After getting on every waitlist she could find, Julie Tuohy
finally secured an appointment to get the first shot of a COVID-19
vaccine last week.
The 71-year-old has spent almost a year following
social-distancing guidelines, avoiding spending the holidays with
her daughter, even shopping for groceries at 7 a.m. to lower her
risk of contracting the novel coronavirus, which has sickened
hundreds of thousands in Colorado.
“It’s peace of mind and it opens a few more doors where you
are not so afraid,” Tuohy said of getting the vaccine, adding,
“I have not shared a meal with anyone in nearly a year.”
But when she drove 45 minutes from Denver to a King Soopers
store in Thornton for her appointment on Thursday, a pharmacist
turned her away. He incorrectly told her it would “break the
law” to give the vaccine to a resident of another county, she
said.
“And there was no one (else) there,” Tuohy said. “Are they
going to waste?”
It’s been almost a month since Coloradans
70 and older became eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,
but the patchwork of distribution methods across the state —
hospitals, county health departments, pharmacies at grocery stores
— has left some of the most vulnerable residents confused and
frustrated by the slow rollout.
While distribution has been led by states, the logistics of
getting shots into people’s arms in Colorado vary county to
county, and in some cases, by vaccine provider. There is no
statewide waiting list people can join to be inoculated. And much
of the process of signing up with different health care providers
has occurred online, which can be difficult for older Coloradans
who may not be tech-savvy and for those who don’t have internet
access.
Cars are directed out of one parking lot to another where they will
wait for 15 minutes before leaving after getting vaccinations at a
UCHealth drive-up mass COVID-19 vaccination event in the parking
lots of Coors Field on Jan. 24, 2021. Only people with appointments
were vaccinated.
Tuohy’s situation, with a scheduled appointment being
canceled, is another added wrinkle to the vaccine rollout.
Gov. Jared Polis and a spokesperson for Kroger, which owns the
King Soopers brand, acknowledged the supermarket chain should not
be turning away people who are eligible to receive the vaccine.
Polis said Tuesday that state will send a “stern warning” to
providers who’ve reportedly only allowed residents of their
counties to get the vaccine. If the problem continues, the state
could stop sending doses to those providers, he said.
“I understand there are Coloradans over 70 who are
frustrated” by the wait to get a shot, Polis said during a news
briefing.
Extremely limited vaccine supply remains one of the largest
challenges. About 562,000 people make up the 70-and-older age group
that’s receiving vaccine prioritization, but Colorado only
expects to receive enough doses to give 76,080 people their first
shot this week. The state also expects 49,380 doses to give people
their second shots.
So far, 155,888 people 70 and older have received the COVID-19
vaccine in Colorado. State officials have said that they are
working to ensure equitable distribution of the shots, but data
from the health department shows that about 76% of the people
receiving the vaccines are white — higher than the group’s
proportion of the total Colorado population.
Essential workers and people between the ages of 65 and 69 could
learn more about when they can expect to receive the vaccine in the
coming days, but the state needs a clear idea of how many doses
will be available before expanding the pool of potential
recipients, Polis said.
Polis urged Coloradans to be patient as they wait for
vaccination appointments. The state is expecting a 16% increase in
supplies from the Biden administration starting next week and
during the two subsequent weeks, according to a news release from
the governor’s office.
Providers distributing COVID-19 vaccines have created hotlines for
people without internet access to call to schedule appointments.
The state is still in Phase 1 of vaccine distribution, so only
health care workers, first responders, long-term care staff and
residents, and people 70 and older can get the vaccines.
Health systems are scheduling appointments for both patients and
non-patients. Supply is still very limited so hospitals and other
providers are creating waitlists.
The state has a hotline to help people who have trouble signing up
for the vaccine: 877-268-2926 (CO-VAX-CO).
Here are the numbers to call to schedule an appointment with major
health care providers:
Centura Health: 866-414-1562 or centura.org/vaccine
Denver Health: 303-436-7000 or denverhealth.org/covidvaccine
Kaiser Permanente: 1-844-951-1932 or kp.org/covidvaccine
UCHealth: 720-462-2255 or uchealth.org/covidvaccine
“Still can’t get a vaccinationâ€
The confusion over whether residency is a requirement is just
one example of the frustrations people expressed with the state’s
rollout. For many, the wait to get the shots, which can take weeks,
is too long, so they are signing up for multiple waitlists to see
where they can get it first.
“What I’m afraid of — people in my age group — we’re
going to die,†said 70-year-old Ernest McSpadden.
McSpadden, a Denver resident, works in construction and has
underlying health conditions that place him both at risk of
exposure to the disease COVID-19 and at risk of having severe
complications. He is on three waitlists — UCHealth, Safeway and
SCL Health — and said he checks to see if he has gotten an
appointment “23 times a day.â€
“Here I am working every single day in that risk category,â€
he said, adding, “I still can’t get a vaccination. I think some
of that has been totally mishandled by passing the baton to the
governors of each state.â€
In other cases, the heavy reliance on online technology for the
waitlists has spurred adult children and grandchildren to help make
sure their older relatives are registered.
The state’s largest health systems and hospitals — which are
taking on much of the burden of getting people 70 and older
vaccinated — have created online waitlists or have reached out
to patients via their online record portals.
It is only in recent days that the state Department of Public
Health and Environment has created a COVID-19 vaccine hotline —
877-268-2926 — and that providers were required to offer phone
numbers in addition to their online platforms.
Assisted living resident Betsey Muldrow, 75, is aided by nursing
staff Garrien Behling, left, and CVS Pharmacist Michael Damelio as
Pfizer vaccines are distributed to residents and employees of St.
Andrews Village in Aurora on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2020.“Very
difficult†process
After hearing an announcement on the radio, Norma Jean Degenhart
signed up for a waitlist with the Fremont County Department of
Public Health and Environment and with her primary care
physician.
“What I’m seeing is that it’s just very hard to get in
this county,†said Degenhart, who lives in Penrose. “My
neighbors have also had the same problem.â€
The 80-year-old then called UCHealth and was told she would
receive a notification for an appointment through their patient
portal, called My Health Connection. But when Degenhart checked the
portal she realized she had missed a notification alerting her of
an appointment to get the vaccine weeks earlier.
“I don’t look at that every day,†Degenhart said.
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Dan Weaver, a spokesperson for UCHealth, said people have 48
hours to respond to a notification from the health system and to
set up an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine because the health
system is “not letting vaccines sit in freezers or on
shelves.â€
Eventually, her granddaughter, Angie Anderson, was able to
schedule her an appointment at a Safeway in Fountain for
Wednesday.
“She’s not like a helpless person; she’s fairly internet
savvy for an 80-year-old,†Anderson said of Degenhart.
“Navigating the process is very difficult. The fact that we
don’t have a statewide system is a little bit frustrating.â€
Denver Post reporter Meg Wingerter contributed to this
report.
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