Jennifer Meyer of Green Township got on her computer and her phone in the quest to schedule COVID-19 vaccination appointments for her parents. The sign-ups took a frustrating eight tries, Meyer said, but she also understood the difficulties.
“I don’t know how you could make it better. It’s not like, 'hey, we have 12 million doses, c’mon over' ,” she said. “And the temperature control situation, well, I’m glad I’m not in charge of that.”
On Monday, Feb. 8, Ohio will widen eligibility in the largest inoculation campaign in the nation’s history to all the state's 2.2 million residents 65 and older. More than 92% of Ohio’s 11,509 deaths from COVID-19 as of Feb. 4 were people older than 60.
In Southwest Ohio's counties of Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren, people age 65 and older represent nearly 1 of 5 residents. Put another way, the group totals just over 300,000 people, roughly equivalent to the population of Cincinnati.
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Demand for the COVID-19 vaccine, though, far exceeds supply, and the state will pause eligibility indefinitely until the state’s oldest residents can get the shots.
For much of January and the first week of February, Ohio has been getting between 100,000 and 146,000 doses a week from the federal government. On Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine said the two manufacturers will send Ohio will send a combined 207,800 doses later this month. The supply is expected to grow as production increases.
The Medicare crowd is the first audience for Ohio’s vaccine enrollment system, largely internet-driven with a side door for telephone callers, which is 211 in Hamilton County. On Wednesday, County Commissioner Denise Driehaus said United Way volunteers answering the line hear praise and thanks from older residents; roughly 3,000 have used the line.
But the main local avenue to appointments is an online portal that the county and city set up with the nonprofit Health Collaborative for residents. That website then routes users to the links with local hospital systems, public health departments, Kroger, Meijer, Walgreens and CVS for appointments.
In an Enquirer survey and in interviews, residents described the frustrations of navigating to the long-awaited injection that would allow them to go to concerts or hug grandchildren again. They also said they know they are the lucky ones because even for the computer savviest, the process can be daunting, Meyer said. She is not yet eligible for a vaccination, but she jumped into the system to help her parents.
“My dad uses a flip phone. I don’t think he’s touched a computer in his life. My mom has a computer, an iPad and a smartphone, but you know, having those things is different than knowing how to use them in the way you need to,” Meyer said.
No vaccination yet for Greg Sefcheck, 70, of Hanover Township, who signed up in Butler County, where he lives, and in Hamilton County, where he works at the Ford plant in Sharonville. His wife works for the Christ Hospital Health Network, so she got vaccinated, “but she’s trying to call around for me,” he said.
“I went on the Christ site, I’ve been on it like six times, and it’s the same thing, I get a ‘there’s no appointments for your criteria,’ some sort of weird response,” Sefcheck said. “I’m supposed to start this week, and I’m not even close to an appointment.” He had calculated his immunity against COVID-19 to get to the scheduled Billy Joel concert in September at Great American Ball Park, but, “I don’t hold out a lot of hope. From what I’m reading on the state of Ohio website, the allocations still aren’t there.”
A week ago Friday, retired schoolteacher Linda Miltner of Blue Ash got a notification from UC Health. “It said, ‘Sign up for your COVID vaccination,’ and it gave all of the times.” By 10 a.m. Monday, Miltner and her husband had gotten their shots. But she said she is concerned that Black Ohioans are barely 5% of those vaccinated so far.
“I think about people living in areas of the city that just might not be online, might not have access to the internet, and they’re not going to get that wonderful message from their doctor and then just drive a few miles to get the shot,” she said. “Although I’m elated that I’ve gotten it, I feel there’s a great deal of unfairness."
Meyer’s father Gerald Kalkbrenner is 81, her mother Jeanne is 78, and they live in Forest Park. Their ages complicated the sign-ups. Meyer went through the list of vaccine providers at the Ohio Department of Health and tried eight times to sign up/ “I think it was pure luck that I click on a link to Kroger in Forest Park and I get through and make an appointment.”
She scheduled her mother, too. But that appointment got canceled since Jeanne wouldn’t be eligible for another week. Meyer went through the Hamilton County website trying the providers for her mother. “After two days of this, she happened to get an email from Walgreens, now able to vaccine, and I think it was on my 15th try, I got through.”
Thursday, DeWine said only about a third of the state's providers who could dispense the vaccine have enrolled to do so with the state. The governor pleaded with hospitals and pharmacies to get onboard to help dispense vaccine as the supply grows,
He also promised a single portal for Ohioans to search for a vaccine by ZIP code and county would be ready around Valentine's Day.
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