Senior citizens, caregivers eager for COVID-19 vaccine

Allen Minsky, 78, is a resident at Longview, a senior living community in Ithaca. During the pandemic, he’s considered himself fortunate for continuing to stay healthy despite the challenging situation the nation is in.

But Minsky is still well aware of the risk of contracting the virus for someone of his age, which is why he’s looking forward to when — in the not-so-distant future — Longview hosts a clinic for the COVID-19 vaccine.

“There is no question in my mind that I will definitely get vaccinated,” he said. “I do the flu shot every year. I do whatever the cautionary things the health industry has stated should be done. And there’s no question in my mind that I will do this.”

Minsky isn’t alone in his eagerness. For county senior citizens — who are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 — the incoming vaccination brings much relief after what has been a challenging time for many seniors and their caregivers.

A federal program to vaccinate nursing home residents began Dec. 21, and in New York state, the program is expected to vaccinate residents and staff at 618 facilities statewide within the next few weeks, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s website.

Senior living facilities Longview and Bridges Cornell Heights are among the planned vaccination sites in the county, and leadership at both shared their thoughts on the process.

At Bridges, staff is partnering with CVS, which will test and vaccinate staff and residents. Bridges Founder and CEO Elizabeth Classen Ambrose said that staff has put in considerable work to prepare for the clinic.

“We’re making the brownie mix and putting it in the pan, and as soon as they say the oven can open, we’re going to put it in, so to speak,” she said. “We have three people working in different shifts of getting all this paperwork together and distributed to all our staff and to the residents. … We’ll be ready to go on day one when they give us the date for the site for the clinic.”

Kathleen Burke, director of development and community relations at Longview, explained that there has been similar preparation at Longview for its vaccination clinic. For more information about clinics and the county’s vaccination program, visit tompkinscountyny.gov/health/covid19vaccine.

As far as residents’ attitudes toward the vaccine, many seniors have expressed a similar sentiment to Minsky. At Longview, Burke explained that she and other staff are expecting participation in this vaccination program to have similarly high participation rates as the annual flu vaccine clinic.

“While some residents are apprehensive about the vaccine, most are eager to get vaccinated,” Burke said. “But they also know that we will still be wearing our masks and social distancing for a while longer.”

This perspective is also common among seniors who don’t live in these communities. While not all senior citizens will be vaccinated in the first wave of vaccinations, locals who work with seniors have seen that most are looking forward to when they can get vaccinated.

Cheryl Jewel, for example, who is the executive director of the local senior caregiving nonprofit Love Living at Home, said that the seniors her organization works with have voiced almost universal support for the COVID-19 vaccinations. She said that many seniors have received vaccinations for several other severe diseases in the past — like typhoid fever, measles and rubella — and know how important vaccination is.

“The importance of the vaccine is life and death,” she said. “It is also the meaning of getting back to a life they once knew of gathering with friends and family. … This next step is one step closer to normalcy for our residents.”

Frank Towner, CEO of the YMCA of Ithaca and Tompkins County, can also attest to that importance. Many YMCA members are senior citizens, and Towner, being a 61-year-old cardiac patient, is himself in the population most vulnerable to the virus.

“[I] 100% think it’s imperative,” he said. “Everyone that I’ve talked to is ready to take the vaccine, and some of them wish they were in the bracket to take it sooner. … Personally, it gives me reassurance that if I do contract this virus, I will have the best possible defense against dying.”

And those who work with seniors are just as excited for the vaccination program, as several sources expressed. For many who work with seniors, the pandemic has been a challenging time for leadership and residents alike.

At Love Living at Home, the nonprofit has experienced a significant increase in service demand. Staff usually provide a multitude of services for clients, like doing home repairs, bringing food and offering a variety of activities. With more seniors being isolated, more are looking for those types of services.

“Last year, we completed 811 services, and this year, we have completed over 2,284 services,” Jewel said. “We have added general errands, grocery shopping, prescription pick-up, remote assistances, meal delivery — if someone is ill or just out of the hospital — and support phones to the list of our services.”

Adding to the challenge for Love Living at Home is that most of its volunteers are typically seniors, many of whom have opted out of volunteering this year due to the pandemic. Still, Jewel understands that this time has been just as challenging on those she serves.

“Social isolation has been the biggest challenge,” Jewel said. “I am finding the longer this is going on, it affects people’s memory and well-being. … People are now getting used to the new ways of getting the basic needs met. Now, the long-term effects of isolation and loneliness are settling in.”

Bridges has seen some similar challenges with its residents, Classen Ambrose explained.

“Many of the residents are very, very connected closely with family members that might be in town,” she said. “They’re used to those regular visits of their daughter coming over and joining them for lunch every Tuesday or having a game of cards every other Wednesday, and that had to come to a screeching halt. And so, [what’s] been the most challenging is to keep that feeling of being connected to their family.”

Most facilities and organizations that work with seniors have adapted their services to these challenges, often increasing the use of technology to supplement the usual in-person connections.

“For those living at Longview, it has been challenging to not see friends and family, but video chats have been well received by family and residents alike,” Burke said. “People are connecting in new ways. Many are having video chats with loved ones whom they haven’t seen in years across the country and across the pond, and others virtually are visiting via video chat weekly with family or friends near and far.”

Because of all that seniors and their caregivers have had to go through this pandemic, most know that the vaccination program is not an immediate problem-solver. As alluded to previously, many seniors know that getting vaccinated doesn’t mean preventative measures should no longer be taken, as Minsky can attest.

“I think that we will, even after that, actually need to be very aware of still doing the important pieces of masks, distance, washing, unless we found out that a great majority of people in the United States have indeed taken it,” he said.

It’s a view also supported by county leadership, as covered previously in Tompkins Weekly. Tompkins County Public Health Director Frank Kruppa said that with more research being done during the vacation process, it’s important that residents remain vigilant even after receiving the vaccine.

“We don’t know yet about whether it will prevent infection and transmission,” he said. “What we do know is that it will prevent people from having symptoms and feeling the effects of the disease. There are trials that are ongoing right now about the transmission, but it takes a bit more time, obviously, because people have to be vaccinated.”

Moving forward, sources expressed confidence in the vaccination process. Towner, for example, said vaccinating seniors should be a relatively smooth undertaking.

“In my limited view of it, seniors are the easiest to vaccinate because they have flexibility, time,” he said. “Some of them are retired, and they’re the easiest to isolate or quarantine.”

From the Health Department side, Kruppa said that the process of vaccinating seniors — as well as all other residents — is expected to be a challenging one but one health professionals in the county are prepared for. Kruppa said that the cooperation among the Health Department, the State Department of Health, Cayuga Health and other health partners gives him confidence that the process will continue as smoothly as possible.

“We’re just one of multiple partners that are working together to try to achieve vaccinating of our population,” he said. “[They] are ready and willing and able to help us navigate through this. So, I think we’ll be able to do it successfully and manage the bumps along the way.”

Overall, sources interviewed for this story expressed optimism for what 2021 might hold for the county. While there is still much work to be done, sources said the vaccination program alone is a sign of hope, a view best summed up by Classen Ambrose.

“My hope is that the vaccine will stop the spread of this violent and insidious virus and that we can all continue to pick up where we were somewhat and connect our seniors to their families,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of other a lot of other issues that we’re hoping for, but I think that we’re all going to be feeling very relieved when we can say goodbye to 2020.”