thought it would be a priority when you're 88 years old and that someone would inform me.'

Jean Andrade, an 88-year-old who lives alone, has been waiting for her COVID-19 vaccine since she became eligible under state guidelines nearly a month ago. She assumed her caseworker would contact her about getting one, especially after she spent nearly two days stuck in an electric recliner during a recent power outage.

It was only after she saw a TV news report about competition for the limited supply of shots in Portland, Oregon, that she realized no one was scheduling her dose. A grocery delivery service for homebound older people eventually provided a flyer with vaccine information, and Andrade asked a helper who comes by for four hours a week to try to snag her an appointment.

"I thought it would be a priority when you're 88 years old and that someone would inform me," said Andrade, who has lived in the same house for 40 years and has no family members able to assist her. "You ask anybody else who's 88, 89, and don't have anybody to help them, ask them what to do. Well, I've still got my brain, thank God. But I am very angry."

https://americanindependent.com/covid-19-vaccine-skips-older-adults/

AS a older person in the system, 70 years old, I have been just as recently as three days ago trying to get an appointment>
I got up at 5:00 AM to see if I could get an appointment, they rotate thru every three days, now I am speaking about Maryland, and CVS, (I am also trying Walgreens and on the list with my local health center, but have to wait 3-4 weeks).
I was and am refreshing my computer to get an appointment and answering the questions, at that time in the morning I saw on my on screen the cities offering the shots and they said "Available" beside each city, as the morning progressed, I saw the cities turning to "Available to "Fully Booked" this was going on for over 3 to 4 hours at around 8:30 AM I saw all the cities booked and had to stop because there was no availability. I have been trying at various sites to get my first shot, to avail for the last three weeks.................