Matchmaker, matchmaker
Christine Meyer has her own medical practice in Chester County. A few months ago, her staff posted a call on the practice’s Facebook page in which they offered help and asked Pennsylvania residents to send an email if they were struggling to prescribe vaccines. In two hours, the office received 1,200 emails, which completely crashed the server.
It is clear, Meyer said, that she and her staff could not sustain the claim alone. So she started a Facebook group called PA COVID Vaccine Match Maker, which matches people who are looking for appointments with volunteers who can help them navigate the system. (New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info, a Facebook group for Jersey residents, works similarly and serves as a rare vaccination vaccination service.)
By the first week, her group had 10,000 members. According to the latest count, there were more than 40,000. Volunteers from the group planned more than 1,400 vaccination appointments for the needy.
‘The idea was really just to connect people who know how to work this system with people who are really struggling with it: older people, people who do not have access to the internet, people who just did not have the stamina to put it back do not play. -and-and-again match, ”Meyer said. ‘It’s great to see the community come together in this way, but it’s also very discouraging to see the need … to see [40,000] people who struggle to find an appointment only in our area. ”
B. cited a similar case. “This system is not really built for the older group of people, the 65+ who do not have technological means,” he said WHY.
Each county registration system in Pennsylvania and New Jersey is separate, often with different online links for pharmacies, private health care providers, and county-run clinics. Residents say things are increasingly confusing to navigate. The confusion, plus the frustration of waiting weeks for an appointment, can compete with what Meyer calls “vaccine envy,” because he is angry or upset when someone who looks young and healthy gets the vaccine in front of you.
Instead, she encourages residents to remember that a vaccine for everyone is a victory for everyone. ‘To stop the spread, a majority of people need to be vaccinated. “If your neighbor gets a vaccine and you do not, it is still a victory for you,” she tells the group.
Meyer spends every night after work in the Facebook group trying to monitor dialogue, dispel misinformation about vaccines, and offer medical expertise if helpful.
Newell said most of the feedback he received on his website came from people looking for appointments with their parents.
Michelle King, who lives in Fairfield, Ohio, for example, tried to help her parents make appointments, but had no luck with Vaccine Finder. The day she came across Find A Shot, she was able to book appointments for both her parents at a CVS location. Nancy Regan, who lives in Washington, said Regan, before her daughter came across Find A Shot, was not so lucky in her search. When she finds places that contain vaccines in stock, she will later learn that all appointments have been booked.
Newell’s hope is that his website will no longer be needed in a few months, because once supply is equal to demand, finding an appointment will not be so challenging.
Dr. Meyer agrees.
“Someone asked me, what do you think is the measure of the success of this group … is it how many vaccines you are planning, or how many members you have, or how many posts per day?” she said. ‘[But] I think the measure of our success is going to be if I have to deliver the last message and say: this group is being archived because it is no longer relevant. Because anyone who wants a vaccine in Pennsylvania has it, or can get it easily. ‘
She laughed.
“This is going to be the biggest, most festive, closed Facebook group day ever.”