The Vaccine Hurdles Older New Yorkers Face |
It’s Friday. We’re off on Monday for Martin Luther King’s Birthday, but we’ll be back on Tuesday. |
Weather: Cloudy, with an afternoon sprinkle; high in the upper 40s. Damp on Saturday, sunny but gusty on Sunday and partly sunny on Monday. |
Alternate-side parking: In effect until Monday (Martin Luther King’s Birthday). |
 | | Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times |
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Roseline David, 80, spent nearly 19 hours trying to make a vaccination appointment. |
This week, Ms. David repeatedly messaged her doctor, spent hours navigating the city’s website and called 311 only to be told someone would call her back or that appointments were filled. |
Ms. David is not the only one struggling to get vaccinated in New York City. My colleague Sharon Otterman found that the city’s appointment system was rife with issues, from a confusing sign-up system to buggy websites to a lack of outreach. These hurdles are making it particularly hard for older New Yorkers to get vaccinated. |
Here’s what you need to know: |
A frustrating appointment sign-up system |
Those who want to make an appointment confront multiple sign-up systems run by the city, state and private providers that work in parallel but do not link together. Some who work in senior services said that the systems were not sufficiently organized ahead of time. |
On Tuesday, Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, said that the city was working to simplify the separate sign-up systems but that there was a reason for the complexity. He explained that each major player in the effort had its own medical records process that vaccination schedules must link to. Participating providers have their own scheduling systems, too. |
Informing the most vulnerable New Yorkers about the vaccine has been its own challenge. Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, commissioner for the Department for the Aging, said that roughly 60,000 calls were being made every week to help older adults make an appointment. Still, those who are not fluent in English or do not have access to a computer face particular barriers. There is a phone hotline, but wait times have been long. |
Since New York broadened its eligibility criteria, officials have been increasingly worried about supply. On the state’s website, an alert reads, “The Federal Government has only given New York approximately 300,000 vaccines/week for over 7 million people who are eligible — as a result supply is very limited.” |
On Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “Right now, if we don’t get more vaccine, there literally will not be appointments available after the next couple of weeks.” |
Thousands of applications to the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program have experienced delays. [Gothamist] |
An artist has been picked for a public art installation depicting the abolition movement at Willoughby Square Park in Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Paper] |
Two-level apartments have become increasingly popular during the pandemic. [New York Post] |
And finally: Your virtual social weekend |
The Times’s Melissa Guerrero writes: |
Although many performance spaces, museums and community centers are closed, people are finding creative ways to connect through virtual events and programs. Here are suggestions for maintaining a New York social life this weekend while keeping a safe distance from other people. |
On Friday at 7 p.m., join Bob Gruen, a photographer and the author of “Right Place, Right Time: The Life of a Rock & Roll Photographer,” for a talk about exploring the rock music scene through pictures. |
Open Studio From Home: Anthony Barboza |
Learn about Anthony Barboza, one of the early members of the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of Black photographers in New York City, on Saturday at 11 a.m. Attendees will create a collaborative family portrait inspired by Mr. Barboza’s accordion-fold artists’ book. |
Sign up for the free livestream on the event page. |
A History of Social Action in Transit |
On Saturday at 12:30 p.m., Sonya Ochshorn, a New York Transit Museum educator, discusses social movements and political activism that are connected to transit in New York City. |
It’s Friday — expand your knowledge. |
Metropolitan Diary: Walking tour |
I stepped out of an East Side funeral home into the bright June sunshine. I examined the white plastic bucket containing my mother’s ashes, and then I raised my arm to hail a cab. |
One pulled up, but something made me wave it on. I stuffed the bucket into my backpack, loaded the pack onto my back and started walking. |
For the next hour or so, I took my mother on a tour of some of the monuments of our New York lives. |
Past the old Drake Hotel, where we would duck in to grab a handful of mini Swiss chocolate bars from the cavernous bowl in the lobby. |
Past Saks Fifth Avenue, where we would squeeze into the tightly packed elevators operated by “elevator men” calling out the floors in deep baritones. |
Past the MoMA sculpture garden, which my mother’s first New York apartment overlooked. |
Past the Pierre Hotel, where my mother had conned the receptionist into giving her a room when she ran away from home as a teenager. |
Past the long-gone Auto Pub in the General Motors Building, where my parents threw the best birthday party of my life. |
Past the old Rumpelmayer’s on Central Park South, where my mother would take me for vanilla ice cream sodas on special days. |
Into Central Park and onto the park drive, which my mother hectored many a taxi driver into taking to “save time.” |
And, finally, home to the empty apartment on the Upper West Side. |
Thanks, Mom, for sharing these things with me. How pleased I was that day to return the favor. |
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