Although vaccine production is on the rise, with President Joe Biden having enough vaccinations for all Americans by May, the chaotic deployment, coupled with vaccine vaccination, has created an unequal balance between supply and demand across the country.
Missed vaccine appointments resulted in some remaining doses of COVID-19 vaccine being available at the end of the day and in some cases spilled when the vaccines expired.
This is why beginners like Dr.B, and even public companies like GoodRx (GDRX), are bringing the latest information to patients, and even tailoring patients to vaccinations based on CDC priority and zip codes.
Dr.B started at the end of January, led by Cyrus Massoumi, former CEO of ZocDoc, and has already amassed 1 million applications.
The website design is simple, and vaccines offer Dr.B how many doses are available and when they expire. Dr.B then adapts patients to patients and considers prospective candidates via text.
Dr.B did not sell patient information, which is only shared when the patient is accepted by the patient, Massoumi said.
The platform helps avoid the current labor-intensive hunt for declining doses – with Americans chasing pharmacies and other vaccines at the end of the day in hopes of jumping in line to get a chance. In some cases, health care professionals have opted to deliver the near-expiration doses to family and friends, which often have serious consequences.
“Patients can cancel 20% -30% of the time and not show up. This has led to the scramble that takes place at vaccine sites across the country, leading to potentially suboptimal vaccine allocation,” Massoumi said, noting that which spurred his interest in launching the site.
But Massoumi said that while his website can help someone get a chance sooner, they should not rely on it as the first choice.
“It’s a plan B, it’s a backup option,” Massoumi said.
The site currently offers free services to both patients and vaccination sites, and Massoumi said there are no immediate plans to find revenue.
When asked about his long-term business plan, Massoumi said the website would need some more time, also worldwide.
“Right now we’re dealing with the problem of our generation. This is our generation’s world war, and so within this war, this vaccine is the rarest source,” Massoumi said.
“The whole world is not supposed to be vaccinated until 2023, and … the 2,500 mutations that currently exist around the world” could provide a continuing need for vaccines, Massoumi said.
Dr.B is managed by a group of engineers who have left Haven, the now-closed joint venture between Amazon (AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) and JPMorgan (JPM). the mixture to give alerts when a new website opens or
Dough Hirsch, co-CEO of GoodRx, recently told Yahoo Finance he is also building a site, borrowing some GoodRx engineers and dedicating them to the task.
“I’m going to interrupt all the other work I’m doing. I’m going to focus on resolving what we can do for this pandemic,” he said.
This is a solid boost because the company wants to be a national center for appointments, even after the CDC announced its website for vaccination seekers.
“Today, everyone is talking about the data on the vaccine seeker, which is incredible, and we are a launch partner of them,” Hirsch said, adding that he also works with major retail pharmacies and vaccination centers.
But some sites do not play ball.
“The challenge, of course, is that the big pharmacy chains, and we know them very well, are trying to make sure their servers stay up and that no bad actors intrude,” Hirsch said.
This is why even some of the smaller, independently managed appointment sites may contain outdated information or lack information about vaccinations for vaccines.
“But I understand that, pharmacy chains are really just trying to keep these things going and injecting arms,” Hirsch said, adding that some pharmacies are working on ways in which GoodRx can connect safely.
In addition to the big chains, mass vaccination sites can also be run independently by a third party for appointments, so it’s a great undertaking to chase those and connect their systems in all 50 countries plus territories.
Hirsch noted that he was in touch with Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House COVID-19 response team, to find out how to also help target underprivileged communities.
“It was a very striking conversation with Andy … because he’s still challenging us to figure out ways to reach out to the underserved communities,” Hirsch said.
Recently, Slavitt announced that the federal government is taking advantage of low-tech options, including phone calls to reach some communities.
‘Our audience is more in the middle to lower incomes [area], and I think we did a pretty good job – we have a history of ten years “to reach people with less robust internet access,” Hirsch said.
This is why another aspect of GoodRx’s efforts is to combat vaccine hesitation, which will include information on the site about the various vaccines and the active sharing of information via text for users who provide cell phone numbers.
Hirsch noted that while it still leaves a portion of the population out of the loop, he hopes it includes more people than just internet-savvy individuals.
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