These volunteers help senior citizens find that ever-elusive COVID vaccine appointment
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced that the United States will have enough vaccine for all Americans by May, moving up the timeline by two months from July.
Until then, qualified Washington state residents in Phases 1A and 1B still face a scramble to find and book vaccine appointments.
It’s a scramble a group calling itself the Vaccine Bookers understands and hopes to help alleviate.
Since mid-January, the group of retired educators in Tacoma has worked to help the most vulnerable people find vaccines after they themselves started looking for their own vaccines and shots for others
Some of the Vaccine Bookers recently sat down with The News Tribune via Zoom to tell their story.
‘Willing to help out’
Bonnie McGuire has been at the center of the work and soon attracted friends and former coworkers.
“I saw her starting to post about finding in Facebook, finding appointments for various people, family friends in the neighborhood. And I said, ‘Yeah, I’d be willing to help out,’ said Susan Schreurs.
“Little did I know what I was getting myself into.”
McGuire told The News Tribune there are issues on both sides of the vaccination equation.
“Senior citizens, and we’re in that group, were the most vulnerable and the least capable of navigating this very complex, fragmented, inconsistent system,” she said. ”It’s so unfortunate that it’s that perfect storm of inability on both ends. It’s the inability of the state to create something that works.
“And it’s the inability of the end user in so many cases to be able to use what it is.”
As their own knowledge grew, some tricks started taking shape. Looking for dates later in the week, for example, or expanding the ZIP code search on pharmacy retail sites. And endlessly refreshing computer screens for new appointments to pop up.
“Finding the vaccine is no different now, really than it was two or three weeks ago,” McGuire said. “We’ve gotten much better at it. But the person who is 70 years old, who is looking, it’s no better for that person. And that person is just as scared and frustrated as they were a month ago.”
After coverage by KING-5 TV in Seattle of their initial work, group members said they were overwhelmed by demand flooding an email inbox created barely an hour before the interview.
“We started getting hundreds of emails from people asking for assistance,” said Schreurs. “And we quickly realized we couldn’t help all of those hundreds of people.”
The group started training people via Zoom to reach more people faster, offering tips on where to find the appointments based on what they’ve learned.
An average class had an audience of 50 to 100 people, they recalled, including many couples.
“We did Zoom training for a full week, every night. We were putting in 12-hour days. And now it’s eased off a little bit. And it’s kind of on your schedule. Try to sit down at the computer, see what you can find. See where you can help out,” Schreurs said.
“People get frustrated. They will look every day for 20 minutes. And there are no appointments. They don’t realize, no, you need to look throughout the day,” McGuire said.
She described recently finding appointments for a couple in their mid-70s who live near Bellevue.
“They were willing to go 30 miles. … And nothing, nothing, nothing,” McGuire recalled. “So I try a little bit farther away ZIP code. Boom, three appointments come up in SeaTac Safeway. So your heart starts to race. … Does anybody know that these popped up? So I always grab the latest and the farthest away time. I pick the latest one because I figure people are going to go for the earliest one. If it’s Thursday or Friday, I’ll always pick Friday. So I was able to grab those two appointments for husband and wife — 3:00 and 3:15 at the same store on the same day.”
Despite the adrenaline rush of success when it works out, McGuire noted, “It’s stressful.”
The others agreed.
“How do you tell an 85-year-old who barely drives, ‘Oh, you have to go two different days to two different spots to get both your family (vaccinated).’ It’s crazy,” said Sandy Wusterbarth-Brown, a former coworker of McGuire’s.
For those looking for their second dose?
“We don’t search for second vaccines,” said McGuire. “We’re busy enough.”
Even agreeing to this interview, they noted, gave them pause.
Their lives “were starting to return to normal,” Schreurs said, only half-joking.
“The state’s working on making the whole process easier, having more resources for people. And so we think that we’ll be able to ease ourselves out of this sometime this spring,” she added.
“That’s my goal, Bonnie,” she said to McGuire over the Zoom call.
Olympia group
Another vaccine search group kept their focus small.
Victoria Tennant of Olympia told The News Tribune Tuesday night her group was able to get vaccines for seven in its Eastside neighborhood.
“Most of our neighbors are retirement age,” said Tennant, also a retired educator. “We started to basically take shifts, and just go to all the links on the state list at different times. And when someone finally found a link that was a hot link … then they contacted the other neighbors, and let them know. And some of the neighbors weren’t answering their phone or they weren’t available. So we just went door to door with those people and just said, ‘Here’s the link. It works. We got an appointment. Get on it now.’”
They did the same door-knocking drill in making sure people confirmed appointments, over fears some might overlook the confirmation email or think it was spam.
The seven who were initially helped now have received their second doses. Beyond the neighborhood, some helped relatives and other people they knew were isolated or not tech savvy.
“I know other neighbors were helping other people in the same way. It’s like, ‘Now we’ve got our shots. How can we help other people?’ But there wasn’t really an order and organization to it,” Tennant said.
“We spent I would say, three hours each. Each of us would be on the computer like for three hours a day. And this went on for maybe four or five days, because we were totally burned out by the time we actually got a hot link,” she said.
“And it was basically just refreshing screens.”
When she learned of the Vaccine Bookers’ work, she was surprised at the amount of appointments.
“My gosh. Five hundred people — that blows me away,” she said.
PERSEVERING THROUGH SETBACKS
A recent setback for the Vaccine Bookers was discovering Walmart and Safeway appointments blocked from appearing on covidwa.com, a site they used frequently to find appointments.
“Without those three vendors ... we were like, ‘Come on, you guys,’” said Wusterbarth-Brown
Sara Osborne, Safeway media representative, told The News Tribune on Tuesday that after the issue was brought to their attention, they are now working with the site to be added.
Osborne also said the state is working with the grocery retailer on a “one stop shop” tool, “but we have an NDA (nondisclosure agreement) so can’t provide details.”
Walmart did not respond Tuesday to questions about the issue but sent a release announcing the launch of COVID vaccine availability at seven supercenters in Pierce/Thurston counties through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program; Bonney Lake, Spanaway, Lacey, Lakewood, Tacoma and the two sites in Puyallup.
The appointments likely will help with the added priority of vaccinating educators and childcare providers quickly.
“Vaccine supply will likely primarily be delivered through the federal pharmacy program, and the directive indicates all vaccine providers should prioritize these workers,” the DOH noted in its statement Tuesday.
For McGuire, staying focused on those having the hardest time getting vaccinated is critical, and helping across all races.
“That is something that’s been very, very important to us,” she said.
In an update posted on the group’s Facebook page Tuesday evening, it noted they remained focused on searching for appointments to help those 65 and older.
Teachers, they added, were welcome to explore their Facebook posts promoting events, but they could find their own appointments.
“We encourage you to ask that school districts hold COVID-19 vaccination clinics much like the annual flu vaccinations,” the post said.
McGuire remains critical of the state’s vaccine rollout thus far.
“People who don’t know English. I have no clue how are these folks are supposed to get through this,” McGuire said.
“People who buy their data incrementally … I have unlimited data, I can look all day long. Some people don’t have computers, everything’s done on their smartphones. And they’re paying by minutes or by amount of data. ...” she said.
“People in poverty are boxed out of this from the start,” she added.
“This is so wrong. And it’s so inequitable.”
For more information:
▪ Vaccine Bookers email: vaccinebookers@gmail.com.
Expect their help to take some time due to increased demand. As an option, they recommend the following sites to learn more on how to help yourself and others:
▪ Vaccine Bookers website: https://vaccinebookerswashington.com/
▪ Vaccine Bookers Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vaccinebookers
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 1:07 PM.
