State officials are asking parents to wait a little longer to find out where they can vaccinate their young children against COVID-19, even as nearly four dozen providers were scheduled Monday to receive thousands of doses.
Federal and state officials approved shots for children age six months to 4 years old over the last several days. But Portland-area parents have been frustrated trying to find the long-awaited shots, with Oregon lacking a searchable repository to identify where and when the state has allocated doses.
“Parents and caregivers interested in vaccinating their children under five this week are advised to call their pediatrician or local public health clinic first to ask when vaccine will be available,” Oregon Health Authority spokesperson Rudy Owens said in an emailed response to questions about how parents should go about finding a shot for their child.
The state also pointed to its “Get Vaccinated Oregon” page, a website for finding locations that give vaccines. But confusion abounded, as none of the locations giving shots to the newly-eligible age group give them to children under 3, according to search results as of Tuesday afternoon. And the results did not show Oregon Health & Science University and other health systems that Owens said should have already received doses.
The agency anticipates identifying the first sites able to administer shots “by the end of the day,” Owens said. In response to a request for a list of providers who have received shots, Owens said the agency could not provide more details about the shots because “the bulk of the shipments are not yet delivered.”
Becky Straus said it has taken several days of constant research, refreshing of pharmacy websites and joining an impromptu social media community for her to be able to snag an appointment for her 4-year-old son.
Her friend saw a tweet that OHSU had appointments and texted her. Straus called and, after 10 minutes on hold Monday, was able to secure an appointment for Saturday.
She said she thinks she got lucky.
“It’s like the internet research lottery,” Straus said, adding the experience reminded her of the days when vaccines first became available to adults last year.
Across Oregon, 45 locations, including local public health agencies, health systems such as OHSU and Legacy and three pharmacies had been scheduled to receive shots Monday, Owens said. More than 19,000 doses were shipped Sunday for delivery Monday, he said, and 51,200 have been shipped total, the remainder to arrive Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Oregon Health Authority did not provide the newsroom with a list of providers who actually received doses, providing only a list of providers who have been allocated shots. Oregon has been allocated 173,200 doses through the week of June 27, Owens said.
OHA has said it doesn’t expect demand to be overwhelming, given the relatively low percentage of children ages 5 to 11 who got vaccinated in the first 10 weeks they were able to. As of mid-June, 42% have received at least one dose, state data show, compared to 70% of children 12 to 17 years old and 82% of adults 50 to 64 years old.
But among parents who have been eagerly awaiting vaccine eligibility, the search process felt eerily reminiscent of their own experiences in spring 2021.
Evan Aczon said he started looking for an appointment for his 14-month-old daughter Monday, the day Oregon announced it had approved shots for children that young. The Vancouver resident found none in Washington using that state’s vaccine search page, and Oregon’s didn’t have the option to search for shots for the youngest age group.
Tabs accumulated on Aczon’s browser as he refreshed various websites looking for appointments and joined others trying to crowdsource appointment information on Twitter — an effort he said he had to undertake “because people who should be distributing information are doing a terrible job.”
Late that afternoon, he saw a tweet saying OHSU had appointments. He said he called the university and, after 30 minutes on hold, his call was dropped. It was past closing time by then, and he couldn’t reach anyone when he tried again.
Aczon called Tuesday morning and, this time, booked an appointment for Saturday.
“They’ve had two years to plan a rollout,” Aczon said. “The rollout was, ‘Ask your pediatrician.’”
— Fedor Zarkhin
