“I thought I would look and was amazed at how decentralized everything was and how there are a thousand different sites to check out,” Adams said. “I was thinking, ‘How can I improve my software skills in my spare time?’
Free time usually occurred when her newborn was sleeping, Adams said. She said her 2-year-old son is at day care, so she is happy not to take care of both during the day.
The inspiration came after she listened to her mother-in-law, who had a hard time signing up for an appointment. Her mother-in-law is a dentist who qualified for the first vaccination phase, she said.
“She had a little trouble figuring out where to go and how to sign up,” Adams said. “She could do it, but it took a while and then she had the same problem when she was able to report her father when he was eligible at the beginning of our phase two.”
But she has never created such a website.
“It was my first time creating a complex website myself,” she said. “The hardest part of this is that every website with availability information, my kind of computer has to tell me how to read the website like a human being. That’s where all the manure is in.”
The vaccine appointments are available at a number of locations, from those run by the state to those administered in grocery stores and pharmacies. Analyzing all the information for each provider is where it has become a bit time consuming, she said.
Adams has a text that runs on about 20 different vaccines every five minutes, she writes in an email.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker was asked at a news conference Friday about Adams’ vaccination website. “Send us her name, we’ll talk to her,” Baker said Friday.
CNN reached out to the state for comment, but has not heard of it yet.
Adams said she never expected her website to become so popular. She sent the link to friends and family and it spread from there.
“Friday I would have told you, absolutely not,” she said. “There is no time I have the time to do it, but now the support has been just overwhelming and there is clearly such a need. I already have people from other countries who email me and ask if it can be done. be where they are. I ‘I like to investigate and we’ll see how it goes.’
Adams encourages others who may have an idea to help just try it, she wrote in an email.
“I encourage anyone who thinks they have a half-baked idea to work full time and they will be amazed at how well it turns out,” she wrote. “I built it for everyone, but I did not think everyone would use it.”