What Volunteers Learned After Making Thousands of Vaccine Appointments

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. As vaccine eligibility categories expand around the country, the question remains are eligible people getting the shot and if not, is it because of hesitancy or difficulty scheduling appointments or getting off work? Around 27% of New York state residents have gotten their first shots, that's on par with most other states, but sign up difficulties remain, especially around the frustrating online signup system, which is particularly challenging for older individuals and people with multiple jobs and little time to sit in front of a computer hitting refresh.

The good news is that multiple volunteer groups have zeroed in on this issue and are making appointments for community members who are eligible but having difficulty or need questions answered.

With me now is S. Mitra Kalita. She is the publisher of Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter helping New Yorkers to get through the pandemic. Since January, the publication also began volunteering to help community members make vaccine appointments. So far they've booked more than 2,600 shots. They recently came out with a report called What We Learned Registering Thousands of Our Neighbors for Vaccines.

Again, S. Mitra Kalita is the publisher of Epicenter-NYC and she's also the CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets. Hi, Mitra. Welcome to WNYC.

Mitra Kalita: Hi, Brian, it's so great to be here.

Brian Lehrer: Epicenter-NYC is a news organization, why and how did you pivot to making vaccine appointments for people?

Mitra Kalita: You could say that we've always expanded the definition of news if you will. We launched back in July after-- I live in Jackson Heights in Queens, which back then if you remember was dubbed the epicenter of the epicenter. We launched with this idea that some of the answers to get through the pandemic are actually in our neighborhoods or among the crowd and so we've always turned to our audience for some of the answers.

In January, in the process of booking my own parents for a vaccine as well as we talked to a lot of small businesses for the newsletter, just those two things collided where I thought, "Gosh, if this was so hard for me, how on earth will somebody who doesn't have the alleged digital savvy that I do get through this?" Then the community literally came to us and said, "How can we secure a vaccine appointment? We don't understand these websites." I say websites plural because there are many to navigate.

Brian Lehrer: Absolutely. I'll tell my own story. I got my shot by registering on two different hospital network websites and two different pharmacy chain websites that had locations giving vaccines in my neighborhood. Finally, after several weeks, one of them came up with an appointment.

I know all the stuff from my job and I know I'm pretty computer savvy and I was able to range enough time to have it done, hit refresh refresh while I'm doing the show. No, not really, but not everybody has that luxury. Your report describes a scenario where 10 volunteers had to work together to get one elderly couple vaccinated on the same day as each other. Can you describe why it might be important to a couple to have the same appointment day and why it took so many volunteers in this case?

Mitra Kalita: Sure. Brian, next time I do hope you give us a call, we're happy to help you as well. This couple, I remember the story because it took up the better part of two days. It's a couple in their 90s, they have a caregiver and as a caregiver, she qualifies for the vaccine, and because of their age, they qualify.

This was in mid-March, so I also think it's important to note that their demographic was able to get the vaccine as early as January. I think the timing here is also important that word of how you do this is still just getting around to people. This was just a few weeks ago and we were able to get-- They approached us and said, "We don't know how to do this, please help." They sent an email and a volunteer called them.

The way that what you just described Brian with your own experience, is basically set up to get one person a vaccine. The reality of how families, and especially the elderly and immigrant communities work, we show up together. Especially, in this case, they're in their 90s, they have a caregiver. This is three appointments that we're trying to secure, but we're confronting the exact same system that you just outlined.

We get one in and then we say, "Okay, well, now we've gotten one in Harlem at a vaccine clinic, we got to get the other two in around the same time." At this point, I'm just happy to settle for the day of and the same clinic. Five volunteers are parked on the site that will allow them to hit refresh, hoping to snag a cancellation.

I happen to be one of those volunteers and I was able to get their health aid in and the euphoria, not just among the five of us who were working on it, but we work in a program called Slack and also on WhatsApp because of this real-time scheduling, the euphoria was in the-- Dozens of people were high-fiving and cheering and you could just feel it digitally like the emojis and the GIF game were very strong, but it is-- That scenario, just imagine, first of all, someone could try to do that on their own for their own family, but also we now are experts at navigating the system and that's what it took.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, is there anyone out there right now who qualifies, who is still having trouble signing up for a vaccine even though you're eligible, call in and tell us about the challenges you're facing at 646-435-7280. Are you still unsure about how to use the city's website or the state's website or whatever you're trying to access, or you're just refreshing and refreshing and refreshing and not seeing an appointment come up, or maybe you're nervous about taking time off work or how to get to the appointment, or there are any other barriers that you would want to mention, call in 646-435-7280.

We don't have a lot of time, but we can take a few examples maybe to help us and to help Mitra report the story of where the barriers still are, 646-435-7280. Mitra, volunteers have singled out Eastern Queens, Southern Brooklyn, Staten Island as problem areas. Those are obviously very broad geographic neighborhoods when stated that way, but what are the main concerns?

Mitra Kalita: The main concerns are the transport to the vaccine sites themselves. In some cases, you also have folks that are not walking distance from a pharmacy or they might be walking distance from a pharmacy but they can't get an appointment at that pharmacy. Then these are also communities that have rates in some cases in South Brooklyn over 10%. The time is running out and we're so aware of that.

Another challenge is documentation. While that's not confined to the communities you just mentioned, there's two levels of documentation that are an issue. One is the sites just vary on what they're asking you for. Even though a process called self-attestation, I attest that I have an illness or a comorbidity or something that qualifies me for the vaccine is a form you can fill out that we're still seeing inconsistency from some sites, including pharmacies saying they need a doctor's note, which is not in compliance with what the state has said.

The other issue is for undocumented workers. Restaurant workers, for example, many are paid cash. Whether you're documented or not documented, it is an industry that pays some workers cash, might not have pay stubs or documentation saying you are a restaurant worker. This is one area that I think New Yorkers could just help each other out.

If you're a manager who's listening, they're not going to keep that letter. They just need to know that you're a person and I hope we treat your workers as your workers, but just giving them a letter saying they are indeed a bartender, a cashier, whatever the job is, that is revolutionary for that worker and their ability to secure the vaccine. That's another obstacle that we're hearing over and over.

Brian Lehrer: The restaurant workers situation really jumped out at me from your reporting multiple restaurant workers who were eligible to receive the vaccine, but couldn't get proof of employment from their bosses and vaccine sites varying greatly in terms of what you need to provide for proof of eligibility, are still some of the barriers out there.

Tony in the Bronx. You're on WNYC. Hi, Tony.

Tony: Hi, Brian. Thank you for taking my call, a long-time listener. I'm having trouble getting signed up because I am a totally blind, 67-year-old man who lives alone and dealing with the websites, even with a skillful use of a talking computer can still be quite confusing because they are not always as informative as you need them to be. You could be typing in something incorrectly, not refreshing properly, all sorts of complexities but I think that there's a small group of us in the community who probably could use help from people so that we don't even have to tangle with the websites.

Brian Lehrer: Mitra, can you help Tony?

Mitra Kalita: I can help Tony. If you give your information to Brian's producers, we can certainly help you out. I should mention that we do have one volunteer who approached us and he's hearing-impaired and had a very similar concern to Tony saying, "I'm worried that disabled folks are being left out of just the access and the outreach right now." He's been working with them.

We have another volunteer who's been working with the home-bound, mostly they're home-bound seniors but in some cases disabled and as well as autistic New Yorkers who might not feel comfortable going to a site. Now I have to say on the homebound program, this volunteer we have has said she does the intake, she gets them into the system, but it can be weeks before they hear where they are in queue.

My hope is that with the J&J vaccine, I just got a news alert saying that there's tens of thousands of them heading New York's way next week. I hope that starts to shift some of the homebound and help some disabled like Tony, but in the meantime, Tony, we could definitely hook you up, so do reach out.

Brian Lehrer: That's great. Another issue that you highlighted in your reporting is that often the city or state do take positive action like putting up a pop-up site or announcing that 85-year-olds can now walk into certain sites without an appointment and immediately receive the vaccine. The problem is nobody hears about it. How do you get the information out? Let's go to Jen in Astoria. Jen, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Jen: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much. I've been listening to your show every single day throughout this pandemic and you've just been a very comforting voice, so thank you so much.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Jen: I am calling because I am someone who would like to help in signing folks up for vaccine appointments. It's something that I've had a lot of time on my hands due to being an out-of-work performing artist. I've learned how to use the system and it's something I've just been doing on my own to help friends and family, but I would very much love to help out anybody that is in need of an appointment and having trouble either navigating the websites or figuring out which site is closest to them. I'd be glad to get on board.

Brian Lehrer: Mitra, do you want volunteers for Epicenter-NYC in this effort that you've undertaken to help people get their appointments?

Mitra Kalita: We do want volunteers and there's one caveat on that, but the easiest way to sign up to volunteer, our website is epicenter-nyc.com and our first article there is vaccine. If you click on that, there is an intake form for volunteers and we very much welcome the help. The caveat that I referenced is that, we are dealing with people's private information and now we've had more than 5,000 folks turn to us for help.

While we welcome people who can book people, we're also being careful as we're letting folks in. One message I would love to get out there is that anybody can be a volunteer right now and it sounds like the caller is doing that in her own community and that's exactly the type of behavior we're hoping to see more of. It is the single most important thing we can do to get to the other side is to enable the other side through vaccines.

One suggestion is when you talk to people that you come upon, whether it's your grocery cashier or-- I had pizza delivery the other day, your doorman, construction workers, people who are in your life. I think we are at a stage where people in conversation are saying, "Have you gotten vaccinated?" If their answer is no, I think the next question has to be, "Can I help you?"

For people who are-- Brian, you mentioned like some of the news is coming out on Twitter and Facebook. If that population's not on Twitter and Facebook, but you are and you can say, "Look, there's a pop-up down the street just walk in and get your vaccine," you have not just impacted that person's life but potentially their households, their shifts that they work on, their extended family.

Brian Lehrer: We're going to run out of time shortly, but you're making such a crucial point that people don't have to be with an organization like yours even to help people in their neighborhoods get their appointments. Just be reaching out, just have your antennas up, just ask follow-up questions of people you come in contact with?

Mitra Kalita: I think that covers-- If we've learned anything in the pandemic, it's this need to connect with our neighborhood. That is exactly what our newsletter was born out of, wanting that connection among New Yorkers. I hope we hang on to it, but if there was ever a moment where reaching out could be again, revolutionary in the lives of people who might not even have the information that you and I have been talking about, Brian, this would really be it.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, I'll give you a couple of phone numbers as we run out of time here. There is a New York City number that people can call now and they will help you set up an appointment with New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation site and that's 877-829-4692, 877-829-4692, go run and get a pen and I'll tell you it again, or log onto your web browsers.

If you want to help someone in your life or community get signed up for a vaccine, you can give them Epicenter-NYC's number. Mitra has given us permission to do that, which is 917-818-2690, 917-818-2690. Again, that New York City number is 877-829-4692. Again, Epicenter-NYC is 917-818-2690.

1. Mitra Kalita is the publisher of Epicenter-NYC and she's also the CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets. Thank you for this incredible service-

Mitra Kalita: Thank you, Brian, for spreading the word.

Brian Lehrer: -and for coming on and sharing it with us.

Mitra Kalita: Take care.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Quick reminder that I'll be back tonight at eight for this week's edition of our National Thursday Night calling show for the first hundred days of the Biden administration, America, Are We Ready? Tonight, we're going to break down the first Biden news conference, which is coming in about an hour. Join me tonight at eight here on the station, or tell your friends, family members, and enemies around the country.

 

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