Only 17% of McHenry County seniors have been vaccinated so far, IDPH reports

Less than 17% of McHenry County seniors have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, putting the county in the bottom 10 out of all Illinois counties and second to last among collar counties in terms of the percentage of seniors to receive a vaccine, state data shows.

Nancy Phillips, 74, of Spring Grove is among those frustrated by the county’s slow rollout of vaccines to those age 65 and older.

Phillips said she signed up through Northwestern Medicine and the McHenry County Department of Health to receive a vaccine but has not been able to get an appointment.

“I read the paper, and I see that in other states older people are getting vaccines, and in other areas. And then [here] I see a lot of teachers and a lot of people who work at the schools getting vaccines, and I wonder why I can’t get one,” Phillips said.

Of the 26,973 doses administered in McHenry County, about 31% have gone to those ages 65 and older compared with 38% statewide. Even so, 6% of those 16 to 64 years old have received a vaccine in McHenry County compared with 8.58% statewide.

The Illinois Department of Public Health released data Friday afternoon showing the percentage of seniors in each county who have had vaccine doses administered to them.

Although McHenry County has had a total of 16.77% of seniors receive a vaccine, according to the IDPH, the state as a whole saw 27.58% of its seniors receive a dose.

In surrounding counties, DuPage had 23.82% of seniors receive a vaccine, Lake 20.64%, suburban Cook 22.99% and Kane 18.52%. Of the collar counties, only Will, at 16.48%, had fewer seniors receive a vaccine than McHenry County.

A lack of COVID-19 vaccine administration in McHenry County, which has 44,000 seniors, is not a new issue. When the state in December allocated its initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the 50 counties with the highest death rates per capita, every collar county except McHenry County made the list. This led to McHenry County having the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated residents among all collar counties in January.

The Northwest Herald reached out to the McHenry County health department multiple times this week regarding the frustration it has heard from many seniors who have struggled to get vaccinated and to learn more about what it has been doing for those ages 65 and older. Those attempts went unanswered.

During a town hall meeting conducted over Facebook Live on Tuesday, McHenry County Public Health Nursing Director Susan Karras said those who are 65 and older are a priority for the health department because of their morbidity and mortality risks.

She encouraged people in that population to enroll to get vaccines from pharmacies and to pay attention to what health care systems are doing.

“We do know that some pharmacies that are receiving ... the federal allotments are administering doses outside of that 65 and older [population], and they’re vaccinating some of their staff,” Karras said. “So we are hearing that ... the younger population may be getting vaccinated in these stores or these pharmacies.”

At the town hall meeting, McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler said the county hears residents’ concerns about the speed of the vaccine rollout.

Supplies are scarce, just as the COVID-19 tests were scarce when they were first rolled out at the beginning of the pandemic, Buehler said.

“This is a supply and demand issue,” he said.

Ed Gogol, a 67-year-old Crystal Lake resident, has been trying to get the vaccine for more than a month through the McHenry County health department.

After the state started officially vaccinating those in Phase 1b, Gogol said, he received an email saying a very limited number of doses were available at two Jewel-Osco locations and was provided a link to sign up.

“I went to the link and tried to get an appointment. And, of course, there were no appointments,” Gogol said. “And that was the last that I have received any email or any communication at all from the McHenry County health department.”

Since then, he has gone to Jewel-Osco’s and Walgreen’s websites every few days to try to sign up, but he never finds any appointments.

Gogol said the McHenry County health department is professional and working hard, and he knows that vaccine supplies are limited. However, “it seems crazy that people have to be hunting around for this, hoping for an appointment,” he said.

Phillips said she went on all the websites for area pharmacies and hospitals, to no avail.

“You can just go month after month after month, and there’s no appointments available,” Phillips said.

As a 74-year-old woman with diabetes, Phillips falls into the Phase 1b group for vaccinations, which the McHenry County health department is working to vaccinate now.

“I think the McHenry County health department should have been on top of this and working to put this together for quite a while now, where there would be places for people to go and get vaccines,” Phillips said. “I mean, are they just leaving it up to the hospital or leaving it up to the pharmacy? What are they actually doing?”

Phillips’ sister, who lives in Lake County, had an appointment to get her vaccine March 1, and some of her sister’s friends in Wisconsin already have gotten vaccinated, leading to more confusion for Phillips about why she hasn’t been able to get hers.

Karras said the health department has been planning for this mass vaccination effort since the beginning of the pandemic last March. Many changes have had to be made, with the requirements of COVID-19 mitigations and changing guidelines from the state of Illinois and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The department has established clinics hosted by health officials and administered to a defined priority group, as well as closed vaccination efforts in which the vaccine is administered by the staff members within a particular facility or sector.

Since Dec. 28, McHenry County has received a total of 27,854 doses of the vaccine, 25,700 of which were made by Moderna and 2,145 of which were made by Pfizer, Karras said.

Of these vaccines, 7,700 were reserved for those in Phase 1a, who were prioritized for vaccination, to get their second dose of the two-dose shots.

Of the 20,154 doses of the vaccine reserved for Phase 1b, 11,284 have been distributed to pharmacies, hospitals and other community clinics with which the McHenry County health department has partnered, Karras said. The health department used an additional 6,800 doses for school staff at clinics Thursday and Friday, and the remaining doses are slated for the 65-and-older population at other clinics.