Families describe anxious wait in COVID vaccine lottery

Susan Payette has spent nearly a year worried about passing COVID to her 93-year-old dad.

What if we brought it into the house?" she says about being one of her dad's caregivers during the pandemic. It's a lot of responsibility. We've been really, really tightly doing all of the things we're supposed to do and following all of the protocols."

The risk her dad faces is one of the reasons why the central Mountain family really wanted him to get his vaccine" when it became available in Hamilton on Monday to seniors aged 85 and older.

Payette says her father is a realist about the virus.

As he says, Face it: at this age if I get it, I'm gone,'" she said. And it's true. Getting this vaccine just meant so much."

Nancy Capretta takes her 86-year-old dad to all of his medical appointments and worries each time that it will end in infection.

I'm trying to protect him from me," she says. It will be months and months before I get that vaccine and I'm their primary caregiver. I want to make sure when I go to their house they have that added protection - they have that vaccine."

Both women registered their dads through the city's vaccine hotline, which has been overwhelmed since it opened Saturday morning and still had issues Wednesday due to high call volumes.

Like many, Capretta called hundreds of times to get through despite the fact her dad should have been already registered because he has visited Hamilton Health Sciences or St. Joseph's Healthcare in the last six months.

I just don't want him to get missed," said Capretta, joining many other families who weren't leaving anything to chance.

Now they are part of a stressful waiting game to see when their loved ones are randomly chosen for one of the coveted 250 appointments a day at the West 5th Campus of St. Joseph's Healthcare or 200 a day at roving community clinics.

We were like the first to register and then nothing," said Payette. It's still nothing ... Crickets."

She says the silence makes you start to doubt, Did something go wrong with the registration process?"

Capretta describes wondering, Is there any way to make sure his name has been forwarded?"

No one can give us any sort of timeline," she said. I'm waiting and waiting and I don't know how long I have to wait. I know it's a daunting task and everybody wants that vaccine, I just wish that we had a little bit more information."

An email is all Leanne Till craves to reassure her that her 85-year-old dad is on the list.

She just wants something in writing that says, We see you, we hear you, you are in line. We've got you, you don't need to worry."

She also called the hotline hundreds of times before getting through Wednesday afternoon.

I don't know where we sit," she said. That's my frustration ... I'm at my wit's end."

Till has the added pressure that she needs to get back home to Maryland. She came to Hamilton to help her mom care for her dad while he recovered from heart surgery. She got out of quarantine in time to bring him home from the hospital and now she wants to see him vaccinated before she leaves again - especially considering how difficult it will be to get him to a clinic so soon after surgery.

It's just so important to me and anyone with an older parent," she said. I don't want anyone to get missed or lost."

Julius Sakalauskas took his 91-year-old mom on an outdoor outing Wednesday as a practice run for the vaccine appointment.

My mom is not all that mobile," he said. I'm glad we got registered but I'm anxious about getting there and getting stuck in a line."

He estimates it took between 400 and 500 calls to get his mom registered. At one point, his girlfriend told him to take a break, because I was getting pretty frustrated."

He questions why the city went with a phone line alone - especially considering it can't handle the volume of a call centre - instead of also adding email or online registration. He also points out modern phone systems often have the ability to provide call backs when it's your turn in line instead of requiring endless redials.

I felt like I was back in 1975 trying to score tickets," said Sakalauskas. My mom couldn't have done it. Her motor skills are such that it's hard for her to work the TV converter right now."

He questions what happens to seniors who don't have family making sure they're registered.

I look after my mom but the seniors who are out there who have no one to support them, I'm sure there are a ton of them out there and they don't know where to turn," said Sakalauskas.

He predicts it will be just as chaotic and frustrating when the provincial booking system takes over March 15.

I think it's going to be a shemozzle," he said. To go through this whole process, it left a very bad taste in my mouth. When you are 91 years old and lived through World War II, you shouldn't be persevering over things like this."

Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com