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Central Texas veterans having a hard time accessing COVID-19 vaccines

The Austin Veterans Affairs Clinic received 200 doses on Monday.

AUSTIN, Texas — Veterans 75 years old and older can't easily get the COVID-19 vaccine in Central Texas.

On Monday, a few dozen veterans were immunized at the Austin Veterans Affairs Clinic in southeast Austin. That clinic received 200 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week 

But Mike Kiefer, the director for the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, said the clinic serves more than 19,500 veterans in Central Texas.

How they get their vaccines is a complex process.

"We have to plan essentially on a week-by-week basis because we don't have a set amount of vaccine that we can expect each week. What the VA does is it gives you a weekly amount, which they're still trying to normalize because we don't have enough for everybody all the time. So, we get a certain allocation by those three major sites by Waco, Temple and Austin," Kiefer explained. "And so, that's why we have to start at the top of the priority list and work our way down as that vaccine is available for those priority groups. So, other VAs have different vaccines. They might have the Pfizer vaccine, they get a different allocation. They might have Pfizer and Moderna." 

RELATED: Most Central Texas counties remain largely unvaccinated, state data shows

Kiefer said the priority group right now is veterans 75 years old and older. He said that the system follows CDC guidelines on who gets vaccinated.

"So far, we've been able to go to the sickest patients, those who have been in our community living centers, because we know across the nation, those are the people [who] have gotten sick the most. And we've done all the vaccination for our community living centers ... the residents who wanted to get vaccinated. We've done all the staff who care for those veterans who want to get vaccinated. We've done all the staff on our COVID-positive wards, those people who deal with COVID-positive patients every single day. And then we've done the medical staff. And now we're to the point where we can do our veterans," Kiefer said.

Kiefer warned that if you don't have an appointment, you shouldn't call because there is no official waitlist.

Instead, VA staffers are calling the priority group and making appointments. 

"So, we have – our database is we can do a query on our enrolled population in those age groups, and that gives us a list of everybody who's eligible in that age group. And we'll go down to the Austin clinic and we'll just start calling. It's going to be either an auto-call and they'll give them an option to press a number and make an appointment, or it will be a vet text for those who are text and able. We can also send them a text to their phone, which will give them a tree to make an appointment," Kiefer said. "And then when we do that, as you can imagine, those appointments fill up pretty quickly. And so, we try to call just a certain number each day until it gets filled up. And there's no real priority we use to determine who to call first and who to call last within that segment of the population. I wish it were a perfect science, but this is the best we can do given the tools that we have."

Kiefer also said since the end of December, the Austin VA Clinic has immunized between 500 to 600 veterans.

RELATED: Biden says 1.5 million vaccinations per day by spring possible

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who represents Austin and San Antonio, said veterans deserve better. His office is working with the current administration to get more vaccines to veterans after he received a call for help.

"We have thousands of veterans who served our country [who] rely on the VA, and they need to be able to get a vaccine. This is part of the overall fiasco from the Trump service that vaccines are not available," Doggett said. "And my concern has been that we speed this process up. I think they're trying to do a good job, but they just don't have the vaccine supply to do what's needed."

When the congressman first heard the Austin VA clinic only received 200 doses, he said he was surprised.

"I was shocked, as I was to hear the Centers for Disease Control director say that she does not know how much vaccine supply we have because 'I never got that information during the transition.' And they've been unable to get accurate information from those who served in the Trump administration. It is just amazing. It's the same anxiety that so many people in our community are feeling when they're 65 and over or they have a serious health condition, and they can't find a place to get vaccinated to date," Doggett said. "Also, the VA is not covering those individuals with severe medical conditions who would qualify in the civilian area now because they just don't have enough vaccine to do it. They began in 85 and over. They've lowered to 75 and over. They haven't caught up with San Antonio. [There's] just not enough vaccine to do the job."

In the meantime, Kiefer said veterans who are interested in getting vaccinated must first be registered with the VA. 

For more information, visit the Health Eligibility Center. To get help with the application, please call toll-free 877-222-8387, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST.

WATCH: COVID-19 vaccines slow to rollout in Texas

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