I'm turning 66 next month and have Heart Disease, COPD, and Emphysema, so getting the vaccine would be rather beneficial.

Here in Michigan the State allocates portions of the vaccine to each county. Each county then administers the vaccine using their health department. here in Macomb County Michigan that scheme requires you to get an appointment. At this point things make sense, you really wouldn't want to be in a line of 50 thousand drivers waiting to get vaccinated.

However in order to get that appointment you have to call in to one single phone number. In addition that telephone line is shut OFF once the number of appointments equals the number of doses available. The result of this is that 50,000 people wanting an appointment have to get their call in within about a 2 minute window. In addition if you actually manage to get connected you are put on hold and once the allocation has been filled you get hung up on. Good news is that people don't have to spend hours on hold to get an appointment. Bad news is that actually getting an appointment has odds about as bad as those for winning the Megamillions. I expect that it will be several years before I get a vaccine.

My wife and I reside in St. Louis County, Missouri.

For us we had to go to St. Louis Counties website, enter our information and any pertinent health conditions, and we were added to the list.

Fortunately for us, the total time invested was about 5 minutes of which the majority was trying to find their website and spot to enter our data.

Now what they will do with our data after this is all over is the next question.

Marquette County was allotted 845 doses. The online reservation system got 517 hits in 30 seconds. Then it shut down and you had to call the Heath Dept. The remaining doses went in less than two hours.
Same folks who got all the toilet paper, no doubt!

Whats up with Michigan?

They should do the same as St Louis County in that you simply sign up and as the vaccines become available they reach out to you to get your shot.

It sounds like Michigan is handling this like a Black Friday sale and creating more chaos.

The Federal government has left it to the State Health Departments. Our country appears to have an appalling amount of seniors who internet illiterate and in some cases just incompetent. Here is an article:

DENVER (AP) — Howard Jones, who’s 83, was on the phone for three to four hours every day trying to sign up for a coronavirus vaccine.

Jones, who lives alone in Colorado Springs, doesn’t have the internet, and that’s made it much more difficult for him to make an appointment. It took him about a week. He said the confusion has added to his anxiety about catching what could be a life-threatening disease at his age.

“It has been hell,” Jones said. “I’m 83 and to not have the use of a computer is just terrible.”

As states across the U.S. roll out the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 and older, senior citizens are scrambling to figure out how to sign up to get their shots. Many states and counties ask people to make appointments online, but glitchy websites, overwhelmed phone lines and a patchwork of fast-changing rules are bedeviling older people who are often less tech-savvy, may live far from vaccination sites and are more likely to not have internet access at all, especially people of color and those who are poor.

Nearly 9.5 million seniors, or 16.5% of U.S. adults 65 and older, lack internet access, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Access is worse for seniors of color: more than 25% of Black people, about 21% of Hispanic people and over 28% of Native Americans 65 and older have no way to get online. That’s compared with 15.5% of white seniors.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Rebecca Parish has been dismayed by the bureaucratic process and continued calls for help from seniors. One of her patients, who’s 83, called her in tears, unable to navigate the online appointment system at Rite Aid. A 92-year-old woman called her before dawn this week after reading about her in a newspaper, telling her, “I’ll do anything to get this vaccine.”

So Parish took things into her own hands. She reached out to Contra Costa County and acquired 500 doses to vaccinate people this weekend at a middle school in Lafayette, California. She’s working with nonprofits to identify seniors who don’t live in nursing homes and risk falling through the cracks. All her appointments have been claimed, but she’ll start taking them again once more doses are available.

Some health officials have been trying to find other solutions to ease the confusion and help senior citizens sign up, just as the Trump administration urged states this week to make the nation’s 57.6 million seniors eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Some places have found simple ideas work. In Morgantown, West Virginia, county health officials used a large road construction sign to list the phone number for seniors to call for an appointment. Others are considering partnering with community groups or setting up mobile clinics for harder-to-reach populations.

Some seniors may be waiting to hear from their doctor. But there are limits to using health care systems, pharmacies or primary care providers to reach underserved people who don’t have the internet, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.

She said the two coronavirus vaccines available in the U.S. and their cold temperature requirements “don’t lend themselves to being sent out to rural areas.”

In McComb, Mississippi, where 77.5% of residents are Black and almost half the population lives below the poverty line, 71-year-old Mary Christian made an appointment online with her son’s help. But the only available sites are at least an hour away from she lives.

“I’m 71 years old, and my kids are not going to be happy for me driving 1 to 200 miles away to get a vaccine,” said Christian, who has diabetes.

Some medical systems, like UCHealth in Colorado, are trying to partner with community groups to get vaccines to underserved populations, like seniors.

Dr. Jean Kutner, chief medical officer of UCHealth University at Colorado Hospital, said she’s volunteering at a clinic hosted by a church that brings in the vaccine and helps build trust between health care workers and residents.

For now, UCHealth schedules appointments online, but Kutner said a COVID-19 hotline is in the works because of the volume of calls from seniors.

“Seniors are comfortable with the phone side of things, so that that’s not really a technological barrier for them,” said Gretchen Garofoli, an associate professor at West Virginia University’s School of Pharmacy.

But even a Colorado health provider setting up vaccine clinics for underserved communities, Salud Family Health Centers, said their phone lines can’t handle the volume of calls they’re receiving and encouraged people to go online.

When calling for an appointment is an option, finding a number is often only possible online.

That was the problem for Jones, the 83-year-old in Colorado. A retired service member, he considered reaching out to Veterans Affairs but couldn’t find a phone number.

He asked for help from a friend, who gave him several numbers. One led to Angela Cortez, head of communications for AARP in Colorado.

AARP has been flooded with calls from seniors like Jones who don’t have the internet and need help navigating the websites of health departments, care providers and vaccine sign-up forms, Cortez said.

“It’s not like you can show up somewhere and get vaccinated,” Cortez said. “And if you don’t have access to a computer, you’re at a disadvantage.”

Even Cortez had trouble as she tried to help Jones. She called numbers listed on the Colorado health department website and several Safeway stores after Jones heard friends were vaccinated there.

Eventually, Cortez was told to sign up online.

“I’m an employee of AARP, one; and two, I’m the communications director — I’m a trained journalist — and I have a computer, three, and I can’t even get through to anybody,” she said.

A friend was finally able to get Jones an appointment for Saturday. But he’s frustrated that he had “to go through side channels” instead of doing it himself.

___

Naishadham reported from Phoenix. Associated Press reporter Janie Har in San Francisco and data journalist Larry Fenn in New York contributed to this report. Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

This story has been corrected to show that there are 57.6 million seniors in the U.S., not 54 million, according to Census Bureau data.

LINK: https://apnews.com/article/us-...dd9fe122ab18a9323374

quote:

Originally posted by h2oys:
Whats up with Michigan?

They should do the same as St Louis County in that you simply sign up and as the vaccines become available they reach out to you to get your shot.

It sounds like Michigan is handling this like a Black Friday sale and creating more chaos.

You forgot bout our Governor, Wretched Gretchen Whitmer, a live long demoncrat and self appointed queen of the Anti Trumpers. Since Macomb County is historically Republican I suspect that our allocations are reduced and deliveries are not meeting the States claimed schedule. However our counties Health Department has really dropped the ball on this and they flat don't give a damn. They have also insured that no human being will ever have any means of actually talking to health department personel.

Scooter,

Check with your primary care physician. Ascention Health which is aligned with Providence Hospital emailed this to me last week. I imagine that others in metro Detroit will be doing similar programs:

Ascension Medical Group patient,



Thank you for trusting us with your care. We are grateful for the overwhelmingly positive community response to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. In our first phase of vaccinations, Ascension Michigan has been able to provide the COVID-19 vaccine to nearly 20,000 of our frontline healthcare associates and doctors, community healthcare partners and medical first responders - to protect your family and ours.



The state of Michigan has opened up vaccine distribution effective Monday, January 11, to those over the age of 65.



As vaccine supply becomes available, Ascension Medical Group (AMG) will begin scheduling vaccine appointments with our patients who have seen an AMG physician/practice within the past 24 months and who meet the criteria for receipt of a vaccine as outlined by the state.



We expect to begin contacting eligible patients via email for scheduling their vaccines starting the week of January 11. Vaccine administration will be by individual patient scheduled appointment only. We will not be accepting walk-ins. Please note: If you are accompanied by a family member or caregiver to your vaccine appointment, only patients who meet the State of Michigan eligibility guidelines AND who have a scheduled appointment will be able to receive the vaccine at this time.



Distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is based on guidance from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ascension Michigan and AMG continue to follow the State of Michigan Vaccine Distribution Prioritization Guidelines.



AMG will be opening four regional community vaccination clinics within our key regions throughout the state: Mid-Michigan, North Michigan, SE Michigan and West Michigan. As vaccine supply becomes more available, we expect to open additional community vaccination clinics in these areas.



Again, we will begin contacting our patients who have seen an AMG physician/practice within the past 24 months and who meet the criteria for receipt of a vaccine as outlined by the state to schedule their individual COVID-19 vaccination appointment, starting the week of January 11. Please do not call your physician’s office to schedule a vaccination appointment - we will contact you to schedule an appointment. Also, please do not come to your doctor’s office for a vaccination. At the present time, AMG doctors’ offices do not have a supply of the vaccine.



To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, please visit our website.



Thank you for your patience as we finalize our plan to provide COVID-19 vaccines to all patients and communities we are privileged to serve.

Send me your address, I will send you mine. Sorry, I am no taking one.

My dumbass moonbat neighbor posted on FB that she got her Covid vaccination this morning. She's 50, healthy and has been working from home since march.

Her response to my one world response of "HOW" was " I work in Healthcare". She's an Admin to the president of a health Insurance co and still working from home. Meanwhile people like my parents who are 80 years old with multiple co morbidity`s wait.

She suffers from TDS and is beyond happy about Sleepy Joe. her husband is OK and I'm sure he's cringing about what she put up.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:

Check with your primary care physician.

Good advice.

I checked with my doc's office. The office manager told me that they had ordered a supply of the vaccine, and she will email me to set an appointment as soon as she knows when they will receive it. I am in a high priority group at this practice, due to age (84) and damaged immune system.

It's screwed up here in NC as well. The state gives out the allotment to each county and sets the guidelines. The state recently opened the vaccinations to those 65 or older and first responders, but each county health department decides to follow or not follow those guidelines. The result is lots of confusion over who can get it and where. Add to that limited doses being doled out and we have the typical government fuck-up of everything they touch.

quote:

posted January 19, 2021 01:45 PM Hide Post
My dumbass moonbat neighbor posted on FB that she got her Covid vaccination this morning. She's 50, healthy and has been working from home since march.

Her response to my one world response of "HOW" was " I work in Healthcare". She's an Admin to the president of a health Insurance co and still working from home. Meanwhile people like my parents who are 80 years old with multiple co morbidity`s wait.

^^^^^^^
I noticed Hospital Administration skipped to the front of the line. Your moonbat neighbor is simply a selfish pig. Post that on FB. It is beyond me that someone who has nothing to do with patient care posts that she pushed to the head of the line. She probably eats the last piece of pizza without asking. Bragging about cheating that is something special!

quote:

Originally posted by tleo205:
Add to that limited doses being doled out and we have the typical government fuck-up of everything they touch.

Truer words were never spoken.

Nobody has heard from the VA? My local VA clinic called me to set up appointment (they have all VA members ages.) The central VA location texted me couple weeks ago advising they would be in touch and not to call. Thought that would be SOP at all VA locations stateside.