It’s no secret that New York City, like many other places in the US, has been having a hard time with covid-19 vaccine distribution. One of the problems is that it is messy online application website, who has been convicted by some city officials “Complex, stressful and buggy.” Officials said this would pose an obstacle for many people, especially the seniors who are considered a priority group for vaccination.
That’s true NYC Vaccine List comes in. Launched in mid-January, it is an easy-to-use website created and managed by volunteers that scans and groups vaccine appointment data from multiple locations, such as the websites of clinics, pharmacies and other locations. The site then presents the information on a single page of locations with available vaccine appointments, locations without vaccination appointments, and locations where the information is not up to date.
When it finds sites that do have vaccination appointments, NYC Vaccine List includes a sign-up button, which takes users directly to the site’s website with availability. If it sounds simple folks, it’s because it is, and that’s such a relief at a time when everything just seems more difficult. The NYC Vaccine List is also great because you don’t have to click through endless pages to find what you are looking for, unlike other websites.
As reported by the edgethe website addresses one of the biggest challenges of online filings for vaccine appointments in New York City: fragmentation. The point of sale points out that several entities, including the city, state, and hospital groups, distribute the vaccine and use multiple registration websites. This means that to find an appointment, users have to visit different places, which can be undeniably frustrating.
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According to the outlet, software developer And Benamy experienced this chaos first hand and decided to reach out to friends and colleagues to try and create a solution. Within days, they had created the NYC Vaccine List, which currently includes the vaccine appointment data from about 40 locations.
According to Benamy, the website has been viewed tens of thousands of times in recent weeks.
“The tools are there to get people to do great things, and we thought if there was a chance that we could help, we’d give it a try,” Benamy told The Verge.
However, their work on the site is not over yet. Benamy said their top priority is to get more information about vaccine availability and will continue to develop more tools to pull in information from other locations. As of this writing, he said the site provides information on appointments in the greater metro area and Long Island. It is intended to provide more information about appointments in the area below.
As for helping New York City itself, Benamy said the volunteers would be happy to help in any way they can. They would also welcome any vaccine availability data feeds that could be included in the NYC vaccine list.
The takeaway is that while vaccine rollout is undeniably a difficult task, you don’t need to complicate it further by setting up online mazes for people to navigate. If volunteers could make it easy, New York City and other places certainly can.
[The Verge]