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The Digital Divide Is Keeping Many NYC Seniors From Scheduling COVID-19 Vaccinations
By
Katherine Fung
Published Feb 14, 2021
Modified Feb 16, 2021
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Mark Lennihan/AP/Shutterstock
By
Katherine Fung
Published Feb 14, 2021
Modified Feb 16, 2021
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When 73-year-old Maria Parilla decided to get a COVID-19 vaccine, she called her doctor’s office, only to learn she couldn't get it there. Now, she's waiting for her daughter to find her an appointment.
Parilla, who lives alone on the Lower East Side, considers herself more tech-savvy than most of her peers: she has a smartphone and uses it to message her daughter. But she said trying to book a vaccination online is beyond her skillset.
"I really know that I need to take it," said Parilla, who has asthma and diabetes. "And it's just very stressful for me to punch in [keys] being that I have no knowledge of that."
Like most places nationwide, senior citizens in New York City had early dibs on the COVID-19 vaccine. But nearly one month after they became eligible, Parilla and many other people over the age of 65 are still struggling to book appointments online and by phone. Now, they're facing even more competition as the doses open up to other priority groups such as restaurant workers, taxi drivers, and younger adults with pre-existing conditions. According to the most recent NYC Health Department data, 282,407 seniors in New York City have received their first dose--or about 1 in 6 adults over the age of 65.
Families and advocates say the main barrier to seniors’ vaccine access is the city and state’s reliance on online appointment systems. According to census data, nearly 30% of New York City senior citizens don’t have a computer or broadband internet access. Research suggests those adults tend to have low incomes and are more likely to be non-English speakers, Black, or Latino.
“When you add all those things up, we’re systematically disadvantaging people who already have a harder time accessing the vaccine,” said Dr. Ruth Finkelstein, the director of the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College.
Unable to register online or by phone during the first few weeks of the rollout, many seniors interviewed by Gothamist/WNYC relied on relatives, friends, and neighbors to find time slots. Lisa Kenner, the resident association president at the Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville, said that when she got a call from NYCHA about an immunization pop-up clinic opening at the development in mid-January, she got the word out to some elderly neighbors via a phone tree.
On the Upper West Side, Jane Perlmutter left her phone number with her local pharmacy to share with strangers who couldn’t get an appointment on their own. The first person who reached out to her was an 87-year-old man who uses a flip phone; Perlmutter helped him find an appointment in the Bronx and even accompanied him there for his first shot.
“It's impossible to think that the demographic that was first on the list of people who are eligible would be able to wade through an online system,” she said. But these volunteer support networks aren’t universal across the city.
Both New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio cite vaccine hesitancy as the reason for racial and ethnic disparities in vaccine uptake. Betsy Smith, director of Henry Street Settlement’s Naturally Occurring Retirement Community program, said some of her clients are choosing to wait to be immunized.
“They are afraid that they're going to have a negative reaction to the vaccine and they’ll wind up in the hospital, and that's the last place they want to be,” Smith said.
But she said the opposite is true, too, noting that others have called her organization for help after they unsuccessfully sought appointments on their own by phone.
The New York City Department for the Aging said it’s trying to address these gaps by working with nearly 300 social service providers who are calling their clients to arrange appointments and transportation to vaccination sites.
Dr. Finkelstein said the government could also ease the burden by expanding pop-up clinics at senior housing developments. They could also reserve large blocks of appointments for community organizations and other trusted enrollers that are helping high-priority groups.
She believes governments should also explore enlisting health care providers to call their older patients and drugstores to distribute the vaccine. State and city policy also needs to be tailored to fit the spectrum of cultures living in New York, according to Finkelstein.
“I don't think the questions you may have as an 80-year-old from the Dominican Republican are the same as... other people who are Black or who are Asian or who are Russian,” Finkelstein said.
In the meantime, these advocates and experts are advising any senior who wants the vaccine to call the appointment hotlines run by the city (1-877-VAX-4NYC) or state (1-833-NYS-4-VAX). Or they could contact a local services agency and ask to speak to a case manager for assistance.
Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Maria Parilla's last name.
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COVID-19
senior citizens
vaccine
Katherine Fung
Katherine Fung is a reporter and producer in the newsroom.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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