A group of huge employers like Walmart and Lowe's are trying to pick up where Haven left off and find ways to lower healthcare costs
Angela K. Shen, visiting research scientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who formerly worked at the US Department of Health and Human Services, co-authored a recommendation on how the US should equitably distribute vaccines. In the report, Shen said ensure older adults should get first access to the vaccine without needing to pay.
Shen said relying on online appointments to get vaccines not only disadvantages some older Americans, but also rural communities that lack fast internet access. But Shen said healthcare systems should focus on getting large swaths of the population access to vaccines, which might require using apps and technology.
"If you can kind of like capture like a large swath of the population, then you can change and have more precise strategies or tweak strategies that weren't working before to kind of get at those people that you may have missed," Shen said. Shen and Neuman both said the key to getting equal access to older Americans is to use a variety of methods to reach different groups. In Colorado, for instance, drive-through vaccination clinics were able to inoculate seniors from small and disadvantaged areas first,