“I sent over some basic information and by morning I got a text from someone saying, ‘Can you take them to Jackson? [Health] this morning? Thompson said. ‘It was unreal, because I had explored all the ways and suddenly I had appointment confirmations. I was petrified but hoped it was real out of desperation. ”
“I was completely amazed,” said her 75-year-old mother Sandra Wortzel, who has never been on Facebook. “I’m not very good at the computer – and it was so difficult for me and other older people to manage this process – but I’m so grateful that I got vaccinated.”
Katherine Quirk, a nurse, and her fiancé Russell Schwartz launched the South Florida Facebook page in January after experiencing firsthand the challenges of getting Schwartz’s parents to register for a vaccine. They started sharing warnings on the page when they found that certain vaccine sites had openings, based on researching, calling and revamping medical websites. They also posted insider “tips” Quirk learned from his presence in the medical community, such as whether a center was quietly accepting walk-ins after no-show appointments.
But if spots opened, they would immediately fill up. So the couple created a waiting list and collected names and basic information, such as birthdays and addresses, of Facebook members of the group. Then they registered those people when appointments became available. With the help of a few volunteers, the couple claims they have booked “thousands” of appointments in recent weeks.
“We want to continue with this after vaccines become available for more,” Quirk said. “All we want is for people to be shot with arms.”
“I don’t have a working email or cell phone, so I could never have registered or gotten the vaccine so soon … without their help,” said 82-year-old Sally Ebeling of Canton, New York, who has owned her since. February 2020 and used the Association of the Aging to book her appointment. “I’m going for my injection on Tuesday. A volunteer is picking me up to take me to the drugstore,” she said.
Some seniors also receive tech support from a better-known source – their grandchildren. Missy Perez, a social media manager for the Philadelphia Phillies, said she spent most of a work meeting earlier this month revamping a webpage to register her grandmother and father in Florida. But the site kept crashing.
‘My grandmother had called in frustration and tears earlier that morning at her attempts to log in, and ended up getting a message that she had been banned from trying too many times – a message she thought was specific to her, without realizing. Realizing that there were many more were in this together, ”Perez told CNN Business.
Her whole family participated, including Missy’s sister who was on hold for an hour before disconnecting. “I multitasked and opened the link in the middle of the Zoom call. I was so excited to get through it that I shouted in amazement at my mom who came running over to me.” Her mother was unwittingly standing in the background of the camera recording as they worked quickly to fill out the forms.
“Luckily I work with really great people, so when I explained to the group what I was doing, they were so helpful and encouraged me through Zoom,” she said. “They screamed and screamed as we tightened the two appointment times.”