Facebook has announced that they are launching a tool that will show “when and where you can get vaccinated” for COVID-19, and provide a link to help you make an appointment. The new feature will appear in its COVID-19 information center and will arrive when the US and other countries begin vaccinating adults. The goal is “to help bring 50 million people one step closer to the COVID-19 vaccine,” according to Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer.
To create the tool, Facebook partnered with Boston Children’s Hospital, which operates the website VaccineFinder.org. The tool – available today in the COVID-19 Information Center – provides the hours of use, contact information and links to make a vaccination. It will be supported in 71 different languages, and Facebook plans to expand it to other countries as soon as the vaccines become more available.
Facebook has also revealed that it will bring the COVID-19 information center to Instagram and show it prominently as well. As with the Facebook portal, the tool will display the latest virus information from local governments and the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the Instagram Blog. You’ll also see new stickers on Instagram Stories, “so people can inspire others to be vaccinated when it’s available to them,” Facebook said.
First, we introduce a tool that shows you when and where you can vaccinate, and gives you a link to make an appointment. It’s in the Covid Information Center, which will show you people in their news feed. We’ve seen people use Facebook to find vaccines, so it should enable millions of people to do the same.
Facebook is also working with medical authorities on WhatsApp chatbots in an effort to help people sign up for vaccinations. “More than 3 billion messages related to Covid have already been sent to citizens by governments, non-profit organizations and international organizations through official WhatsApp chatbots, so this update will also help with the vaccination effort,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Eventually, Facebook revealed plans to make vaccination trends, such as the intention to be vaccinated and reasons for hesitation, available to public officials “to inform fair vaccination through vaccines.” It also puts vaccine data and insights into the COVID-19 map and dashboard, available on Facebook’s “Data for Good” dashboard. Meanwhile, journalists, aid organizations and public officials will be able to track how vaccine information is disseminated on social media via CrowdTangle’s COVID-19 Live Displays.
USA Today noted that about 21 percent of people in the U.S. received at least one COVID-19 shot, and 11 percent were fully vaccinated. US President Joe Biden recently unveiled an ambitious plan to vaccinate the rest of the US population in time for the 4th of July. Independence Day celebrations. Some of the new tools from Facebook and the vaccination links can help in this regard, especially for people who get the most information on the site.