We’re proud to testify to the New York City Council to ensure that the strengths, as well as the needs, of older adults are consistently heard and prioritized by New York’s elected officials. Below is testimony submitted by LiveOn NY to the New York City Council Committees on Aging and Technology.

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New York City Council
Committee on Health: Chair, Council Member Levine
Committee on Aging: Chair, Council Member Chin
Committee on Technology: Chair, Council Member Holden
February 17, 2021
Oversight - COVID-19 and Seniors: Addressing Equity, Access to the Vaccine, and Scheduling Vaccination Appointments Online in NYC

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on COVID and Seniors: Protecting Older Adults in the Community.

LiveOn NY’s members include more than 100 community-based nonprofits that provide core services which allow New Yorkers to thrive in our communities as we age, including senior centers, home‐delivered meals, affordable senior housing, elder abuse prevention, caregiver supports, NORCs and case management. With our members, we work to make New York a better place to age.

The COVID-19 pandemic has swept across New York, creating a rippling effect exposing the current political, economic, and social gaps that impact older New Yorkers. These must be confronted both as we continue to respond to the pandemic, but in undertaking the COVID-19 mass vaccination effort.

Vaccine Recommendations

Today, we have the opportunity to bring this life-saving vaccine to thousands of older adults and slow down the pandemic in its tracks. Yet despite eligibility for older people 65 and over, we continue to see the gaps and inequities as access to the vaccine remains nearly impossible for many, particularly for people of color who have shouldered the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The time is now to commit to older New Yorkers and remove the barriers that have pushed out communities. Unfortunately, LiveOn NY and our members have seen the hurdles older adults have experienced to simply get a shot, and distribution has also revealed the racial inequities that already plague communities of color. As it stands, Black and brown residents, who represent 22% of the City’s population, have only received 9% of the vaccines.

Given these realities, there is much work to be done. We do, however, want to take a moment to thank all those who are working tirelessly to ensure older adults can get vaccinated. Specifically, we thank the Vaccine Command Center for their continuous effort to coordinate the vaccine distribution across the City and we applaud the recent launch of the homebound seniors initiative to ensure older adults who are unable to travel to vaccine sites have the opportunity to receive the shot.

To ensure a more equitable distribution of the vaccine moving forward, LiveOn NY recommends the City:

Work in coordination with community-based organizations that are often sources of trust to marginalized populations to promote access to the vaccine, and can provide the necessary information to ensure no one is left behind.
Move away from an over-reliance on technology, including removing the requirement for each vaccine appointment be made using a different email address, which prohibits professionals from assisting multiple seniors using the same account.
Ensure information is available across languages
Monitor and improve the vaccine registration process, including: phone wait times and the numerous web systems and pages each older adult must navigate
Make clear vaccine eligibility of senior service professionals, including: home-delivered meal cooks and deliverers, service coordinators and maintenance workers in senior housing, home care attendants, and caregivers who are the unseen, underappreciated heroes throughout this pandemic.
Fully fund providers and professionals for their work.

Now is the time to create an efficient and equitable vaccination program that ensures no one is left behind and all older New Yorkers can safely age in their communities.

COVID-19 Response Recommendations

Older New Yorkers who have stayed home for extended periods to remain safe from the virus, need a clear plan, guided by science, as to when it will be safe to reengage with the community services they know and love. Many spent the Summer, a period of low transmission risk, hoping their local Senior Center would one day open, not knowing if this would be the case, or why it would not be the case if restaurants, gyms, bars, and other services could resume operation. These individuals and the professionals that serve them deserve clarity, transparency, and the comfort of knowing their services are prioritized and guided by science as New York emerges from this crisis.

Therefore, LiveOn NY recommends a plan be created jointly by the Department of Health and Mental Health (DOHMH) and the Department for the Aging (DFTA), and that such plan should:

Be balanced against the fact that, in addition to the risk of COVID-19, the impacts of isolation also pose considerable risks to the older adult population.
Be guided by the fact that the older adult population is not a monolith experiencing the risk of COVID-19 uniformly, but an age cohort spanning multiple decades of significant variations in overall health and risk level.
Quantify the health indicators that will need to be met in order to resume in-person senior services, including services at Senior Centers and NORCs.
Include clear guidance on metrics that must be met, or other rationale, indicating the ability to resume in-person services from a public health perspective. A sample metric could indicate a maximum threshold for the citywide infection rate, which once reached, would trigger the allowance of grab and go meal service to resume.
Identify the order in which the resumption of in-person services can be phased in. For example, we have seen restaurants deemed safe enough to offer outdoor dining, followed by indoor dining at a specific capacity and with specific social distancing requirements as risk levels went down. Senior services require similar guidance.
- Given the varying risks associated with each activity, the following components of a Senior Center should each be given individualized guidance: grab-and-go meal distribution, indoor dining, one-on-one case assistance with clients, outdoor programming (potentially at local parks as the weather changes), and indoor programming.
Be posted on each agency's websites and shared with City Council, non-profit providers, older adults, and other stakeholders.
Be released as soon as is practicable, taking into account community input, including input of providers, upon drafting.

In addition to such a plan, providers must be fully reimbursed for cleaning and other costs incurred to ensure safety upon the resumption of each service.

We appreciate the consideration of the recommendations, and look forward to working with the City to reauthorize in-person Senior Services at an appropriate time.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.