Editorial: Illinois seniors need answers, alternatives to confusing online vaccine system

Illinois this week rolled into the second phase of COVID-19 vaccinations, opening the door for roughly 3.2 million more state residents to get the shot.

Great news, right?

Sure, if you're willing to devote all your energies to finding a shot and then lucky enough to snag one.

Phase 1B began Monday for many of the state's most vulnerable residents - senior citizens, public safety workers, teachers and grocery store personnel.

But as staff writer Jake Griffin pointed out in a story Monday: Eligibility is one thing. Accessibility is another. And there are a number of obstacles to accessibility.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker Monday announced a new portal on coronavirus.illinois.gov to provide information about the COVID-19 vaccine. This "hub" will direct site visitors to pharmacies and 97 different health departments.

It's a positive step, but not nearly enough.

With no statewide registration available, officials want everyone to sign up with their counties. Once you sign up, you can wait to be notified or hunt down a vaccine on your own. That means calling doctors or bouncing around pharmacy websites only to discover that the ones closest to you don't have the shot or that appointments evaporate the moment they are posted.

So how do Illinois' elderly and others who qualify get the vaccine when there are not enough appointments to go around? What happens if they don't own a computer or can't decipher the online process?

And why was this vulnerable group left to fend for themselves?

"It's a limited number of entities that have the vaccine right now," explained Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister. "We still have no clear understanding of what to expect."

One year after COVID-19 hit the suburbs, 10 months after it basically closed down the state, county officials should have been given clearer guidance. They need it now, and they need more of it going forward.

While the blame starts with the Trump administration, which failed to provide the federal leadership the pandemic demanded, Pritzker and other Illinois leaders should have mapped out and executed a faster, clearer vaccine process.

Illinois had given out less than half of its 1.4 million allocated doses as of Sunday, according to the CDC, putting our state near the bottom in terms of progress. Officials need to help counties streamline process and create more community clinics so we can do better going forward.

Illinois should also look at states such as West Virginia that are leading the nation in vaccination rates. Officials there put the National Guard in charge, enlisted local pharmacies to set up clinics, paired pharmacies with long-term care facilities and broke the older population into slightly staggered age groups.

At a bare minimum, Illinois should set up well-staffed hotlines so seniors in the suburbs can call to schedule appointments. Families should not have to mobilize teams of tech-savvy children and grandchildren crisscrossing the web to get Grandma a vaccine.

Our senior citizens and essential workers deserve better. We all do.