Older adults struggle to access COVID-19 vaccine appointment websites

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Buggy websites and complex online tools are being used to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments across the United States. The systems are hard to navigate for many people, but they’re particularly inaccessible for older adults. People over the ages of 65 and 75 are prioritized for early waves of vaccination and are most at risk from COVID-19 — but they’re also often uncomfortable and unfamiliar with technology. Navigating those platforms quickly enough to secure an appointment slot may be challenging for anyone not comfortable with computers or the internet and impossible for someone who doesn’t have access to those tools. Only around half of people over the age of 75 use the internet at all, says Susan Nash, a visiting scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity studying digital literacy options for older adults. “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,” she says.


Older adults struggle to access COVID-19 vaccine appointment websites