ROCKVILLE, Md. — Younger adults are reporting spending endless hours attempting to help their parents and grandparents register online for scarce vaccine appointments throughout the region, to no avail.
Local health authorities in Maryland say frustrated families should, at a minimum, pre-register seniors on their respective county's websites before scouring the internet for other options. Health officials, however, admit that pre-registered seniors may not hear back with an emailed appointment invitation for weeks or months.
Julie Fogel, a 36-year-old publicist working in Chicago, said she constantly monitors as many as 20 vaccine appointment websites in Maryland in hopes of securing an appointment for her 81-year-old father, Robert Fogel.
So far, Julie Fogel said the effort has been fruitless and like "trying to hit the lotto."
"I think I had 20 different tabs up, trying to get in line on five different browsers," Fogel said. "It's ridiculous. It shouldn't be this hard."
"I thank God they're trying to help," Robert Fogel said, after also being on his computer constantly with no results.
"It was just like a dead end and got so frustrating," Robert Fogel said.
Julie Fogel blames Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan for opening vaccination to group 1C, which includes people 65 and older long before the older and more vulnerable people in group 1B had a chance to be vaccinated with the state's limited supply.
"They created new demand for the vaccine [whose supply] just isn't there", Jule Fogel said.
In addition to pre-registering with a county health deparment website, seniors and their families are scouring the internet for other options which include a bewildering array of hospital system and retail pharmacies which are offering limited vaccinations. The Fogel family compared attempting to secure these types of appointments to playing "whack-a-mole" or attempting to "win the lottery."
Meanwhile, a state of Maryland vaccine website can steer residents of one county to a dizzying array of options in other counties across the state.
The result has been people securing appointments outside their home jurisdictions only to find later the appointment may not be honored by local health authorities who are reserving vaccination for residents and local workers only, according to William Galston, a Brookings Institution researcher.
Many hospital systems and retail pharmacies, such as Giant Food, have no such geographic restrictions, but do require identification and other proof that the individual is in a priority group approved by the state to recieve a vaccine, according to their websites.
Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) said state authorities should step in with a centralized system to get people vaccinated.
"I'm really disspointed with Maryland," Brown said Thursday.
Brown said Maryland health authorities should use some of the $200 million in recently approved federal funding to set up a statewide vaccine appointment system that is equitable to all residents.
Health officials in Prince George's County are asking that friends and relatives of seniors assist them with pre-registering online and attempting to make other appointments.
"We have encouraged Prince Georgians to help the seniors in their lives with filling out the appropriate forms to schedule appointments, until we are able to launch a hotline," Health Department George Lettis said in an email to WUSA9. "Once the hotline is launched, we would appreciate the support of our community with sharing this information with the seniors in their lives."
Prince George's County will be opening up a telephone hotline Monday, according to the County's health department. That number has not yet been announced, but the digital pre-registration can be found here.
Lettis added that once the telephone hotline is launched, the county will be printing flyers and distributing them through methods including senior meal deliveries for homebound seniors through the Department of Family Services.
"Everyone must pre-register in order to receive an appointment, so if you are assisting a senior in your life with getting an appointment, please start by filling out our pre-registration form at https://bit.ly/PGCVaccineForm," Lettis said.
Meanwhile, Montgomery County has opened a phone line to help seniors or families without internet access or email: 240-777-2982. Montgomery County residents who do have computer access can pre-register online here.
