Getting Vaccinated Is A Challenge For Some Homebound Northeast Ohioans

When Ohio first started its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, health officials prioritized older residents in congregate living facilities.

These mass vaccination clinics were helpful in getting large amounts of a very vulnerable population vaccinated, but some older Ohioans weren't able to get the vaccine because they have trouble leaving the house. 

Robert Miller is one of those people. He's 81 years old, and he hasn't left his house since his wife died. 

"Last time I left was about two months ago to go to my wife's funeral," he said. 

His late wife had a muscle disease that caused her to not be able to walk, and Miller said her immune system was weak. Due to her sickness, they didn't get many visitors during the pandemic, because their family tried to keep them safe from COVID-19. 

"The hardest part, with my wife being bedridden, is people didn't come to visit. It was hard for her," he said. "That was almost like a punishment."

But he had trouble getting the vaccine because he couldn't leave the house. 

"I've been trying to get it ever since it became available," he said. 

It's hard for Miller to walk, so even though he was able to find vaccine appointments outside of his home, accessibility was an issue. 

But getting the vaccine to individuals in their homes has been a challenge, said Cuyahoga County Health Commissioner Terry Allan.

"We were waiting on some guidance from the state that emerged from the manufacturers of the vaccine," Allan said. "Going into homes, we may only need single vials of vaccine. We may have partial vials for instance that we need to transport, and there was no allowance for that. You actually had to have a guidance and approval to do it because there was a question about agitation of the vaccine and whether that would have any impact on its efficacy."

"So when the state guidance came out, it allowed us to begin thinking about how we could begin to organize the homebound approach."

The guidance from the state helped county health officials figure out how to store the doses so they would not go bad. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's authorization of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine also made it easier because they don't have to visit people twice in their homes.

Storing the vaccine properly to ensure its efficacy was one of the logistics that made the homebound program a challenge, Allan said. Staffing was also taken into consideration, they had to make sure the county had enough employees to visit individuals directly. 

Another logistical issue was being able to go out to a person's home twice, to administer both doses of the vaccine. The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine made that easier until it was temporarily paused while federal health officials reviewed a possible connection to blood clots. 

"Then we moved to Pfizer, which then of course is more labor-intensive because we'd have to go back twice," he said. 

Miller is worried that others may be like him, waiting and not able to access the vaccine.

"There's a lot of people like me that are still fighting for it," he said. "It shouldn't be a fight."

In order to get the vaccine delivered to your home in Cuyahoga County, Allan said residents have to meet eligibility requirements and fit the definition of homebound, which is needing a person or medical equipment to be able to leave your home, or if your doctor believes your illness could get worse if you leave your home.

Cuyahoga County residents can check their eligibility for the program on the  Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging website.

Wood County outside of Toledo is doing things a little differently. They started their homebound program in March and then extended it to everyone. 

"There may be situations where people want to come to a clinic but for a variety of reasons just aren't able to do so, so that was something that we wanted to try to solve," said Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Robison.

Transportation, scheduling, or accessibility might all be reasons a person might choose to get vaccinated in their own home, Robison said. 

Allan said that type of program is an option for Wood County because it's smaller geographically. 

"We're going to work on the homebound and then look at what our uptake is," he said. "But one of the things that we find is we have more locations here than just about any county in the state where you can get the vaccine."

But now that attendance at mass vaccination sites has been slowing, reaching people one by one is the best option health officials have.

"We're focusing very much on equity and access at this point because we want to do the best we can to make sure everybody has a fair shot at the vaccine," Allan said. 

Miller hopes now that he's vaccinated, his grandchildren will come to visit him.

"Maybe they'll run out of excuses now," he said.