Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A woman who has just received her Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is escorted by her daughter into the post-injection observation area.
A woman who has just received her Moderna vaccine is escorted out of a medical center in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Coronavirus

As COVID vaccine eligibility opens up, older women struggle to get a shot

Lack of internet and limited outreach means about a quarter of adults 65 and older still aren't vaccinated. Early evidence suggests women are more vulnerable.

Shefali Luthra

Health Reporter

Shefali Luthra portrait

Published

2021-04-08 07:00
7:00
April 8, 2021
am

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Geneva Eggerson has been eligible for a coronavirus vaccine for months. But she has no idea how to get it, or if she should.  

Eggerson’s age, 80, elevates her risk for complications from COVID-19. She has lung conditions that make her even higher-risk. Her home state of Kentucky has been administering shots to adults in her age bracket, 75 and up, since mid-January. 

But Eggerson, who lives in Lexington, hasn’t signed up for an appointment. She can’t drive herself to a vaccination site. And, critically, no one has even told her if the vaccine is safe for her, or if getting one is a good idea. (With rare exceptions, the U.S.-authorized COVID-19 vaccines are safe for all adults, including older adults.) 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

“I want to see my doctor and see what she says — see if it’s all right for me to take it or not,” Eggerson said. “If somebody would talk to me, I might feel a bit better about it.”

The national vaccination effort is, at least theoretically, entering its final stages. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 55 percent of adults 65 and older are now completely vaccinated against the virus. About 75 percent of people in that age group have gotten at least one shot. President Joe Biden has said that all states must open vaccine eligibility to all people 16 and older by April 19 — and many states have already done so. Meanwhile, drug companies are now moving forward to see if the current vaccines can work on children.

But amid all that progress, women like Eggerson are still being left behind. The Biden administration is calling on seniors to get vaccinated as soon as possible, but as eligibility expands, helping the remaining seniors get shots could become even harder. Early evidence suggests older women appear less likely than older men to have been immunized.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

A small handful of states collect gender data when tracking vaccination rates for adults 65 and older, the age group that is by far the most vulnerable to COVID-19. The CDC is currently studying vaccination data to see whether uptake differs for the 65-plus cohort based on gender, but that information won’t be ready until later this month, a spokesperson told The 19th. 

But recent polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) suggests that, in the 65-plus age bracket, men are significantly more likely than women to have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine. About 70 percent of senior men had gotten at least one shot, compared with only 59 percent of senior women. 

The gap, KFF found, is because women are less likely to have even tried to get a shot: About 26 percent of senior women said they had not attempted to book a vaccine appointment, compared with only 17 percent of senior men who said the same. The poll’s findings indicated that older women were more likely to be worried about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness and that they were less likely to work in jobs that required them to be vaccinated.

But the full picture appears to be more complex. In interviews with The 19th, many women 65 and older pointed to more basic failings. They don’t oppose getting a shot, but they need to hear from their physician that it is safe for them. And so far, nobody has contacted them about getting a vaccine or told them how to navigate signing up for one. All they have been told about is online sign-ups — a barrier for people  uncomfortable with the computer or lacking regular internet access.  

Problems that impact older people will affect older women more. Women live longer than men, on average. They are more likely to live alone, without people who can help them book an appointment or get to a vaccination site. More than 1 in 5 seniors don’t have steady internet, which increases among adults 85 and older, a group that is majority women. Older women are also more likely than men to live at or near the poverty level, which means they more often face income-related challenges such as getting transportation to a vaccination site or paying for something like at-home internet.

“They are not only more isolated but may have less access to people in their community or family members who can step in to do all the work that’s required to find a vaccination site to get an appointment,” said Tricia Neuman, a senior vice president at KFF who has been studying vaccination for elderly people. “It’s not hard to see how the oldest of old are less connected to sources of information to help them get vaccinated.”

Related Articles

  • Study finds Black women are dying from COVID-19 at three times the rate of both White and Asian men
  • ‘From bad to worse’: How COVID-19 could undo gender equity efforts across the globe
  • A year into the pandemic, LGBTQ+ life and death remains largely invisible

Eggerson lives alone and doesn’t drive — she leaves her house only once a month to get groceries — so she relies on her grandson to take her to medical appointments. He is taking her to the doctor this week, she said, where she hopes to learn if she should take the vaccine. If the answer is yes, she wants to get vaccinated then and there, or at the Walgreens where she picks up her medications. 

“They’ll probably have it. When I get my medicine at the Walgreens — I’ll talk to someone,” she said.

The Biden administration has moved to scale up how many vaccines are available in retail pharmacies like Walgreens, which are often more trusted sources of health care for older Americans. Still, getting a shot still requires making an appointment in advance, with availability varying from location to location, day to day. 

And those appointments could soon get harder to book. 

“Seniors — get vaccinated now,” Biden said in remarks Tuesday, echoing remarks that White House press secretary Jen Psaki made earlier that day . 

Immediacy is critical, Psaki told reporters, because as vaccine eligibility opens up to more and more people, the lines will only get longer. Though all adults will be vaccine-eligible by April 19, supply won’t yet have caught up. The Biden administration has ordered enough shots for the entire adult population, but those won’t be fully available until the end of May. 

For Debbie Forney, a 66-year-old in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, getting a vaccine took months of waiting and a good amount of luck. Her age group has been vaccine-eligible in her state since mid-January, but she had no way of booking an appointment. As far as Forney could see, everything was online, and she wasn’t comfortable using the computer-based system.

Forney’s daughter works with the state’s senior services and was finally able to find a vaccine phone number, which allowed Forney to set up a time slot. Both she and her husband have now gotten their first shots of the Pfizer two-dose regimen, and she’s passed the number on to other people she knows who are similarly uncomfortable signing up online.

“The only way people are able to enroll in a vaccine is what I did, by word of mouth,” Forney said. “Had I not been told to call that number, I’d still be waiting.”

She worries that it’s a patchwork approach to a systemic issue. In the local newspaper, she constantly sees first-person accounts from older people who aren’t comfortable with a computer and who are writing in seeking help getting a vaccine appointment. 

She worries the problem is greater for older women, especially. “So many women I know who are older than me, they’re widows,” she said. Often, they live alone without someone nearby to navigate the Byzantine vaccine registration process.

Forney says more targeted outreach to seniors like her — phone calls, or door-to-door canvassing organized by public health authorities — would help people know where and how to get a vaccine. 

But for now? “Everyone is out there on a limb on their own,” she said.

Last week, the Biden administration committed almost $100 million to helping vaccinate adults 65 and older and people with disabilities. The bulk of that money will go toward helping transport people to vaccination sites and to a national vaccine hotline to help people sign up for appointments and get connected to local senior support services. 

That could certainly help, but it’s unclear if it will suffice. The government doesn’t actually have solid data breaking down which older people are struggling to get vaccinated, which makes it harder to target solutions or direct information campaigns toward those who need it, Neuman said. 

That’s an issue for 82-year-old Darlene Miller. She lives in South Carolina, just outside of Charleston, and hasn’t gotten a vaccine yet. She’s not opposed to getting the vaccine, but she has questions. A polio survivor, she isn’t sure if the shot will be safe for her. (There is no evidence suggesting that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous for people who have survived polio.) Like Eggerson, she is waiting to hear what her physician thinks, but her next doctors’ visit isn’t until May.

Her area has an ample supply of shots but little outreach. Nobody has called her to talk through her questions about the vaccine, or even to make sure she knows how to get one. 

Research suggests that older adults, who generally have insurance through Medicare, are more likely to seek medical answers from their doctors or local pharmacists — and those could be natural hubs for vaccine outreach. The power of a physician’s office appears especially salient for conservatives, who are more likely to be skeptical about taking a vaccine to begin with. 

But in much of the country, individual doctors’ offices have taken a relative backseat during vaccine rollout, Neuman noted. Hospitals have played a role in distribution, but more often, shots are mainly organized through health departments, which coordinate directly with pharmacies and vaccination clinics. 

“There’s a disconnect in what people think of as their health care system,” Neuman said. “Most people don’t have a personal connection to their county or state public health agency.”

Linda Jewell, a 68-year-old in Rapid City, South Dakota, learned how to get her shot by calling her physician. She got a single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the end of March. The process was painless, she said.

It’s lucky she called. Jewell had been waiting months longer than she should have, and arguably without any good reason. When she called her doctor, she learned the hospital had mailed her a letter in January, informing her about her vaccine eligibility. Jewell never got it.

She doesn’t use a cell phone, send text messages or spend much time on the internet. The health care system, she said, needs to be doing outreach to people like her, who are high-risk and who would be open to getting a vaccine. That means phone calls to help people set up appointments, and door-to-door visits. 

“If they had a small program to call and ask, ‘Have you had your vaccine’ — yes there a lot of people who will be assholes and hang up, but even then, maybe someone will think twice, and say, ‘Maybe I should get it,’” she said. 

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

From the Collection

The Impact of Aging

A number of older people walking down a path of information.
  • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

    Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
  • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

    Mariel Padilla · June 3
  • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

    Jessica Kutz · May 31

Up Next

A pregnant woman sits on a porch swing holding her belly with a mask on.

Health

Biden campaigned on universal health coverage. Will his next big plan include a public option?

Recent legislation made steps toward expanding coverage, but millions of Americans are still uninsured. Addressing that could help close gaps for many pregnant people.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram