Feeling stuck and sometimes terrified after months of calculating the risks of every action, Michal Mendelsohn’s appointment to receive a COVID-19 vaccine has at long last brought a measure of hope.
But it didn’t come without its share of frustrations. The 73-year-old had no luck accessing a vaccine through doctors at several DuPage County medical providers. She signed up for the DuPage County Health Department’s list, but hadn’t yet heard from them.
Mendelsohn is a caregiver for her husband, Fred, 81, and felt an enormous sense of urgency to get vaccinated because she said he has illnesses that put him at high risk for a severe case of COVID-19. Yet, the process has felt like a “madhouse,” she said.
“Nobody’s telling anything,” Michal Mendelsohn, a Naperville resident, said. “It’s like, ‘yes it’s coming,’ but it isn’t coming.”
As Illinois has expanded vaccine eligibility to front line workers and seniors such as the Mendelsons, confusion and frustration have reigned over how to obtain elusive appointments. The process and pace vary from county to county. One DuPage County public health official compared it to an old-fashioned rush for tickets to a popular concert: getting in line early, waiting and watching spots get snapped up.
Officials and doctors in Kane and DuPage counties have said there could have been more transparency from the state and perhaps better communication. Still, many say it is remarkable there is a vaccine at all one year into the pandemic, emphasizing its safety and efficacy.
Even as public health officials have called for patience, however, they agree they need more doses.
In DuPage County, at least 2.19% of the population has received two shots and an average of 2,568 shots are being administered daily. In Kane County, 1.31% of the population has been fully vaccinated, and an average of 924 doses are administered daily.
Across the state, at least 1.78% of the population has been fully vaccinated with two doses, and an average of 44,139 doses are being administered each day, state data shows.
Even health care worker Deborah Riddell, who lives in Kane County and works in DeKalb County, was uncertain about the process. As a women’s health practitioner, she was eligible in the first group, but faced weeks of confusion about whether and how she would find one before ultimately her entire practice received their first doses.
Her husband then became eligible when vaccines were extended to those over age 65, but he hasn’t been able to find an appointment at a private pharmacy in Kane County.
“If we, who know health care, are finding it difficult to navigate the system, I’d say that’s pretty bad,” she said.
Local and state officials have said it comes down to not yet having enough supply to go around. And amid the confusion, former Kane County board chairman Chris Lauzen said he believes it takes relationships — he shies away from the term “clout” — for the county to get what he described as its fair share of doses, a concept denied by the chairman of the county’s public health committee.
Lauzen, also a former state senator, has made what he called “a modest proposal” to create a paid position for himself with the health department and county board that includes using his personal connections to help the county get more doses of the vaccine. He proposed a maximum $12,000 annual salary for the work.
“The public health department, they are great people, doing a really good job,” he said. “But they can only do with the resources they’re provided. And it’s information and influence to get our fair share.”
Lauzen declined to run for reelection to the county board in November. He said the reason he chose to step down, though he is now proposing returning to work for the county, is personal and complicated, and includes his belief in term limits.
Kane County Public Health Committee chairman Jarett Sanchez said the county was not being shortchanged on its doses, and the public health committee is not currently interested in considering Lauzen’s proposal. Kane County board members and health department staff have reached out to legislators to see what they can do to get more supply, and have been told the process isn’t political, he said.
Sanchez, who took over the public health committee leadership in December, said there has not been as much transparency about the vaccine process from the state as he would have liked. Still, given the limited number of doses the county has received, he thinks the process is going relatively well, he said.
The county has dozens of providers prepared to administer vaccines, but not enough doses, he said. He attributes the limited number of shots to the federal government, and said it remains to be seen if the Biden administration will follow through on promises to increase supply.
Sam Tornatore, president of the DuPage County board of health, also said the county didn’t have enough doses to vaccinate as many people as he would like and was not getting a consistent amount in each shipment, making it difficult to schedule appointments. However, county officials have been told by the state they will get a consistent number for the next three to four weeks, he said.
In addition to dozens of other providers, the county intends to open a new mass vaccination site at the DuPage County fairgrounds later in February, but its ability to increase the number of shots given will depend on the amount of vaccine it receives, he said.
Compounded with limited supply, Tornatore said there has been some confusion over how essential workers were deemed eligible. In hindsight, he said, health departments should have clarified that those eligible are essential workers who are in contact with a greater number of people, and they are now working to do so.
Vaccine equity has also been a challenge.
For example, Tornatore said he recently received a call from a school superintendent asking for his school district to be moved up in line because it served a greater number of Hispanic students, and the Hispanic community has generally been at higher risk for COVID-19. Tornatore, who declined to name the school superintendent or district, declined the request, he said.
Though he would like to see more vaccines, Tornatore compared demand for vaccines to demand for testing. Where once access to testing was a challenge, now there is widespread availability. He believes the same will happen with vaccines.
“I don’t know that anyone’s at fault,” he said. “I just think it’s human nature to hear that we have a test and you want to get it the next day, or to hear that we have a vaccine and you want to get it the next day.”
John Davine, Medical Director of Rush Copley Medical Group in Aurora, said rollout of a vaccine during a pandemic could likely be better, but given logistical challenges with the vaccine and the lack of pandemic experience it was going relatively well.
There would be differences of opinion in who should get the vaccine first, and undoubtedly some lower-risk people would get the vaccine earlier, but the goal should be to minimize that as much as possible, and to encourage as many people as possible to get their shots.
“I don’t know how there’s a perfect way to give out a new vaccine, when you can’t possibly make a supply big enough for the demand and you can’t possibly have enough people to give it out to the entire country within a weekend,” he said.
Still, Michal Mendelsohn, the Naperville resident, remains angry, most of it directed at the federal government. She remains frustrated at the pace of vaccinations, knowing the precautions they have taken throughout the pandemic and the worry she feels won’t go away until enough others are vaccinated as well, she said.
Mendelsohn ultimately was able to sign up for a vaccine after the neighbor tipped her off to a health system that had appointments available for existing patients. She made an early morning phone call to the system, and, as the system verified their eligibility during a lengthy phone call, several appointment dates filled up, she said.
But eventually, they were able to book appointments for a date more than six weeks out, she said.
“At least it’s given us hope,” she said. “We would have liked it a little closer, but you know what? It’s crazy atmosphere so if we can at least get one, I feel a little bit better.”
sfreishtat@tribpub.com
