A technically proficient high school leader from Chicago – who has discovered he has the skills to secure vaccines – is now helping hundreds of seniors to do so.
Benjamin Kagan is a freshman at the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. When he’s not at school or doing homework, he spends a huge majority of his time searching for appointments for more than 550 people in the Illinois area, along with a volunteer known as the Chicago Vaccine Angels.
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More than 74 percent of Illinois residents seeking help are over the age of 65, Kagan told Fox News.
‘Many of these people [seniors] ‘They are struggling a lot with the technological aspect of this whole thing, and they really need help,’ he said.
Therefore, he devised one centralized system to locate and discuss appointments for the needy.
(Benjamin Kagan in Chicago, Illinois (Credit: Irv Kagan))
It all started in the winter holidays when he helped his grandparents navigate the system in Florida.
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“The Florida system was a big mess,” he said. “It was this crazy thing and there were thousands and thousands of people who wanted to compete for slots.”
With four computer monitors open, Kagan was up to the challenge. He recalled competing with about 66,000 other people.
After successfully securing the large dose of his grandparents, he began helping his parents who have an essential business in Illinois.
After discovering the Facebook group, Chicago Vaccine Hunters, he started offering tips on how and where to look for vaccine appointments in the area.
And he was not the only one. In fact, he was one of the many other users who constantly gave guidance on the page.
Shortly after he started posting tips, Kagan said his own Facebook inbox was quickly flooded with messages.
‘It eventually turned into people sending me private messages on Facebook saying,’ Do you know, Benjamin, can you help me? … Can I use it for myself if I give my information? ‘, “He said.
The messages were too much for him to keep up with, and he formed the Chicago Vaccine Angels.
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In order to create one centralized system, Kagan created a Google form that would enter the person’s name and other personal information into a spreadsheet.
“Now we’re all looking for appointments,” he said.
In just over a week since the Google form was introduced, Kagan and his group of volunteers have already connected 294 people with appointments. However, the requests keep piling up.
To date, the spreadsheet has more than 554 responses.
Finding these appointments is no easy task. While on winter vacation, he remembered spending hours every day managing all the requests.
And he has no plans to quit anytime soon.
“My plan is to keep doing this until someone can call a Walgreens and say, ‘OK, I’m coming in five minutes … keep it ready for me,’ ‘he said.