Older Adults Struggle to Access COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment Websites

The Verge reports that bug-riddled websites and complex online tools used to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments across the United States are proving difficult for older adults. "The most vulnerable people are left behind even more so than if we hadn't used more of a technology-oriented solution," explains Ethan Basch at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Stanford Center on Longevity's Susan Nash adds that only about half of people older than 75 use the Internet at all, and she notes that "the great irony of this problem is that the people we need to reach with the vaccine and get information to are the ones who are least likely to be online." Meanwhile, many doctors switched to telehealth during the crisis, but people lacking Internet access — often older, non-white, and low income — are less likely to set up telehealth appointments and are at risk for lapses in care. Michigan Technological University Professor Charles Wallace points out that slapdash digital registration platforms will likely have components presenting difficulty to less tech-savvy people. "We can easily lose sight of how thin people's competencies are," he observes. Compounding the challenge for older adults is a lack of concrete guidelines for vaccination procedures, and little communication to support people who need assistance.